Bordeaux: An Offal Dinner. Just Offal.

Well, maybe not "just offal." But certainly quite a bit of it!

The thing about Bordeaux that has been great is the wine. It's fantastic. And it's relatively inexpensive. Bail and I have been having an amazing time ogling menus and picking one. (Her more than me, as she is the expert.) We had done bits of research about great foodie places to try, based on the wine selection and reviews. And that's about it.

However, while out walking this afternoon, we came across a restaurant with a muscle man in the logo and a funny name...

When we got back to our hotel, we looked it up online. Turns out it has a great reputation for food. We had the concierge book us a table for 8:30pm.

It was a quiet little restaurant, with a wonderful mixture of musical influences and memorabilia scattered throughout. The owner, who was working the tables, spoke very little English. But we managed with our French knowledge quite well.

I was allowed to pick the table where we sat. And as my eyes flickered around the room, I saw this hanging on the wall in the corner...

A banjo with a skull. HOW "ME!" So, so perfect! We sat right next to it, and studied it further. I noticed that it was a six-string banjo with a "G" for one of the eyes.

And on the side of the instrument were stuck pieces of paper with writing on them. The owner told us that was his banjo, and that the words were the set list from when he played in a band. He would forget what songs they were going to play in which order. So he wrote them down and stuck them on it.

We ordered a great bottle of wine from the South of France region...

"Les champs du Coq"... It was a mixture of syrah and black grenache grapes. It was the best bottle we have had so far on this trip.

Then came the menu...

If you are a vegetarian, this is not a place you can eat. It would be very difficult. It's difficult being able to avoid pork! But besides pork, there is a lot of offal (organ meat) on the menus.

I started with a fois gras (duck liver)...

And this was the best fois gras I've ever had. It didn't taste rich. It fact, it was light. And it had ground almond pieces in it.

For dinner, I had lamb sweetbreads. Which are the pancreas.

These were cooked in a stew with carrots and mushrooms. And they had a very rich cream-based sauce. I ate about a third of it... It was so rich.

The owner was so sweet to us, we couldn't refuse dessert. Mine was a white chocolate orb with chocolate mousse inside.

Looks kind of like a Death Star, yes? The mousse was very light. And I got through a few bites before I pushed it away.

All throughout dinner, I'd been staring at this rocket ship light in the corner. Bail noticed that it contained a Virgin Mary wearing a space helmet.  Also on the ship was a little peephole, that when you looked through it, you saw the Pope.

I am thinking it was John Paul II.

Hilarious!

There were a few other things that caught my attention as well...

Such a quirky and fun place. And the meal... Beyond being delicious... It was cheaper than most of the meals we had back in Boston. Three courses. And a bottle of wine. We paid about $60 each, including the tip.

I LOVE BORDEAUX!