Saturday, October 11, 2014

Moose Drool and tongue at Jole

In the beautiful Napa valley in California we wanted a meal that might go a little away from the fare we have "enjoyed" until now. This place was recommended by the people at our accomodation chatue de vie.
We were a little slow on the draw to get photos of our meals. That was a little unfortunate as they were delicious.
This restaurant works on either an a la carte basis or will serve any dish off the menu as a tasing plate. You can choose either a four or five course menu and the price is more than reasonable at either $55 or $70 respectively. See the menu here, http://www.jolerestaurant.com/Menu/Dinner/
We chose four courses and the individual dishes were hard to pick as they are quite numerous. We had Scallops first up, they were served on a bed of culiflour cous cous and cauliflour puree, the scallops were plump and tender cooked to perfection.
We both then had duck breast which was the most succulent duck breast I have had in a long while, the slices of breast were served with poached pear and parsnip puree and in a jus which was mild but uplifting.
I then had "Tongue in Cheek", a fantastic dish with perfectly cooked beef cheeks that fell apart at touch and some exceptionally well seasoned pickled beef tongue which was in its' own delicate salad. I am not usually a tongue man but this has converted me.
The Princess had pumpkin dumplings which was more like a raviolli and came with a chestnut cream sauce. They were delicious, silky smooth and showed off the pumpkin as it should have been.
In general the service here was poor.  A little unfortunate as everything else was fantastic.
And now to the Moose Drool. 
There was a good selection of boutique beers on the menu and it was the name of this one that made me do it! Not a bad beer, very malty and thick, I couldnt help thinking of that moose drooling into the bottle and that ruined it for me. I then turned to a local drop "Dales pale ale" a very nice drop which seemed a little weak after the drool but typical hoppy long palated perfection I am becoming used too in US beers.