Poulet en Vessie at Epicure
For years we had been hearing about the chicken at Epicure at the Bristol Hotel in Paris. Chicken is truly the test of a restaurant. Chicken is ubiquitous, including among home cooks, so everyone has references to compare with. When chicken is cooked well it is wonderful and dreadful when cooked poorly.
We chose to have lunch at Epicure and had a great time. Everything was perfect. In addition to the chicken, a few other dishes really stood out.
Starters
One amuse was red onion jelly with a little dollop of smoked foam. It had the flavor of a bagel with lox and cream cheese but it melted in your mouth.
The web site for Epicure brags about the macaroni so I had to try it. Rich and earthy, it was a real Yankee Doodle dandy.
The Chicken
Finally, the moment we had been waiting for. Out of the kitchen comes the cooked Bress farm hen on a silver platform standing on chicken legs. All eyes in the dining room were on our main course. You could feel the jealousy as we were the only table to order it. I think people shy away from dishes for two people but in The Free Dinner Whore's experience those are the ones where the kitchen pulls out all of the stops.
After presenting the hen inside the pigs bladder, it is popped and carved up table-side. The perfectly cooked breast meat is plated and served while the hind quarters are returned to the kitchen to finish cooking.
The dark meat is served as the next course after being finished up in the kitchen.
On this particular trip we had this same dish at another well known and top rated restaurant. I can say with confidence that Epicure's interpretation definitely wins in presentation, flavor, and texture.
Dessert
The Free Dinner Whore loves strawberries and one thing there never seems to be enough of are those little alpine strawberries. Epicure gives you more than most.
Conclusion
Get Daddy's credit card and go.