Cyrus - the big meal with crappy pics.

Our first meal of the trip was at Cyrus, a celebrated restaurant in Healdsburg.

I was freaking out because our reservations were at 9pm (only time/day available the entire weekend when I booked them at OpenTable) and because we were at the airport 40 minutes before the fight, we missed our plane (even though we had boarding passes and stuff printed out - United wouldn't check us in). If we didn't make the reservation, we'd be charged a $100 penalty.

Fortunately, we caught the next flight which got in an hour later, giving us a 2 hr window to make the 1.5 hr drive from SFO. And because we started the drive at 7pm, we missed most of the Friday afternoon traffic. We ended up arriving a little early (thanks to my speed demon ways).

The interior was very pretty.

There's only tasting menus at Cyrus - a 5 or 8 course menu either meaty or vegetarian. We did the 8 course as this was our big fancy meal. lol

The dim light created a lovely romantic ambiance, but made for craptastic pictures.

First up, a tower of canapes.

Let's see - this one was a guava gelee and some sort of marshmellow.

These were some sort of shrimp balls.

This was a housemade pretzel with homemade mustard, and a quivering gelee of beer with liquid type beer bursting from the center.

I preferred the bread basket. We got to choose from an assortment of carbs - I choose a hearty rosemary wheat roll and a cheddar bacon biscuit. Accompanying the bread fest were adorable pots containing harvest sea salt and Hawaiian red salt, cow's milk butter, and goat's milk butter.

My cocktail - the straw-buca which consisted of sambuca, Michter’s rye whiskey, muddled strawberries and mint, lemon juice, tonic. I forgot that I'm not a fan of sambuca. It was still tasty though.

First up: Amuse bouche of things I don't remember. At any rate, it was delightfully light, clean, and freshing - perfect way to begin.

1st course: Soft Prawn Sashimi with Lemon Cucumbers and Melon. This was really, really good.

We were instructed to pick up this bad boy and go to town. The prawn head was a tasty crunchy treat with the right amount of saltiness. Chewing on the remainder of the exoskelton and some of the tentacles reminded me of my meal of bugs at Typhoon with weezermonkey.

2nd: Foie Gras “Torchon” with Tamarind and a Date Gelee and warm housemade naan kept snug in a blanket. Perfect dish here.

3rd: Soft Shell Crab with Sweet Corn, Sauce Billi-Bi (a creamy of mussels soup).

Another fried dish - can't go wrong with fried. Kind of strange having them back to back though. The inside of the crab was so tender and the corn puree was delicious.

4th: I got the Poussin (sorry Pete! I'm a savage) with Artichokes, Peppers and Ham, Sherry Jus.

Beautifully presented and beautiful in my mouth.

Mr. Insom got the Ricotta Stuffed Squash Blosson with Haricots Verts Tomato Vinaigrette. He liked it - I didn't try it because I was too busy rolling around in estacy with my dish.

6th: I got Wagyu Beef with Bamboo and Shiso, Oxtail Umeshu Consommé.
Another winner. I really shouldn't write this blog during lunch time. My stomach is growling something fierce.

Mr. Insom got Lamb Roulade with Ramps, Fava Beans and Black Olive. That roulade was masterfully done with a flawless execution.

7th: Artisanal and Farmhouse Cheeses Presented Tableside. The cheeses came on a magical cart, with nuts and fig bread. Oh so good. The cheese cart is my new icecream truck. All it needs is some sort of French-style accordian jingle on loop ad nauseum.

8th: Cherry and Pistachio Ice Cream Sandwiches, Cardamom Streusel
I have a faint recollection of this being good. Also of it being really difficult to get the pistachios on my spoon.

9th: I got the Strawberry Rhubarb Bread Pudding, with a hearty dollop of some sort of foam that I can't remember (can you call foam hearty? lol)

Mr. Insom got the Chocolate Cake and Watermelon. He got annoyed when I inadvertently pushed his watermelon ice off the curved spoon and chased it around the plate with my spoon until it melted. (I neglected to take pictures of the glasses of wine I had drunk... lol)

Our final treat was the candy cart, or if you want to be fancy, mignardese.

We got clementine and ginger lollipops and some assorted chocolate truffles and caramels to put into boxes.

And at the end of the meal, we were given a personalized menu of our meal. How neat! (and handy for blogging! lol) All in all, a great meal - extremely satisfying and probably one of the best I've ever had. It was a great way to begin our weekend.