Dining in the dark

Last Thursday I took a small pilgrimage to rue Cler, the street where my parents and I stayed the last time I was in Paris. I don't have any reason to go anywhere near that area so it was out of my way but I met up with Jen, who has class nearby, and walked around. We visited the Ecole Militaire (France's military school since the time of Louis XV), the restaurant Aux Marmites d'Agnes where my family ate (unfortunately it was closed until dinner time so I couldn't show Agnes the picture of her with my family), and the Hotel Londres Eiffel where we stayed. What a blast from the past. I didn't remember most of the area but certain stores jogged my memory and I had crazy flashbacks to almost 8 years ago!

In front of the Ecole Milita

rue Cler - already has its Christmas lights up!

The hotel where we stayed oh so many years ago

Agnes wasn't home :( But I had to commemorate the moment anyway!

That night I had, hands down, the most unique experience of my life. It's completely impossible to do the meal justice, but I'm going to try very hard to! My friend Connie turned 20 yesterday, and for her birthday she wanted very badly to try a restaurant called Dans le Noir ("In the Dark"). The concept of the restaurant, which started in Paris and has been copied around the world, is that you eat completely in the dark. COMPLETELY. The wait staff are all blind, so they teach you how to navigate the room and are the only people really qualified in the slightest to be serving food in the pitch black! They have only one seating for brunch, lunch and dinner, so we made our reservation early. We arrived and were told to put all of our belongings in a locker and wait in the bar area with the other guests (lighted room). A host came around and took our "orders," except by order, he meant whether we wanted 2, 3 or the full 5 course meal. You don't get to choose your food. You don't get to know what your food is! We decided to go for the entree, main course and dessert. After ordering, the six of us lined up in front of a black curtain, where we were greeted by our server Sarah. She instructed us to put a hand on the shoulder of the girl in front of us, took the leader by the hand and led us into the darkness! I'm not exaggerating when I say it's the blackest black I have ever experienced. There was absolutely no difference between when my eyes were open or closed! She seated us at a table and told us she'd be back with the entree. The first few minutes was absolutely terrifying and my brain was literally having a panic attack while the rational part of me was trying to calm it down. One of the girls started crying! But we all realized that it was going to be like this for 2 hours so we had to get used to it :) There were no concessions made in terms of drinks - if we wanted water, we were given a carafe and glasses and told to pour it ourselves, like usual! The trick is to put a finger in the glass to feel when you've reached the top. By the end of the meal, we were pros! Conversation was very different because we couldn't use visual cues to tell when someone was done with a thought and kept interrupting each other. Or, we couldn't tell who was talking to who. My sense of hearing was so enhanced that I had trouble focusing on the person I wanted to. Our entree was delivered, and we tentatively tried to use forks and knives. That approach was quickly abandoned in favor of our fingers, which helped us to know what it was we might be putting in our mouths... The chef had put three items on the plate with various temperatures and textures, so with each bite we would comment and try to guess what we were eating. It turns out we had a roasted fig stuffed with goat cheese and honey, salmon and cucumber rolled in zucchini like a sushi roll, and a "vol au vent" - a puff pastry shell with sauteed shallots on top. The main dish ("plat") was a whole other adventure! We quickly determined it was fish, from the smell and the taste/texture, but debate raged over the type. There was something we thought was mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms were a given, there was a crusted potato thing and mussels or oysters of some kind. It turns out we had salmon with saffron-oyster sauce, pureed zucchini with coriander and lime and mushrooms in a meat sauce. Dessert was much easier to identify: pear sorbet, lemon tart, meringue cookie and a crumble of some kind. Turns out it was squash! By the end of the meal, I had gotten much more comfortable with the situation but it was still uncomfortable. I feel like throughout the night, although we had been laughing and talking, our brains were quietly freaking out! We did have some good times picking our noses in unison and other very mature behaviors, because we were completely hidden - except for the infrared camera that was watching the room! The poor guy who had to watch that all night definitely got a show... We didn't discover what we had eaten until after we had been led, squinting and rubbing our eyes, back into the bar. There was a book prepared with photos and descriptions of the food, but our host quizzed us first to see how close we were. The debate raged, and we still didn't believe him on some of the dishes. Squash?? Really?? All in all, it was an experience I'm very glad to have had but I don't think I need to repeat. Although the food was very good, it wasn't spectacular (and NOT cheap). However, it did spark some philosophical conversation about what it would be like to be blind. I would highly recommend it if you have the opportunity - I think there's one in San Francisco and LA - but it's probably a good idea to have a glass of wine before and during the meal to keep the panic attacks to a minimum :)

Me, Maddie, Connie, Emily, Kristen and Tenny

Birthday girl!