August 23, 2016 Lunch – Couscous, Roasted Pork, and Tzatziki, Dinner – L’Olivier

August 23, 2016 Lunch – Couscous, Roasted Pork, and Tzatziki,  Dinner – L’Olivier 

I ate PPI Couscous, Roasted Pork, and Tzatziki for lunch. The Tzatziki seemed a little old.  I hope it does not reignite my diarrhea.

Then at 5:00 we drove to Santa Fe for Suzette’s Birthday Dinner at L’Olivier, which is probably the most authentically French restaurant in New Mexico.  We sat on the patio bathed in the glow of warm late afternoon sun.  

I had read the menu on line when I made my reservation and knew what I wanted, sautéed sweetbreads and lobster salad.  Suzette decided to order the Spring Prix Fixe Menu ($35.00) with an appetizer of 4 Escargot served with ham, yellow tomato halves, and squash in a light garlic sauce in a ramekin, then for her entrée a large piece of sautéed salmon served on a bed of wild rice and squash on a puddle of creamy saffron sauce, and finally a homemade lava cake gushing chocolate sauce when cut into served on a clear raspberry coulis with a scoop of raspberry sorbet sitting beside the lava cake.

My sweetbreads were divine, tender, creamy and served with sautéed finely diced potatoes in an a jus sauce.  I loved the sweetbreads.

Then I was served a small lobster salad with a side plate of house salad, organic greens and small yellow tomato halves dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. The lobster salad contained finely diced fresh apples and was served on a pink puddle of homemade mayonnaise sauce and garnished with fresh chives.  The chunks of lobster claw meat were wonderfully fresh.  

We ordered a bottle of 2014 Daulny Sancerre ($42.00).

Fresh bread and butter were served with the meal.

Suzette said it was the best wild rice she had ever eaten.  Her saffron sauce was very impressive, orangish with a strikingly intense flavor of saffron.  I tried her dish and it was really delicious; medium cooked salmon that was golden brown on the outside and fully cooked but delicately moist on the inside.  The wild rice was so tender it tasted as if it had been cooked for hours in a vegetable stock.

It felt like we were back in France except when the low riders drove by with their loud music blaring.  The restaurant is located at the corner of Gallisteo and Alameda, which must be on Santa Fe’s low rider cruising route, because I saw one vehicle come by several times with its music blaring in a high decibel range.

We enjoyed our meal and drove home around 7:30. The restaurant was kind enough to grant me the early bird 15% discount on my two items because we arrived a bit before 6:00. The restaurant opens at 5:30.

  The restaurant's front door

   The snails

  The sweetbreads

  The wine

   The sautéed salmon on wild rice and saffron cream sauce

  The lobster salad

  The house salad

  The lava cake and raspberry sorbet on the puddle of raspberry coulis

I love going out to eat when I can order dishes I can not or will not cook at home.  Suzette’s salmon and wild rice was a new wonderful dish because of the wild rice and the light saffron cream sauce.  My sweetbreads were among the best I have ever eaten, for no other reason than because they were tender and lacked any hint of blood.

They rank right up at the top with those I ate at Scandia in L.A. in the 70’s that were served en croute with a creamy shallot, demiglace sauce.

We both  loved dinner and count it as a memorable meal, Suzette for the wild rice and me for the sweetbreads, which is about the best one can hope for.

Bon Appetit