food porn @ trois gourmands, part 1

To call our dinner at Trois Gourmands an "event" is an understatement. It literally took half a year of planning and scheming, involving research on various online food and travel forums, coordinating with the InterContinental Asiana Saigon's very helpful concierge, lightning emails back and forth, and most importantly, making sure that we were all in the same place at the same time.

Trois Gourmands, 18 Tong Huu Dinh Street, Thao Dien Ward, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 26 February 2011 at 9PM.

Together at last. Hot Tuna, Canned Tuna and Bunny Rabbit.

They started us off with an amuse bouche. Scrambled eggs perfectly simple and pillowy soft, and all the warm bread we could eat. Evokes the comfort of a hearty country breakfast, and isn't the scent of good bread just so heartwarming and NICE?

Soft scrambled egg with black truffle

Here's how it works. You choose three items from this page:

Since there were four of us, we could have had 12 different appetizers if we liked, but somehow it didn't work out that way. It was pretty difficult to choose because all of them sounded thrilling and desirable. Never mind, we'll just have to go back then. My goal is to be able to try each of the appetizers-- maybe all in one meal, haha!

Tartare de Crabe

Escargot de Bourgogne aux buerre

PouPonnette de choux au confit de canard sauce foie gras

Boudin au Pommes

Coquille St Jacques avec sa Puree de Pomme au Truffe

Nem de Foie Gras

Ravioli de Langouste

Queue de Homard Barigaule

My favorite was the cabbage roll filled with duck and surrounded by a pool of foie gras sauce. The sauce was thoroughly SINFUL. Had the dining room lights been dimmer, we would have been licking our plates. We had to make do with just mopping up the sauce with the lovely bread, but there was something about this dish that made me want to dip my finger into the sauce and lick-- No, what I REALLY want to do is fill a bathtub with that foamy foie gras goodness and submerge myself in it. 

The seared scallop with truffled mashed potatoes came in a close second. Again, it was the sauce that made this dish shine. Everything else was delicious and I could eat them again, except the black pudding. For that one, once is enough.

Then we chose one item from the next page:

I found the options here quite limited and uninspired. I dunno, it was probably just the feeling I got after the high of browsing through and salivating over the list of magnificent starters. The mains were actually not bad, but I considered filet mignon and honey chicken somewhat boring.

Filet de Boeuf Sauce Morilles ou Poivre

La Joue de Boeuf et Foie gras Poele

La Cuisse de Lapin Desossee Farcie

We all wanted to order the lamb shank that had been braised for seven hours, but sadly, the Australians (a small town's worth of them, by the size of their table) had consumed them all. Why couldn't they have ordered the honey chicken instead?

Anyway, the beef filet came with both pepper sauce and Morelle mushroom sauce on the side. The mushroom sauce was tragically too salty, which ruined the whole thing for me. I mean, you can get pepper sauce anywhere, but the Morelles were supposed to make the dish special.

The rabbit was executed well. The meat was lean but moist, and the sauce was flavorful and silky. Although it wasn't gamey at all, you knew that you were eating rabbit, not chicken.

But the winner for this round was the beef cheek. First, take a look at the foie gras speared on top of it! A good-sized portion, seared to a crispy caramel on the outside, and creamy melt-in-the-mouth inside. The beef cheek does not disappoint, either. The flavor was robust and refined--  a combination that I've found to be distinct to cuts of meat that aren't considered usual. Like ox tongue, for example. And the texture was better than any Wagyu steak.

For this beef cheek dish, I would go back to Trois Gourmand.

Stay tuned for Food Porn @ Trois Gourmand, Part 2. Desserts and cheese course.