melofunk

I also highly recommend wd-50 for dessert. I went a couple of weeks ago and had one of their dessert tasting menus (choice between 3 desserts or 5). I had - canteloupe sorbet with crunchy prosciutto, pinenuts and balsamic, milk and cereal (milk was a sorbet), beans and rice (rice was a sorbet), local strawberries with anise hyssop and parmesan ice cream. All the desserts were wildly creative and delicious. (I also wanted to note that since I had been to wd-50 several times before, the chef was very accomodating as to change the desserts around a little on my tasting.)

Peter, I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed with your pre-dessert. I am the pastry cook who plated this for you that evening. You actually had a warm chocolate and goat cheese fritter with a tiny quenelle of chocolate sorbetto and fresh cherries, and I am sorry to hear that it had melted by the time it reached your table and that you were disappointed with your meal. -Melissa

Daniel, We had reservations for a Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. It's a small space, and we probably wouldn't have been seated without a reservation. It's possible to sit at the bar and eat, but I would do this as a solo venture. Regards, Melissa

I ate there about a month ago and found the food to be excellent. We ordered the pumpkin and goat's cheese croquettes, the octopus, sweetbreads with fennel, the duck, and a most amazing chocolate cake. Everything was exceptionally tasty.

The grilled octopus is wonderful. I like the black spaghetti with rock shrimp and chorizo - it's on the hot side, the lobster spaghettini, in addition to the beef cheek ravioli and lamb's tongue salad. My favorite desserts are the chocolate cake with hazelnut gelato and the blueberry crostata with coconut gelato.

Bullfrog & Baum is the pr group for the bakery/market and I went to their tasting last evening. The pastries were wonderful...I tried the passion fruit with milk chocolate ganache macaroons, the kouing-aman, and a cannelle. One of the pastry chefs, Damien, just arrived from Paris two weeks ago where he had been working with/at Pierre Herme (and prior to that La Duree). When I complimented him on the macaroons he indicated that he may do some unusual flavored ones like olive oil or white truffle, etc. There were also a lot of different/good breads....fig, hazelnut pistachio, raisin anise, walnut plus baguettes, etc. The cellar and the upstairs will open in about a week, we were told. And the upstairs will have cooking demonstrations/education during the day and at night will serve as a cocktail lounge. One of the cocktails I tried had a scoop of vanilla ice cream with grand marnier and coconut foam. And another was a caipirinha with Madagascar mint. I don't know if the passed appetizers will be incorporated into the menu or if they were a last minute type thing, but I thought they were amazing. I tasted a crab salad sandwich on toasted brioche, a sardine entwined in a homemade potato chip, a tiny shot glass layered with prune puree, foie gras and apple foam.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm looking forward to checking them out.

I will be in Madrid and Barcelona for vacation in a few weeks, and I'm looking for recommendations on bookstores, which have a large selection of cookbooks or are exclusively cookbook stores. Does anyone have any recommendations? And, do the stores have selections/translations in English?

This would definitely be of interest to me. A reference manual of sorts. As Michael mentioned a book that combines the various aspects that Balaguer, McGee, and Greenspan bring to their work/writings would be divine.

hmmm...what about the oven that you use? Are you using convection? Can you adjust the fan speed or check the temperature? Maybe the fan or temperature are set too high for the mini financiers? Something similar happened when I forgot to prick tart shells that I was prebaking. I think the thrust of heat from the oven coupled with the fact that the steam had nowhere to go caused the shells to have a similar "hole" (even with the bean weights). By the way, even with the holes, your financiers look tasty!

What about a book for home or pro which focuses on flavor/texture pairings? Maybe this would be part of the creative process. Culinary Artistry and In the Sweet Kitchen both have flavor pairing charts. Culinary Artistry focuses on both savory and sweet, and Daley's book contains traditional flavor pairings (Claudia Fleming's book is good for pairings too). What about new pairings? The new savory in the sweet kitchen... I also like to look at Balaguer's book for this kind of inspiration and wish there were more....roasted apples, yogurt mousse, saffron ice cream - those kinds of fun combinations.

...very intrigued by the website. You mentioned that you interviewed Chef Sam. Could you provide any further details with regards to the website?

I don't know what they used, but it sounds like a nice, light finish to the meal....not too heavy.

iheartoffal - great descriptions - your enthusiasm and enjoyment read loud and clear. I enjoyed reading that the toast oil and blood orange puree are a play on orange marmelade on toast. That's pretty cool. By the way, what did you think of the lemon curd in the lemon curd/basil dessert? I haven't tried it. When I dined there last, the waiter described it as an eggless curd (similar in concept, I guess, to the fried mayo).

There is a photo of the steak on wd's website....

Another very nice meal at wd-50 on Monday evening. The servers and hostess were extremeley affable. Of note was the braised shortrib, flatiron steak, kimchee spaetzle and papaya ravioli. The shortrib was braised in anchor steam, and our server explained that the flatiron was prepared with the transglutaminase, rolled and cut into tournedos (nice marbleing effect). Again the flavors and ingredient combination was really wonderful. There was just the right amount of papaya to brighten the dish. Other interesting/yummy things were a Spanish grenache which the server recommended pairing with the shrimp noodles, and the pinenut ice cream (yes, I admit it. I'm addicted to ice cream.)....The ice cream was paired with pineapple braised with pine and pineapple cake.

I wanted to share my recent experience at wd-50 because I truly thought the meal was phenomenal. A very good friend of mine came to visit this weekend and Saturday evening we dined at wd-50. We started with sake aperitifs and the black sesame wafer crackers that other posters have previously described. (When one is hungry these wafers quickly become addictive, especially the ones with slightly thick edges). I really enjoy unusual ice cream flavors and wd-50 has a slew of them – saffron, browned butter and one that is part of an appetizer - edamame ice cream paired with venison tartare and crunchy pear. Our waiter was very kind when I asked if I could try the ice cream by itself, and he brought it out with our first course. And, it was very yummy to say the least. It was served on top of fresh edamame and a sprinkle of fleur de sel. And what I really enjoyed was that the salt balanced the sweetness of the ice cream and accentuated the edamame flavor. For our appetizers, my friend had the scallops with beet yogurt, morcilla flakes and parsley juice and I had the octopus, celery pesto, pineapple and tasty-crunchy bits (I think they were almonds). The octopus by itself was quite tasty, as was the pesto, pineapple and tasty-crunchy bits. But what was outstanding was taking a small piece of everything on your fork and popping it into your mouth all at once. This created an amazing flavor and texture combination, and this is what I truly loved about our entire meal. My friend’s scallop dish was equally delicious. After our appetizers, a beautiful dish of rouget, mango and goat’s cheese mousse (or a mousse-like substance), spicy micro greens and cracked pepper was brought out. This dish was thoughtfully composed and just all-around delicious. The fish was very flavorful, and the flavor and texture combination of all the components together was sublime. For the main course, my friend had the monkfish with pear consommé and oyster mushroom, which our waiter described as delicate, and that it was. I had the chicken, confited carrot, egg yolk and mole paper. The chicken was very nicely seasoned and extremely moist. The mole paper was spicy. And the combination of all the components together was wonderful. This was my favorite dish of the evening. I had wanted to ask our waiter how the chicken was prepared, but it was a busy night, and so unfortunately I wasn’t able to. After our main course, we were served a grapefruit sorbet with grapefruit foam and what I believe were crunchy pieces of graham cracker. It was very refreshing, as grapefruit normally is. What I loved about this dish was that it wasn’t just a grapefruit sorbet, but rather it was like grapefruit in the form of sorbet. And what I mean by this is that it wasn’t any more sweet than the taste of fresh grapefruit. And so when you ate it, you didn’t say, “oh, this sorbet tastes like grapefruit.” You said, “Oh, this is grapefruit. And it reminds me of perfectly ripe grapefruit that you slice open and eat fresh. And it is actually this wonderful sorbet”. For dessert, my friend had the milk chocolate hazelnut parfait with orange reduction. I believe this is new on the menu, and quite popular. We took a scan of the dining room over the course of the evening and many people chose this dessert. The dessert reminded me slightly of a kitkat, both in shape and in texture. And it was quite good. I had the olive clafoutis with tangerine sorbet and cherry walnut emulsion. I thought the olives worked well with the clafoutis base and the tangerine was a nice complement. This is a strong dessert, which I enjoyed. I’ve also tried some of the other desserts on the menu. And I would say that my favorite is the celery root cake with coconut sorbet and peanut foam. (I believe a similar cake on the current menu is the parsnip cake). After dessert, a bowl of saffron flavored cotton candy was brought to our table. This was fun and yummy. I love saffron and if this were available to me everyday, I could easily become an addict. Lastly, with our check came chocolate covered almonds with cumin and ginger, and they were a nice end to a most wonderful meal. What I loved about our meal and what makes me want to dine at wd-50 again is not only how creative the flavor and texture combinations are, but also how really, really good the food tastes.