Dish du jour — 5/10/2014

Two separate sets of friends stayed with us in Daglan at the end of September and beginning of October, which meant (a) lots of opportunity for fine dining, and (b) not much time for writing blog postings. I’ll try to catch up (on the blog) with some relatively short postings on a few of our rather brilliant meals.

I’ll start with the lunch we had with our friend Robin on Friday, Sept. 26, at one of our favourite restaurants — the brilliant, one-Michelin-starred Le Grand Bleu in Sarlat. (I’ve written about Le Grand Bleu so often that I’ll leave it at that. If you want to learn more, just use the “Search” box at the top right of the blog to find earlier reviews.)

Full disclosure: Although the title says “dish of the day,” I’ll be showing off four of them.

First off, here’s an amuse-bouche we received — a foie gras crème brûlée, topped with burnt sugar and a wonderful sauce of passion fruit (and yes, I did consume the edible flower):

Now here’s a great way to enjoy foie gras.

Ever alert to the possibility of eating more foie gras, for my entrée I ordered a slice of the duck liver served with toasts and a small glass of granita — an ice that was made with vin de noix, a local walnut-flavoured drink. It tasted as good as it looks:

My plate of foie gras as an entrée.

My plat principal was, as usual at Le Grand Bleu, the sweetbreads. Since our friend Robin knew how much I enjoy them, she decided to try them for the first time — and enjoyed them a great deal. Here’s my serving:

For me, at Le Grand Bleu, it’s got to be the sweetbreads.

Finally, I had this rich chocolate treat for dessert, served on a crunchy crust and topped with a scoop of ice cream:

It’s hard to beat a chocolate dessert like this one.

It was a wonderful meal, but my wife Jan and I were well aware that our friends from Florida, Sam and Jill, would be arriving soon after Robin left us — and that could only mean more fine dining to come. Stay tuned.