I do not have much to say about uneven meals except that is
what they are. It means you must be
careful how you order, less you be disappointed.
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| Duck L'Orange |
Petit Filet
Tuna with Cream sauce
I suggested that Melissa order the petit filet with Périgueux
Sauce, which I had eaten before and consider the best French dish in
Albuquerque with its rich, creamy black truffle sauce with real slices of truffle. It did not disappoint and met my high standard
for the dish.
Unfortunately, my duck l’orange was disappointing, but that requires
an explanation. My favorite dish when I was
growing up (the one I requested for my birthday dinners) was Duck L’Orange. Think of the reaction of the hard core food
critic in the 2007 movie “Ratatouille” when served the ratatouille). My mother was a gourmet cook who had a
cooking school. My Mother made Duck L’Orange
in the elegant traditional way by buying a whole duck and aging it for a day in
the fridge and then pricking its skin and roasting it until the skin was crisp
and the meat tender. Then she made an
elaborate or traditional l’orange sauce with lemon, orange slices, orange juice
and sugar and perhaps some madeira. This
was what I expected to receive when I ordered Duck L‘Orange Friday evening. What I received instead was four or five slices of hard cooked slices of duck breast that lacked any tenderness and were hard sautéed and the skin was flaccid served with a very minimal sauce without any orange slices, so the sauce did not have the body to sit up on the duck or fruitiness to complement the duck’s strong flavor. The waitress asked if I wanted to try the comfit and I said yes in an effort to salvage the meal and what I received was another hard cooked to the point of being inedible, duck breast coated with black pepper, which I hate, garnished with a few cold limp wet string beans. A poor effort to mollify me that only made me madder. The restaurant chose to use a short cut to make a dish that, when made properly, does not allow for such short cuts. I refer you to Julia Child’s recipe in her “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” for the traditional recipe. I hated the fact that the restaurant thought I was so stupid that I would not know that they were taking unacceptable shortcuts with such a traditional dish. The least they could do is change the name of the dish to reflect the fact that it is not a roasted duck, but a sautéed duck breast, so discriminating dinners will avoid the dish. Our waitress was no help; a pleasant person who seemed to know nothing about the food or care. Try to get the middle aged black waiter who does know the food and will do whatever he can to make your meal a success.
Suzette fared better, she ordered the House Special Tuna, which turned out to be an approximately ½ pound piece of fresh albacore tuna sauced with a cream sauce that was over salted. The fish was fresh and delicious although the salty sauce detracted from the dish as a whole.
We ordered a ½ carafe of white wine (French Chardonnay) and rosé and both were good.
We also shared two orders of escargot, which turned out better, with the traditional garlic butter and parsley sauce, although Suzette thought the flavor of the snails was decidedly “out of the can”.
Are we overly tough critics, having eaten these dishes for years and many times in French Michelin starred restaurants? I still want to say on the strength of the petit filet with Périgueux Sauce that Petit Louis ($26.00) is still my favorite French restaurant in Albuquerque, but I intend to return to Café Miche soon to try it again and might change my mind. Also, I will never order Duck L’Orange ($24.50) at Petit Louis again. Our bill was $124.00 without tip.
Bon Appétit
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