![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Unexpected Restaurant Week finds
Jan. 29th, 2008 07:42 amThe observant reader (who lives in NY) will have noticed I haven't mentioned Restaurant Week. I'm a bit over it, really, and just couldn't be bothered to look at the list to see if there was anywhere new I want to try, esp. since Redeye Grill no longer participates. But my boss and I always go and any chance to have a nice lunch out of the office is worth it, right?
I've been wanting to go to Esca for some time, bc it's a Batali-Bastianich, the menu looked good when I walked past after climbing, and the description by The Amateur Gourmet sounded good. It was even better than I expected. My boss asked me at the beginning of lunch, "Do you know what mackerel tastes like?" and I had to explain how little I grok fish. They had excellent choices for a RW menu, but I still ended up with a mackerel crudo to go with my mackerel with spinach and white beans entree. Actually, overlapping food was sort of a theme - the amuse boche was toast with a white bean mush. The portions are tiny - my crudo was two pieces of sushi - but the bread was delicious the service was ridiculously good. I'd consider going back not during RW.
Bc I'm just that blunt, I asked my sister about our reservation at Arabelle at the Hotel Plaza Athenee, "Why are we going there?" The food is standard American, albeit with impeccable ingredients, whereas when I go out, I want complicated preparations I won't do at home or imaginative combinations of flavors that hopefully work out. ( what we ate )
I was flipping through my newest cookbook, Spice, and realized that most of the preparations are WAY too complicated for me to consider. Bah. Fortunately, most of them seem to be on the menu at Oleana, so I'm seriously thinking about going to Boston to eat. Um. I suppose calling a mob dinner to eat there is out of the question, hm.
I'm really looking forward to tmw's lunch at Petrossian - I was surprised that they are participating in rw - and now the only question is, Is US farmed caviar worth it. This is a good sort of question.
I've been wanting to go to Esca for some time, bc it's a Batali-Bastianich, the menu looked good when I walked past after climbing, and the description by The Amateur Gourmet sounded good. It was even better than I expected. My boss asked me at the beginning of lunch, "Do you know what mackerel tastes like?" and I had to explain how little I grok fish. They had excellent choices for a RW menu, but I still ended up with a mackerel crudo to go with my mackerel with spinach and white beans entree. Actually, overlapping food was sort of a theme - the amuse boche was toast with a white bean mush. The portions are tiny - my crudo was two pieces of sushi - but the bread was delicious the service was ridiculously good. I'd consider going back not during RW.
Bc I'm just that blunt, I asked my sister about our reservation at Arabelle at the Hotel Plaza Athenee, "Why are we going there?" The food is standard American, albeit with impeccable ingredients, whereas when I go out, I want complicated preparations I won't do at home or imaginative combinations of flavors that hopefully work out. ( what we ate )
I was flipping through my newest cookbook, Spice, and realized that most of the preparations are WAY too complicated for me to consider. Bah. Fortunately, most of them seem to be on the menu at Oleana, so I'm seriously thinking about going to Boston to eat. Um. I suppose calling a mob dinner to eat there is out of the question, hm.
I'm really looking forward to tmw's lunch at Petrossian - I was surprised that they are participating in rw - and now the only question is, Is US farmed caviar worth it. This is a good sort of question.
