Girl’s First Michelin Star
On my recent trip to LA I was lucky enough to Providence, a Michelin starred restaurant (it has 2 stars!), my first Michelin starred restaurant. I knew the food would be good, but I was still apprehensive since this is a seafood restaurant and I am *so* not a seafood person. Nonetheless, I went in with an open mind and an empty stomach.
We each ordered our food. I chose dungeness crab and lobster risotto. Then all sorts of appetizers were placed in front of us from the untraditional trio of gelled mixtures meant to taste like different drinks like gin and tonic (glorified jello shot, really) to the more traditional but spectacular dinner rolls.
Then the food came. We shared and cleaned our plates. My dungeness crab was fantastic, served with wasabi rolls and butter. I also enjoyed my lobster risotto, but my absolute favorite was one of my fellow diner’s dishes: the sea urchin. It was served in a hollowed out egg shell, which was a perfect description of what it tasted like: a deep ocean egg yolk. It tasted like the sea and taught me what seafood should really taste like. The reason I so often do not enjoy seafood is because it tastes fishy. However, this tasted richly of the ocean. Delicious.
After the meal, but before dessert came the cheese. A server came out with a whole cart of fine cheeses and had us pick a few to put on a plate with nuts, jam, and bread. I don’t know why every restaurant doesn’t do this after a meal. I would certainly eat out a whole lot more.
Fittingly dessert was just as good as the rest of the meal and I pushed my feelings of fullness aside to have the chocolate ganache with peanut butter, chambly ice cream and ‘these pretzels are making me thirsty.’ Throw together peanut butter, chocolate, pretzels and a Seinfeld reference and you’ve won me over. It was a good night.
