Dinner with Friends

Le Circque

As I have mentioned before my best glam friend is in somewhat straitened circumstances, as he and I both love all things glamourous (even somewhat old world) so it presents an interesting challenge to us.  We've gone to a few restaurant week participating restaurants as one way of handling the situation, not really my favorite idea but this way we can go to fancy restaurants together.  Normally, I don't enjoy the restaurant week menus as the choices are few and they tend to be meat based and mediocre. However, we've  had a good time and some good food.

Last night we went to Le Cirque, a fancy white tablecloth upper east side famous restaurant as part of restaurant week.  It was never really a place on my list of places to go, the circus decor always seemed rather silly to me and completely at odds with the patrons having to be dressed up (although you already know how much I love to be dressed up, I don't feel I should dress for the circus) and so I have never been, but it seemed important to my friend so I made a reservation.  The staff is charming, helpful, well dressed and seems to genuinely want to please, which is wonderful.  I had a lot of fun talking to our waitress about my whiskey choices and the restaurant had the Laguvilin so I was quite excited to taste  finally, though it didn't have the same chocolate smell it had in London, in fact it tickled my nose and made me sneeze.  It was good, though I am still reserving judgment and want to try it again someplace else.  The food was good but not great and we were both surprised by that.  He started out with a shrimp ravioli with excellent pasta and a delicious sauce-warm and inviting and part of me wished I had ordered it.  I started with the sun-choke and grapefruit appetizer-all the elements were good but they never really came together for me.  He then had the braised lamb garnished with a lamb and pistachio sausage and roasted winter vegetables which to me was just ok, the lamb was a bit dry or overcooked.  I couldn't taste the sausage as it had pork in it and anyway it looked too huge to me to be appealing-I really don't eat meat, you see.  I had the scallops and found them a bit tougher than I expected but with good flavor.  A bit of frustration though it fit completely into the old world personality of the restaurant-I was given a fish fork, fish knife, and sauce spoon but the knife and the spoon were designed for right handed people and guess what, ?, I am left handed.  The knife had a certain little scalloped fillip on one side preventing me from cutting the scallops with my left hand and the sauce spoon, as they are supposed to, had a little lip on one side, preventing me from scooping sauce with my left hand.  Being a left-handed person in a right-handed world is sometimes difficult in a way that doesn't bother me but is sometimes difficult in a way that does.  Our charming waitress brought me a regular knife.  And why was every course of mine served on plates with frolicking circus monkeys and his were all white?

I didn't see a chocolate dessert on the restaurant week menu (another reason to hate the idea) so I ordered the chocolate souffle that the staff kept raving about.  I thought it was just ok-no enough chocolate flavor and too much powdered sugar which makes me choke.  But it was lovely with the whiskey.  All the desserts were simply gorgeous.

During our dinner a crotchety old man in a painfully hideous outfit sat down at the table behind us.  Baggy raspberry pants, topsiders, a teal sweater (that looked really cheap and acrylic but probably wasn't, it was probably Jane Bharnes) with raspberry stripes and some sort of medallion of stripes in between the stripes, and a raspberry polo collar (at least he matched, for which I am a fanatic and have to respect in others-even in ugly others). He turned out to be as awful as his ensemble as he seemed to scream at the waitress yet mumble at her at the same time-his fork wasn't the right size, his onions weren't cut to the right size, his lemons need changing, as did his drink.  I couldn't really hear him but he kind of damaged my glam friend's evening a bit-as he monopolized the waitress' time so we had much less of her attention.  We wanted our check because we were ready to go on to our next engagement.  My glam friend's grumbling imitation of this terrible man was spot on and hysterical!

Then we went to the lower east side to a dive bar.  I don't get to do that very often but how fun it was to go from  a glamorous fancy upper eastside institution-me in Yves Saint Laurent, Galliano, and Valentino and he in Tom Ford and Dior to a dive bar (that wasn't sticky!)!!!???!?!!  I had a blast, since we met a few of my friend's friends (who I always enjoy talking to).  Sadly I couldn't stay there too long because my generous and wonderful husband was waiting for me at home and I wanted to have some time with him before I went to sleep.

Dinner in London: Roast

On Saturday night of our long weekend we had a reservation at Roast, recommended by a British friend. It was really a beautiful place, in the Borough Market on the other side of the Thames which is still considered the cool up and coming neighborhood.  It served high fashion high end food that we loved. We started out with cocktails which was rather exciting as there is way too much beer around and much as I want to look like a native I refuse to drink it. I do love a cocktail. I had a Gibson served in an old fashioned coupe glass with an onion soaked Campari filled shot glass-the waiter put it down in front of me with no explanation and walked away.  I called over a man in a suit, thinking he was the sommelier and could explain but alas he was the restaurant's manager and didn't know but brought me the bartender who created the drink.  We became fast friends immediately!  I could either sip alternately of each glass (which seemed like a lot of trouble to me) or I could pour the campari onions into the Gibson, which is exactly what I did-delish! For dinner I started with the smoked trout and moved on to the roast scallops. The smoked trout I get in the US smokes beautifully but looks kind of like "smoked whitefish" but the trout at Roast looked more like smoked salmon with a firmer smokier texture and flavor-different yes, unexpected, yes, but wonderful.  My husband and friend had Scottish egg appetizer (my friend loved hers-very flavorful, good crunch and the pea shoots added a nice texture/flavor, but my husband took it all apart and didn't eat the poached egg.  It's very rare that he is willing to try something and that he can find an appetizer he likes so I was proud of him for tasting this.   They both had the 

I had the roast chicken my friend with the lemon thyme and a side of roasted potatoes, my husband doesn't care about sauce so he let the waiter bring the bread sauce, which was a new thing for us but apparently very British.  It tasted a bit like grits, which is exactly what our friend suggested it would taste like-needed some sea salt at the very least if you ask me.  They both felt that the chicken had very good flavor and crunchy skin, moist flesh....the potatoes were really yummy, could have maybe used a bit more flavor in them, but the outsides were exceptionally crisp.

For dessert she had the blood orange & grapefruit sorbet (which is called water ice in old British terms) for dessert--very flavorful & zippy along with the dessert wine the manager suggested. 

 Then, because Roast is also a whiskey bar I had whiskey with dessert.

I had already made friends with the restaurant manager and the bar tender, chatting about how to drink what the waiter put in front of me without explanation. The bartender continued to send over whiskey to taste! I finally settled on the Lagavulin (unfortunately, the waiter made a little mistake and brought be the Laphroaig, which I liked too but not as much, though it gave me the opportunity to find the Lagavulin when I got back home and though unbeknownst to me at that moment I would  11 days in the future) which smelled like chocolate and was incredibly delicious so I thought it would go well with the chocolate dessert the manager created for me and a different one for my husband. I had the deeply rich chocolate garnish from one of the menu options-the texture was that of a pots de creme, heavier than mousse. My husband had the garnish from some other dessert which was a vanilla ice cream filled with chocolate brownie pieces-both delicious for our palettes.

Over all a wonderful time was had by all!

London for the Weekend

My husband and I had the great privilege of going to London over President's weekend-a marvelous but frustratingly short trip. The flight there was completely full (in trips past we had 3-ish seats to ourselves which lets you lay down, after a small bottle of champagne I can then actually sleep for 2-3 hours, then I'm fine for the rest of the trip). My husband can sleep no matter where we are and I am jealous of that. We were stuck in the window and middle and really uncomfortable. The flight was uneventful after that and I did get to watch "Bringing Up Baby" one of my absolute favorite movies, certainly my favorite Katherine Hepburn. I was also able to watch "Bright Star", a movie about the 19th Century poet, John Keats.  Visually,spectacular-bringing the costumes to life for me in a very special way-my mom and I often read historical romance novels about the Regency Period of English history (a la Jane Austen) so seeing the costumes "alive" was exciting for me. It was a time of salons and witty repartee-the art of conversation and of letters so I was really looking forward to hearing it. Alas I was disappointed-the acoustics of the plane were so dreadful, I could barely hear a word!  When next my husband goes to Blockbuster I will ask him to rent it or buy it for me.

Landing without incident we went to the Heathrow Express, a train that goes from Heathrow to Paddington Station and one we have taken before with much success, however Friday that was not to be the case. In trips past, we happen to stay near Paddington so it was easy to get on the one train and go, walk three blocks and we were done. This time, we had to take a train from one terminal to the Heathrow Express Terminal, then wait another 12 minutes for the actual Heathrow Express then to Paddington then in a taxi to my company's office where we were meeting my friend and leaving the luggage until the end of the day.  Nor do I remember the previously easier train being quite so expensive-it was 18 pounds a person (about $28). We took a (pre-ordered) taxi back to the airport which was much much nicer, heavenly, in comparison, much cheaper and is what we will continue to do in the future.
We arrived in the office and met my friend and lots of new ones! Also meeting a woman that I talk to and work with all the time and she was as incredibly fabulous in person as she is over the phone!!!! We toured the office, had a coffee, talked, then wandered around the office neighborhood.  The last time we went to London we discovered Caffe Nero, a chain of Italian coffee bars established before the coffee revolution and now there are at least 6 other coffee bar chains, not even including Satrbucks. But Caffe Nero, we were very happy to see survived the years because it has the most divine hot chocolate in the UK and better than any I have had in France (shocking, I know).

If we lived in London, I wouldn't go near the place! How many calories do we think are in that 10 oz cup of whole milk and chocolate!?!?!?!?! (please don't answer that)

The only good shops in the area were Habitat (Conran's in the US) and Heal's (not in the US, tragically) and we had a blast in both.  In Habitat, I fell in love with black coupe champagne glasses on VERY long stems, we bought a few everyday kitchen things in fuscia which always makes me smile!

There is a gorgeous fixture at Heals that I am still thinking about for my living room.

Aside from the cool, urban, fun pieces at both shops-nothing is terribly expensive, which makes acquiring that much more fun. My fashion friend reminds me over the years that good design does not have to be expensive and I am happy to agree with him.

We had lunch at a Japanese fast food joint and my husband's grilled teriyaki chicken over rice was much better than my prawns and Udon noodles, unfortunately, I noticed they had sushi only after I ordered the noodles. Oh well. We went back to the office to collect our things and had a marvelous time, fantasizing with the "girls" what to use my new stemware for at my next dinner party as I would never serve champagne in them-only flutes.

We got back to my friend's apartment and it is gorgeous! Huge! Very impressive! I wanted to wrest it from her and move my own things in immediately! :). We relaxed a bit and began the trek to the gastro pub we planned on for dinner, called the Washington but they don't take reservations, so when we got there around 8:30 there was not a table to be found. We stood around with eagle eyes for a little while but nothing seemed in danger of opening up. We were all getting a little sick of wandering and waiting so we went to a Greek place which was ok but I learned a new way of making grilled cheese. Just stick the cheese on the grill and serve with toasted pita-delicious. I can't wait to do this at home! The Haloumi was firm and salty with a much less grainy texture than feta and I loved it! And the warm fresh pita was a perfect foil for it. The rest of the meal was mediocre-their burgers  were too thin and the fries were under cooked, my prawns on toast were too smothered in pink mayonnaise and the toast, while it looked perfect (golden and buttery) was wet and soggy from the water running out of the lettuce next to it. Oh well, again.

The next morning we slept in because my husband and I had been awake for about 24 hours the day before so it seemed wise. My friend and I finally got up and made a noisy breakfast in order to wake my husband. Roasted eggs on that glorious European bread (plain supermarket bread there is dense and flavorful rather than the fluffy useless Wonder bread we have here). We left the apartment and set out for parts unknown...! Oxford Circus. Upon exiting the train station we first caught sight of H&M, and then Top Shop-with one of the largest men's department I have ever seen. 2 full floors! My husband was in raptures and we all had fun picking things out for him though may I say, no one in the group is as fashion forward as I?  He bought a very cute navy jacket and a terrible sweatshirt (remember how dressed up I am? I hate sweatshirts).  We had lunch at a pretend pub but the food was good-I had a smoked haddock fishcake which was really interesting but breaded and deep fried so I ordered only 1. Dessert was full of chocolate and luscious. Then we finally arrived at Zara Home!! I had been dying to go there since we set foot on the plane! Did you know there was Zara Home???? We found it accidentally in Barcelona 3 years ago and I have been in love ever since.  I write to them constantly asking for a NY store. We make sure to plan it into our Paris trips and now London! There are some in Mexico for anyone who goes there.  We bought some gorgeous things including some old-fashions with silver skulls (cool urban things not gross scary ones) printed on them as my husband just adores cool urban skeletons! I bought the paisley dessert plates from the collection pictures below and they actually look quite interesting under the skeleton glasses if I wanted to serve dessert in the glasses.  And I  bought the largest of the towels you see below for my bathroom guest towel arrangement (the bottom of the pile, for a bit of pizazz in a tan, gold and black bathroom).  I never leave Zara home without a towel-they are the most silky glorious things you have ever touched!  

Sadly by then it was time to go back to the apartment to deal with dinner, at Roast, a modern British uber-stylish place-with cocktails (FINALLY!) and recommended by a British friend. More about that tomorrow.

Ballet

Last Friday night a good friend and I went to Lincoln Center to see the Balanchine choreographed The Sleeping Beauty. We went on a special event which included a cocktail party and a backstage tour before the performance. Overall it was an experience I am really glad to have had, going backstage and coming out onto the stage to look into the audience was an exquisite experience I will long remember. The theater itself is gorgeous and I have not even mentioned the joy of entering the Lincoln Center complex. The majesty of history and excellence envelopes you as you start up the steps.

The ballet itself, I'm very sorry to say was interminable. I really am sorry o say that, I really wanted to love it, partially because my friend actually took me as a birthday gift and partially because I wanted more of the majesty of history and excellence but I got instead the same 6 movements performed over and over and over and over and over, ok, you get the point.  I am trying to give leeway to the costumes since I don't know very much about theater costume history and maybe I am missing key piece of information. I do however know a lot about fashion history and I can easily say those costumes really confused me. We start out with men in a vaguely 17th century look-think the Three Musketeers and women in gowns that were a little 18th century a little 16th and 17th thrown in the mix as well.  Then we move into a scene where the men are in sailor costumes that look like little boy sailor suits only in olive satin with red and white striped t-shirts underneath. Please don't ask me what that was about because if my life depended on it I could not hazard a guess. Then we move into a gold and brown Victorian (19th Century) hunting scene and then finally (yes F-I-N-A-L-L-Y, 2 and a 1/2 hours later) into an exquisite 18th Century ball gown scene. Here, the men and women were all from the same century and they were simply beautiful. But in reading the programme it was to have started out in the 18th century (very unclear) then everyone sleeps for 100 years (hence the Victorian costuming) and the prince who rescues everyone...what...brings them back to the 18th century and we all look like Marie Antoinette again in pastel bejeweled (though very beautiful) gowns????!!!!!!?!?!?  And the princess of sleeping beauty namesake was in a tutu the whole time-that at least I get but the really ironic funny thing is that in the real 18th century ballerinas, opera singers, and actresses were considered women of low birth and would never have been let into a ball of any kind let alone a royal one as a guest. But that is neither here nor there really. And one other marvelous costuming feat: the evil Queen who puts sleeping beauty into her 100 year sleep has 4 fantastic minions. Their costumes and movements make them appear like  bugs-so much so that in their last scene they crouch down together and some blackish deep silvery panels on their backs move gracefully up and down. It was enchanting (although I detest bugs of any kind and never want to be near any but when you have the opportunity to see them up close and dead pinned into a thick Lucite case you see just how very beautiful their black bodies are).

I spoke to my fashion friend about it over the weekend because he has a degree in dance. I am desperately trying to understand how this ballet survived it's 150 year history and is continually performed and loved apparently.  My fashion friend explained that Balanchine is a form over function minimalist choreographer so his ballets would be very clean and simple even if filled with too many characters and too many colors. Did every fairy who came to pay homage to the newly born princess really have to have her own dance-especially when I would swear to you each was exactly the same? Couldn't they have all been together on the stage and danced? And if they did each have to have their own dance-could they have not preformed them at the same time? I think that would have the whole scene so much more depth. And if form is what was truly important and if you are at the caliber of dancing at Lincoln Center shouldn't all the forms be perfect?  When there were group performances, all the arm and leg extensions were always perfect-all at the same time and the same height (Bob Fosse was another big proponent of technical precision and I applaud him for it) but there were so many little missteps on landings and that really is unforgivable, especially if you are all about form.

But, as I say, I am so very glad to have had the experience and I would really like to go to more ballet.  And I will, apparently my best glam friend's ex boyfriend is a very senior exec at American Ballet Theater and I have begun to express my intense interest in tickets...

Matsugen

I have been wanting to go to Matsugen since it opened in 2008 (there are a lot of restaurants for me to try in NY, and believe me I do!). I'm normally not such a fan of Jean Georges, I prefer Daniel Boulud's restaurants but I do love Japanese food! And I so love interesting exciting new styles of food and just because I haven't loved a chef's work before doesn't mean I won't like it this time. I finally went last week.

The trains were running haphazardly adding a layer of frustration and the "2 hour hike" from the station was rather a pain.  But once I saw the exquisite old "Victorian wedding cake" concrete building I knew I was falling in love.  The interior was very Japanese, clean woods, white tables, and the original steel girders holding up the building also painted white and was a rather glamorous combination.

Normally I ignore restaurant week menus but my glam best friend is in somewhat straitened circumstances so we have to be very careful. He loves fancy things as much as I do.  What I don't ususally like about the special menus are the lack of choice and the mediocrity of the choices there are-even in fancy restaurants. Perhaps it's I don't eat meat and so often the main course option is chicken, steak, or sea bass none of which I eat (though I will eat fish if it's raw or smoked but a fillet tastes like a steak to me).

I looked through all the restaurant week menus and found them wanting-except Matsugen. Japanese is one of my favorites and the menu sounded lovely. I chose it, told my friend and made a reservation. The food was as delicious it sounded. We started out with edamame garnished with grains of sweet, spicy, and salty, making them much more interesting than your run of the mill edamame.  And-they were dry, they didn't feel like they had just emerged from boiling water and I loved the care that suggested. Next was a plate of fried soba noodles. Interesting flavor but too skinny for my taste so they were just about texture. Settled at the bottom of the plate was salty chopped fried rosemary and I would have wished that was more incorporated through the dish as it added so much flavor and depth.  Next we had a bento box of sorts. 4 little dishes on a larger plate, each a tiny meal unto itself. A tiny pile of warm spinach with a sesame paste; 2 tiny rectangles of silky tofu and a salad of seaweed; a bowl of sea urchin jelly (with a sea urchin hidden in the jelly; and 2 tiny breaded and deep fried shrimp over a spicy mayonnaise and a shisito pepper.  Next we had 2 pieces of exquisitely colored, rich silky tuna sushi (perhaps not quite in proportion to the rice but I will survive) that was marinaded in soy sauce so no extra was needed. Really. Next we had a 1 inch by 3 inch piece of cod in miso sauce, also rich and silky with a deliciously smoky skin. Then we had a cold soba noodle dish with a bit of broth at the bottom and sesame seed paste droplets with toasted nori strips as a garnish-amazing! In authentic Japanese style they brought over the steaming hot broth flavored with buckwheat powder (some soba noodles are made from buckwheat as these were so it all went together, beautifully) to pour into the last bits of broth when finished with the noodles. I've had this before in other restaurants and have enjoyed the flavor more but this certainly wasn't bad...
The dessert that came on the prix fixe menu was a vanilla custard of sorts. The chef refused to substitute the chocolate dessert for it so I had to pay extra for it (tacky, huh?) but I won't waste calories on food I don't like. It was a warm chocolate tartlet with yummy runny chocolate oozing out(this is a Jean-Goerge restautant aftr all, and his chocoloate torte was the first and created quite fashion for it, I am happy to say) and green tea ice cream which I ignored but my friend ate.  We loved it all and want to come for the real menu when my glam friend is back on his feet.

Then, on the way home an exceedingly drunk man was on the train. He wobbled over to the doorway I was standing in front of and I was mildly concerned as it turns out I had every reason to be. He soon fell over and his head hit my shoulder then because he was behind me I can't tell you exactly what happened but as I was moving away from him and the disgusting experience somehow the length of his body slid down the length of mine. I finally succeeded in getting away from him with the pole and someone's bag blocking my speedy way I saw that he had landed and was stretched out on the floor. I stopped hyperventilating after a moment and heard one or two people asking, "are you all right"? I lifted my head to say yes but a little shaken when I realized they were not asking me!?!?!?!? They were worried about the drunk on the floor!?!?!? Not I,  the victim. I moved to the other side of the car and a man stood up for me to sit down and really did ask me if I was ok. I'll get over it soon but thank God I wasn't wearing fur or that it was the summer where he would have been touching my skin or that he had the power to ruin my glorious evening.

Wine Tasting

I have no sense of smell. People are often shocked to hear that given what a foodie I am but that is not where I have trouble it's with wine, I think. Or maybe I just don't like wine.
To me it all tastes the same-usually sour and often bitter.  However I read about it so that I am informed in the basics and periodically I go to wine tastings. I went to a delightful wine bar last night and had a lot of fun there and tonight I went to a kosher wine tasting, Covenant from the Napa Valley and it was quite fascinating. 

Last night an old friend and I went to SD26 which I have mentioned quite happily before but this time I got to try the wine bar which I have been dying to do since it opened.  There is a refrigerated shelf holding each wine hermetically sealed with no air and a spigot. You put a credit card like card into the slot and then your glass under the spout, push either  the 1, 3, or 5 once button and your wine comes softly splashing out.  I am sorry to say I didn't write down the wines we chose but there was a syrah I enjoyed very much-it soft and flavorful.  We had two appetizers the raviolo with truffle and a raw egg inside that gets poached as the ravioli cooks and divine mozzarella with roasted squash and fried artichoke hearts. What a marvelous way to winterize a caprese salad! We really enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Tonight, I went to a kosher wine tasting from a vintner who started, Covenant, his latest project  in 2003-he set out to make the best kosher wine in 5000 years. He buys grapes from important vineyards around the Napa and Russian River valley then rents space from a winery to do his aging and wine making. As he pointed out there is nothing un-kosher about grapes but it's the various process' that make a wine kosher, again, as he pointed out out-all wine is kosher it's a matter of keeping it that way or preventing it from becoming un-kosher. All fascinating!  Right now he has a chardonnay (called Covenent Lavan, which means white in Hebrew) and two versions of a cabernet sauvignon the first was called red C carrying a black label with a large sweeping red letter “c on it-very clever. The second of the red wines was finer as it had none of the tannins of the skins pressed into it. The next wine he is going to bottle is a blend of grapes made 1/2 from the mountaintop vineyards and half from the valley floor vineyards but both owned by Rudd wines. It sounds fascinating as a concept and I would love to taste it but all 100 cases have been spoken for and it will be over $100 a bottle and totally wasted on me. He was a very interesting man and spoke with all of his passion-which makes it exciting to listen to.  He even tried to help me smell the lemons in the chardonnay that everyone else (said so anyway) smelled but to no avail. All I could tell him was that I could smell a difference between the white and the red-he seemed satisfied with that and so was I. I think I will stick to the cocktails I so love.