This is a warning to any men who might be reading this blog . . . this post will not be anything you're interested in! This is, as the Brits say, going to be a "hen party"! :-) (Unless you're a foodie, and then you'll like the part about dinner.)
Today was fabulous!!!! :-) I got a new haircut, a new purse, and we wandered this beautiful city to our hearts' content! Then after that perfect day, we had the best meal EVER!!! OK, here it goes . . .
I've been saying for the last few days that I really wanted to get a haircut. I grew my hair out long for the trip so I could wear a pony tail every day and not have to worry about it. And that was fine for the battlefields, but after a month of long, heavy hair, I've just gotten tired of it! And I want to look a little nicer for Paris. So I told Tammy to keep her eyes open for a nice looking hair salon as we wandered around Strasbourg, and today we found one! OK, keep in mind that this took all my bravery to do this, but it was so worth it! I walked in to this cute little salon with two stylists working and asked if they had an opening available. They just looked at me blankly . . . no English! Luckily, a woman who was having her hair cut at that moment spoke English and translated for me. Now you have to understand that part of me was hoping they'd say, "NNope. We're booked solid." That would have been the easy way out of it! :-) But they had a spot open in 30 minutes. I kind of hesitated and seriously considered saying no since I'd have to waste 30 minutes worrying about it. But I said yes! I was so proud of myself. So we wandered off to see the Place Kleber (big town square) that was on our list, and then we were back 30 minutes later. While at Kleber, I looked up a couple of pictures on the internet and used google translate to type in what I wanted the stylist to do: "I would like a layered bob for curly hair, please. And no bangs." So when we got back, the woman sat me down and we began our little dance of trying to understand each other. Google translate did its magic, we used lots of hand motions, she made sure I wanted layers (degradees?) and we were set! It was a fantastic experience! She did a great job and made it look just like I wanted, and I got to check another thing off my bucket list. (I've always wanted to get a haircut when we travel in Europe but I've always been too chicken before!) So that pretty much made my day. But it got better . . .
For the next several hours we just wandered around, window shopping, enjoying the beautiful buildings and cobblestone streets, drinking coffee, etc. It was the perfect afternoon after three straight days of rain. I've got about 50 pics of the city, but I'll only torture you with a few! :-)
This is a "selfie" of us on one of the canal bridges after my haircut! Happy campers with a little sunshine!
As we were window shopping, I happened to see a beautiful little boutique with gorgeous leather purses! Now, let me just say that purses and coats are my weakness! I could never have enough! So I thought about it and thought about it while we walked around, and then finally I couldn't take it any more. We already had reservations for a really nice meal tonight, and I had to have a beautiful purse to take to dinner! So Tammy sat at a cafe and had coffee while I traipsed across the square to my blissful little purse store. After about 45 minutes of trying to narrow it down to just one, I finally picked a gorgeous milk chocolate colored purse with a silver buckle! I absolutely love it and it matches my dinner outfit perfectly! Now my day is really complete! Oh, but there's still more . . . the best dinner ever!
So here's the thing with dinner . . . We were both a little nervous that they wouldn't let us in the door! :-) This place we picked, Au Crocodile, is a Michelin three-star restaurant and it is very sophisticated. We have been to plenty of really nice places like this, but not on a long trip where we mostly packed travel clothes. Luckily, we both had a nice blouse and linen pants and we tried to hide our chaco sandals as best we could. :-) But our scarves really pulled everything together. We both brought a couple of nice, lightweight scarves with us to dress up any outfit we might be wearing, and sure enough, we passed the test! They let us in and treated us like royalty! :-) So let's get to the food! We chose the "Menu Agreement" which was a 10 course tasting menu! Yes, I said 10 courses! But remember it's a tasting menu. So that means each course was just two to three bites mostly. And let me tell you, we've had tasting menus a few times before, but this was by far the best meal we've ever eaten! It was superb! Sublime! I don't have enough adjectives to describe it! (FYI - sorry the pictures don't look better. They're all a bit dark.)
So here's what we had for each course:
1. (This was an extra course not on the menu) Amuse Bouche (awakening) Tartare of sea bass & lemon confit, raspberry pepper soup, and a tomato marshmallow. Everything was as light as air, sweet, lightly tomato, crusted in pecans. Yum!
2. Hay (dried grass) consume with truffle foam - light and slightly sweet, foam was divine with a wonderfully light truffle flavor.
3. Asparagus royale with truffle caviar and a parmesan foam. Very mild asparagus with saltiness from an olive and pistachio tapenade and tarragon microgreens. This was divine!
4. Curried red mullet, dried tomato cannelle, eggplant caviar and peanut cream. The fish is so tender and the Asian eggplant round is so sweet and fruity. The curried eggplant canele is good too, but I like the sweeter one better!
5. Seared Foie gras with celery root salad in beet discs - the foie melts on the tongue and is so crispy on the surface. Celery root is like a cole slaw with creamy sauce. Diced pickled beets on the side but they're a bit sweet. Not all pickly. Foie is like duck butter. So rich but light.
6. Sea bass with a rabbit and mustard sauce and Confit tomatoes with a potato purée and sautéed baby chanterelle mushrooms. The bass melts on your tongue and the sauce is so rich with just a hint of tang from the mustard. The best fish ever; so perfectly cooked and tender.
7. Roasted blue lobster with lobster meat in squid ink cannelloni and tarragon lobster sauce. Sweet lobster and the richest most decadent sauce. This was to die for!
8. Seared duck breast with yuzu sauce and duck confit ravioli. Poached peaches with fava beans and baby chanterelles. So rich and decadent. The sauce is rich and a bit sweet with the peach. A perfect pairing!
9. Goat cheese terrine with hibiscus gelee. Loved it. Strong, tangy goat cheese, sweet gelee and a slightly lemon scented shortbread biscuit. Absolutely fantastic!
10. Pistachio and strawberry mousse with a strawberry sorbet and diced strawberries and pistachios on top. Thyme and strawberry gelee dots. Tangy and sweet, creamy and fruity. There was a Pistachio "guacamole" on the bottom. (That's the kind of texture it had.) Cookie crust was sort of a shortbread. The strawberry gelee was a bit sour, and the pistachio mousse under the compote was as light as air. Both of us agreed that this was, hands down, the best dessert we've ever had
11. White and milk Chocolate eclair with lemon jelly. This was delicious but not as good as the one before.
Then, as if that wasnt enough food, they gave us a final dessert tasting of raspberry financiers, raspberry chocolate truffles with pop rocks on the outside, and simple tuile cookies that were sort of like fortune cookies but way lighter. They melted on the tongue.
This meal was the perfect ending to a FABULOUS day in Strasbourg! We are the luckiest people in the world, and we don't take one second of it for granted!
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