Summer Associates Lunch Series - Aureole

Aureole is probably the highest rated restaurant on my summer lunch list to date. I liked the restaurant, but always thought that the food here was a little rich. However, now I think back, perhaps it is not that the food is rich, but just that, every time I was here, I always tend to order some of the richest stuff on the menu. I don't know why that is the case, perhaps just because what looks good on the menu to me are always the rich stuff. There are quite a bit of us this time around for lunch, about 7 people. Also, I think this restaurant is one of the restaurants that I have been to this summer season that has the most summer associates lunches been held there, which includes the 7 of us, and couple of tables of summers and associates from other firms. I ordered the foie gras as my appetizer, yes, very rich indeed. It was accompanied by endive marmalade, and a shot of passion fruit sauce (which they call it on the menu as "a shot of passion"), which was poured out of a cut hollowed passion fruit, a very nice touch that adds to the presentation of the plate. The foie gras was quite good. The slightly acidic nature of the passion fruit worked well with the sweetness and softness of the foie gras. The foie gras was also quite a large one too, so I was satisfied, although felt my cholesteral has gone up by quite a bit afterwards. To continue with the duck theme, I had the duck for entree. Yes, another very fatty dish, but what can I do, I love duck. The duck was good, but for some reason, I thought the duck at Asiate was slightly better, not as fattening to some extent. There are a lot of creativity to some of the dishes, for example, a Hawaiian Tuna Tartare with shiso injection. When they say injection, they actually have a tiny little bulb with shiso juice inside, and if you stick the tube into the middle of the tartare, and push the little bulb, then the shiso gets injected to the middle of the tartare. Very interesting concept and kind of fun. People at my table couldn't really taste the shiso though, but they all thought that the tartare was good.

I didn't get any dessert, since I was just too full. However, I did eat some of my officemate's sorbet and gelato, which I think there are 8 of, all presented on this nice sorbet container. Some of the flavors are quite interesting and in general, pretty good.

No celebrities today, how disappointing . . . . . .