Day 9 Menton and our dining experience at Mirazur

This entry is solely based on our experience in Mauro Colagreco's two star Michelin rated restaurant Mirazur in Menton, France.  I will warn you now that if you're not into food you won't enjoy this post, but if you are, I hope you enjoy it and the pictures.  We tried to capture everything so that we can remember this wonderful and fun eating experience.    
  Menton is another beautiful Riviera town situated on the French and Italian border.  Visiting Menton and eating here was on our wish list of things to do while staying in this area and we're thrilled it actually happened.  The restaurant itself as you can see from the pictures sits above the town with spectacular views.  The chef has his own gardens on the property and his philosophy is to use what he grows along with what's currently available in the market to create his menu, a theme that's not uncommon now in the U.S.  We don't get to eat food like this EVER.  It's fancy, elaborate, over-the-top and clearly expensive so our wallets do not typically allow such indulgences.  However, since this is our honeymoon we wanted to do something really special, so we decided to do lunch there when it would be daytime and we could fully appreciate the views.  The service at Mirazur is formal but extremely friendly and the atmosphere is actually more casual than you might think.  I know this whole thing may seem pretentious but many of you know how much we love food and wine.  We just enjoy seeing what people can do with food and we like eating it even more.  So to continue, the menu is such that you can choose based on the number of courses you wish to do.  You don't choose what you're going to eat, but you can tell them if there are certain foods you don't or can't eat.  We chose the six course Degustation option and told them we'd eat anything.  We're not entirely sure what they count as a course.  It appeared to us that we had 8 courses, but apparently some of the courses must not have counted as an actual course.  So, let's begin...

Amuse bouche - We started with a glass of Taittinger Cuvee Prestige champagne (that was for you Jen) and a few little bites.  We honestly can't remember what was on the rock with the moss in the background (sorry I guess we're not off to a great start), but in the middle are baby radishes with some minced veggies inside and on either side of that are beet chips with little balls of white and yellow beets on goat cheese.  They were yummy little bites for sure.

First course - At that point we ordered a bottle of wine to accompany our meal.  We opted for a white that the sommelier said would be appropriate for all the courses.  It was a 2009 Rhone Valley Viognier by Domaine Belle.  Our first course was oysters with a shallot creme and seaweed foam.  Although we eat oysters,  I've never had a raw oyster that was removed from the shell for me and that tasted so perfect.

Second course - Carpacchio of Seam bream fish with begonia flowers and some kind of baby peach. A++

Third course - Heirloom tomatoes, mango sorbet, mint leaves, cucumber, tomato gelee, tomato water.  No joke, the tomato gelee and the tomato water actually tasted like a real tomato, in fact it was the essence of tomato.

Fourth course - Mussels, fennel, summer squash, dill, saffron sauce and coriander emulsion.  I wanted to lick the saffron sauce off the plate.

Fifth course - Fillet of John Dory fish, stew of chickpeas and red pepper broth.  The fish was perfect in taste and texture, and the chickpeas were a surprising but welcomed addition.

Sixth course - Pork belly with plum sauce and lavender emulsion.  I'm drooling just typing that.  OMG that was some amazing pig.  Single best pork product I've ever eaten.

Seventh course - They called this "pre dessert", which was carpacchio of fig with anise sorbet.  I can't really describe the flavor combination, but the figs were really fresh and delicious.

Eighth course - Dessert was goat cheese tower with goat milk mousse underneath, cucumber sorbet, meringue of verbena.  I'm honestly not a huge sorbet person.  It's good, but I'm more of an ice cream girl.  The goat milk mousse was great but the cucumber sorbet was surprisingly incredible.

Espresso:  Just thought this was a cool picture.  In France they actually drink their coffee after dessert and not with dessert

Espresso accompaniments: Chocolate raspberry truffles and dark chocolate truffles.  I love chocolate, hence I loved these truffles.

Espresso accompaniments:  Erin, these little treats were absolutely heavenly.  Lemon macarons and something that I can only describe as having a caramelized outside and a doughy, almost french cruller-like inside.  We can't figure out what it is and we should have asked because it really was amazing.  Oh well.

Something not pictured was the bread.  I know, shame on us.  At the beginning they brought us something called "sharing bread" which were little pull-apart rolls along with olive oil.  Of course, I'm sure you know by now this was no ordinary olive oil.  It was lemon and ginger infused olive oil.  I'll be honest, at first I thought it sounded like a weird combination, but after eating it, I would bathe in the stuff.  They poured such a generous amount of it onto a plate that I thought we would never eat it all, but there wasn't one drop left.  They served different types of breads, rolls and baguettes throughout the meal and we dipped it all in that oil.  So good.  It was a terrific meal from start to finish and something we will remember forever.

Blog post courtesy of Allison Boisvert
Pictures courtesy of Mike Boisvert