For David’s birthday, we made reservations at Charlie Trotter’s. We’ve already been to Alenia, and we will be heading to Tru for his Christmas gift of 2008.

This time, we decided to do different menus to experience two separate dinners. Dave went with the Grand menu, and I decided to go with the vegetable based one. It isn’t vegeterian, some things are made with beef stock, but it can easily be made vegeterian. I also went with the ‘Beverage Accompaniment’, while Dave went with the wine pairing.

Each course had eight dishes, but they were very different. I’ll write about mine and Dave can share his.

Pickled Baby Radishes with Chive

In this dish, the radishes were sliced up fairly thin. They were also pickled which gave them a bit of a soury-vinegar taste, which I liked. This was a very simple dish.

Michigan Heirloom Tomatoes with Fava Beans, Okra, and Chervil

In addition to having small tomatoes on the plate, this also had a think sauce made from tomatoes. There were fava beans scattered around the plate.

Globe Artichoke Soup with Spearmint and Spun Honey

This was my favorite of all of the dishes. It came in a bowl that was empty except for the spun honey, which sort of looked like a marshmallow. They then poured the artichoke soup into the bowl. I had thought the spearment was a part of the soup, but if it was it was a small part of the soup. There were small spearmint leaves sprinkled around in the bowl.

The soup was very creamy and tasted surprisinly good, considering that I didn’t think pureed artichokes would be tasty. It was the best when you got a bit of soup, spun honey, and a spearmint leaf on your spoon.

Adirondack Blue Potato with Fingerling Potato Blini, Mustard Seed, and Queen Anne’s Lace

The blue potatoes were mashed and spread out on the plate - I was not sure what it was at first, it was just this blueish-purple blob on the plate. I really enjoyed the blue potatoes. The potato blinis were very good, as well. They were small - about the size of a silver dollar. I did not care for the mustard seeds inside of them, though. There were also small potatoes scattered around the plate, which were a bit more firm than I was expecting, but still good.

Grey Morel Mushrooms with Miso, Toasted Koji, and Shiso

I can say now that I’ve had morel mushrooms, and really, I do not care for them. To start with, they are NOT good looking at all. If you don’t know what they look like, you should do a google search for them right now. Got it? Yeah, ick. BUT, I was willing to try them. Second strike: squishy. That is such a turn off for me. I hate foods that squish in my mouth. Still, though, tried them with the different sauces, cut them up into pieces, and ended up eating a whole one. I couldn’t face the others that were on the plate, so I let David eat them. Way to take one for the team, honey.

Jasmine Granite with Apricots and Tahitian Vanilla

Ahh, the part that I was most looking forward to, dessert. (That’s the reason I’m so excited for Tru - Gale Gand does the desserts there!) This was a very simple looking dessert: an cooked apricot in the bottom of the bowl with a scoop of the granite on top of it. Granite is shaved ice - it was like a fancy snow-cone. The granite tasted exactly what like jasmine smells like. It was wonderful.

Stewed Rhubarb with White Chocolate Yogurt and Coriander Shortbread

This was very good.  The rhubarb was cooked down into a sauce, with the shortbread on top of it, and covered with a scoop of the yogurt.  Awesome.

Mild Chocolate Semifredo with Carrot, Star Anise, and Red Wine

This looked like a scoop of chocolate ice cream in a carrot soup.  I thought that the carrot flavor would mingle nicely with the chocolate, but instead it was VERY carrot tasting.  While I enjoy carrots, I do not like them as a dessert.