My parents were visiting a couple of weeks ago, so we went out to a fancy restaurant, as we often do on the rare occasion that they’re visiting. They still think of me as their cash-strapped son, so they treat me to dinner. I don’t complain.
This time, we went to Baumé, in Palo Alto. After it recently received a Michelin star, and hearing positive reviews from some friends who went there, I was interested in trying it.
The very simple menu. The ingredients are listed on the left side, and the right side has the very few choices available. Basically, there’s a short menu and a long menu, with and without wine pairings. We sprung for the longer, more expensive “Menu Découverte” ($168).
This fancy plate was sitting in front of me when we sat down, but they promptly took it away, without food ever having touched it. Apparently, this is called a charger plate. Seems like a big waste of a nice plate, if you ask me.
The server told us that we must not eat this. But it’s on a plate and everything! I obeyed his instructions, though. What if it had rat poison in it?
Avocado glace, cilantro, masa.
This was served on a cute little spoon. Even though I hate cilantro, this was a nice little bite to start off the meal.
They then suddenly poured water on the little coin, and it expanded into a towel. How did they do that? We were told to use it to clean our hands, if we wanted.
Olive – boquerones.
The server told us to eat them like open-faced sandwiches, which was why we needed clean hands. It was a tasty little bite with sardines and some olives.
Wasabi puffs. Thankfully, these weren’t too spicy. I could definitely taste the wasabi, but it didn’t have me tearing up or anything like that.
Carrot – cardamom, wasabi puff.
The carrot-cardamom drink the wasabi puffs came with. It had some liquid-nitrogen-frozen stuff in it. The cardamom was a bit strong, though.
The bread came with this butter and parsley tofu spread. We ended up going through a whole tub of the parsley tofu spread, but thankfully, they brought us some more.
The bun in front is lavender, which was delicious.
Caviar, radish – salt.
These were tasty little bites that went well with the bread. Without the bread, though, it might have been a tad salty. The presentation was pretty.
62° egg, vermouth espuma, artichoke puree.
The 62° egg is their signature dish. I usually don’t like runny yolks, but this one was cooked nicely, and the artichoke and prosciutto went well with the egg with their saltier flavors.
Salade D’ Été.
I don’t know what the name of the dish means, but the server said everything was edible. It certainly was a pretty dish, but I’m not sure about how everything went together. It was like I was eating a lot of individual bites of fresh vegetables, but not really anything that tied them together. There was a nifty verbena spray that the server spritzed on right before we ate, though.
Foie gras brioche cherry.
There were some special truffles there too, the server said. I really liked this dish. The foie gras didn’t have that metallic taste I feel like it usually has, and the cherry was a good complement to the richness of the foie gras. And there was brioche, too, which was warm and buttery.
Bathroom break! The sink is a green bowl.
Tomate farçie.
The inside is a branzini mousse. It was nice and creamy without being overwhelming, and the freshness of the tomato with the pesto sauce went really well together.
Sea of Cortez shrimp, peanut-Thai curry.
It tasted like Thai curry, but it was in the foam. Very interesting. There were quite a few shrimp in there, too; usually, nice places (and not-so-nice places) are quite stingy with the amount of shrimp. I liked this dish. But I’m sucker for shrimp.
Cherry sorbet, thyme snow.
A refreshing little palate cleanser before the meat courses started.
Canard abricot, balsamic.
The duck was nice and tender, and it wasn’t too gamy. I liked the apricot flavor with the duck.
Elysian Fields lamb, zucchini, saveur du maroc.
Very tender piece of lamb, with nice accompanying vegetables. I forgot what the green blob on the left was, but it was tasty and creamy.
Cheese composition.
It came on a nifty stone plate. In front was a blue cheese, and in the back was a goat cheese. A bit pungent for me, but the jam helped.
Nectarine port syrup.
They seem to like these little Chinese-ish spoons, since they served the opening avocado amuse-bouche on one. This was a nice little bite with sweetness.
Blueberry cobbler.
It was a nice little dessert of blueberry cobbler, but nothing out of the ordinary, just the ingredients kind of split up, with some sorbet in the middle.
Banana split.
I thought this dish was really cool, it was a deconstructed banana split, with freeze-dried strawberry and chocolate and some fresh banana.
Jasmine tea eclair.
My camera refused to focus on this. But it was a tasty little eclair, and that pearl popped in my mouth. I couldn’t taste the jasmine too much, but it could be because I ate this last, and I had all the sweetness from the other two desserts before it.
Macadamia mochi pineapple.
These were tasty little bites of mochi. I liked the acidity of the pineapple against the starchiness of the mochi.
Mignardises.
Chocolate marshmallows they gave us as gifts. Even the men! They’re not sexist, unlike other restaurants.
A very satisfying meal overall. But I was actually expecting more molecular gastronomy-type stuff from them, given what I had read online and what I heard from friends. Would I go again, if I had to pay for it myself? Maybe, for a special occasion. I definitely enjoyed it, but it just didn’t leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside, like some other places have. I can’t explain why.