Saint Pierre Degustation - Winter Menu

The very first time Louis and I had a degustation was back in Dec 2003, during our honeymoon. We certainly pampered ourselves quite a bit. Amongst the places that we stayed in, Louis had the fortitude to reserve us in a great hotel while we were in the Loire Valley, at Chateau Belmont, a Relais & Chateau hotel that came with a 2-star Michelin restaurant. It was definitely an eye-opening trip and experience. And we were lucky and fortunate to be able to indulged ourselves such luxuries.

That being our very first time staying in such a grand place, we were certainly awed by a lot of things, or perhaps it was due to our inexperience :) Although we didn't expect that a degustation menu would take a total of 3 hours to serve nor the applomb and flamboyance the wait staff accord to presenting each and every item.

It was the very first and only time in our lives so far where every dish would be served in a dome-shaped cover and set in front of us. Instead of the usual where a waiter would set the 2 plates in front of you, one after another, there were 2 wait staff, eaching carrying a plate and placing it solemnly in front of us. Then, as if they had some silence cue to time it between them, they would uncover the dome-shaped cover at the precise same moment, with a bit of a flourish, explained the separate items composing of that dish before they left us to attack our plates.

That 3-hour dinner cost more than the our 2 night stay at the same chateau. But it was an experience that we never again encountered. Not even during our one year stay in France did we visit any Michelin-star restaurant, even though there were a few in Paris and another town quite near where we were staying. The irony of it was that we were too poor to afford the luxury of eaching in such restaurants. There's no regrets though. Even though we cooked at home to save money, we got to buy some of the freshest, tastiest produce from the open market and specialty stores in Fonty.

While I've got no regrets about staying at home to look after Faith, I do miss the splurges that you get to spend on special occasions while working. These days, I try to cook at home, eat leftovers or simply from the hawker centres and coffee shops near home. And so it was that I suddenly yearn to eat a degustation at a nice French restaurant. We asked the well-travelled gourmand, CP, whether Saint Pierre or Au Petit Salut was better and he said the former was more unique and value for money. So, we decided to heed the advice and reserve a table at Saint Pierre for Saturday.

It was one of those rare nights when we would leave Faith with the family while we had a little couple time. Saint Pierre's current degustation was a winter menu. As a further indulgence, we ordered a half bottle of red wine from the region of Haut Medoc to go along with our entire meal, instead of the wine accompaniment.

The first dish of Amuses Bouche was certainly very promising, setting the tone for the other dishes to come. It was a platter comprising an expresso cup size pumpkin soup, parma ham on a fluffy bed of nashi pear marshmellow, a thin slice of chorizo with salsa and smoked salmon with salmon roe. While pumpkin soup might seem ordinary, it tasted exactly like the hot turin of pumpkin soup that I first tasted on a cold winter afternoon in Brugge. It was what got me hooked onto the delicious and natural creaminess of pumpkin soup. Drinking it evoked old treasured memories of our honeymoon in Europe. The nashi pear marshmellow tasted what I think fluffy cloud would taste like, very light and foamy with a hint of the pear, going well with the saltiness of the parma ham.

The second dish of the lobster consomme flan with cappuccino bisque and scallop croque-monsieur was equally delightful, although I found the lobster consomme flan to be a little hard in texture. The cappucino bisque was thick with the strong flavor of lobster and the croque-monsieur was crunchy on the outside and delicate on the inside with a soft layer of scallop. Yummy!

I love the wasabi infused apple espuma in the next dish of trout confit. The trout tasted rather like salmon (I can't tell the difference between salmon and trout actually). But I love the apple espuma becos its like apple foam, with a very slight tart yet refreshing undertone. It paired very suitably with the trout.

I'm generally not one for game. However, the guinea fowl was well executed and tender without any gamey hint. In fact, it tasted rather like chicken :) The leek vinaigrette is another item that I like as the sweetness of the leek was brought out by the slightly sourish vinaigrette. Can't say that I enjoy the mushroom carpaccio as it was essentially raw button mushroom. Forgot to take a picture of this though.

Louis loved the veal jus that was drizzled with the escargot ravioli dish and he mopped his and my leftover jus with bread. My expectation of a chawanmushi is a soft egg custard. Unfortunately, the chawanmushi turned out a tad too firm for my taste, although I enjoyed the trio cubes of smoked ham, garlic jelly and comté cheese.


The next dish has got to be the absolute favorite of Louis and I and probably anyone else that has eaten foie gras. Saint Pierre is supposed to be well known for their foie gras dish and indeed, what’s not to like about the classic pan-fried liver with caramelized green apples and port reduction sauce. The more than generous slab of foie gras was slightly crispy on the outside, tender and ever so rich on the inside that every mouthful feels as delightful as molten chocolate. By the end of this dish, I was actually feeling quite full, probably from the bad move of stuffing ourselves silly with bread while we waited for our dishes to be served.

Indeed, the olive oil sorbet with celery coulis proved to be timely, as well a refreshing palate cleanser. The sorbet tasted lemony with a slight ting of olive aftertaste without being oily, and contrasted well with the celery coulis. It was so yummy that we cleaned off the entire glass of it and remembered only after that we forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well… just to show you how much we liked it, I’ve taken a picture of the empty glass :)

Now, even though this was supposed to be the highlight of the meal, I was so full at this stage that I couldn’t really bare the thought of the main entrée. I had the fish dish while predictably, Louis had the lamb.

Personally, I found the fish to be a little too well done and thus, hard. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the onion chutney best cos it was sweet with a very very slight tangy taste. Didn’t quite like the squid ink gnocchi either as it was a little rubbery tasting. Truth be told, my stomach was quite full by now that it would have to take something really really special to entice me to eat any further. As I’m not one for lamb, I can’t really tell you about the dish. I think it must have been good becos Louis polished off what’s on his plate, as well as to help me eat some of what’s mine.

Even though I said that I couldn’t eat anymore, the dessert finale most certainly was tempting enough for me to dip my spoon into the quartet of offerings that I felt I did sufficient justice to the spread. I passed on the white chocolate but attacked the tomato confit. The umami taste of tomato was certainly appetising for me to move onto the next item, which was raspberry mousse and celery sorbet (I think it was celery, I forgot). Again, the refreshing taste of the raspberry mousse and sorbet allowed me to lift my spoon to the next, although I must say that the very fact that it’s a crème brulee was by itself a draw. I thought the beetroot topping didn’t exactly pair well with the nashi pear scented crème brulee. I would be satisfied with just the nashi pear crème brulee with the usual caramelized sugar topping. However, Louis and I totally agreed that eating the coffee cremeux with lemon marshmallow last was the right move. The aromatic coffee expresso worked very well with the dollop of chocolate ice-cream. Like the nashi pear marshmallow in our earlier dish, the lemon marshmallow felt like we were eating another piece of fluffy cloud.

It was a good ending to the entire menu…

…Until the waiter came by again to lay the final set of cutlery for what was really the final end to the meal.

By then, I was ready to crawl out of the restaurant, clutching my bloated tummy. The real final dish was supposed to be grandma stroobant’s flourless chocolate cake. Nearly fell off my chair when the waiter finally presented the dish. It was served in glass jar, with lots of cream, crushed chocolate biscuits, orange jelly and get this… a more than generous side serving of melted chocolate sauce, to be drizzled over the entire dessert. In order not to disappoint the chef since it was his grandma’s recipe, I skipped the cream and crush biscuits and hit the chocolate cake and orange jelly. It was rich without being overwhelming, especially when you eat it along with the orange jelly. So, if Grandma Stroobant had peered into the glass jar by the time that I finished it, she would have given a nod of approval. I finished the small slice of chocolate cake and the orange jelly at the base. There was a lot of chocolate sauce left over but I’ve got to admit that if I wasn’t so full, I would have taken more of the sauce as it was the dark, bitter type of European chocolate that I like.

All the same, I was really glad that the meal was finally over and that we managed to finish it all in 2 hours. That was about the right time for us to head over to my MIL’s place to pick Faith up. Our little girl had dinner with the extended family and didn’t seem to miss us at all. We heard she was the loudest person in the restaurant that night, as usual, exercising her vocal chords :)

If its of any interest to anyone, here’s the actual description of our degustation menu, extracted from Saint Pierre’s website.

SAINT PIERRE’S DEGUSTATION (WINTER MENU – 2007/8)

AMUSES BOUCHE
assorted nibble platter to whet the appetite
*
LA MER

lobster consommé flan with cappuccino bisque and scallop croque-monsieur
*
TRUITE CONFIT SALADE DE PINTADE ET ORMEAUX
salad of poached guinea fowl with aromatic green leaves, carpaccio of wild mushrooms, grilled abalone with ginger scented tomato dressing, leek vinaigrette and hummus of coco beans
*
RAVIOLI D’ESCARGOT ET ROYALE DE CEPES
homemade escargot ravioli with porcini mushroom, chawanmushi, green tea smoked ham, vieux comté cheese, aoshiso emulsion and warm jelly of garlic confit with black truffle scented veal jus
*
FOIE GRAS CLASSIC
classic pan-fried foie gras with caramelised green apples and old port sauce
*
SORBET
olive oil sorbet with celery coulis
*
FILET D’AGNEAU EN CREPINETTE
crépinette wrapped lamb tenderloin and saffron confit celeriac served with char-grilled homemade bacon, edamame beans, oak-smoked ratte potatoes and white truffle essence braised white mushrooms
OR
SAINT PIERRE ET YUZU
roasted john dory fillet with yuzu sauce, ika scented with pine nut praline, sea urchin infused onion purée, pumpkin-foie gras mousse and squid ink gnocchi
*
GRANDE ASSIETTE DE DESSERT
tomato confit with white chocolate biscuit and raspberry mousse; nashi pear scented crème brulée; chocolate milk and coffee crêmeux with lemon scented marshmallow and grandma stroobant flourless chocolate cake