Restaurant Porn: Return to Langdon Hall Spring 2015

Foodies and Winos,

Last weekend, board member Jay Shampur and our friends Michael Wright and Linda Sinozic ventured back out to Langdon Hall and Cambridge for a n extravagant tasting menu dinner accompanied by some of the finest wine from our individual personal collections and the exquisite wine list. Our personal thanks to Chef Jason Bangerter and his kitchen staff and sommelier Brie Dema and Allison who assisted her most of the night as well as the rest of the floor staff.

The tasting menu has changed for the Spring season since last we visited in November 2014. Our first courses were a pair of Amuse Bouches that were created for us knowing of our impending arrival as the chef is considering placing them on the menu and wanted our thoughts.

First up was a Halibut ceviche sitting on a Fleur de Sel gelee. Instead of mixing the salt in with the lemon and lime juice and chili peppers for the dressing, chef Jason instead put it into a gelee on which the ceviche sits requiring you to take up both fish and gelee with your spoon to get the full flavors and a nice texture.

Next up was a butter poached asaparagus stalk with a side of squid ink aioli and topped with edible greenhouse flowers they grow themselves and a touch of sturgeon caviar. This was beautiful and the one we recommended go onto the menu.

Up next was an upscale version of potato salad – a salad of cubed new potatoes, cured salmon, compressed watermelon and foraged greens dressed with mint, mustard seed, mustard seed oil and fennel.

We then moved into the hot portion of the menu starting with a Custard Forestière which is a foraged mushroom custard topped with Consommé en Gelée decorated with a freshly made Fingerling Potato chip. All of this was decoratively served inside of a cracked brown egg shell as the serving dish.

Next was some poached snow crab leg sitting on a cured Foie Gras torchon decorated with pickled grapes and seasoned with Sumac they grown themselves. Torchon can be made with either Cognac or Sauternes, and chef Jason chose to make his with Sauternes. This was a superb dish with melt in your mouth texture and flavors. During a conversation with the chef, I correctly pegged this as the favorite dish of the staff.

Next up was some milk-fed braised piglet pork belly with watercress puree, pickled mustard seed and a Calvados and jus emulsion. The pork belly had an almost jelly-like texture and very soft pink color, quite different if you’re used to having the usual crunchy fried pork belly from Cantonese or Szechuan restaurants.

We then went back to cold dishes as an intermezzo with a very fresh Scallop ceviche with compressed apple dressed with passion fruit and germanium oil sitting on top of cold-expelled coconut milk oil. To get the latter, chef Jason boils some coconut milk and then flash-freezes it immediately afterwards. The shock causes the fat to quickly separate out of the milk which they then scrape off and use for the dish, leaving them frozen coconut milk to use for another time.

Next up was a familiar dish that was kept on the menu by popular customer demand – the Mushroom Truffle “Cappucino.” This was a truffled mushroom soup topped with powdered mushrooms and served with parmesan shortbread on the side. I cheekily complained that my cappucino cup somehow seemed smaller than those of the other 3 guests at my table which unfortunately did not garner me more of the delicious soup. You may recall that I procured the recipe which was generously shared with me by chef Jason and I managed to recreate this delicacy perfectly for my own tasting menu. During a conversation with the chef, I correctly pegged this as the favorite dish of customers leaving me two for two on the guesses.

Our final course which I failed to take a proper picture of was a very tender duck breast fillet with cranberry coulis, clementine slices, pine nuts, and fresh young juniper berries. I could see how all the different fruit flavors complemented the tender young duck but was surprised at how well the tangy and crunchy pine nuts worked with it as well.

With the main courses out of the way, it was time to move to dessert… or make that desserts. Both Splendido and Langdon Hall has a tradition of finishing their tasting menus with two desserts and I’m seriously considering adopting that tradition for my own entertaining. It just adds a nice little fun element to what are otherwise very formal meals.

First dessert was a pineapple and winter spice sorbet. The cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice sound like they shouldn’t work with pineapple, but apples are just as tart and sweet and fleshy and they work well together so it makes perfect – and tasty – sense. These were served with compressed mangos and red chili coulis on the side.

Second dessert was a cool little deconstructed take on a cake pop – crumbled “red velvet” cake that was actually made with fresh sweet beetroot as opposed to artificial food coloring to get the color served in a chocolate shell and decorated with buttercream icing dollops inside the shell with the crumbled cake.

For our wines, Michael Wright graciously chose to order a Champagne off of the menu as opposed to bringing his own bottle and wowed us by getting a 1998 Krug. He actually was going to order an MV Grand Cuvée but Brie informed him that unfortunately the bottles were not chilled due to unforseen circumstances and she would not insult our refined sensibilities by serving such a fine sparkler at the wrong temperature.

On the one hand, this was extremely impressive service as any other place would’ve happily taken the money and ran. On the other, kind of does make me want to cry. The 1998 Krug is no slouch, however, being pretty much a perfect Champagne. I don’t think I have ever used crystalline to describe a wine before this and probably never will after this unless I get to try that MV Grand Cuvée, but that’s exactly what this Champagne was – crystalline in its purity and balance.

Fruit, acidity, body, mousse, brioche seasoning in perfect balance. Yes, the yeasty brioche flavors were a seasoning in the wine, not a main player. This is the first time I’ve experienced that in a Champagne. The closest I’ve ever come to this was oddly a 2006 13th Street Blanc de Noirs but that was almost a cheat as there were no brioche flavors at all (which is why I so immensely enjoyed it) and here there were but used so well. I literally will have trouble drinking any other sparkling wine after this one which is unfortunate given that I have a case full of varied ones in my collection. Amazing Champagne, needless to say. Is all Krug this good?

Our second and third wines courtesy of Jay were a 1993 Kailin Cellars Cuvée LD Sonoma County Chardonnay and a 2010 Henri Boillot Meursault. Let me tell you, the 92.3 score for the Kailin in CellarTracker is shameful… because it’s far, far too low for this amazing wine.

Look at the color in the pictures, does the Kailin wine on the left look like it’s 22 years old? An absolutely beautiful Chardonnay with dry butterscotch, marzipan and nut flavors complementing some dried apple fruit all in a very rich body with oily mouthfeel and texture. Just enough acidity has survived to keep it from being cloying. It’s like a Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc kicked up 100 notches. Matched every single dish from beginning to end perfectly. I can see why Michael Grammer loves their Sauvignon Blanc, which I have also had and mistook for an aged Riesling due to its very high quality.

Unfortunately for the Meursault, it spent the rest of the evening living in the shadow of the Kailin but to be fair to it, it would’ve been a WOTN otherwise. A delicious young Meursault with leesy green apple flavors and aromas. An extremely vibrant wine. Really unfair to it to sit next to the aged Kailin but them’s the breaks. I’ve had my own Judgement of Paris and California wins this evening. Now, it would’ve been interesting to try a similarly aged Henri Boillot against the Kailin for sure.

The last wine of the evening was my own contribution, which I have literally been saving since 2011 ever since I acquired it for the right occasion to enjoy and this was it – the Chateau de Beaulon Collection Privée 1982 Pineau des Charentes. This Pineau is made from Cognac brandy fortified Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grape juice when is then cask aged for 20 years and further bottle aged before release.

I admit I had a great fear of this being corked but fortunately no such issues getting in the way of this luscious fortified wine. Assertive oak and Cognac aromas and flavors awaken the palate to give way to smooth yet very intense fruit, rancio, cinnamon, clove, ginger and vanilla flavors. Tremendously complex dessert wine but in fairness with surprisingly heavy Cognac and oak flavors as well.

There is absolutely no mistaking that unique tell-tale aroma and flavor from the Cognac. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how much you like Cognac and Port wine already. The brandy flavor is a lot stronger, perhaps even intrusive if you are used to Port, but it is also a lot fresher and spicier and actually contributes something to the wine. We all know that up until recently the brandy used for fortifying Port in Portugal wasn’t the best quality but the Pineau certainly makes the difference stand out. I’m hard pressed to say that the aguardiente used in Port wine contributes that much in comparison.

Since we barely finished a third of the bottle between the four of us, I offered to leave the remainder for Brie and chef Jason for the kitchen and waitstaff to enjoy during their traditional end of night wrapup. They actually offered twice to seal it up for me and let me take it home and, honestly, the second time they asked I almost took Brie up on it. Really wish I’d purchased more than one bottle at the time.

The only thing stopping me is that I have bottles of 10 and 15 year old Pineau, 5 year old Pommeau and 7 year old Ratafia still waiting for me to crack open in my collection so it’s not like I was being magnanimous to them.

Once again, another exquisite meal at the prestigious Langdon Hall. As a bonus, with the warm weather and the grass and flowers blooming I got to take a little walk on the beautiful grounds between courses. Chef Jason invited us back to the Hall’s BBQ night series. I am seriously tempted to throw my hat in on that one and smoke some ribs for them in a cookoff. We’ll see.

Even more daunting, however, is that during the course of the conversation with Chef Jason, Jay actually invited him to one of my own tasting menu dinners which now places serious pressure on me to perform up to par with the chef! I will of course have to co-opt him as my sous-chef should this happen.

Once again, a tremendous thank you to Chef Jason, Brie, Allison and all the staff involved in this spectacular evening of fine food and great company. Thanks to Jay and Michael for the wine contribs as well.

Pretty damn nice sounding meal Tran!!

Well done on this comprehensive report, Tran, and sorry I couldn’t join you guys (though it would have been torture for Chef Jason since he would have had to substitute half the menu for me).

Yes, I do recall having a small sip of the mushroom cappuccino

Ahh, Kalin. Love it so. Just wish we had better access to these treasures. Boillot always now a favourite producer for me, especially of Meursault. A recent 2008 did not disappoint.

Good Krug is very, very good.

Chateau Beaulon, the wine sounds quite interesting. I’ll hopefully be around if you crack a different one open in the future.

Again, good job with the pics and all the excellent description of everything.

Haere Ra,

Mike

Any chance you can share the Mushroom Truffle Cappucino? Would love to try it…

Alain