L'Espalier: the forgotten dish

Eight glasses of wine; of course it had to happen. I'd had the vague, uneasy feeling that we'd overlooked something important, but couldn't quite remember what it was.

Despite the fact that The Boy and I racked our brains to piece together the details of our night at L'Espalier, we both forgot the third dessert.

Well, actually, it was the first dessert. But you know what I mean.

Thankfully, the always-gracious staff emailed the tasting journey menu, and we both gave a cry of happy recognition when we read:

Warm white chocolate mousse with Cabernet Franc ice wine

Of course! How could we have possibly forgotten? The mousse was a light, delicate, creamy froth in an individual ramekin. The ice wine ... oh my goodness ... sat next to it on the plate inside a narrow plastic pipette. As our waitress explained, the idea was to use the instrument to squeeze drops of wine into the dessert.

"But," she added, "most people just like to drink from it."

Which we did; it was a fabulously playful (and creatively informal) way to bring the dish together.

Oh, and the other desserts were:

Saffron braised banana, vanilla pound cake and banana sorbet
Chocolate decadence with orange blossom ice cream

Just, you know, so you completely understand what we had to go through ...