Ling

The next morning, we woke up quite late and a bit hungover, but managed to get to La Maison du Chocolat for breakfast. window displays inside displays I bought a few boxes of chocolates, a caramel macaroon, and a florentine. The macaroon was particularly good, and I don't even normally enjoy macaroons. The chocolates were definitely top-notch and very fresh. The fillings were well-balanced, and the chocolate didn't overpower the flavours. Some of the ones I tried were the Bacchus (raisins flambeed in rum), Andalouise (lemon), Maiko (fresh ginger), Garrigue (fennel), and Jolika (pistachio with almond paste). I haven't finished tasting them all yet, but I'll post a picture of the ones I have left tomorrow.

Actually, we did it in 66 hours, to be precise. The only time I remember not eating (or being en route to a restaurant or bakery) was when I collapsed in bed for 2 hours due to a food coma after Jean Georges. Our trip got off to a bad start--we showed up for dinner at Daniel and Alicia's 3 hours later than we expected because our plane got delayed. Not only that, but I soon realized I had forgotton my purse in the taxi! I thought it was a lost cause but the taxi driver soon came back to the building to return the purse. Things were looking up at that point...I'm happy to report that lucky streak continued for the next few days. Daniel and Alicia invited us over for dinner when they found out we were coming on a quick food trip. They were warm and engaging hosts, and are great cooks to boot! We started off with a seared foie gras course with apple salad and caramel. R. Dumont Douce Cuvee demi sec Saffron mussel soup with caramelized onions--this was very tasty and I liked the off-center plating. fried potato pancake tower with smoked salmon, eggs, creme fraiche, and caviar, dill oil around the outside Meursault 2002 beet and ricotta ravioli seared duck breast with sourdough bacon stuffing, foie, sour cherry and cabernet sauce, sweet potato puree, peas Volnay Santenots 1st Cru 1993 Frozen rum eggnog souffle--this was delicious and oh-so-boozy flourless chocolate cake served with armagnac--this was one of the best flourless chocolate cakes I've ever had. It was characteristically rich, yet melted on your tongue and still felt light. Rocco's lobster tail pastry--when Daniel read that I wanted to try this, he bought a box of them after work to serve as a "surprise" dessert course. They were ENORMOUS! Check out the amount of cream inside... We were so drunk by the end of this meal...obviously, I forgot to write down some of the wines that were poured. We both had a fantastic evening and felt so lucky to have such awesome people open up their homes to us.

^Thanks! A chef recommended Rocco tonight to me as well! 2 respected opinions...I am good to go.

^That's too bad! Maybe next time. I am looking for a good cannolo--does Ferrara's do a good one? That name seems to come up often. Also, I would love to try a lobstertail pastry. Any recs? Thanks!

^Yes, I've seen the $45 and $80 menus. I thought the items on the a la carte menu looked much more interesting. (I was particularly interested in the sweetbreads.) Ah well. I'm sure it'll be a good lunch regardless.

Is the a la carte menu available at lunch?

Bob bought me some wonderful baklava during his recent visit to Seattle. Thought I'd share the picture. Wonderful blog. I love halva! I wonder long it takes to finish off one of those giant blocks...

We have to be on our way to the airport by 3pm, but I've read a lot about Chikalicious. Next trip!

Pain au chocolat at Patisserie Claude, great! I'll try to fit that in when I go to Kee's and Jacques Torres. Thanks!

Thanks for the recommendation! I remember reading about Kossar's on this board as well. We'll see if we have time for the Doughnut Plant. I've read it's over-rated and neither or us are huge doughnut fans.

If bialys are better, I have no problem trying a bialy.

Hey Pan and herbacidal, Unfortunately, all our lunches and dinners are booked, so there won't be any other time to go to Katz except for Saturday! We plan on going early for breakfast (do they serve pastrami in the morning?) so hopefully it won't be too busy. Revised itinerary: Wednesday (13th)--dinner at EGer's home Thursday (14th)--breakfast at Patisserie Claude and City Bakery, Gordon Ramsey for lunch, (hopefully Petrossian if I have room), then Jacques Torres, Kee's Chocolates, and shopping in the afternoon, WD50 for dinner, then Pegu Club for a late-night drink Friday (15th)--breakfast at La Maison du Chocolat and a quick stop at Lady M and hopefully Payard (if only for a look at their pastries), Jean Georges for lunch, Room 4 Dessert in the evening, Bouley for a very late dinner Saturday (16th)--Katz for breakfast, Momofuku for lunch ***** I've been doing some more reading in the NY forum and want to add City Bakery to the list. (I just received the cookbook as a gift, and am a fan of their minimalist tart designs.) I also want to make it to Petrossian if time permits. My favourite breakfast pastry is the almond croissant. I read that Patisserie Claude and La Bergamote does good croissants--any other comments about these two bakeries? I also want to try a NY bagel. Any favourites?

Actually, this sounds great to me. Walnuts, pastry, sheepsmilk yogurt (kind of tangy like creme fraiche)--what's not to like?

My first sip of corked wine. (Thank god it was at home--I hear the expression on my contorted face was quite hideous.)

I haven't eaten at The Herbfarm, but I'm willing to guess the evening will be more romantic at Mistral. (I've heard about the teaching aspect of Herbfarm, and I think that would make for a great evening, but not the most intimate experience on an anniversary.)

Your dinner last night looked great. So do the drinks at Pegu Club. We only have time for one cocktail lounge in NY during our trip, and that's where we're going!

The comment about the time was for the brownies, not the brioche, although I remember the brioche took less time (~5 min. less) than the suggested time as well.

Oh! You got my attention. Very cool experiment. I think you should offer a variety of small bites for your lucky guests to dip and taste, and maybe a simple ballot form so they can keep track of which they like best. (Might be a good idea also because I suspect the alcohol will be a flowin'...just a hunch.) The "bites" should be relatively neutral in flavour...the vanilla ice-cream is a good idea, but you would need a ton of small bowls. Maybe a big plate of cubed pound cake could work, with toothpicks. Or pretzel rods...the salt would be a great with dulce de leche. (Bonus--less clean-up for you.) Maybe fruit, your no-knead bread, or cocktails as palate cleansers between bites. I hope your goat milk is nice and strong. I made goat milk caramel in Canada, but accidentally bought the ultra-pasteurized stuff in Seattle and the caramel I made with it wasn't very goaty at all.

You know what, it is embarrassing but I over-baked them. By that, I mean they were baked all the way through, which to me, means over-baked. I would probably check on them after 17-20 minutes, next time.

The brioche recipe, with a few modifications that I noted upthread, was the best of the three recipes I've tried. I'll be using Dorie's recipe as my staple.

I like your food pyramid. My food pyramid would look like this: 50% desserts, 30% fatty meats and stinky cheeses, 15% good bread and almond croissants, 5% coffee/alcohol. Looking forward to learning about cocktails. Which is your favourite? Mine is a French 75.

I made the dough last night, and now am waiting for it to rise a third time in the loaf pan before I bake it. Some notes--the instructions say to beat for 10 minutes after the butter has been incorporated, but because this brioche recipe seems to contain much more butter than other recipes I've used (French Laundry, Nancy Silverton), the dough was still very, very soft after 10 minutes. I turned the mixer onto 4 and continued to check on it until it had gone for an additional 10 minutes. The dough was still not coming together into a ball, or making that "slapping" sound Nancy tells you to listen for. So I added flour at 1 tbsp increments and let the mixer go for another 5 minutes. I added an extra 5 tbsp. of flour before it came together in a loose ball (it was still much softer than the other brioche doughs I've made). So total mixing time (after the butter was incorporated) was 25 minutes, which wasn't too far off from the other recipes I've used. After the overnight rise, it's seemed to have firmed up considerably and I have high hopes for the finished product!

I had an incredible meal at Crush last night with a friend "in the know", so I was completely spoiled by the experience. We started with complimentary champagne and amuse bouche (celery root soup with scallops), then moved onto cocktails. For the first course, I got the crispy sweetbreads (absolutely fresh and creamy, the best I've ever had), while my bf got the lobster ravioli with a seared prawn, and our friend got the cumin-scented beet salad. We shared everything, and the sweetbreads stood out, although the ravioli was excellent as well. Second course was the seared foie with huckleberries on a waffle, and the piece of foie at least the size of an 8-9 oz piece of steak! The only drawback to this was that it was very thick (about 2" in the center) and the center portion was a little cold...but a minor quibble. Also had the marrow bones with the brioche box (delicious, very flavourful), the rack of lamb and lamb sausage with truffled white beans and brocolli rabe, the tuna with roasted cauliflower and truffled cauliflower puree, and the short ribs with mashed potatoes. All incredibly rich, and the portions were monstrous. Our favourite was the short ribs, and the cauliflower puree that came with the tuna was just ridiculously good. I was really impressed with the food. Desserts were a different story. We were sent all six desserts and a plate of chocolates (again, compliments of the chef) and although there were some interesting ideas on the plates, I couldn't really pick anything that was particularly tasty. The sheep's milk cheesecake (on a meringue cookie base with quince puree, foam, and chips) was not bad. In particular... I think the garnish was some sort of stout anglaise, and the bitter/sour flavours came from the beer--it was definitely "yeasty". I thought this garnish was the worst of the dessert items we tried. Chocolate shells were very thick, and one filling was particularly grainy. All in all, I would give really high points for the food. Excellent time...and the service was wonderful as well.

^I would never turn down butterscotch! I always have some homemade caramel or chocolate sauce on hand, and either would be very nice with a warm brownie. (I used the same brioche tins for the muffins...it's funny I haven't yet made brioche in those tins, but I will this week when I try Dorie's "Golden Brioche" recipe!)

I made the Katherine Hepburn brownies again.