ダニエルの冒険

I went to Le Chevalier, a French restaurant in Nagoya, today with Marina. It was many firsts for me, as well as being the classiest joint I’ve ever eaten at in my life. After two and a half hours of fives hors d’oeurves we had our main course and desert. The timing was great though, as well as the portions. The portions, though small, were just enough that I was able to eat them all without feeling like it was too much. The starters were oysters with caviar, a small glass with some unnamed seafood in it, a shrimp wrapped in leaves, the meat from the neck of a calf with the liver of a rabbit, and asparagus soup (really good!). I’m sure there are lovely French names for these but I don’t know what they are. The main was beef with a truffle and Lens (?) beans.

The firsts for me were oysters, caviar, and the truffle. I’m sure there were many more firsts but I just didn’t realise what I was eating.

An interesting point: as I had so many firsts I didn’t have much to compare things to. As such, caviar tastes like Kilkee and the leaves around the shrimp’s mousse tasted like Sarah Marshall’s garden. I was drinking water the whole time but I believe there is a selection of 500 wines to choose from.

The waiter was very nice and was able to break out of seriousness and joke with us, which the other waiters couldn’t. When Marina said she wouldn’t take any sugar with her tea because she’s on a diet, he burst out laughing but quickly stopped himself, and then said “今までたくさん食べて・・” (“but you’ve eaten so much up until now…”). Marina wasn’t impressed.

It really was a fun night. I got to experience a lot of new things and try a lot of new food and I was actually able to eat it all and enjoy it… even the oysters! Next week we’re going to try Fugu, the infamous poison blowfish. I hope it isn’t the first day for the chef, and I’m also less confident about Japanese cuisine than French. Either way, even though we have very very different lives and are very different people, Marina makes great company and three hours of dinner flew by, so I’m looking forward to Fugu.