Find out what a Frenchman says, cut the words into your chest

[venta]

This morning, I have achieved a personal goal for (I think) the first time this year. Last night, when I went to bed, I didn't set my alarm. My first commitment today is to be in Highbury and Islington to go to Crimes Against Pop tonight and even I didn't think I could oversleep to that extent. Accordingly, I slept til I woke up naturally. Hurrah.

Even better, I feel nicely relaxed and awake. Which is good, because jezzidue was ordering the wine last night. Sadly, I'm a complete cretin and, while I enjoyed the Burgundy and Bordeaux he ordered, couldn't quite join in the complicated discussions he and zandev were having about its nose, its palate, and very possibly other anatomical bits. I waggled my ears as Jezzidue explained to Joe how good red wine ages, and the complicated dance performed by the tannins, the fruit flavours, the alcohol, and the moons of Jupiter which lead to a fine vintage. The one line I latched onto, however, was that red wine with lots of tannin in it gives you a crashing hangover.

<prods stomach and head>

Nope, fine. Hurrah.

Mind you, I'm not sure I believe him that there is a variety of Burgundy called "Pomade". I can't help feeling something's gone horribly wrong in the translation there.

I also demonstrated my extreme sophistication by having the lines Cognac, Armagnac, Burgundy and Beaune, This old man thinks he's Saint Joan running persistently through my head all evening.

At leathellin's instigation (and expert organisation), we'd headed out to Le Manoir au Quat' Saisons to experiment with the Gourmand menu - a seven course "tasting " menu. When going out for dinner, in good company, time spent faffing around reading the menu (particularly long and complicated menus) always seems time wasted to me. The Gourmand menu neatly removes that by leaving you no choice. Once you're finished your aperitif and been shown to a table, food simply appears at judiciously spaced intervals. The assumptions are, I presume, that you will trust the chef not to make nasty food and that he trusts you to try whatever he's prepared.

The actual courses have been expertly detailed by Zandev already. Since the claim of "seven" courses didn't include the two courses of nibbles which preceded the meal, nor the coffee and petits fours which followed, each course was of necessity rather small. It's interesting to eat food which is so carefully planned, with the flavours meticulously arranged. It'd be possible to demolish most courses in a couple of forkfuls, but to do so would be to miss the point completely.

I'm not quite sure how they manage to shove so much flavour into such a small quantity of food. Maybe I was eating with more attention than usual, but each taste did seem to have a concentrated vibrancy I'm not used to. The fish course was sea bass - served with a blob of cauliflower purée, a rosemary butter sauce and a red wine jus (red wine ? with fish ?) but each mouthful seemed intense and exciting.

We were offered the option, which Jezzidue took, of swapping the pudding course for cheese. I was very tempted because - in my world - chocolate gateau is no competition for cheese. However, I decided to stick to the menu: the seven courses had clearly been planned to compliment each other, and I would enjoy my meal in the way M. Blanc intended it. The deconstructed "forêt noire" (who're you fooling - it's black forest) gateau was nice, but I'm unable to get properly excited about chocolate, really.

Le Manoir did impress me, though, by providing a fully vegetarian variant of their Gourmand menu, which Joe reported as very edible. I'd vaguely expected them to have the rather French attitude that vegetarians are weird, and to be (at best) tolerated with contempt, but they seemed to have bothered to put some proper thought into arranging the dishes.

The main sticking point with Le Manoir is, of course, (to me) the price. I've wanted to go for years, and I was very happy to experience it for a special occasion. It was certainly a wonderful meal, and one quite unlike any I've ever had. However... I can't help feeling that in terms of value for money I could get two wonderful meals in different establishments for the same price, so it's unlikely to take over as my #1 eatery..

leathellin is Designated Hero of the Week for conceiving and organising last night's outing, in particular for managing to get all parties there on time :) I'm sure putting together small, congenial parties of dinner guests is a fine art, and it was managed extraordinarily well. I had a lovely and very entertaining evening.

Yesterday, zotz posted a throwaway comment on my LJ asking if I'd head Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die. The answer was no, but with a title like that you've got to go looking, haven't you ?

A swift google found The Indelicates - Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die (that's a legit download from the band's own site). Which wasn't at all what I was expecting. I had thought it would be a parody (for some reason) and a pisstake, in a way which it more sort of isn't.

However, the song did inspire me to go hunting for The Indelicates' website (http://www.indelicates.com/, so not a challengeful quest) which even has a large and funky "MP3s" button on the front page. After rapaciously downloading all they had to offer, I'm really rather impressed.

I'd recommend The Indelicates - New Art For The People in particular, which combines a monumental cynicism with a Sarah Nixey-esque self-conscious female vocal, but somehow avoids sounding like Black Box Recorder. I've detected whiffs of The Jam and Saint Etienne in their other songs too - and an ironic Joy Division reference - but all in all I'm really very taken with them.

See, bands, putting mp3s on your page for download is a good thing.

Mind you, I am a bit distressed by the Rolling Stone quotation they display - it begins "Neo-Brecht/Weill theatricality ? Check." Now, when the Dresden Dolls described themselves as "Brechtian Punk Cabaret" I was impressed, but really... two bands with Brechtian influences ? Should we be expecting a New Wave Of Brechtian Inspired Music ? Are my A-level German syllabuses coming back to haunt me ?

NWoBIM - you heard it here first.

Zotz would be DHW for bringing The Indelicates to my attention, but I'm afaid he got pipped at the post by Leathellin (see above).

Comments

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, I just listened to it and preferred the first half, of course!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Cool ! So maybe NWoBIM bands are like those half-and-half pizzas you can get ? The first half satisfies those who crave underproduced half-sung, half-recited gloomy lyrics and the second half caters to incurable rock barbarians such as myself ? It's genius !