Prune

Prune reminds me of Paris.  Small, intimate with wonderful food and a great vibe.  We have been back many times for dinner and unfortunately have never made it for brunch.  The current menu for brunch looks fantastic.

I have three girlfriends that I get together with every few months. We all went away together this past fall.  On that jaunt we planned a dinner for the four of us with our husbands.  The 8 of us had dinner at Prune last night.  We all know each other so the company was wonderful, the wine kept flowing and we had a fantastic time.  The bonus, as always, is the food was just as good as the company and wine. 

Since the wine was flowing, I took the opportunity to order a few things for both sides of the table over the course of the night so we could all try it.  We started with the fried oysters, radishes and goat cheese from the bar menu.  Delicious rich deep fried oysters in a fairly thick covering served with homemade tartar sauce.  One to a person was perfect and all that was needed.  A nice kick off.  We also had the radishes.  I often serve this myself but not exactly how Prune serves it.  Small radishes served with a whipped butter and granules of salt.  Take the knife, slather some butter on your radish and dip it into the salt.  Quite delicious.  Butter is the emphasis here.  Butter is everywhere which is one of the key things that make me feel as if I am in Paris and what enhances the taste of food.  We also had a slab of a Spanish Goat Cheese that was really rich and had three different consistencies.  There was the rind (edible) the next layer of cheese the texture was like a brie and the rest was a typical soft consistency of a Goat gouda.  Served with two pieces of brown butter, with a thick layer of butter on it and salted thin slices of red onion on the side.  Incredibly good.  After this, I could have stopped but why?

If I could, well I could but I don't, I would eat duck, liver, foie gras, cheese, pulled pork...well you get the idea, every day.  I don't.  I eat salads and pretty much watch what I eat but once in a while, I bust out.  My friend, who loves liver was nice enough to split the monkfish liver with me for an appetizer.  Wow, wow, wow.  A large piece of monkfish liver that had been seared on the outside, gooey on the inside, like foie gras served with 3 pieces of crispy toast that had probably been soaked in butter before it was toasted and then perhaps a little more butter over the top just to insure there was enough butter on the toast.  A small piece of toast with the liver was sublime.  Someone else had ordered the kale.  Black Tuscan kale chopped up and incorporated with scrambled eggs served in a bowl in a Parmesan broth.  Creative but not as good as the liver.  Other appetizers were flowing but those were the two I tried.

Dinner was next up.  Two people split the rib eye which was huge and no surprises, served with a big dollop of butter on top that was oozing over the steak when served.  Fantastic.  The lamb which is a large loin of lamb rolled and stuffed with herbs was also quite delicious.  I went with the whole Dorado grilled with a fennel oil and lots of salt and a few herbs and of course, butter, butter, butter.  The fish was delicious and fell off the bone.  We also had a few veggies on the side.  Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and baby white turnips in a small bowl, mixed and simple.  Stewed chestnuts that had been pureed and in the middle was a dollop of ricotta and sea salt on top.  Very interesting.  Never been a big fan of chestnuts but this was different.  Hands down, the best veggie was the yams.  Small baked yams that had been sliced in half and doused with a brown butter vinaigrette.  So sweet and buttery I shutter to think how many calories were in each bite.

Dessert?  Sure, we are now into how many bottles of wine.  I picked three desserts and ordered two of each.  Flourless chocolate cake served on top of a caramel sauce and tons of whipped cream on top.  How bad can that be?  Really rich.  I also ordered an interesting dish where phyllo dough had been toasted and chopped up like hay.  The hay was spread over the bottom of the plate and topped with a rich Greek type yogurt, drippings of honey and roasted whipped pumpkin.  Really good.  But for me, the best was the butter cake.  What a better way to top off a meal of butter with a big slice of butter cake.  Like a large piece of a really good cake think carrot or zucchini.  Rich and buttery with a crumbly crust served alongside was a glass of a dessert wine.  I loved it.

We closed Prune down.  I believe we were there for about 3 or more hours.  It was such a fun evening and the food at Prune is as delicious as ever.  Next time, I'm going back for brunch.