What was the best thing you ate last year?
I shouldn't be so attached to last year, I know. But the way I see it, is that 2023 is bringing me 365 clean pages where I can replicate favorite flavors (mostly from France) as well as add modern ones. Why not start the year with a list of recipes, instead of resolutions? And throw some old favorites recipes in there too.
My favorite spoonful in 2022 was from a freshly baked Calvados Soufflé at La Couronne in Rouen. The same food that changed Julia's life in France, changed mine too.
Picture a heavy metal spoon making its way into the lightest, airest, most cloudlike soufflé — holding its structure just until it made it to the table. The round ramequin it was baked in was just a tad whiter than the soufflé itself, and a paper-thin slice of dehidrated apple on top indicated the connotation of flavors.
An almost flowery waft of Calvados would come through every time I dipped my spoon, that combined with the sugary coating of the ramequin, sweetened the soufflé. I have a feeling that no yolks were added, which made it so unique. Like nothing I have ever tasted before, that soufflé now represents the elegant taste of France for me. And I know that, no matter the year, I will remember it.
While I could go on and on about the textures, aromas, colors, and different sweetness levels I found in that soufflé; I've been, instead, working on developing a recipe that can somehow be similar to that heavenly first bite I had. There's no point in eating something that good if we can't really share it, right?
I also want to tell you eventually about my visit to La Couronne and the other equally excellent foods I tried there. And although I wish I could show you the many photos I took, but my phone was stolen that very same day, and I was only left with my handwritten notes from my favorite day in France. It should suffice.
I'll work around my notes and bring you the best picture of what walking in Julia's footsteps that day felt like. And recipes, of course. Here's my promise to you for 2023!
Now, tell me. What was the best thing you ate last year?
Love you! I think my favorite meal was attending an omakase dinner at a local restaurant in Dallas.
You have me thinking hard. Mes pensées deviennent folles 😜. I have to say the duck liver pate and saba at Antico Nuovo. It was so sublime, I wished I could have canceled the rest of the dinner so as not to take away the divine taste still rolling around my mouth.