gaslight brasserie du coin (boston)

My friends Antoinette, Renee, and I attended the patio party at Gaslight restaurant last night. I saw a blurb about it on the Boston Chefs website and we managed to get our names on the guest list for the party which was celebrating the opening of their patio space for the summer. It's funny because they kept emphasizing how it was limited to 50 people, but there were nearly 200 people there after the first hour and so there was a shortage of passed apps going around.


We enjoyed complimentary drinks from Svedka Vodka and Harpoon Brewery, and freshly shucked oysters from Island Creek Oysters. It was a nice way to spend a summer evening and I can see the patio area becoming a popular destination this summer.

Renee and I stayed at the restaurant for dinner and had quite a feast. She had their halibut special which was served with a corn succotash and said it was quite good. It was a pretty large piece of fish and she asked for some of it to be wrapped up to take home. Unfortunately, we didn't realize until right before we left (and after dessert) that the waiter never brought it back to our table. :(

I had the duck confit ($17.50) which was served with an orange gastrique, citrus chard salade, and roasted garlic potatoes. It was absolutely delicious! It has been a while since I've had duck and man, it was finger licking good. Of course, we couldn't let any of the freshly baked (still warm) French bread go to waste, so I sopped up everything on my plate. No shame, no shame at all. It paired really well with my glass of Gamay Beaujolais wine too ($10).

We shared the molten chocolate cake dessert ($6.95) which was served with creme Chantilly (think sweetened whipped cream). It tasted wonderful but I have to say that the presentation was kind of a flop. Literally. I mean, look at this picture. Right??

Overall, it was a nice dining experience at the restaurant and the patio party was a lot of fun. I will say though, it is quite loud inside the restaurant and it was difficult to hear our conversation even though it was just two of us and we leaned across the table toward each other. I think they could turn the music down a notch and it would be a little better. A great restaurant for a romantic date (if you can deal with the loudness), and certainly good for a group outing if you don't mind spending more on an entree. Would not recommend it for a family with small children though. Great wine selection, nice bar, and a party atmosphere.

Gaslight Brasserie du Coin
560 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
617.422.0224
http://gaslight560.com

voila!

I took another French cooking class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts called "Voila!". I was thrilled to find out that Scott would be our instructor (he was one of the instructors at the last class I took) and it was even more fun because my friend, Stephanie, took the class with me.

There were only 9 of us in this one, and we made 7 dishes: Warm Crab Tartlets; Chilled Cream of Zucchini Soup with Mussels and Fresh Mint; Seared Marinated Tuna with Black Olive Vinaigrette; Potato Puree; Duck Breasts with Coriander, Endive, and Sweet and Sour Orange Sauce; Confit of Fresh Chestnuts, Walnuts, Fennel, and Onions; and Crepes Suzette.

I took on the potato puree dish even though Scott warned us that it was labor intensive. I thought, "How can this be hard?" Aside from the usual peeling and cubing, we used a large food processor to mash six cooked potatoes with some milk and butter. Make that a cuppa butta. Then after that, we still had to thin it out a bit more with some light cream. Then Scott had me press it through a food mill to get out the larger "particles" (i.e. bits of potato skin). Yikes! I've never had creamier and smoother potatoes in my life ("as smooth as a baby's butt" as one woman put it - lol)!

Stephanie decided to tackle the zucchini soup recipe. While the potatoes were cooking, I helped her by cleaning two large bags of mussels, which included de-bearding some of them. It was kind of weird watching them close up and knowing that they were alive.

I couldn't eat any of the dishes except for my potatoes because of my food allergies, so I took my portions home in Tupperware containers for Tony to enjoy. Everything looked great though, and the kitchen smelled so good. Oh wait, I did grab some of the cooked tuna that didn't fit onto the serving platter and that was yummy.

This was Stephanie's zucchini soup right before it went into the blender ...

... and this is what zucchini soup looks like when you can't find the blender's cap.

Actually, I did try a bite of the soup with a mussel and it was de-lish!

Scott flambeed the crepes Suzette with cognac. Pretty cool.

Will definitely take another class there! So much fun and good food in the end. How can you go wrong?