JV - Part 1

No not Jr. Varsity.  JV.  At least that's what we who know and love him call him.  To the rest of you, it's Jules Vernes.  I realize I'm not the first person to have written about one of the most classic of classic French restaurants.  And truth be told, I almost didn't post about this, because well, what else do you say about a legend?  But here's the thing about legends: They're legendary!  Sometimes their amazingness deserves to be shouted from a rooftop!...or at least from a keyboard in my one-bedroom apartment. 

The meal I had there was so amazing, so ballsy, so SICK, it deserves multiple posts.  So here, in part one of a mini-series I'd like to call "The Night I Amost Cried About A Snail", I will cover my first course. 

And here goes.  I think we all know how this classic story begins...

...with that long, crowded walk toward the base of the Eiffel Tower. And if I had to to elbow a couple of grandmas, and kick a few baby carriages out of the way to get there, it was all worth it.  Because when I sat down, before they showed me a menu, before they even took a drink order, these arrived...

Perfectly petite gougeres.  Oh, pardon me, correction: melt-in-your-mouth perfectly petite gougeres.  And to those, I ALWAYS say: hells yes.  But even those paled in comparison to my first course.  Ordinarily, when I order escargot I can be assured I will receive some version of a hot bubbling cauldron of herbacious snaily buttery goodness that will always leave a pool of said buttery goodness for me to dip bread into.  Standard decadence.  Which is why I was confused when something other than that arrived at my table.

Hmmm?...Am I looking at this from the wrong angle?  Maybe I'm missing something?  Let me turn it to the side?

Nope...it still looks like arancini from that angle too.  And it appears to be sitting atop mushroom duxelle?  Well if I've somehow butchered the French language (again) and ordered arancini on mushroom duxelle, I'm certainly not sending it back.  I want to eat that!  And then, I cut one open.

OH...MY...GOD.  These fools have figured out how to encase escargot and all it's herbacious buttery goodness in some fried balls!  And then as if that wasn't good enough, they put it on top of slow roasted mushrooms with just enough cream to hold it together.  I LOVE THE FRENCH!