Marche Moderne

As seen in my previous post, Bert and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.

We were married at 10 in the morning and had a lunch reception at a bayside venue in Mission Beach with the reception ending at 5 pm. In our haste and excitement, we didn't think of packing other kinds of clothes. Now don't get the wrong idea! I seriously did not want to go out to dinner wearing my wedding dress nor did Bert want to wear his tuxedo. Plus our clothes for the next day were just jeans and fugly t-shirt and I did not pack regular shoes. I only had my white high heels, so we decided to order in.

Our nuptial feast for that night (and breakfast the next day)?

Pizza Hut Supreme Pizza...

(image courtesy of Food in Real Life)

Fast forward to 16 years later. How our tastes have evolved! Well, we didn't order Pizza Hut pizza for old times sake my friends. First off, we spent the night (child free) somewhere in Orange County . I won't post about our dinner because I was disappointed with the food (well, Bert was happy with his entree but my small plate appetizers were subpar). So even with my OCD tendencies, I am actually skipping a dinner writeup  because I want to talk about our much better experience with our dessert at Marche Moderne (chosen because it was fairly near our hotel) in South Coast Plaza.

Going out to dinner and dessert was an opportunity to play dress up like an actual grown up, heh. Bert in his Cuban shirt and black slacks and me in a coral cutaway tee by Anthropologie (looks like it's one shouldered but it's not) and a gray mini pencil skirt by BR (I love that it has pockets). I splurged and took a risk on a color I don't normally wear either. This was taken at his oldest bro's house where TC happily spent the night with her cousins.

We were originally going to have dessert at the same place we had dinner but since I was so disappointed with the offerings, I made reservations at Marche Moderne at the last minute (right before they closed for the night). The restaurant is located in South Coast Plaza in the ritzy "penthouse" section with the high end stores (Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, etc). It's on the fifth floor next to Nordstrom's. In the photo below, I desaturated the colors since it originally was all yellowish from the wierd lighting in the mall. I think it looks better this way! It's kind of odd to see a restaurant in mall, but it seems appropriate to have  a high-end French place near the high-end stores that I'll never set foot in, can't afford.

When I called to RSVP, I asked the receptionist what they offered for dessert. After hearing all five choices, I knew we had to go there!

Our waiter started us off with beverages, Bert with coffee and dessert wine for me. For my dessert choice, he suggested an Sicilian dessert wine, the Donnafugata Ben Rye which was fantastic! I'm not a wine expert so please forgive my inarticulate description, but it was intensely fragrant with a sweet apricot-raisin scent. I love sweet wines so this was perfect...

We were seated in what looked like an al fresco dining area. I didn't realize it until Bert pointed out that the sky was partially above our dining room...So that explained the heat lamps!

Bert's dessesrt was the Beignet a la Minute, served with a quenelle of nougat glace (far right) and a pistachio mousseline. He cannot resist anything with pistachio so this dessert was a no brainer for him. His beignet was nice and light and he loved the mousseline. I tried a little of each on his plate and enjoyed the nougat the most. The beignet tasted like a fluffy fried dough (now that sounds appetizing doesn't it?). I've never had a glace before and I liked the airy but smooth texture which was even better because it had nuts within.

I chose the Peach Gateau which was served with an ice cream made of Late Harvest Semillon ( a type of wine, I found out later) and praline cream. The gateau had a wonderful caramelization on the crust and had a sticky sweet texture. The cream was also delicious and if I could have done it, I would have licked that plate clean! Ha ha, but of course, I did not.

We truly enjoyed our desserts and beverages. If I could have a "do over", we would have had dinner here as well as dessert. But we can always come back here another time for another weekend getaway.

The other slack jawed saliva-inducing choices (which were all tempting) were: Tarte of Braeburn Apple and Creme D'Amande with Calvados gelato and fleur de sel caramel (ooh), Strawberry Galette with Almond gelato and aged balsamic, Warm Vahlrona Chocolate and Truffle Cake with coco-mango gelato, and lastly house made sorbets and ice cream.

The desserts were a great way to end the evening. It sure beats Pizza Hut pizza and the gift basket of fruit we had on our wedding night!

Who else ate at Marche Moderne?

The husband/wife duo of SD foodbloggers Two Foodies - One Journey had a special 7 course tasting menu last year as well as uberblogger Wandering Chopsticks, plus some write ups from OC bloggers The Endless Supper, J's Catering Chronicles, and Epicurious Eats.

Blurbs/Reviews:
LA Times
OC Weekly

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!!!