Menu / Food Dictionary ... aigrette, sour / tart. aigrettes, sourish tart in choux pastry.



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Note added at 10 mins (2005-03-16 14:47:35 GMT)
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http://www.day-tripper.net/restaurantsfoodterms.html

without more context it\'s hard to say (not sure if egret is a standard menu item). I think it might be a dessert :)

Since I doubt anyone is eating young herons (must be a greasy bird) in mint sauce, I think this must be referring to the way the mint is placed - decoratively - on the plate, i.e. as a plume or a fantail, maybe, resembling the tail or other decorative feathery features of birdlife (what colour's its ploomage?), maybe even the Prince of Wales' feathers (not used, to the best of my knowledge, for tickling Camilla).

Defined in this sense in most dictionaries I should think.

It might be as simple as a group of mint leaves picked from the tips of the plants and stuck like miniature trees into the pike pâté.

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Note added at 14 mins (2005-03-16 14:51:38 GMT)
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\"tuft of feathers\" is used in the Webster\'s definition of \"egret\". \"Tuft(s) of summer mint\"???

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Note added at 25 mins (2005-03-16 15:02:33 GMT)
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Then again:

Synonymes : oseille, oseille des prés, Oseille commune, AIGRETTE, surelle, surette, patience, patience acide, Osille (XIIIe), vinette (ancien français) ; …
anglais : Sorrel, Dock, sour Dock, common Sorrel, garden Sorrel, acid Sorrel, cigretto, field sorrel, kemekulagi, Bread-and-cheese, Brown sugar, Cock sorrel, Cuckoo\'s mest, Cuckoo\'s sorrel, Cuckoo\'s sorrow, Dock seed, Donkey\'s oats, Gipsy\'s baccy, Green sauce, Green snob,Green sorrel, Lammie sourocks, Lonondon green suce, Redshank, Sallet, Soldiers, Soorik, Sor saps, Sor sog, Sorrow, Sour dock, Sour docken, Sour grab, Sour grass, Sour leaves, Sour sab, Sour salves, Sour sauce, Sour sodge, Sour sops, Sour suds, Sourlick, Sourock, Sow-sorrel, Tom Thumb\'s thousand fingers, spinach dock
[http://toildepices.free.fr/fr/plantes/angio_dic/polygonacee/...]

Menu à 32 euros: * * * * Salade mozzarella, Porc aux légumes chinois et pommes William,
SAUCE AIGRETTE (CARAMEL SUISSE), Glacé de pana cotta aux fraises ...
mcover50.chez.tiscali.fr/over50/sorti704.htm

As with many food names, a) it\'s hard to know and b) it depends which university the chef went to. No sour grapes, but I suspect the jury will be out for a long time on this one. Hope no one gets bitter about it.


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Note added at 30 mins (2005-03-16 15:07:29 GMT)
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Note: The excellent restaurant in the village here does desserts (particularly) with fancy names that refer indirectly to the shape of the dessert. So the \"Dessert au Mozart\" is white and dark chocolate shells in the shape of violin containing praliné, and the \"St Jacques et ses perles\" involves finding the sugar pearls in a white and dark chocolate scallop shell containing praliné.

Maybe your chef is an ornithologist who decorates his meals with bird shapes!



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Note added at 10 hrs 20 mins (2005-03-17 00:56:59 GMT)
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Cf. your \"en éventail\" question.

choux pastry deep fried - a sort of fritter; usually flavoured with cheese