The Ten Bells

Damn, I've been so delinquent with posts.  Blame it on my new toy - PS3.  Apparently, I enjoy slaying dragons and building magi more so than writing.  Who knew?

We went to The Ten Bells one Saturday afternoon to partake in tapas and wine.  There were a lot of yummy sounding things on the chalkboard menu, good thing J-me was there to retraint me from over-ordering.  (side note, restaurants - if you are going to use chalkboard menus, PLEASE use legible and large handwriting.  It's such a pain in the ass to try to decipher chicken scratches in dim mood lighting.)

We started with roasted peppers and eggplant, which was actually a mistake due to my chalkboard dyslexia.  It was fine - lots of olive oil, salt.  Yeah, that's all I have to say about that.

roasted peppers and eggplant

We like meat.  Yes, meat in tube shape is good.  Tube shaped meat sliced into pieces and then cooked so it's a bit charred around the edges is better.  Go chorizo, you keep glistening.

shiny meat

My favorite dish was the brandade.  The Ten Bells version was whipped to almost a fluffy mashed potato consistency.  It was liberally salted and baked to a crusty top.  I wish it was slightly less oily though.  But no matter, the crusty bread soaked up the oil nicely.

brandade

Crab puff pastry sounded like a good idea, but no, it really wasn't.  It tasted like it was made the day before.  The stale puff pastry was not the worse part.  The crappy crab was.  It tasted out of a can and fishy.  Sad.

bleh

We also consumed some very phallic veggies, in the form of white asparagus.  I don't think I've ever had white asparagus now that I think about it.  It was cooked to mush and dressed with vinegar and topped with a vinegary relish.  I didn't love it but didn't not like it either.  I was ambivalent.  Since I have nothing to compare this dish to, I didn't know if white asparagus is supposed to be so mushy.

albino asparagus

We finished off our meal with a chunk of raw goat cheese.  It was mild and lovely.  Perfect with the nut bread that came along with the cheese.

cheeeeeese

We also had a few different wines (a great minerally reisling, a mild rioja, and a dry sherry).  I enjoyed the wines more so than the food, which was less than impressive.  Perhaps the rest of the menu is better, but I'm not all that eager to find out.  I'll probably go back and have wine and their great oyster special.  But will stay away from that crab pastry fail.