The Cheese Cave

For my 21st birthday, my parents and brother took me to Artisanal, a French bistro which serves delicious French food and specializes in cheeses. When we arrived at the restaurant, the man who greeted us lead us to our table. We were walking to the back of the dining room (it’s a large one!), and I got worried they were going to sit us at a small two-person table. But no! They showed us this private room with a table sat for four surrounded by all of these fancy cheeses. Surprisingly enough, this was all just luck (they didn’t know it was my birthday). And so our evening commenced in the cheese cave.

Hello large urn full of cheese!

I eyed all of the cheeses, and naturally started salivating. Our waiter brought us the drink menu, and since I turned 21, I ordered my first cocktail. The cocktail was called “forbidden fruit” and had bourbon, calvados, apple purée, and Caribbean ginger beer. The drink was sweet and fruity but superb!

To start with, my brother treated us to a flight of three cheeses which came with French bread. (We ordered the one titled “sinful experience.”) Do you see a pattern in my choices? The three cheeses were: délice de bourgogne (a rich creamy cow cheese from France), robiola due latti (a silky mixture of cow and sheep cheese), and pont l’Évêque (my favorite of the three: a cow cheese from France).

It’s currently restaurant week in NYC, so all of us took the special restaurant week menu. To start, I ordered a butternut squash soup which came with blue cheese and almonds. I detest blue cheese, but I really liked it in the soup, and I was shocked to see how mild it was. The almonds added a nice crunch factor to the smooth soup. A drizzle of vinegar was the perfect finisher.

For my main course, I ordered pork belly which came with mustard spaetzle and some vegetables. The pork belly was also quite sinful, as there was a rim of awesome fat surrounding the tender pork. To finish my scrumptious meal, I had a chocolate terrine which had a hazelnut praline in the center. It was a wonderful end to a very memorable celebration.