Sep 3

Sep 3 Memorable Meals in Chamonix

Our stay in Chamonix was rather brief, but the food experiences we had were rich. On top of the foodie fest that was the wedding reception, I had some pretty memorable meals in this little French mountain town.

On our first night, we had dinner at Le Cap Horn. This place has a ton of options outside the traditional French fare, so I opted to spend a little more for their three-course menu. It's is quite common in Europe to have a pre fixe menu in addition to the regular menu. In the States, we usually see these options at budget places, where food is pre-made and then just reheated, or at super fancy restaurants.

For my starter course, I chose the Peruvian-style ceviche. You would think, "WTF are you ordering ceviche in France?" Well, interestingly enough, this restaurant has a vast sushi menu, and they seem to be doing really well for all their menu offers. So I thought, why not, let's go with a seafood dish. And am I glad I did! This was fish and scallops cooked by the acidity of the lime juice with red onions, carrots, jalapenos, and corn. The seafood was fresh; I am still wondering where they sourced it from since we were in a mountain village after all.

For my main entree, I chose the braised duck breast served with white rice in a really cute pot. When it arrived, I was a little unsure about the dish because it was slathered in sauce with dried fruit all over the plate. First off, crispy duck skin is where it's at so sauce on duck is concerning. Second, I am not the biggest fan of sweet with my meats. I was expecting the sauce to be way too sweet considering the pieces of dates and figs found on this dish. Well, it turned out excellent and well-executed. The sauce was not overpoweringly sweet. It was soy-sauce based with honey and whatever aromatics they put in it. I had to remind myself that I was in France, and if there was anything the French are great at is making and cooking with awesome sauces. I mean this is the country that created the job title, Saucier. Oh, and that duck was perfectly medium rare ... so succulent and juicy. The skin was still crispy.

To finish off the meal, it was an easy choice for me and picked the Grand Marnier soufflé. I'm not even going to try and write about how awesome this dessert was. Just watch this video!

Yeah, we were the Americans who were so impressed by this food presentation. To quote my husband, "Everything is better with flames!" It tasted as good as it looked, too.

The other memorable meal happened the night before the wedding. All of us staying at the chalet decided to go out for dinner. Many of us had our hearts set for raclette. I wanted more of the melted cheese goodness that I had for the first time in Geneva. We ended up at Brasserie le National. This restaurant prides in serving national specialties.

Since it was a Monday night, they were able to accommodate our group of 14 people without a reservation. As soon as we got seated, the server lady announced that they were out of raclette. And the whole table just erupted, "What?! Nooo!" Then one smart person in our party said, "Wait, can't you just go buy some more cheese?" She caught on and and talked to a dude who looked like he was in-charge of this place. Then a few minutes later, someone strolled in carrying half a wheel of raclette. The lady came to us and said, "I have enough raclette for 8 people." To which a number of us replied, "We'll take it all!"

What was different, which added to the cool factor of the whole experience, compared to the first time I had raclette in Geneva was that they brought out the raclette heating machine to our table. With the wedge of cheese stuck on there, we heated, scraped and served ourselves gobs of melted cheese to our stomachs' and hearts' content.