Three times...
Remember this song from "School House Rock"? Gen X'ers I'm talkin' to you!! This was the remake by Blind Melon. This is how we learned our times tables, ha ha!
The night was still young...
it wasn't even dark yet.
You'd think I'd be sick of this place already, but I wanted to give it Swoon another go...
What I like is that the menu changes weekly...
There are a few repeats here and there and they crop up in their a la carte selections.
Chefs Ian (in front) and Evan prepping the desserts...
My friend's green tea...
These had a faint orange flavor to them. A bit too chewy though.
The a la carte dessert was the Peanut Butter Mousse. This was almost the same as the one we had during our first visit except they omitted the rum soaked raisins.
Once again, pb mousse with pb crunchy bits, celeriac and white chocolate ganache, candied celery, celeriac dipping dots and Chinese Celery (excuse me, "lovage"....French, eh) garnish. The celery was sliced super thin, soaked in a simply syrup and put in a dehydrator.
Too bad the raisins were missing. I didn't realize it until I got home and was looking over the pix. I'm not sure if it was by design or not.
Pate choux and tiny macaron halves ready to be used...
The Amuse Bouche - ramp biscuits (ramps are an early spring vegetable that resemble leafy green onions; they smell like garlic and taste like onion)...
The biscuits were bite size...
and when cut open were piping hot with a really savory fragrance. The inside was bacony goodness with maple syrup infused with vanilla, I believe, or was it bourbon?
The First Course - Smoked Salmon Puff with mascarpone cheese, caper dust (I liked that it was in "dust form" because I don't like the look and taste of the caper buds), garnished with pickled onions, dill, and preserved lemon, atop a bed of watercress.
My friend's tea got "refreshed" by our server (Mr. Amazing)! The container was full of tea leaves and flowers.
More meticulous prep work...
Second Course - Buttermilk Panna Cotta with lemon verbena "caviar" (or spheres) with cara cara orange segments, a mound of buttermilk panna cotta with a slice of waffle cone, garnished with a fried (or dehydrated) lemon verbena leaf. We couldn't really taste the flavor in the green spheres, but it did add a nice textural dimension along with the crunchy waffle cone. The oranges were quite nice since they're in season. I liked that the panna cotta wasn't too sweet.
The Finale - Lavender ice cream with dehydrated chocolate mousse (those are the shards), chocolate cake crumbs, and those "COMPRESSED" strawberries, garnished with a lavender sprig.
I really don't like lavender at all because it reminds me of baby lotion. Despite my intense dislike of lavendera, I did try some of this dessert which didn't taste too bad. My friend like it much more than I did; she's a lavender fan. What I liked best about this were the dehydrated chocolate mousse shards. One side was shiny and when asked, the chef said it was because they are dried on acetate sheets. Okay, that still doesn't help me.
Also, about those compressed strawberries, I asked this time about them and that's how I got the info (which was relayed in my previous post for visit number two when I didn't ask). At least I got to enjoy the strawberries since this dessert was devoid of the dreaded balsamic vinegar drops.
I picked up a pack of two Pink Peppercorn Rosemary Chocolate Chip cookies ($1.35/also comes in a pack of 4) for Bert and TC.
TC passed on it because of the peppery taste. You can see they used A LOT of those pink peppercorns in here. There were two kinds of chocolate chips too which made fo a pretty looking cookie.
Bert thought the flavor was too strong. It didn't sit well with him. The peppercorns added a bit of a sweet heat in my opinion. I wouldn't have been so heavy handed with the spice. If it had a lot less of that, it might have been more enjoyable. The rosemary was also overkill. There was too much going on with the flavors.
Previous visits to Swoon (all within the month of April):
With the Educator GF's
With Bert
and this post...
I can't believe it's the end of April already....
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