🚀 go-pugleaf

A friend and I had the interesting experience of having dinner at Tulipe
a week ago, and reading a review of it in the Times Sunday magazine the  
next morning. The MOST interesting thing about it was that we and the 
reviewer (I think it was Charles Perry) had managed to order completely 
different dishes, so even if you saw the review, keep reading...

We were seated by the window, which was rather nice.  In his review,
Perry talked a lot about how weird he felt the restaurant's space
arrangement was, and how he had the sense that the diagonal open kitchen 
was "pushing" him out on to the sidewalk.  He should have asked to be 
seated by the window on Melrose, which is almost a cozy little nook
(a lacy "hedge" of tiny flowers planted just outside the window
blocks the direct sun), and where one is somewhat distant from the
kitchen and its accompanying noise (and from the free-standing
sculptures which I liked but Perry seemed to find so oppressive :-)).

The waiter took our drink orders and made his only mistake of the evening.
I asked if they had any Zinfandel by the glass, and he recommended one
and brought me a glass--and it turned out to be white Zin.  (Why do
waiters always seem to think women want to drink pink wine?)  Normally 
I'd have sent it back, but since it had been a hot day, I was glad 
to drink something cool.  

I started the evening with a bowl of chilled melon soup.  This was
a very cold, frothy puree of honeydew melon and cantaloupe, 
dotted with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  It was
sweet and refreshing, perfect for the weather, but not very unusual.
My friend had the eggplant-walnut ravioli, which were INCREDIBLE.
Each perfect half-moon of pasta was stuffed with a marvelous eggplant
and walnut puree, with a touch of tomato paste.  The accompanying light 
sauce was bright green (parsley or spinach?), very delicately flavored.

I chose the salmon entree, which came in a parsley coulis, somewhat
darker green than the pasta sauce and more strongly flavored.  It was
delicious--in fact, I think I enjoyed the coulis almost more than the
salmon, though the salmon itself was terrific.  It was accompanied by
a little pile of sauteed eggplant, peppers and onions.  Robert had one of
the specials, the grilled dorade (a nice white fish) in blackberry port
wine sauce, which was as good as it sounds.  They serve a beautiful plate
of colorful steamed vegetables on the side with each pair of entrees.

The only other time I've been to this restaurant was just
for a sort of dessert-fest, and their desserts are GREAT.  
(Even the steamed blueberry pudding, which they choose to present
as though it's health food or something.)  We chose to split the
dessert on the menu because it sounded super-chocolaty.  I think
it was called a chocolate-pear feuillete, or something like that 
(it's bad to wait too long to write up these reviews).  It was made 
of many thin leaves of a puff-pastry-like pastry layered with a soft, 
pure chocolate paste and extremely thin slices of pear. 
It was accompanied by a scoop of their amazing, intense chocolate
sorbet, which MUST be experienced to be believed.  
(I can't believe Charles Perry didn't try this dessert, but it didn't
show up in his review.)  If you go to Tulipe, and you like chocolate,
better make sure someone in your party orders this!

Bill w/out tip:  $73.  The entrees are all under $20, and many are
under $15.  The appetizers are in the $6-9 range, and dessert is $5.

The room is bistro-like, no carpets, and okay, the art IS kind of weird,
but at night they turn the lights down low and light the candles on the
tables, and it's reasonably romantic.  It's on Melrose near La Cienega,
so is a great start (or finish) to a Hollywood night on the town. 


Barrie Trinkle
bkt@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov
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...nothing is so fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech as the run of 
a good library.
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