duck, eggs and lamb OH MY

I am determined to attempt healthy living for the next few weeks. Obviously I cannot fully cut out delicious foods, but I look at these posts and through all the food pics on my phone and I realize that full-on gluttony is probably not sustainable - for my wallet or waistline (which has already been feeling the detrimental effects).

Anyway, before launching into a full scale fitness regimen, we thought it only apropos to indulge in one final decadent meal. So, we went back to Garces Trading Company. Our first meal there had been so amazing (full review) and we knew there were still quite a few things we wanted to try.... so off we went.

Since it was just the two of us dining this time, we knew we had to be smart about our selections. Though we wanted to order the deep dish pizza, one of the Plats du Jour and several pastas, that just seemed a tad aggressive. We ended up with a generous, but reasonable smattering of dishes: the duck confit salad, the special lasagna, and the lamb ragu.

Lyonnaise Duck Salad: duck confit + poached egg + bacon lardons + mustard vinaigrette
There is no way I would really call this a salad; it's more of a plate of awesomeness with some greens mixed in throughout. The duck confit and the poached egg were of course perfectly cooked. We salivated with anticipation as I broke the egg over the tower of duck, greens and bacon lardons and gave it all a thorough mix.

A super pleasant surprise was that there were also tiny slices of fingerling potatoes threaded throughout as well. The richness of the egg and duck were cut by the mustard vinaigrette, while the bacon lardons added a hefty saltiness that really brought everything together. If you're expecting a salad, you may be disappointed, but honestly - duck lovers will never be disappointed by this.

Pappardelle with Lamb Ragu: sunchoke puree + piave vecchio 
This pasta dish comes with a very generous portion of lamb ragu. At first bite, it was a bit game-y and we were afraid we were going to regret the decision to order this over a reprise of the gnudi we had so enjoyed the last time. However, we took the time to give this pasta dish a thorough mix as well. Tossing everything together allowed the piave cheese and the sunchoke puree, which was layered at the bottom of the plate, to coat the pappardelle and the shredded lamb meat. What this did was to add a creaminess to the entire dish, which tempered the game-iness of the lamb.

The lamb meat itself was really interesting. It had a hint of mint in it and it really worked well with the peas and the sunchoke (which is apparently like a cross between a rutabaga, potato, sunflower seed, and water chestnut, heh) puree. It's amazing how much more we liked this dish after we mixed everything together. It just goes to show - make sure you trust your chef, you know?

Lasagna: oxtail + short rib + baby spinach + ricotta
Sunday's daily special is the Lasagna and this is really the reason we had decided to have dinner at  Garces. The picture makes this look like a huge family-size portion and I'll say that while it's big, it's not enough to feed 4 people. Maybe 3 people... needless to say, we had leftovers to take home.

What I really liked about this lasagna was the baby spinach and the ricotta. The fresh baby spinach seemed to have been blanched and drained before being layered into this lasagna and the flavor was very bright. The ricotta was creamy perfection and a nice complement to the heavier chewier cheese that formed the top layer.

I felt a bit undecided about the meat. It was certainly an interesting take on traditional lasagna... and the meat was... tasty. I am pretty sure it had some lemon notes mixed in, but it still felt somewhat heavy. If I had to say, I think that maybe there was a disproportionate amount of meat in the meat layer, and possibly could have been improved by a heftier ricotta and/or spinach layer. Overall, it was a good dish, but I can't shake this feeling that it's not one that I would rave about or even recommend...

Anyway, it's Garces Trading Company, and I love it here. Plus, we went for an early bird dinner - arriving around 5pm on a Sunday and it was wonderful; we didn't wait at all! And of course, we had a lovely bottle of a Spanish white wine that was already chilled and was such a reasonable $13.99! God, I love this place.