Archive | January, 2014

Join me at Fairway Market for a Cooking Class on 1/22!

7 Jan

I was just invited to attend a cooking class at Fairway Market on Wednesday, January 22nd to benefit The Common Pantry and I’m going to get a ticket for Mike to join me as well.  I wanted to pass it along to you, my awesome readers, in case anyone else is interested in coming! Here is the information:

“FOR THE LOVE OF LAMB

FAIRWAY MARKET’S CHEF VINNIE OLIVIERI TO CONDUCT MASTER CLASS ON COOKING LAMB ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2014 AT  FAIRWAY CAFÉ & STEAKHOUSE TO BENEFIT THE COMMON PANTRY

Fairway Market Lamb Cooking Class

Learn how to prepare a Mustard Crusted Rack of Lamb and a Roasted Leg of Lamb  with Fairway Market’s Chef Vincent Olivieri, on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 in Fairway Café & Steakhouse (2127 Broadway at W. 74th Street) at 7 pm.  Then sit back and enjoy a truly memorable meal, featuring a Mustard Crusted Rack of Lamb with Fig Chutney for an appetizer, a Kale salad with butternut squash, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and cider vinaigrette, then a roasted Leg of Lamb with parsnip turnip pure and roasted Brussels sprouts, chestnut and bacon for dinner, and dessert. The meal will be complimented with award-winning Aussie extra-virgin olive oil and paired with Australian wines selected by Fairway Market wine guru Joshua Wesson. Tickets are $60 and all proceeds will go to the New York Common Pantry, which is New York City’s largest community-based food pantry and is designed to meet the needs of our families by providing culturally-appropriate and nutritiously-balanced food. Go to www.fairwaymarket.com/events to order tickets.

WHAT: Fairway Market’s Chef Vincent Olivieri to Conduct Master Class on Cooking Lamb to Benefit New York Common Pantry

WHERE:  Fairway Café & Steakhouse -Second floor: 2127 Broadway at W. 74th Street

WHEN: Wednesday, January 22, 2014: 7 PM – 9 PM”

 

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Hope to see you there! Be sure to drop me a note if you will be coming.

Cheers,
Mr. and Mrs. Nom Nom

 

Note: I was contacted by a representative from Fairway and was asked to post this. I will be attending as their guest, however, I only post things I truly support myself and all opinions are mine. After all, I love lamb, cooking classes, Fairway, and money going to good causes!

 

Date-iversary 2013: Del Posto

7 Jan

We have been celebrating the anniversary of our first date for 6 years now. Every year we trade off our anniversary and Valentine’s Day and choose restaurants to surprise each other with.

This year, we had to rename our event to our Date-iversary, since our real anniversary is now our wedding date. (Awww)

But the tradition will not go away! Now we just have one more day to celebrate (and eat)!

This year, Mike chose Del Posto as our date-iversary meal.  Del Posto is famous for being one of the all-time best in NYC and is owned by Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali.  I had been there once before for lunch (and thought it was good but not great), but he hadn’t been yet. I was excited to go back with my honey.

They offer a 5 Course Tasting menu, which we opted for, at $126 each as well as a Captain’s Menu with 8 courses at $179.

The restaurant itself is stunning.  Sweeping interior with very dark wood and cream accents.

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And I especially love the circular balconies on the 2nd level.

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Everything is set formally yet modern.

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And there are little statement pieces throughout, for instance, this pitcher. (So not my style, but I loved the aesthetic in here)

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The lower level has the wine cellar, private rooms, and some restrooms.  The stairs that connect the two levels are equally stunning.

 

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And I love the collection of old globes under the stairs.

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We sat our table and started with cocktails. They were strong but very well done.

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Our amuse bouche were a collection of truffled goodness, including mini lobster rolls (top right), celery root parsnip soup with a truffled rim (botttom), and dried rice pasta puff in parmesan (top left).

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The rim of dried truffle on the soup made for quite a decadent few sips.

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And just in case lobster isn’t good enough on its own, adding truffle ain’t so bad!

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The bread basket had 4 different breads, each better than the last, with lardo and butter.

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The lardo was nice in small doses, but I preferred the very creamy, flavorful butter.

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Our first course of the tasting menu was Truffled Beef Carne Cruda with Grana Padano and Watercress Buds.  The beef carpaccio was seasoned perfectly and all the flavors and textures went very well together.

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Our second course was Charred Octopus with Umbrian Garbanzo, Celery Hearts & 25 year Aceto Tradizionale (Balsamic Vinegar).

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The char on this octopus was really flavorful and I really enjoyed the warm octopus and beans with the cooler and crisp greens. The sweetness of the balsamic was really nice on the dish.

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There is no way to photograph this next dish nicely, so you’re just going to have to trust me that this Luna Piena (moon shaped pasta) with Castelmangno & White Truffle Butter was out of this world.  What it lacked in color it had in flavor (in spades).  The truffle was fantastic and the pasta really tasted like pasta. (While this seems obvious, I’m always saddened when pasta tastes like nothing)

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We then had Traditional Del Posto Garganelli Verdi al Ragu Bolognese.  The pasta was green from spinach and the bolognese was lamb and veal.  All the flavors were rich and hearty.

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Next was the Lobster with Artichoke, Almond, Basil Salad, & Gangerine Essenza.  The lobster tail was from Maine (and finally tasted like it!)  I absolutely loved loved loved the sauce on this. It perfectly complimented the dish without taking away from the delicate lobster flavor.

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Next was labeled as follows: “Veal & Beef: Cosa Viene Prima? – Rocky Mashed Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts & Barolo Fondo”

Cosa Viene Prima translates to “What came first?”  While the usual end of this question is the chicken or the egg, in this term, it referred to the fact that it was beef wrapped in veal (or was it visa versa?) and it was served tableside with jus.

Very nice, meaty dish, with some mild offal flavor and nice richness.

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They then changed out our napkins very formally.  Funny that both Mike and I recognized this.  Fancy service is still so surprising.

We then moved into the sweeter courses with an intermzzo of Sfera di Caprino with Celery, Fig Agrodolce & Celery Sorbetto.  This was a sphere of goat cheese in a bread crumb crunch.  I usually really dislike celery as a flavor, but this was light and it all went very nicely together.

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While we decided not to do wine pairings for this meal, we sipped our cocktails throughout and then went for some dessert wines.

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Both were really fantastic.

And then it was time for some celebratory desserts (sorry about the photos, lighting was very tough in here).

We had a Tartufo al Caffe with Dark Chocolate, Sant’Eustachio Coffee & Candied Bread.  I really enjoy a tartufo. Something about breaking through that outside shell to the ice cream inside fills me with childhood joy. It helps that this was a deliciously executed version.

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Also included in the tasting was a Butterscotch Semifreddo with melon Agrumata & Crumbled Sbrisolona.    I loved the fruit with this and the butterscotch semifredo was fantastic.

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There were also a few extra desserts, including this apple fritter, which I absolutely loved.

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And this fun grater box with candies below and petit fours above.DSCF2892

Very whimsical, and nice bites of everything.

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And at the end they sent us home with a specially printed menu and a box of treats for the next day.

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Overall, our meal was fantastic.  Great execution, excellent flavors, very well paced, and it built from start to finish.  Each dish was unique and very tasty and felt classic yet somehow fresh.  You really can’t go wrong at this New York institution.

Total Nom Points: 9 out of 10

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Cake Tasting at Pomme Palais

4 Jan

A few weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Holiday Cake tasting at Pomme Palais, a new French gourmet cafe from Chef Michel Richard.  Pomme Palais is in The Palace Hotel at 30 East 51st Street (between Madison and Park Avenues).

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The patisserie itself is brightly lit and spotlights the big, modern cases of various yummy treats.

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The have some packaged goodies ready to go along with the individual items in the case.  (We actually went back and grabbed some candy bars when we were in the area a few days later)

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I was only able to attend for a bit, but we were treated to some amazing pastries in the time I was there.

The patisserie was described as “whimsical” in the overview and that is a great way to explain it.

The Macaron Cake was an “almond vanilla sponge cake layered with chocolate mousse, coated with dark chocolate, and decorated with macarons for playful color and texture”

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It was a beautiful and playful cake and was quite delicious.

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Though it didn’t sing the way some of the others did.

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The Opera Cake was “layered cake of coffee, chocolate, and almond flavors.”DSCF2828

I was a big fan of this one. I am not a huge cake fan, so I liked that this was layers of different textures without much traditional cake cake.

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We also tried the Charlotte Cake “with fruit, apricot, raspberry, passion yogurt mousse and lady fingers.  This cake can have a mousse filling with any fruit the customer prefers.”  This was good but not on the top of my list.

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The Orange Creme Brulee Cheesecake was something special.  It was described as “a creative twist on the classic cheesecake and flan.”  True to description, this was a perfect balance of cheesecake’s creamy denseness (but not too dense) with a flan like top.  And the orange added a nice flavor essence.

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The Lemon Eggceptional Cake was a beauty.  It was described as “layers of sponge cake, lemon curd, French meringue, topped with white chocolate lemon eggceptionals.”

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This was very nice and a light and fluffy cake, though lemon isn’t my favorite.

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My second favorite cake of the day was the Tart au Pomme which was “puff pastry with thin slices of apple, pastry cream, topped with sugar.”

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The apples on this just popped with flavor. A perfect texture and the perfect balance of tartness and sweet.

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But my number one favorite of the tasting was the Chocolate Fleur d’Automne: “Chocolate flower on top of cake with almond meringue and chocolate mousse.”

 

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What can I say? I’m a chocolate girl!  This was an exceptional balance of textures and richness with sweetness and a hint of crisp from the hard thin chocolate on top.  I absolutely loved this cake and even though my tummy was quite full by this time, I ate every last bite of this one.

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Though, alas, I couldn’t finish the rest.  I felt awful wasting so much great dessert.

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I had to leave just before the cut into the most adorable of the treats: Michel’s Snowman: “White meringue Snowman wrapped up with a sugar scarf and marzipan-chocolate hat… he carries a rosemary stalk ‘tree’ and includes raspberry sauce.”

You prepare this by rimming the plate with whipped cream and filling the hollow base of the snowman with ice cream.  Sounds like my kind of dessert! I absolutely love hard meringue. I was bummed I didn’t get a chance to try this one, and when we went back a few days later to get some candy, they were all sold out. I’ll just have to go back!

But seriously… how adorable is this guy?

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Near the end of the tasting, a very jovial Chef Michel Richard came out to say hello.  He is quintessentially French, and while almost a little too friendly with the ladies, he was very happy to ham it up for the camera.  He was incredibly happy and seemed genuinely excited to be sharing his creations with us.

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We were sent home with a lovely box of candy.

 

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And each bite was better than the last.  I am very picky about my candies, and these were exceptional.

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I have been to many patisseries in NYC (and around the world), baking is my first love, and I am a dessert person to the extreme.  I wasn’t expecting to like this place as much as I did, and the desserts were really fantastic and original.  The only other place I’ve had desserts as noteworthy is at Dominique Ansel. (Though Chef Ansel will always have my heart)

I would never have known to stop by Pomme Palais had I not been invited to try these cakes, so this was one perk in which I was more than happy to participate.  I was very thankful for the opportunity and can’t wait to go back (and try that snowman)!

Cakes range from $20 (for the snowman) to $42 (for most of the full cakes).  Quite expensive, but worth it to impress at a party. And the individual pastries are probably reasonably priced for a nice snack near Rockefeller Center or before a Radio City performance. (They also have some non-dessert foods that looked quite good). And the candy bars we got a few days later… awesome.

Highly recommend a stop!

 

Note: While I was privileged enough to do this tasting for free, all opinions expressed are my own.