Today, littlestar and I met up with a friend of hers at Cavaillon in San Diego. Cavaillon is quite new, about six months old at this point, and apparently just starting to gain some real notice. As it happens, littlestar's friend's friend is also the second chef there.
Cavaillon is in a part of San Diego I hadn't ventured to before, just off Camino Del Sur, North of 56 and between 5 and 15.
Unable to decide on any of the specific dishes, we decided to go with a "taster" option -- a five course meal that would give us a sampler of what Cavaillon had to offer. In order, and with some gaps in nomenclature because we didn't take notes, we had:
Foie gras, an apricot concoction and toast -- Except it wasn't called toast. The foie gras was presse, meaning it was squeezed in a cloth to yield something sausage-like, then sliced. We each received a slice, along with a serving of a sort of apricot-butter concoction and toast. All in all, a good starter.
Sea bass with tomato jus -- As it says. Both were quite good; this felt as if it were perhaps the most straightforward of the dishes we received. Quite nice.
Scallops over lentil salad with apple on top -- This worked especially well together, I thought. I enjoyed the taste of the scallops combined with the quite different taste of the "lentil salad" -- which was more like an intermediate between lentil soup and a salad, formed into a square base for the scallops.
Rack of lamb, panisse, asparagus -- The rack of lamb was crusted with bread crumbs and parsley, and quite tender and tasty (we had ours medium rare). The asparagus was flavorful and had a good texture as well. The panisse was new to all of us, and the chef later explained that it's a combination of chickpea flour, cream and milk, all fried (sort of like a polenta). Really, it felt like some curious sort of fried cream cheese to me -- very, very good.
Desserts -- chocolate thing with raspberry sorbet, strawberry soup with strawberries, raspberries and basil parfait, lemon yogurt with apricot jam -- The "chocolate thing" was in a thin, thin pastry crust with molten chocolate inside and raspberry sorbet on the side. I presume the lightness of the sorbet balances the heaviness of the chocolate. The strawberry soup with basil parfait was delightful, and littlestar and her friend both loved the basil parfait (I kind of lost its flavor in my love of the strawberries). Finally, the lemon yogurt with apricot jam had some pastry crust on the top as well, though entirely different from the chocolate item -- more like cookies than pie crust of any kind. Definitely a strong end to a good meal.
We all loved the experience, and I'd gladly recommend the taster to anyone going to Cavaillon for the first time. Note that the taster is created anew each day, so you likely won't have the same things we had. If you're especially lucky, maybe you can convince one of the two chefs to come out and explain your food to you. :)
As a final note, the chef friend very attentively noticed that it was littlestar's birthday, and wrote a happy birthday message to her on one of the dessert plates in chocolate. They also brought her a little candle.