after dinner sneeze

t says:  For the past couple weeks, we’ve had some fabulous meals, hitting up Little Fish and Bibou on consecutive weekends.  We kept the trend going by visiting Cochon.  We visited Cochon for Mother’s day brunch and it was fabulous (as usual … so no pictures taken) – but in that instant, we knew we had to come back for dinner, soon!  So we did!  And we brought along kp and two other close friends (a and v were still MIA …) to take on the piggerific dining experience that is Cochon.

May 2013, Saturday Dinner, Party of 5.  This one won’t be a full review of every dish, as you already got the punchline from the title: YES, Cochon makes delicious food.  YES, you should go.  NO, leave your vegetarian friends at home.  Well, maybe that’s not fair – I keep on wanting to try their unlisted vegetarian item, but I keep getting sidetracked by things like this:

duck heart appetizer: I’m a sucker for a duck heart.  Is it the future cardiologist in me?  I have no idea.  But there’s something that’s so simple about a duck heart that’s wonderful.  Tablemates did try it and we agreed: it had the texture of filet mignon, a brilliant smokey flavor (a lot of the grilled items at Cochon have an intense smoky flavor to them), and a surprisingly mild duck flavor.  The accompanying sauce added a hint of sweet and that herbed slaw reset the palate nicely.  Quite a delicious appetizer!

out-of-focus shredded suckling pig: if you go to Cochon and they offer you the suckling pig as a special … you get the suckling pig.  period.  super-tender shreds of pig, accompanied by charred brussel sprouts, lentils, and a bacon broth – instant game over.  it’s a dish that could do no wrong.  now on one hand, it was so rich that after my appetizer I couldn’t finish it all at dinner …

… but on the other, I took home the leftovers and g whipped up an omelette the next morning that was absolutely to-die-for.  I show you the picture so you can see in the upper left corner the congealed fat gold that was so critical in the omelette’s success.

Now, we do have to put a disclaimer up here.  Cochon is indeed absolutely brilliant.  But in a monkey-knife-fight with Little Fish and Bibou, the other two are going to win.  Cochon is all about richness and smoke and decadence.  And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that …  But Bibou’s steak is always going to have that extra layer of refinement, and their pig’s foot and lentils will always have the extra depth.  Of course … Cochon is easier to get in to and a tad cheaper that the other two, so pick you poison wisely!