I found this little restaurant at chowhound, and from the reviews it sounded pretty delicious so we thought we’d give it a try. Other than the very odd and yet comical wait to get seated, it was a great experience.
About 15 minutes after they opened (we were hungry for an early dinner) we walked in, the whole place was empty, which is to be expected. Here is how it played out:
waitress #1: Hello! Have you been helped? Oh let me get the maitre d’ for you!
30 seconds later…
maitre d: Hello! I’m Eric, I’ll be right with you!
1 minute later…
waitress #2: Hi! Have you been helped? Let me go get Eric for you!
25 seconds later…
waiter #3: Hello there, Eric will be right with you!
1 minute later…..
Eric: Hi, sorry about the wait!
At this point, we didn’t see anybody else in the restaurant and it was almost comical. What is Eric doing back there?
a) Sewing up a rip in his new pants
b) Beating the last level of Super Mario Bros
c) It’s a portal to a parallel universe where he is also the maitre d’ OH MY GOD THAT BLEW MY MIND.
d) All of the above.
Eric proceeded to greet us, and spent about 30 seconds hacking the gibson typing on the computer, then run off again, I mean literally, he ran away. I think he went to get more menus. I didn’t ask.
1 minute later…
Eric asked for our names, and 30 seconds later we sat down.
I work for the government, and this whole process was very familiar to me so I didn’t really mind. I still don’t know if there’s another dining room or parallel universe in the back or what, but he seemed to really enjoy it back there.
We started off with an amuse-bouche, which I love because I love eating duh. It’s a shrimp spring roll garnished with grapefruit, in a mint basil pesto. Everything about this was delicious, except the wrapper was doubled and tripled over so many times that the outer layer seemed a bit gelatinous and thick. Don’t get me wrong, this was delicious and only $2.50, can’t go wrong with that.
Our next course was the SHEFZILLA SURPRISE. Yup, this is actually the picture on the menu. It’s a dinosaur, wearing a chef’s hat, if you can’t tell. You are not allowed to know what it is before you order it, because duh stupid, it’s a surprise. They do tell you the price, and today it was $11. You also have to let them know of any allergies you might have, like the table next to us, guy was all “I’m allergic to shellfish” – wow dude, sucks to be you. This idea is pretty genius, I mean how do you NOT order that? Just look at the picture!
And now… the surprise! It’s a seared diver scallop in a carrot foam with dehydrated corn. Also a very tasty dish, the corn was especially great because it gave the scallop some sweetness. The only awful part is that there is only one scallop and I had to share it with Sean. I ate really fast and I think I got most of it, sucker!
Our main courses, I had the Australian sea bass with parsley puree, parsnips, and creamy mussel foam, topped with some crispy wonton skins. This was amaaaaazing, probably the best sea bass I’ve had. And you wouldn’t think a parsley puree would taste good, but it had little chunks of parsnips inside that gave it a really sweet flavor and it complemented the sea bass perfectly. Although I do have to say, I’m not a huge fan of foam, just give me the broth ok, I really don’t need it to be bubbly and textured, it doesn’t add much to a dish.
That's an épis de blé! (the bread)
Godzilla is not a dinosaur! (At least not in this dimension. Perhaps in Eric's other world he is, and he was busy transporting TO HIS OTHER DIMENSION for dinner.)
@ronnie, I was looking at it and turning it around and pondering how it was put together, it's like bread from another dimension.
@DiscordianStooge OMG THAT BLEW MY MIND AGAIN.
Yeah, the bread is supposed to look like a stalk of wheat. Here are directions: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=152
Also, parsnips are awesome.
wow that is easy! It looks so impressive too. I might make that for holidays to show off "skillz". I didn't really like the bread tho, it's too crusty and you know how I feel about crusty breads.
I know that braise your talking about with the anise, it's:
Chicken stock
Fresh ginger
Star anise
Cinnamon stick
Cloves
Sichuan peppercorn
Light soy sauce
Dark mushroom soy
Travis I thought it might have a bit of sugar in it as well? I am so retarded, I went to the asian grocery store, with my mom, and I bought a duck, and I forgot to ask her what was in that recipe. I already cooked the duck too, DAMN!
Yea if you like it sweeter you can add sugar to it and even substitute the sichuan peppercorn for fennel seeds. It's called master stock if you wanna look it up. They make it all over china and it varies a little depending on the region.
Edited for redundancy
[...] two restaurants and a bunch of local shops tragically burnt to the ground a few months ago, and Heidi’s was one of our favorite little French [...]
Man, I’d be pissed if I got a scallop in carrot foam for $11, but that’s just me I guess :D Actually, I refuse to order anything in, on , under or even in close proximity to anything that could plausibly be described as “a foam.”
haha I know what you mean, the foam texture really doesn’t do much for me. I won’t refuse it, but I won’t go out of my way to foam-arize anything. Such a weird concept. It doesn’t even have much visual appeal to me either, it looks like a mermaid threw up in my food.
Mermaid vomit! YES!!!! Do I have your permission to steal this most apt description?
LOL yes you may steal “mermaid vomit” =D