Thursday, September 23, 2010

Takashi Murakami at Versailles

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami had an art exhibit at Chateau Versailles.  Didn't initially know about it, but as luck would have it, we got to check it out, and it was great.  I read he was nervous about how it would be received being in such a historical setting, but I really liked the juxtaposition, or, the colliding of the two worlds.  Here's a few snippets from inside, and you can see a link below to an article about it.










































































































Delicacy??

The French throw around the word "delicacy" a bit too liberally, I believe.  No matter what anyone tells you, if you ever see the word "Rognon" on a menu, avoid it at all costs.  Now, this was a dish at a 100+ year old restaurant, serving classic, delicious French cuisine for the working man.  Everything else was great, the escargot, salmon, bread, wine, potatoes, chocolate mousse...but, I found out the hard way last night, and while it only took two bites, one for initial shock, and second for confirmation, it was most definitely two bits too many of the Rognon.  "Rognon" my friends, means kidney.  And, though my Rognon de Veau (Veal Kidney, a "delicacy") looked like this:
Admittedly not bad looking.  It in fact starts out as this:


And believe me, it tastes as bad, if not worse, than the second picture looks.