NYC Weekend

We just returned from a fabulous weekend in NYC. We stayed in the Marriot Marque on Times Square. We took the train from DC to NYC. It was a delightful way to travel. We read, slept and Jim conducted a little business. This trip was a surprise from Jim for our 45th Wedding Anniversary. After he told me, I planned the restaurants. On Saturday we saw Wicked. The production was so outstanding I was actually in tears at the end. The play is sad, funny, romantic, and evil all in one. The staging is fantastic. Friday night we went to Felidia. Felidia is Lidia Bastianich’s first restaurant in NYC. For those of you who don’t know Lidia she has had a cooking show on PBS for years. The food and service were outstanding. Jim told our waiter, “I have eater all around the world and this is the most creative and delicious food I have ever tasted.” The waiters were so knowledgeable about the food. They knew the preparation and ingredients. Their descriptions were amazing. For Jim’s appetizer the waiter suggested Polipo. He told Jim that it was a combination of octopus and eggplant. Jim answered that he liked octopus but wasn’t sure about eggplant. I laughed and told him I bet that was the first time the waiter had received that answer. The waiter talked him into it and said if he did not like it, he would bring another. It was wonderful. There was grilled octopus, but in the middle was a kind of jelled mosaic of eggplant and octopus cut paper thin. How they did that was beyond me. The plate was a work of art and delicious. When you sat down they delivered to the table a basket of what looked like broken pasta. It was actually Parmesan crackers, flavored with different flavors like pasta, i.e. , squid ink, basil, sun roasted tomatoes, plain. We asked and received seconds. The waiter explained to me how to make them when I asked if the recipe was in any of Lidia’s cookbooks. For Jim’s main course he had Vitello. It was veal tenderloin with Chanterelle mushrooms, asparagus and summer truffle sauce. I did not order off the menu but from the specials. For my appetizer I had fig crostini with prosciutto and melon. The crostini were spread with fresh figs. The melon and prosciutto were arranged decoratively on the plate. For my main course I had an amazing pasta dish. The pasta was Squid Ink pasta and the sauce was Alaskan king crab with sea urchin and Jersey tomatoes. They also serve amazing bread. One was whole wheat walnut bread. I make whole wheat walnut bread, but not as well as this. The table olive oil is delicious, not the tasteless stuff you get in most restaurants. For our main course Jim asked the help of the sommelier. He told her that he had a wine cellar with 1300 bottles, mostly French and California, but was lost when it came to Italian wine. She chose a 2006 Roero, DOC Audinaggio Estate bottled by Coscina Ca’Rossa di Ferrio Canole, Itallia. It was so good that he wrote down every word off the label to be able to hopefully purchase it. Jim’s dessert was a blueberry torte with lavender ice cream. I had berries with berry sorbet. They also brought out a tray of delicious mixed cookies. We brought a doggie bag of crackers, bread and cookies back to the room and ate them mid morning on Saturday with coffee and tea in the room. I have not been as impressed with the creativity and taste of the food since Topalabompo in Chicago. After dinner we returned to hotel and had drinks on the top floor called the View. It is a revolving restaurant and bar that gives you a 360 view of the city. We still have one day to go to #45.
Before the play on Saturday we stopped into Azalea Ristorante on 51st Street right in front of the theater. We ordered a light lunch to hold us over until dinner at 8:45 PM. It was delightful, but should not have followed Felidia. After the play we returned to our room to relax and have our 1999 Dom Perignon. As we relaxed and had our champagne, we discussed the play and read the Playbill to discover who all the actors were and go over our favorite lines. Finally we dress for dinner and take off for an evening at Gordon Ramsay, At the London. Off the lobby is a lively bar and eating area before entering into the elegant dining area. The dining room is very modern and I adored everything except the two chandeliers in the middle of the room. I do not think they reflected the elegance of the rest of the décor. All the wait staff wore tuxedos, male and female. I was in a black, white, grey and chrome environment. I felt completely at home. The other thing that I must talk about is the table ware. The plates, silver, and accessory service ware was exquisite. I later asked the chef about one plate in particular and he said all service ware is specified out of England by Gordon Ramsay. The evening started with a small taste of cauliflower soup and a bite of something neither of us remember as I was so enamored with the plate it was on. Jim ordered by the glass a French Rose for our appetizers that followed the taste teaser. By the way when Jim was asked how he liked the soup he commented that he loved it and could have 5 more. You guessed it; they brought him more on the double. All food was brought to the entrance to the room by a waiter who stood holding it until your waiter noticed him and escorted him to your table and served you. For appetizers, Jim ordered Butter poached Maine lobster, arugula, candied kumquats, baked yellow beets beurre rouge. I do not know what it tasted like, he would not share, but he ate the beets. I ordered Caramelized veal sweetbreads lemon poached endive, marinated Persian cucumber and English peas. I love sweetbreads and you hardly ever see them on a menu. I was worried about the dish as I hate endive. You can fix me endive any day if you can reproduce it in this way. It was divine. The cucumbers were marinated in balsamic vinegar and added just the right punch to the dish. The peas had been reduced to a sauce on the plate. The rosé was perfect with the dish. Unfortunately Jim did not write down the Rosé so all I know is from the bill, GLS STILL ROSE. I think something came out in between the appetizer and the main course, but it could have just been the rolls that were passed around, again on a beautiful silver tray. Jim had triple seared dry aged NY strip loin smoked beef tongue, roasted cippolini onions, beef jus. Again he did not share. I chose Colorado lamb roasted in goat’s butter, fava bean tapenade, confit potatoes, and cilantro with lamb vinaigrette. I chose this based on another favorite, fava beans. It is hard to explain what I really had in front of me. There were two gigantic pieces of lamb, one was a perfect rectangle. It might have had a sprinkle of powdered cilantro on top. It was definitely powdered something and if it was cilantro, which I do not like, it was great. The only thing I could complain about was the confit potatoes. I thought they were tasteless. By now Jim is on a first name basis with the sommelier. Jim and he picked the following wine based on someone named Paul Hobbs. I listened, but it was like they had a language all their own. Anyway the sommelier wrote the following for Jim, Paul Hobbs, Vlises Valdez Vineyard, Russian River Valley 2007. It is definitely worth looking for. They also had a big discussion about the wine cellar which is visible from the dining room. Jim was promised a complete tour after dining. For dessert Jim ordered Raspberry soufflé with quark ice cream. Quark is a kind of cheese. I had “Cornbread” blueberry cream, calamansi lime, steel cut oats with sweet corn gelato. It tasted nothing like it sounds. All I can say is it is divine. Dessert is followed by the Bon Bon trolley. We had two or three of everything. And they boxed more to go.
After dinner we indeed had a tour of the wine cellar and the kitchen. I met the head chef and the pastry chef. I asked the chef if it was as difficult to work for Gordon Ramsey as it seems on TV. He rolled his eyes and said it is “challenging but rewarding.” He asked where we were from and when we said VA, he asked if we knew Trummer’s on Main in Clifton. We indeed did and told him it was beautiful and the food was very good. He said it was owned by his best friend. We dined there to say goodbye to our friends Roger and Carole. We met at Michigan State in 1965. We were married a day and a year apart. Since moving to DC where they had lived since graduate school, we celebrated together. Carole new all the great places. She’d supply me with the name and I would tell Roger where to meet us. He always loved the food, but we’d have to pick him off the floor after they delivered the check. Now they’ve moved to NC to be near their daughter and grandchild. I sent a card that said don’t let Roger take you to Mac Donald’s this year.
Sunday was almost a disaster. I make reservations through Open Table on line. I plugged in Daniel’s and Danielle came up. We wanted to have a lunch before boarding the train at 4:00 as we wouldn’t reach home until about 8:00 PM and I was not cooking. I had read about Daniel in the NY Times while at our friend’s house. There was an article about the $25 hamburger. I wanted to try it. As we are leaving the hotel on Friday and the taxi turns on to 8th Ave, I see a neon sign that says Danielle. I said Jim what is the address of Danielle. Horrors, it is a dive. I began to get suspicious when they did not call to confirm. Felidia and London did. Jim the eternal optimist said we will get up early tomorrow and walk there before the play. Just because you don’t like the exterior doesn’t mean we have the wrong place. Well, we found it, it was a dive and $25 could have bought you soup to nuts for 12. Jim called and tried to cancel, but no one spoke English. They may not have even realized they had a reservation. Anyway we worked with the concierge of the hotel to get it all straightened out. Still working with the Concierge we found out that Daniel’s is not open on Sunday.
In the hotel magazine, I saw an advertisement for Megu, Modern Japanese Cuisine. We used to have wonderful dinners at a restaurant in NYC called Restaurant Nippon. We decided to go there for lunch. I don’t know but Kobe beef burgers with parmesan fries with truffle sauce were not what I consider Japanese. The waiter was dreadful. Everything I asked him about that seemed Japanese on the menu, he would mumble something like you only get blah. But finally one of the Japanese girls was served dessert and it was the green tea crepe I had seen in the advertisement. I had that and green tea; I was happy as a clam. Jim ate his burger, my burger his fries and mine. He was also happy. If you go for lunch order the bento box and don’t listen to the waiter. They also serve a crispy shrimp that taste just like Bang, Bang shrimp at Bonefish Grille.
It is hard to come down to earth when you’ve been to heaven.