Good choices: Rillettes maison; seared foie gras with potato puree; halibut with flagelot bean salsa and spicy curry sauce; roasted duck breast with brandade of celery root; quarte-quarts au citron; gateau au chocolat.
TRUC
560 Tremont St., South End. Boston
(617) 338-8070
Restaurant reviewed 12/08/97 by Alison Arnett
White calla lilies rise from a tall floor vase at the entrance to Truc. Their slender forms are lovely and slightly exotic, seemingly emblems for this new little place in restaurant-rich South End.
Truc, named for the French colloquialism for ''that little thing,'' is sleek and chic, from the walls painted a deep teal green to the slender young women and men waiting tables and greeting customers. Chef Corinna Mozo's food is stylish, too. Described by co-owner Mozo and her partner Karen Densmore [their husbands, Victor Coehlo and Tim Winn, are also owners] as French country, the dishes, nevertheless, have a city sheen.
Truc, on a busy night, could be a symbol itself. Opened in October in the spot that was previously Azita, the restaurant buzzes with the urban social scene: two men sharing champagne and intimate conversation; the noisy group of people hashing over office politics; a young man and woman holding hands over the table. The dining room reflects the young, city-dwelling professional element that is fueling the current restaurant boom. The French cuisine shows the renewed interest in it; the previous restaurant here had been Northern Italian bent.
Mozo, previously the chef at Chez Henri, concentrates on pleasing the eye along with the palate; there's always something clever or picturesque to see on the plate. A sizable knob of foie gras is seared, giving it a slightly crisp exterior but an almost creamy texture within. The contrast is especially nice against the fluff of mashed potatoes, like thick white snow dotted with a few bright red currants. A drizzle of dark, cassis-laced sauce finishes the edges of the plate.
Ordering rillettes maison produces a mini-ceremony: The pork rillettes are presented in a deep ceramic dish on a plate with grilled toast points and a swirl of fig jam. Then the server brings pommery mustard and a little Mason jar with a flip top filled with tiny cornichon pickles. The rillettes are excellent, coarse-textured, with a delicate pork taste, and go beautifully with all the accompaniments. The dish reminds one of why classic French cooking is so seductive.
A cream soup tinted pale yellow with saffron and topped with poached mussels is very pretty but too mild, needing a kick of flavor to keep the eater interested. By far the most visually exciting appetizer, only on the menu when the fish are available, is fritture of whitebait, with the almost infinitesimal fried fish spilling out of a lovely white paper cone tied with red string. Unfortunately, one evening the beauty was in the eye - the fish were golden and greaseless but also almost tasteless. Mozo said in a phone interview that earlier in the season the larger and tastier whitebait from Maine gave the dish the deeper flavor she was seeking.
Mozo doesn't always hew to a classic line. A salade bonne femme combines a tasty celeriac remoulade with grilled quail and then finishes with a scattering of pineapple salsa. The dish looks and sounds odd, but the tastes together, especially the bright notes of the pineapple against the earthiness of the crisp celeriac, were delicious. Actually, the quail was superfluous here.
Mozo plays with tradition in larger dishes also. A thick cut of halibut, crisp skinned and creamy white and moist within, is presented over a stew of flagelot beans tossed with tomato salsa. A bed of thin haricot verts is crisscrossed beneath, and contrasting with the pale flagelots and the green beans is a deep yellow curry sauce. The sauce has a lively flavor, spicy but not hot, and a surprising finish of sweetness. The whole works together quite well, rich fish against slightly sweet sauce, the deep colors of the sauce flecked with a few black sesame seed to give the plate the look of a still life. The only jarring note was that in two tastings the flagelots were a bit too crunchy and underdone.
Monkfish is given an unusual sauce, too, one with cinnamon tones. Perhaps I shouldn't say unusual since the spice seems to be increasingly popping up in meat and fish preparations. By the second time I tasted this, I liked it, almost an aroma rather than a flavor, and intriguing against the dense fish. The star of the plate is potato gratin in a little copper saute pan. They're creamy inside with a crackly crust flecked with parsley and are swooningly delicious.
Sweetness figures in a stunning sauce with duck breast, quite fittingly matching caramelized onions with the rich, savory morsels of duck. A creamy drift of pureed celery root holds nuggets of duck confit, adding to the pleasure of the dish, a lovely blend of savory and sweet tones, smooth and crunchy textures.
The dishes hewing most closely to the traditional lack the sparkle of the innovations. Coq au vin, the chicken burnished a deep brown in its red wine sauce, is garnished with wild mushrooms and little cipollino onions. Although this dish can be one of the most comforting in the earthy end of French cuisine, here the sauce is too thick, the flavor muddy. The steak is fine with a dark sauce but the frite are too limp, just plain old french fries.
The best dessert by far is a sparkling quartre-quarts au citron, translated lemon pound cake, filled with lemon curd. The clear, tart flavors brighten the end of the meal and the little turban of cake is simply but beautifully decorated. Gateau au chocolat, a little tower of chocolate cake, is another delicious dessert, again with clear flavors and simple design. Only an attractive-looking, but heavy-textured creme brulee marred the meal's end.
There are a couple of physical caveats about the restaurant: The marble floor tiles shift uncomfortably under the tables in several spots in the room; the heating is rather uneven; and the stairs to the restrooms below are so steep that they should be labeled with danger warnings.
Those aside, Truc is a lively addition to the city's restaurant scene, appealing and usually satisfying to a diner's many senses.
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