lauren and herbs food fun weekend

[jeunefilleparis]

Hello everyone

I hope that everyone enjoyed the gorgeous day. Yesterday Herb from Philly met me in Philly for some fine dining. I had made a reservation at the Tasting Room a week before so that was our first stop.

I had passed TR many times and had to break a previous reservation in the winter. In any case Herb and I made our way through the exciting food.

As many of you know, there are sharing and tasting dishes. one of the first dishes was scallops with blood orange and tangerine with baby arugula and extra virgin olive. the scallops were very fresh and the tartness of the blood orange and the sweetness of the tangerine went very well. my only suggestion to the chef was that the fruit might be a tad bit colder than the scallops since they were served at room temperature. texturally, i

then there were baby oysters with a salmon caviar( i think it was salmon). greatt flavors, saltiness of the caviar went nicely with the texture of the oyster.

next was the cod which was placed with peas, pearl onions and pistachios in a chateau challont reduction

the braised smoked bacon slab was served on a puree of ramp greens, and had pickled ramp tops green garlic , the sauce was maple syrup balsamic vinager and brown butter and was incredibly flavorful and rich

we had a lovely cheese plate, served with arugala pesto, grapes and honey. i wish i could recall the names of the cheeses, but it was an assortment of cow and goat cheese.

desserts, incredibly interesting, a panna cotta with vinagrette along with a sweet basil syrup and fresh fruit

the panna cotta was lovely and dense and the saly vinagrette and basil blended very well together

I also had a lemon butter tart served with creme fraiche whipped cream and caralized fennel.

the tart was tart indeed and the creme fraiche evened out the tartness. As for the fennel, i was shocked that it could become so sweet

As for wines i had a reisling, Herb, you ll have to write exactly what we drank, as I am horrible with wines.

all in all, I got to sample lots of great creative food and the prices was very reasonable. . They have a really lovely staff, I highly recommend it

Next meal was at Le Gamin, i had a crepe with mushrooms and gruyere topped with a rosemary sprig and had a side of creme fraiche. i have always loved the environment there. After living in Paris, i really feel that they have the creperie down right. they serve loving big bowls of cafe au lait and fresh pain au chocolat as well,

Dinner, I had to take Herb to Ino since he ahd never been. I had a truffled egg toast. dense, and rich. The egg yollk oozes out and has the greatest flavor of the fontina cheese and the truffle oil. Herb had a egg salad and asparagus tramezzino. I also highly recommend any of the bruschetta , especially the asparagus, truffle oil and parmasan. They used to have a great white bean soup with roasted tomato.

ok, i m full just thinking about all the food we ate. I also took Herb to Ceci Cela, where I think they have the best crossants in the city, downtown that is.

[herbacidal]

thanks lauren, for filling in most of the useful data.

now all i have to do is fill in the blanks and add further commentary.

tasting room had been pushed heavily by katieloeb, but i just never got around to trying it. delaying it was a nice way of meeting lauren.

yea, i planned it. :-)

can't believe you left your favorite tasting room dish, the skate.

it was in a tomato currant sauce, can't recall what was served with it, though.

didn't actually know that they were ramp greens with the bacon, having never had ramps before. i actually thought it was ground/pureed spinach.

lauren and i pretty much agree on the food, as far as contrasts, appropriateness, etc.

i did mention that i think the scallops were probably not kept particularly cold for fear of them being so cold that there is no flavor to mix with the blood orange.

that being said, there probably is a better way, perhaps indirect contact with ice rather than direct.

that being said, having an idea of what the kitchen has to work with, it's amazing that they can come up with anything of this caliber regardless.

the cheese plate had five cheeses: 2 were cow's milk, 1 sheep's milk, 1 goat's milk and a cheddar. 1 of the cow's milk cheese was a creamy bleu cheese.

the wines. i think lauren had a riesling, i believe the vineyard ends in "hill", and i had a foris gewurtztraminer from oregon.

we also each had dessert wines, lauren a gewurtzraminer, and myself a red.

service was very good: knowledgeable, efficient, pleasant, fun.

'ino and le gamin cafe are both delightful little cafes.

(noticed the latter is a small chain)

little touches in decor were nice, such as at 'ino a small closet and bars for hanging newspapers by the front door.

at le gamin, i had the saucissons (sp?) crepe. listed as sweet sausage, i didn't find it to be sweet at all. mind you, this doesn't mean it wasn't good. it just wasn't sweet. actually it was fairly salty.

it was also the first time i've had a crepe that was as "well-done" as it was, that is, it wasn't light and fluffy.

i've had only 2 crepe experiences prior, and can't recall specifics from them, i just thought it would have been more airy.

also managed to swing by katz's and benny's burritos on Ave A.

Good solid huevos verdes with black beans and slightly spicy home fries at the latter.

I will say i was a little disappointed in katz's though.

had a pastrami on italian, with 3 pickles and a knish.

purposely didn't tip b/c didn't want a heaping pile of a sandwich, obliging me to eat it all there, thus possibly lowering my chances of eating different meals by at least 1.

guy gave me some while he was slicing it anyway.

while it was pretty tasty, it by no means was as heavenly as i expected. maybe i expected too much.

should i have gotten mustard on the pastrami? it was slightly dry, but i didn't really mind, but mustard might have made it better.

actually wanted a kascha knish, which i thought was available, but wasn't asked, and i was a little confused by the whole procedure, and didn't think about it until i bit into it and saw it was potato.

good crisp pickles though.

also managed to have octopus takoyaki at otafuku.

octopus fried in a light dough.

man, do i love those. what sauces are those they put on top?

i gather that the white is a mayonnaise of sorts,

the other one that looks somewhat like plum sauce has a familiar flavor, but can't quite place it.

also, what is that shredded, dried flaky stuff on top?

i've had that before, but never actually inquired. could they be bonito flakes perhaps?

neglected to ask in this case as well.

[Bux]

Herb, if I may offer, "sweet" sausage is not "sweet." Used in relation to sausages -- fresh or dried -- sweet means not hot as in not spicey, not piquant. At least that's the case in relation to Italian sausages in NY. A proper French crepe is also too thin to have much room to be airy. At least that's true for a savory crepe, as opposed to a sweet crepe, which in this case is actually sugary. In Brittany, a savory crepe would be refered to as a galette and have buckwheat flour in the batter. If I am not mistaken, the savory crepes at le Gamin are made with buckwheat flour and authentic. Savory crepes made with white flour, filled with seafood or other stuffing and served at fine French restaurants with a cream sauce were also lighter, but I haven't seen them on a menu in many years. Dessert crepes are also a little lighter and there is such a thing as a crepe soufflee which is quite airy, but it's not the standard Breton crepe. Sorry if I sound pedantic. I thought it might be useful information, although it seemed Lauren was familiar with crepes.

With some regret, I should note that I've found Ceci-Cela's croissants are not what they used to be. The best croissants in SoHo these days, in my opinion, are at Pain Quotidien. They are pricier however.

[KatieLoeb]

Lauren and Herb:

I'm jealous I couldn't join you, but I'm glad you enjoyed the place nonetheless. I really love that restaurant and find the food incredibly interesting and creative. I'm surpirsed you didn't have the upscale Rice Crispie treat for dessert. It's one of my favorites. The cheese plates there are always interesting, and since they also have such an unusual selection of wines by the glass, it's always a treat.

Herb - you are so fortunate to possess the metabolism of a hummingbird. Are you going to be hungry by Tuesday? Don't forget there's a Mexican feast awaiting you...

[herbacidal]

Herb, if I may offer, "sweet" sausage is not "sweet." Used in relation to sausages  -- fresh or dried -- sweet means not hot as in not spicey, not piquant. At least that's the case in relation to Italian sausages in NY.

A proper French crepe is also too thin to have much room to be airy. At least that's true for a savory crepe, as opposed to a sweet crepe, which in this case is actually sugary. In Brittany, a savory crepe would be refered to as a galette and have buckwheat flour in the batter. If I am not mistaken, the savory crepes at le Gamin are made with buckwheat flour and authentic. Savory crepes made with white flour, filled with seafood or other stuffing and served at fine French restaurants with a cream sauce were also lighter, but I haven't seen them on a menu in many years. Dessert crepes are also a little lighter and there is such a thing as a crepe soufflee which is quite airy, but it's not the standard Breton crepe. Sorry if I sound pedantic. I thought it might be useful information, although it seemed Lauren was familiar with crepes.

With some regret, I should note that I've found Ceci-Cela's croissants are not what they used to be. The best croissants in SoHo these days, in my opinion, are at Pain Quotidien. They are pricier however.

i had a feeling after eating it that sweet sausage was not actually meant to be sweet,

which was disappointing as that is what i was looking for, since i was interesting in

seeing how they were going to make it sweet.

i just thought it an odd description, because i traditionally expect sausages to be salty,

not necessarily spicy, although that is certainly an option i suppose.

airy may have been the wrong word. perhaps light would have been a better description

of what i expected. but again, crepes as light as i was expecting, i don't expect to really

be able to hold in any kind of meat filling, which is why i was hoping they would show me a

way to make that possible.

i would agree there was buckwheat flour in the batter. i don't mean to imply they weren't

authentic, nor that they were not tasty. they just weren't exactly what i was expecting.

you should understand that in many culinary situations, i have expectations of what is possible for

something (like a crepe), and i'm hopeful that my expectations can be defeated/proven wrong.

i thought ceci-cela's crossiant was quite good, but not as airy and fluffy as i expected.

it may be that my expectations are too high. i will have to try Pain Quotidien next time.

katie, i force myself to have that kind of metabolism by walking everywhere.

crosstown, uptown for anything less than 15-20 blocks. no different than philly, san francisco, or anywhere else i go.

[jeunefilleparis]

katie

the panna cotta was on the house and it was our original dessert choice, in addition since the pc was free, i opted for the lemon tart,, the rice krispie treat sundae just seemed too dull, though it looked good

katie call me for other info,,,,,,,,,,,

[Pan]

For those of you who've never had the pleasure of meeting Lauren, not only does she write well and eat panna cotta and all that other stuff, but she's also beautiful and maintains her figure with seeming effortlessness. Where do you pack it in, Lauren?

Nice reviews, Lauren and herbacidal.

[jeunefilleparis]

For those of you who've never had the pleasure of meeting Lauren, not only does she write well and eat panna cotta and all that other stuff, but she's also beautiful and maintains her figure with seeming effortlessness. Where do you pack it in, Lauren?         

Nice reviews, Lauren and herbacidal.

awww I m blushing, gee Michael,,

well, i really couldnt tell ya, but since I m 24, i d say it mainly has to do with metabolism, but my friends will tell you that since i have no problem walking from avenue A to hudson st, that could help too, i also live in a 5 floor walk up.

while Herb and I ate at le gamin and ino, we noticed the opening of AOC, where boughlahem ( is that spelled anywhere near correctly?) the menu looked quite tasty, i m not sure how much i dug the new decor, but the owner was very kind. I forget what AOC stands for exactly,i ll have to ask again when i m at ino! Anyone been yet?

Lauren