New York

I was in New York City this past weekend spending some QT with my friend, Jo. (Marshal Mike was busy playing Army, so I only saw him sporadically.) We ate at some delicious restaurants, but I didn't take a single picture! I carried my camera the whole weekend and not one picture, which means I will have to recreate our meals with words.

Friday night we had dinner at Blue Ribbon Bakery. It was really delicious. We were seated in their downstairs section (our table was just about right where the photographer stood to take this picture).

(This photo from NYMag.com)

In looking at their menu online, I think it is slightly different from the menu we saw, and I can't really remember what came with each dish. I had the Grilled Red Trout with wild mushrooms, green beans, almonds and bacon. The fish was cooked perfectly and the other components worked really well with it. Marshal Mike had the Filet Mignon with potato cake (the online menu has items that I don't think his dish had) and some delicious sauce. It was truly outstanding, and he orders filet in just about every restaurant we go to. Jo had the Red Snapper special that came with Israeli couscous and vegetables. Also delicious. 

After dinner we went across the street to Blue Ribbon Wine Bar.

I wish it was this empty when we were there! (Also from NYMag.com)

Jo and I had the most amazing cocktail called the Hummingbird (St. Germain, cava and soda) - I am looking forward to trying to recreate it. It was pretty sweet, so we considered it our dessert!

Saturday morning Jo and I went to Colicchio & Sons for brunch. We both had the ricotta and spring vegetable frittata with truffle honey and arugula because it sounded too delicious to pass up. And it sure was. I wish I had a picture of it - a gorgeous golden yellow frittata studded with green vegetables. Yum!

Saturday night we met up at the Modern at MoMA (after walking up and down the street trying to find their super-secret entrance, which isn't actually super-secret, but we had trouble finding it anyway). We sat in the bar area and decided to get a couple small plates to share. But first, the bread. In the bread basket were the most adorable mini-baguettes. A little bit bigger than your finger and oh so delicious. The perfect amount of crusty on the outside, soft and airy on the inside.

So the food. We shared an asparagus salad with arugula, almonds, goat cheese, these weird sorta fried things on top that we decided tasted a little bit like fried eggplant. I think it had some other components too, but my memory fails me. The second starter was an upside down tuna tartare with fennel, cucumber and something else. Luckily, I was able to find a picture:

(From the Amateur Gourmet blog)

The thing on top was crispy, so you had to break it like creme brulee. It was really really delicious. 

Next was Slow Poached Egg "In a Jar" with lobster, asparagus and sea urchin foam:

(Thank you again, Amateur Gourmet)

It was so creative and truly wonderful. Crunchy asparagus, perfect lobster and the egg imparted a subtle creaminess once it was broken. 

Next was grilled scallops with roasted beet jus, hazelnuts and something else I have forgotten. They were also perfect. (Can this place do no wrong?) We ended the night with a coffee caramel dome with raspberry sorbet and amaretto gelee. By this point, I don't need to tell you it was delicious. The only down side was that after we finished our savory courses, it appeared our server had ended his shift or fell into the walk-in or something. He was no where to be seen. (Some other chick brought out dessert.) It took a little wrangling to get our check, but we finally did.

All in all it was a feast of a weekend. When I got home last night I made a pretty disgusting pasta dish from Real Simple: Ravioli with grape tomatoes and wine. Sounds like it should be good. It has wine in it, how could it be bad? Well, don't waste your time with this recipe, the results will underwhelm you.