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We were happy to take a recommendation from the good people who serve the restaurant at the Clifton Inn—its menu, after all, is almost overwhelming in its wonderfulness. This is how we came to a single order of foie gras and duck confit agnolotti served in brown butter jus and dusted with cracklins. A lovely Sauternes (Chateau D’Arche ’03) was also recommended, a pairing that, it will later be said, defines perfection. Rich, glazed, dressed but not "saucy," the two inspired crowns of al dente pasta (agnolotti we are told, means "priest’s hat," which accounts for the folded shape of the pasta) balanced the soft, slightly piecey filling. If foie gras could be said to be swaddled, it would be in this dish. A waiter brought bread to the table and suggested that we don’t want to bypass the jus. And indeed, the final expression of the fowls’ forward flavors (woodland in tone), the jus rewarded some sopping up.
