Per Se
Per Se, the definition of traditional fine dining. Well, The French Laundry would be the ultimate goal, but any Thomas Keller restaurant is going to be of that calibre, that standard, that makes other chefs who they are.
This is also reflected in the fact that the famous blue doors of TFL are also present here, so I spent a few minutes, all dressed up, trying to get a good photo of myself, and of the doors, and then just being continually disppointed at how bad I looked! Lol! The staff waiting for us must have been mighty amused, because one of the waitstaff cheekily said that there was a 20 photo limit here, and I likewise responded with, "but what if I delete them and keep taking more!"
Wow. This place immediately feels more spacious than Eleven Madison Park, and for some unknown reason, also follows a stepped-level format - there's a slightly lower floor, and this upper floor after like, 4 stairs. How interesting, I wonder if it has something to do with the buildings themselves, or if there's a reason for this style.
Per Se, a high tech restaurant? No way! Are you serious, they have a digital wine list! What a great idea as a paper saving measure, though I kind of miss the massive phone book weighted stuff, like how Rockpool's wine list was just the biggest folder I've ever handled. This was quite easy to use, and it's always a good sign when the waitstaff breeze through this so easily to be able to guide you to certain pages.
Alas, there's no non alcoholic drink pairing here, but I was feeling special, so I decided to choose a nice red.
WOAH. ZALTOS! WHAT! Oh my goodness my dream has come true, I'm at a restaurant with these gorgeous Zalto stems I must be in heaven! This was a Rioja Alta 2009 Gran Reserva 904. I had mentioned that the barolo I saw on there was super tempting, but I also wanted to change the style of wine I drink and go for something super aged and mellowed out, instead of tannins that would potentially be very tongue-ripping halfway through. Good choice, this was very, very drinkable!
Some of the surroundings. You can see it overlooks Colombus Circle really nicely, and there's even a fireplace here! Wow!
And here's my drink posing with the fireplace. Cheers!
The starter starts out really strong! I mean, look at that plate! That is a big, bold, statement maker! Wow!
What a cute, super tiny little cone! I didn't catch exactly what this was, but afterwards I heard it mentioned at another table, so I think it's a kingfish tartare. It was delicious!
There were also some cheeky fancy cheese and biscuits!
More decor, this time the lamps because my friend noticed they were unusual. If you look really closely, those are actually laundry symbols. Another reference to their California home!
Wow. Look. At. That. This is their classic dish, the one that's been on their menu since the beginning. That is a beautiful quenelle of caviar in very lovely cream! The oysters were so soft too, and the tapioca pearls were quite subtle and worked really well to acccent the caviar for me, as if it made the caviar have texture on top of flavour! Look at the massive mound of plates too. That's pretty insane. In fact, a lot of the plating here at the beginning reminds me a lot that restaurants put a lot of thought into their servingware, as haute cuisine should. It's just something nice and really enhances the entire experience!
So I had actually interpreted the menu incorrectly. I thought that the menu was presented in a way that there was the Oysters and Pearls, and that the Royal Ossetra Caviar was an optional course. My friend and the staff quickly clarified and explained that it was a choice of either or, and that was something we'd need to decide for a few dishes, so we decided to alternate in order to experience every item on the menu. It was the easiest way, but also the most expensive! This cost an extra $60!
Salt for the next course. There was a lot of salt choices! And the tiniest spoon I've ever seen! I don't even remember what all the different salts were, something smoked, something French, something charcoal, and so on! This was for my next dish, and next dish only.
The way these guys put parentheses around certain terms of the menu is pretty quirky, as if they know it's not actually what they've made, but that it's similar enough or meant to be of that style, that they've decided to quote it!
This foie gras was pretty spectacular looking because of how it;'s been wrapped. If you look really closely, that foie is actually wrapped in a green striped, very soft textured outside! I actually had no idea what that was, but the whole thing tasted pretty good!
This little bundle of bread was to be paired with the foie gras, and it was a warm flakey little bun. I broke off pieces of this bread, spread the foie on, and then tried out a few different salts. The salt was mainly to add texture, said my waiter, and that he himself preferred to not add the salt, but that it was all down to personal preference. I also believed it didn't need the extra salt, but adding salt didn't detract from the experience either.
Anyway, as I was enjoying my foie covered bread, I had waitstaff come along and TAKE AWAY my remaining bread, only to replace it with a brand new fresh warm one! What? "Foie gras and the bread taste best when the bread is warm!" they claimed. Oh, ok... if you say so. I tore a piece off this new bread, and enjoyed more foie gras on it, but I ate it a little quicker for fear of it cooling down again and THEY CAME ALONG AND TOOK IT AWAY AND GAVE ME A NEW ONE AGAIN. I couldn't win! I felt really bad because I was enjoying it anyway and it wasn't like the bread was getting cold? I thought it was kind of wasteful, and really didn't know what was going on with this. Maybe this is just the formal style so everything is just absolutely perfect because it had to be?
"mousseline"
Green almonds! So this is how you use them in cooking! And I love that there were ramps being served in this dish. Ramps are a garlicky type green that taste pretty amazing, and I got really excited because again, it's not something you see in Aus. The trout was pretty up there too. It actually reminded me a lot of Tetsuya's confit ocean trout, in terms of how soft and melty it was. The two are completely different though, so I'm not comparing, rather, it's just interesting to see what foods at what restaurants, trigger memories of other restaurants I'd been to. I really liked this dish!
Yay langoustines! The base of this was a sort of risotto, and so I was a bit apprehensive as to whether or not I'd actually fully enjoy it, just because I find that I don't like risottos no matter how we'll they've been made. The langoustines felt a little over, but only because I've had an experience at Saint Peter where yabbies were so borderline *just* cooked that it's my benchmark for crustacea.
Bread course time! What a cute little soft bread. I love the flower shape, and it was designed in a way that made each "petal" easy to pull off. The butter was also really nice, but it was hard to see exactly how much butter there was in the dish. I think this one was a cultured butter, but I can't remember - I just know there was only one place I dined at that the "culturedness" was really prominent in the flavour. For some reason, when I saw this butter dish, I actually missed Sepia's perfect sphere of butter. I wonder why, could I be getting sentimental? I remember not really giving it much thought when I had it, but now, it just seems like it was a much more impressive shape to achieve!
Quail! I love quail! This was a cute little dish because it was essentially fried bird and onion, and it was a great combo! This one was cooked really nicely and I preferred it over the langoustine dish.
And the red meat dish. This was the standard option, while a sirloin of Miyazaki wagyu was the special option that cost an extra 100USD. Yeah. Imagine paying 100USD on top of the existing cost of the meal for a similar sized chunk of really, really good, fatty, lusciously melt in the mouth cow. Okay yeah it was also worth the money, and I liked it better than my lamb only after I got past the crust. Basically, I tried a bite of the outside of the wagyu, and it was like an ordinary steak, and I didn't think of it as anything too special. My initial reaction was, I felt that Japanese restaurants, like Waku Ghin prepared their beef far better. It wasn't until my friend reached the middle, where it was a nice and rare, that it became mindblowingly good. Woah. I had to take another taste and yes, now I see why it cost so much, it was definitely the elite level of deliciousness that I expected! Woooah definitely splurge on the wagyu if it's available!
The only comment I'll make about my lamb dish, in contrast, is that I'd been nursing my single glass of wine all the way through the dinner, since I can't pretty much at all without getting woozy. I knew that the last few sips would be perfect timing for my lamb, so I was getting excited to finish a glass, since I hadn't done that in ages.
Then along comes the waiter and he just tops up my glass! He refilled it back to almost a whole glass again! Oh no! He must have thought that I was stretching out a single drink, when in fact, I was just observing my own safety limits. Now I can't even say that I managed to finish a glass of wine here! I felt so bad! Ahahaha. I made an immense effort to drink as much as I could to do the wine justice, but I think I only made it to maybe 1.25 glasses worth before calling it a valiant effort.
I actually only remember this as a "donut" and honestly, couldn't tell you if it was sweet or savoury, or if it had a filling, or anything about it, really. However, good thing I have a copy of the menu for reference and it totally makes sense now! This is the transition-from-savoury-to-dessert cheese course!
I also didn't realise it at the time, but this meant the meal represented both winter and spring, for featuring truffles and ramps in the same sitting. Is that a thing? Imagine instead of a restaurant going through four seasons in their menu, making eight seasons instead, the four main ones, and then special, fleeting sets between then main seasons for super inventive hybrid flavours! Maybe that's what chef's specials are for! Now that's an interesting thought!
Woooah what. Yeah, you just got spammed with pictures. You know why? Because we got spammed with food. All of the above came out at once. What???
That is literally how our table looked for desserts. Where do we even start???
I am actually not going to write this in the order that the photos display in. The captioned desserts are displayed this way because that's the order the menu has it. I will instead, write about them in the order I feel like it! Hopefully the descriptions are clear so that no one gets confused about which dessert I'm on about.
Firstly, the ice cream. Being ice cream, I felt it was the most sensible option. It was quite a nice cream and I liked the thick, sticky marmalade on the side. Not too bad, but I was here for speed more than anything else.
The trifle was next, which was actually really delicious and followed the cream, sponge, jelly format. I believe the cream was actually coconut flavoured which was nice and I totally wasn't expecting it!
The cappucino cup looked pretty cool, and it was an espresso semifreddo inside, to be paired with the donuts. I think I kept calling it the espresso or cappucino cup and I actually tried to see what happened when I tried to drink the foam, and didn't really get much success out of that haha. Gotta spoon that semifreddo!
Lastly, the posset. I'd actually forgotten that's what it was because they pronounced it "poss-ay", where as at Dinner by Heston, I asked how it was pronounced and they said "poss-set". Who was right?!?!?! What a mystery! Okay, I really liked this one. It had a marshmallow, and that marshmallow was so cute, I found it fun to eat! I also loved the fact that there's jelly on top, because I love jelly. I sound like such a kid right now, describing my love of marshmallows and jellies. There were even limey-gummies, the very tiny, green looking cubes. They were a firmer jelly than the hibiscus jelly, and added a really nice zing to the dish. That was definitely really nice. And, the lemon posset itself. Yes, such great lemon flavour! It's super tangy, just the way I like it! The actual lemon itself was similar to how Dinner by Heston made it, and in my mind, they were equal. That one was also fun because it was encased in a pastry that I was warned about that would crack suddenly. This, was more fun because it was pretty and I felt young because the elements included "candy" type preparations. While they were vastly different in technique, tradition and whatnot, I liked this one better. This was my favourite dessert here!
The macarons were super small, so I ate mine, but I kept the nougat since it was wrapped, so that I could enjoy it another day.
But wait, there's more! So many sweets! Lastly, the waiter came out with a massive wooden box that absolutely glowed with the shine on these truffles. There were several selections, of all different colours, each of them perfectly made and super glossy. It was hard to decide choosing a flavour! Crazy me, I ended up getting this one. It was a miso and shichimi pepper flavoured truffle, and woah, it was nice and actually also packed a small punch! It was like a chilli chocolate but one that I could tolerate and the flavours worked really well! I do like this, it was a different kind of chocolate experience!
For tea, they actually had a much more interesting selection than Eleven Madison Park. Okay, I can't really say, I actually think both menus contained pu-erh. But this one had a very old vintage, so I asked about it, and they said something about the tea being healthy. Oh. Do I look like someone who cares about being healthy? No way, I just wanted to know what a super aged pu-er tastes like! So I ordered this.
Did you know that that's a teapot that looks like it's the Jing brand? If so, you'd be right! When I saw it, I thought to myself, that looks like a Jing pot! So I looked underneath, and yep, as I guessed! I can't believe I spotted a brand of teapot by how it looks!
This was like no tea I've had before. This tea tasted mushroomy. Like deep, earthy, and strong. Wooah. That was a cool flavour I've never tasted before! I'm so glad I got to try this pu-erh!
The waiter also offered us a kitchen tour, which was pretty cool! I am not sure if all diners got this offer, but it might have been to do with a little intermission we had (read: bathroom break) and the waiter chatted to me about my holiday here, how long I was spending, where I was planning on eating at, etc. He gave me a few extra options - a restaurant (Gramercy Tavern), a steakhouse (Keen's Steakhouse) and bars (I don't really remember the bar one, something about a rabbit?), so I kept those in mind, though I didn't really plan on spending insane amounts of money after this restaurant and wanted to keep it low key (spoiler alert: famous last words. Or thoughts, in this case).
I also wondered if it had to do with how long we'd spent at the restaurant. We'd been here four hours already, maybe the table was actually somehow booked after us? We had a 5:30pm booking, so maybe in some kind of extreme case, this table was booked for 9:30? Would they even risk a double table like that? I am not sure how these restaurants operate, but if it was booked, it might explain the rush of desserts all at once. That also really confused me, but I also then started thinking about the skill of the restaurant and waitstaff for being able to control these situations without creating a sense of urgency. What if the offer of a kitchen tour was a completely artful way of making us speed up without even hinting that there was a time constraint? I will continue running all these conspiracy simulations through my mind!
And here's the bill. Ouch. Wow, ouch. That's some real ouch right there. That was a one thousand dollar bill! For two! What! It says $800 because Per Se requires a $100 deposit per person during booking, hence you have to add that to the final total. That's crazy! I think Eleven Madison Park clocked in maybe a couple of hundred dollars cheaper. Man, fine dining outside of Australia really is expensive!
However, it was a wonderful experience and I love that these guys also do handwritten bills. Definitely worth the cost if you take in absolutely everything about the place, and understand the significance of the Thomas Keller name.
Once that was settled, we got our kitchen tour! Wow, the dining area was so serene that there was only a low hum of conversation, but here in the kitchen, it was controlled chaos. You could feel the energy and urgency, with the chefs and expeditors and all these other staff coordinating with each other to make sure that each dish was plated perfectly, and ready at just the right time. Such a busy place, and you wouldn't know it from how well everything just works in the dining room!
As I was leaving, the most crazy thing happened. The maitre d' who'd initially joked about the 20 photo limit was here and spotted us leaving! He even checked in again and was like "did you stick to the limit????" and I was like... what if I don't tell you! Ahahaha. That was kind of a surprise moment and I was impressed he remembered!
Speaking of cheeky interactions, Per Se is the only restaurant that I've been to, that enforces a formal dress code. Like, guys must wear suits, and ladies to match. This level of grooming and dress up almost made me back out of the restaurant because it sounded so daunting and almost too... posh and stiff. However, the actual staff were nothing like that. They were relaxed and super friendly! I think the dress code more controls the type of people that come in, which sets a certain demographic and a real sense of "I am here for a purpose" which works with the restaurant's aesthetics. Don't be afraid of the dress code and take pleasure in dressing up and and having a great night!
Thanks Per Se for a great meal, and thanks for the morning-after care package of chocolate biscuits!
Eleven Madison Park
Oh you gorgeous place. I remember seeing Eleven Madison Park come in 4th in San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best. It sounded like a nice place so I wrote it on my list. Little did I know that a year later, it'd come first! All of a sudden, my "little" restaurant was the most sought after in the world. Then it closed for renovations, and when it re-opened, was no longer the "best" restaurant in the world. Phew! That meant it would be *slightly* easier for me to get a booking. As a fully prepaid restaurant, the stakes were high, but all my bookings have been successful, where an online booking is available, so it was on!
I promised myself no spoilers, but considering I follow them and Daniel Humm, it's hard to completely eliminate all news, but I like the odd tidbit now and again, because it keeps my eye on the prize. However, I also caved into reading the Eleven Madison Park cookbook (first one) at my local cafe and I actually liked it a lot more after that. I'd considered it to be almost too "perfectionist" after reading an article about Noma's chaos versus EMP's order, but it actually sounded fun, too, and not that formal.
Welcome to the table. My friend and I got a cosy, couchy corner, and because the couch ran the entire corner, we actually had a lot of space! The green velvet was so pretty looking too. This box is present on every table, and is made by an artist who also has an installation in Madison Square Park. Too bad I'm no good at remembering names, and none of the sculptures I saw came to mind when seeing this box.
Anyway, this is a box to put your mobile phones in. It's not compulsory, but they do make it an option if you really want it, but with one caveat - if you put your phone in the box, they take the box away, and don't return it until the end of the meal. Man it was so tempting!! I've never felt so compelled to surrender my phone into a mystery box at a restaurant, but at the same time, I was thinking, what if I need my phone to take a picture because my camera couldn't do it? Oh no. I'm so sad. I decided to keep my phone as a backup camera.
A poor shot of the space. We were on the "upper" floor, with the lower floor only being a few steps down, where all these staff were headed.
The layout of this floor is actually really important to note. There are tables along the edges, then there's the table in the middle and the bay where the wines are kept. This means that the only real walkway between these tables, is actually a sort of oval shape following the gap between the wall tables and the centre table. To keep this organised and to prevent any crashes, all the staff - and I mean ALL - have to walk around clockwise when they enter the stairs, and all the way around to get to the kitchen, and those leaving the kitchen do the same - walking clockwise around to exit at the stairs, or even to get to the table immediately to their right - they have to go all the way around.
This allows them to work at high speed in a small space with very low risk, so it was fascinating to see how "busy" this made them all look! It was crazy, like a massive human roundabout, but it worked, and it was sort of like some insane high speed perfection.
I also actively sought out to spot this little installation. I'd seen it mere hours before my meal here, and good thing I didn't completely eliminate spoilers, otherwise I would have never thought to look into the corner where this shiny silver balloon is! It's so random but so cute! You can really see Daniel Humm's love of art here.
Here we go! We're starting with a bang! Straight out of winter, and truffle's still in season! We got these cute little truffle dosas to start off with.
The dosa was paired with these two treats, parmesan on the left and I think apple on the right? Look at those leaves lovingly placed on the puree! I love that this was eaten with hands, it was great to dip the truffley dosa into the two and enjoy!
There was also some truffle tea brought out, at roughly the same time. Wow these starters come out quick! This was a really subtle flavour, not overpoweringly truffle, yet so tasty to drink!
Yum potato and truffle! And those were big slices of truffle! I've never seen this size of truffle get served at an Aussie restaurant before! I loved the little soft potato balls underneath the shaved potato the best!
What a great start!
I chose the juice pairing for this, but alas, no Zaltos. That's okay, Riedels work fine too. Just not quite as pleasing to look at haha. The first drink was meant to resemble champagne, and this had a tiny bit of fizziness while being very light and bright. Well, if there's champagne, that's supposed to pair brilliantly with...
Souffle! Well okay, souffle's not the star here.
It's actually this almighty delectable spoonful of caviar! Interesting that it was served on wooden spoons instead of mother of pearl, but it goes so nicely with all the other wooden pieces that have been used so far.
Hahaha!!! Remember Vue de Monde and the awesome deft spoon of chocolate in the super insane perfect chocolate souffle?? Well this was the not so perfect, noob savoury version!
What I mean by that is, the two items were presented separately, and the chef who served this to us recommended taking a spoonful out of the souffle, and then putting the spoonful of caviar in the gap we'd made ourselves.
Well, me and my "oh gosh I wonder if I can make this look as pretty as I've seen a fully trained and experienced waiter can!" kind of... didn't happen. Look at my little nonspecific shaped blob of caviar all off centre in a visibly dug out souffle! Hahaha I guess I should stick to my day job! This was delicious though, I love that the caviar got to warm up in the souffle so it was just the right temperature to eat, and the souffle was full of flavour too! What a cute combination and I love the fun i had putting these two together! I did also sneak in a tiny bite of the caviar separately too!
Wow. This was a different kind of drink. I think it was meant to sort of resemble a gin and tonic in a way, and what a cool concept to put horseradish into a drink! It actually was really pleasant to drink.
Also, look at that massive cube of ice! I feel so lucky to have gotten a massive cube, because those are usually reserved for whiskies! To put a massive cube in a mocktail is pretty epic!
But before the next course, bread! It came in a cute little pouch before I took mine out and placed it on my bread plate. It was lovely butter too! The bread was so light and flakey, it was almost croissant-like in a way? It's hard not to make a mess though, so I ended up with crumbs everywhere!
Look at this blobby thing. So flat and unassuming! However, this is the first of three "choose your own adventure" dishes. At the beginning of the meal, our waiter advised that there would be courses where we'd had to choose one of three dishes, and we had to make the decision at the beginning. After some agonising, the waiter recommended choosing what I liked, rather than what I "should" get. I ended up with the scallops because I love scallops so much, and I totally love getting my fill of sea urchin! I'm such a seafoodie!
And how it looked underneath. The top layer was an alternating set of pickled kohlrabi and smoked scallop frill (I think), and it was so delicious, I love the texture of scallop frills! Then, there were a couple of deep orangey red tongues of sea urchin. Again, I thought that with the colour, they might have been the metallic tasting kind, but they were also very sweet! Hooray! And then the scallop at the bottom. No wonder I had a horseradish based drink, everything paired so well!
Wow a tea based drink this time! This was dark and smokey, and quite interesting - definitely had a savoury flavour to it. I'd actually forgotten that they mentioned rooibos as part of the mixture, so I couldn't stop sniffing it and thinking there was rooibos or something equally sweet smelling in there. I guess my senses aren't too bad after all!
Can you believe I decided to choose the fish over the lobster? What kind of crazy person was I! Lobster I've actually had from Luke's Lobster, and I eat plenty of marron back home, so I decided to eat the fish that I don't usually come by, and that is the story of the one time I chose fish over lobster. I mildly regretted the decision at the time, but not by much. And I certainly didn't regret it by the end of my trip. The fish was actually really nice in texture, though I'd almost say it was a tad over. It could have been marginally softer, but the rectangle shape was fascinating for my brain to process because it makes me wonder what happens to all the wonky bits! To cut it so straight, generates waste. I wonder if that was a staff meal or something instead.
Yeeeah tableside service, this is what I live for!!! I really wanted to go see this in action at Eleven Bridge in Sydney too, but alas, I was never there when it rebranded, and now it's closed. Hence I feel so lucky to see it here! I was marvelling at this so much and was so excited, taking photos and everything that even the table next to us told me, "don't worry, they'll cook it for you!" lol. I must have looked like such an excited child who'd never seen something like that before. Little did they know that I see these often and saw them at Greenmarket, and that I love oyster mushrooms to bits and hate that my local farmer's market doesn't sell them but one slightly further away does, and that I'm sad I don't go there just to get the mushrooms, but at the same time so glad because otherwise I'd spend all my money on oyster mushrooms and other interesting varieties and then get really poor. Haha. Gushing aside, our waiter explained that this was brought out so that people could see what the mushroom actually looked like before it was cooked.
It was even placed on our table so that the waiter could make room to put the cooked result on the trolley, so here's a close up.
So pretty!
Aaah so ugly!!! Hahaha look at that sad blobby thing that almost looks alien or brain-like! What a huge contrast! And that's why they show you the before. The after is so underwhelming!
I loved watching the waiter season and finish this off tableside. It's so pretty and I love the theatre because you can watch on when others get it, and then others watch when you get it, and each section has a different waiter so you can imagine the conversations can vary wildly and make for a super unique experience!
And this is so dark and poorly shot, but it's about how it looks. There's no "nice" side! It tasted great through! I love mushrooms so much!
Oolong, mushroom and honey
I got so excited that I forgot to take a picture of the drink pairing, which was a more interesting version of the previous tea. A very interesting combination with the mushroom in there, but I can't remember too much about this one.
It's interesting that teas feature heavily in a lot of these drink pairings. I think it works really well because just straight out juice is always too sweet, and also, too simple. Yes fruit can have some great aromatics, but there's nothing quite like tea to really stimulate the senses and mix with the other flavours you add!
Oh yeah. Here comes the red meat knife. Also, look really closely - you can see that the knife is EMP branded! Wow! When I'd inspected the silverware, none of that seemed particularly unique to this place, but these knives are definitely their own! That's so cool!
And Eleven Madison Park's signature dish, the only one that Daniel Humm has felt that he's perfected. Amazing. Funnily enough, this was actually the final choose your adventure dish. Why would you ever choose anything other than the duck! The crust was actually very interesting because it felt like all the different herbs and spices held well but kind of kept their form, rather than falling off, or losing texture. That was actually a really interesting thing to observe.
For some reason though, I don't think I have a favourite or standout duck dish from all my restaurant adventures? Everytime I think back, I go back to Rockpool's strange flavour pigeon which was the tastiest game I've ever eaten.
Two little side dishes also came out with this course. Both were very lightly flavoured, relying on the ingredients' own flavours to really shine. The leeks were quite good, but I've never really taken a huge liking to squash. These slices were super cute though, and the shape reminded me of mandarin pieces or even canned peaches! I also feel like I've actually eaten a similar kind of pumpkin (but probably not the same), as my local farmers markets actually sell a variety of pumpkin other than kent/butternut/japanese. It's got a kind of pale grey skin, but the distinctive feature is that it's a very bright, deep coloured orange flesh which actually looks like it shreds or falls apart easily, like you can see the fibres shaped a an awful lot like citrus cell/pod things. I am really bad at describing this stuff!!!
But yeah, it's like Attica - I just don't like pumpkin that much and it's not the fault of the restaurant!
Wow a kombucha! The tea theme keeps going! I have a feeling that this one was also made in the style of an alcoholic drink, something that would pair well with cheese. I love kombucha, so this was something I immediately enjoyed!
And along came the chef! This chef presented this same dish at another table, but pot was not set on fire on a different table, so I was really worried we wouldn't get this performance, but my luck held out!
The chef casually walked over wheeling this, proceeded to dip a matchstick in OUR CANDLE to light it, and then casually stuck the match into the hay and leaves that was in this copper pot. This was gonna melt some lovely cheese!
Here's a sneaky photo of a photo!
Oooh yeah. This cheese fondue was great! After the cheese had melted, little mustard buns were brought out, and the cheese poured on top. That was some really tasty flavoursome mustard bread! And not the spicy kind either! This was like a flavorf powerhouse that just packed some insane punch! It was so good!
This was the table right next to us, who'd finished their meal at this point. They'd actually put their phones in the boxes, and I noticed that when their phones were returned, there appeared to be cards in the box too. Makes me curious what they were, and I will never know!
However that's not even the best bit. Look at those smiles! The mum is loving it, the dad is smiling and the kids are happy! The reason why is because earlier I heard this family talking about Shake Shack, and now lo and behold - the stories are true - they actually went out and bought burgers and shakes from the shack outside, dressed them up, and even put a candle in one of the burgers for the birthday boy, and then presented this to them!
Wow!!!!!! This is the very definition of EMP! They make such special memories like this, and this is why I love this place! There's so much about having Will Guidara having thought up this idea that makes this place so precious! Even though I knew this kind of thing existed, I had no particular wants for my meal to make it special, but to see this done to someone else - I realised, that was exactly the special thing I wanted to see! It didn't have to be me, I was so happy to see this happen to someone else! The surprise and delight of this family was the best memory of this place for me!
While the family was happily attempting to tuck into their burgers (on a full stomach too!), we received the drink for our dessert course. This was my favourite, and no, not because there is coffee! This was a smooth, really well flavoured creamy drink and it was just really really easy to consume. It wasn't acidic, it wasn't too sweet, it was a good balance of flavour and texture.
And it was dessert time. I liked this pumpkin dish way better than the savoury side! For some reason my tastebuds are more aligned with sweet pumpkin than savoury, and this paired incredibly well with the cold brew drink. What a great dessert that wasn't heavy handed with the sugar!
And that family was done. So done. I'm pretty sure the boy managed to eat the most of their bonus food, and that's a pretty valiant effort on the shake! But alas, when you've eaten a full meal at EMP, you really can't fit that extra burger in. Maybe at Vue de Monde you could, if the joke still holds true from several years ago hahahaha. But I jest. The mum barely got two bites in before calling it a day!
The after shot. All cleaned up, and now the waitstaff were resetting the table. They even use a mini iron to smooth out the linen! What! Where do I get such a cute contraption? I want a mini iron just like this because it's so cool! I can't believe that's how they prepare the cloth. Do other restaurants do this too?
With dessert done, it was time for the tea and coffee round. Honestly, I can't remember what I chose. It was probably earl grey. However, the tea didn't stand out that much, it tasted much like any other tea. It does make me wonder what their traditional tea service is like though, as I saw a post about that, but didn't ask further since I already opted for the non-alcoholic option.
Aah their iconic chocolate pretzel. What a lovely meal. And what made it super enjoyable included all the things that were not-food - the observing of the waitstaff, the tableside service itself, the surprise shake shack for the family, spotting the silver balloon - all of it was just so fun! I think that Daniel and Will really do achieve that here, it's like lighthearted elegance. I am also not sure if Will was actually on the floor that day, I kept staring at someone who looked like him but I wasn't actually sure and I was too afraid to ask because I have such a bad facial recognition system! But I will forever remember that I was unsure and that's always a fun story to tell too!
I am so glad I got to visit this place!
There was one final drink, in an almost celebratory style. Usually diners here would be handed a full bottle of alcohol to finish off as they please, but since I had specified non alcoholic options, we got this sparkling french cider! Cause remember, cider is only assumed alcoholic in Aus. In the rest of the world, it can be a non alcoholic drink!
Cheers EMP staff, you have made this a wonderful night!
Even the bill looks so personalised! As all the food was prepaid, the balance was only for the beverages. And they handwrite the bill! Wow! I can't believe they take the time to do that, but it's so cool! What a souvenir! I just love everything about this place! It definitely made me all warm and happy, and it's worth the cost, especially if you receive a special surprise!
I "leaf-heart" Eleven Madison Park!
The New York Dream – Part 4 – Where Dreams are Made Of
Day 9 – 12/04/2019
By this time, I was starting to get the hang of New York. Since I was no longer oggling at absolutely everything with too much for my brain to take in at once, I was able to spot more subtle things, like this lady who was wearing odd shoes! There was also another instance where I saw someone with different coloured laces too. New Yorkers are interesting!
I also made sure to keep up my vegetable and greens intake, so here's a double shot wheatgrass from the farmer's market. It was really expensive though, at $6. Then again, I am paying for someone to manually juice a lot of grass, and she'd just juiced 4 shots for the lady before me. Must have strong arms! It's actually interesting, I so rarely have wheatgrass that the only time I distinctly remember trying this in the past was at Boost when it was either free or $1, and they gave me a slice of orange to get rid of the taste, but I ended up liking the taste. Anyway, the aftertaste of this one lasted at least a day. Wow! Does wheatgrass usually do that?
There were also way more stalls today than my initial visit on the Monday, which makes sense since things usually get busy on Fridays and Saturdays. Now this vegetable stall appeared that display the cross sections of their root vegetables, which is super cool! I've actually seen most of these before, but it reminded me that this is probably new to a lot of people, I remember the joy of buying each of these and slicing through them for the first time and marvelling at the colours!
After my greens top up, I decided to walk aimlessly, which ended up being a walk down Broadway. I figured I should get some food but wasn't really sure what I wanted, until my hipster sense made me stop and look, and behold, an Ole and Steen! No idea what that meant, so I went in, and saw some pretty Scandanavian looking stuff, along with pastries. This smoked trout and devilled + curried egg open sandwich looked interesting and good as a small snack, plus it was also relatively healthy looking, so I tried it out! Honestly, I didn't even remember at the time that smoked trout was the main ingredient because there was so little of it, but I did enjoy all the egg on here!
Look, more seats in public places, and a great view of Empire State!
Comparing these two photos is so interesting, because it just represents the changing of the seasons so well. The bare branches still the dominant backdrop, while the green and colour are on the ground, growing upwards and aiming for the trees (ok that didn't sound half as poetic as I hoped).
Remember to always look behind and up, because things look different forward and backward! Behold the Flatiron building in its mightly glory. For some reason I imagined this building to be way more epic, when I saw it in photos I always thought it would be as tall as a skyscraper, and just feel absolutely dwarfed next to it. In real life, it's still a very prominent building, but I didn't feel quite in awe of this as I thought I'd be.
Oh, this is a cute Shake Shack! It's actually a shack, in the middle of this park! There's a huge queue here too, all the Shake Shacks are so busy! I didn't realise until later why - this is the original, where it all began. That explains why it's so shack looking and popular! That's so cool!
Well, this was Madison Square Park, soooo that means it's near Eleven Madison Park. I guess I can scout out my dream restaurant!
And here I am at the crossing that would lead me to my beloved EMP. How cool that the building has a bridge!
Taking some sneaky pics now, though my reservation here wasn't till tonight. How exciting!!! Little did I know that I'd eventually become a creeper looking person a few times here haha, but I can't help but stop and just look longingly into the doors....
Also took some pictures of the surrounding area, since all the buildings here are so different looking!
Ah New York and your funny stripey smoke towers...
After my little scout around the block, I headed back into the park to explore it a bit more.
This place has some interesting art installations! Daniel Humm is a big fan of art, so it makes sense that Eleven Madison Park actually has invested into this park in general. That's so cool!
This random glove is not art....
Wow, the parks of New York have dog runs!!! Woah!!! This is so exciting! Look at all the cute dogs here! They look like they're having so much fun! Though I accidentally got a shot of that dog pooping hahaha. It was actually funny seeing the number of dogs that start doing their business as soon as they enter here lol, as if they just know. And a shot that almost looks like a two-head dog, like a dog-dog.
But where do these dogs all live? How can their owners take them out in the middle of the day to play? These questions! My mind cannot comprehend!
Anyway, when the cute little corgi and its friends' playtimes were over, I decided it was time for me to leave too. I scouted out Hotel Nomad (I really, really wanted to book a night here but I couldn't afford it with my eating plans), and with that, Made Nice, so that I could get a another sampling of a Daniel Humm established eatery.
Wow Popeye's Chicken is so good! Way better than KFCs back in Aus, though it's been a long time since I've had KFC so I can't really say. All I know is that when I crave fried chicken in Perth, I can't get it (because I crave Belle's Hot Chicken), but this was so good, my fried chicken cravings have been satistfied!
Also kids, remember, this is why I had the wheatgrass shot. Veggies are your path to delicious fried and fatty foods!
I didn't do too much after the fried chicken because I was too busy prettying myself up for the time of my life. And here it is, my beloved Eleven Madison Park experience.
Day 10 – 13/04/2019
Wow. After a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and receiving an EMP morning-after granola care package, how on earth do you follow that up? What can do you the next morning that could possibly be even remotely as amazing? Well, not much. I didn't want to eat the granola yet as I wanted to take that home, so Saturday morning was a real struggle. So much so that we ended up back at Union Square yet again, for Saturday's version of the markets.
It was different again from what I saw yesterday. The markets on a Saturday are more than double the size of a Monday, and there was even an easter egg stall, and the eggs were really, really nicely decorated!
The flowers are starting to bloom! Or perhaps my excellent night has made me notice more nice things!
Oooh a chess player is here too! So the shows are right, there is actually a lot of chess action in the city!
The vegetable stall that was here yesterday is still here today, but now the order of vegetable cuts has reversed, and there are more!
Turkey and pheasant eggs! Man If I lived here I'd love to taste both! But that's some insanely expensive eggs, so I could probably only do it once. Turkey eggs look smaller than I expected, but I guess they're about the same size as duck eggs maybe?
There's even composting initiatives here!
Squirrel!!! With nut!!
When you can't stay classy, try out the cheap! Nothing can really match EMP, so instead I walked into a random corner deli and ordered a roll. After all, I'm fascinated with all food, and I really wanted a philly cheesesteak from a food cart or deli (spoiler alert: it never happened), but "The American" hero looked interesting because in my head I imagined it loaded with shaved meat - beef, turkey and ham. I didn't realise that the word hero means roll, or sub, I initially thought it was part of the name! I guess it's like how Cape Town calls them gatsbys.
It tasted on par with what I was expecting, but was bigger than I expected (since all I've really been to is hipster places). A good, affordable feed!
I thought Eataly was an Italian restaurant, but after finally not ignoring seeing it so many times on Google Maps, and because it was next to Madison Square Park (yes I ended up here again lol), I decided to check it out. Wow, it's an entire food and groceries hall! Like a David Jones Food Hall, but dedicated to Italian food! That's amazing! Here's a whole prosciutto just chilling. There was also a panino shop and I really wanted some mortadella on bread, but it was really expensive for the size, and I was full from the sandwich earlier. Oh well!
I didn't realise San Pellegrino has a prickly pear flavour! Though I can't be sure if I've seen it before. Too bad I didn't get this though. I'll never know!
Fiddlehead ferns! Yes! I've wanted to look at these in real life! Unfortunately, I read up on them and they're not good to eat raw, so I didn't end up buying these either. But at least I've seen them!
Finally, something small that I could try out! I remember having a really good cannoli at my local deli in Sydney, so I wanted to see if this one was also delicious. This is a plain cannoli with cow's milk ricotta. I asked if it was better to add hazelnuts or pistachios as a topping, since both sounded very fitting for this, and the lady said that the pistachio was far more popular, so here it is! Lovely crispy fried cannoli with tasty cream filling! My memory of the Sydney one is still tastier though, but given that I rarely eat these, I'm not sure if that was just a rose-tinted glasses situation.
Another picture of Grand Central! All the stations actually look different, some moreso than others. The style does remind me a little of London Underground.
Welcome to the Bronx! That's now my fourth borough, only one left! Look at this poor public telephone.
Like Queens, the Bronx also gets flat and empty. It's so weird because it's still New York, but so suburbian! There are little rows of shops all over the place, but it's simply so much slower paced than Manhattan.
The Bronx actually has a few different attractions, but I'm not really one for zoos, but I love strolling through botanical gardens. This set of gardens is interesting, you can pay for tickets, which get you into "paid" areas. We didn't end up buying a ticket, but we did accidentally enter a paid area because the exit wasn't monitored and we kind of just waltzed in that way and left via the entrance, with the staff none the wiser. Oops!
I'm glad we did the visit in the second week rather than the first, so that the trees had time to start getting leaves and flowers, because the transitional landscape looks really nice and is not something I usually see!
As we were walking through the free section of the gardens, there was a gathering of people around a tree. I wondered what they could be looking at, and from afar, I could make out the shape of a decent sized bird. Maybe it was an owl?
No, it was a hawk! Or eagle! Something like that. That's pretty amazing!! It sat there the whole time, looking to and fro, kind of like it was just chillin and wondering what all the fuss was about with the humans below. The problem with beautiful birds just sitting there, is that I will continue taking the same shots over and over again just because I can't stop looking at it haha!
This was definitely the highlight of the botanic gardens!
And some pretty ducks too!
Returning back to the city took us past Colombus Circle again, so here's a mochi ice cream place! It actually showed up on my feed a few times too, but I kind of ignored it, but I guess it was meant to be! I tried out the basil and ube flavours and both were good! They were quite enjoyable!
For dinner, it was time to try another pastrami place. Pastrami Queen was on my list, and luckily there's one near home!
Mmm more pastrami on rye! However, I already noticed two distinct differences between Katz's Deli and this place. One, this place felt too clean. It was a tidy and small diner, rather than being what I call dark and dingy (it's a positive descriptor). Two, this was machine sliced rather than hand sliced. It's weird, I feel that this makes all the difference. I feel that there's a flavour difference between thick and thin - I also experience this with cheeses too. The flavour was still good, but not as good as Katz's.
This matzo ball soup was noticeably less flavoursome than Katz's, but it was mostly the texture of the matzo ball that I found disctincly less nice. Katz's felt bouncy, and had a good, filling texture without being heavy. This one was too light, as if it was less well bound, if that makes sense.
We also got a hot dog just to try it out! I can't remember how this tasted though!
Day 11 – 14/04/2019
Intelligentsia was next on my list. From my research, I wasn't sure if they had a fully fledged cafe, but this one in Highline Hotel seemed like a good choice that was unlikely to end with an awkward "oh its not actually here" type endpoint.
I ordered a batch brew and even though it was correctly one serve, it was more than I wanted! I think this is a 12oz cup. It was tasty, even though it took me a while to finish. It looks like everyone is welcome in the lobby, and there's a courtyard area too!
There are even two, relatively well functioning typewriters here! Someone was using one when we walked in, so the clacking was the first thing I heard. This was super cool!
However, the typwriters were also broken enough that it wasn't quite fun to type out messages. The keys jammed easily and weren't aligned with the ink strip. Still, I enjoyed seeing old technology!
Walking around this area lead us to Chelsea! Hello Google! Is this one of Google's headquarters?
Chelsea Market! This looks like an interesting place and something I'd love - and the inside is massive! So many shops (mostly food) for me to explore! There was a brownie shop, a super delicious smelling Taiwanese noodle place, an expensive lobster and seafood market, a huge variety of small stalls and a middle eastern joint. So much choice!!!
Ninth Street Espresso caught my eye because it was on my list. It's interesting, a lot of places don't list the flat white but probably serve it, it's a little hard to tell without asking. I don't like asking for lattes because here, they serve those in 12oz cups, which is too much for me! So I asked if they could make me coffee in a 6oz cup and they said yes! Yay! Except it had a double shot in it. I forgot... they do double shots here haha so it was a bit strong for me! Still enjoyable for those who do like this kind of flavour though!
Ok, it looks like Chelsea is one of Google's headquarters, cause here's the lift to the Youtube office!
What a cool complex! There was also a shoe shine stall here. I really need to get my shoes shined one day because it sounds like so much fun!
Aah, so this is where the big Reserve roastery is! I've actually been having a hard time finding Reserve cafes, and the first one I come across is THE one! However, since I'd already consumed coffee today, this visit was going to be for another time.
What an interesting place. A combination of roadwork, side-of-the-street, almost dodgy looking stalls "yes, it's real fur!", trees on eaves, and buildings on buildings. It truly is a melting pot!
Oh and of course, broken things on a Google sign. The hilarity!
Plastic bags in trees, the great feature of New York. I'd finally made my way to Queensbridge! I was here to visit the park to try and find the shot from Person of Interest, but I actually didn't do prior research to realise this was a public housing area. Wow! Oops! It didn't feel unsafe though, it was really just me feeling out of place. It was still a good experience to walk through the place and see another side of New York though!
Yay, I made it! Except now that I was here, I had no idea what I was trying to take a photo of. I don't have accurate and lasting memory for shows and books, so I just took any and all shots, hoping that one of these would be similar to the scene in Person of Interest when I find the time to rewatch it for location spotting.
The park was actually full of people playing sports, and a few people walking through. It was quite a nice place! But now we were getting hungry.
Back to Bedford! We'd managed to cross this place a few times during our Brooklyn adventures. We were on our way to check out Peter Luger steakhouse, but alas, they were all booked out. They only take walk-ins before 4PM, and we'd passed that time, so it was reservations only, and they were booked out till the end of the month. I was really hungry at this point, so I kind of just let that instinct take over and started walking.
Oh yeah, I forgot pies are a sweet thing in America! This shop is called Pies n Thighs. My friend saw it on Google maps, and I had no idea that it was the direction we were walking towards, but as luck would have it, here's where we ended up! There was fried chicken and waffles on the menu, and I love fried chicken and waffles, so here they are!
My first experience of fried chicken and waffles at Roscoe's, almost 10 years ago back in LA, was a much better one. The chicken back then just tasted so much better, juicier, similar to my Popeye's experience here. In this instance, the chicken wasn't as good. Not quite as crispy, flavoursome and juicy. Still, it satisfied my hunger and that was important!
Woooow string buskers!! Isn't this such a mighty fine cello? I hope it's a cello. I don't really know the difference between that and a double bass. But this was so cool, because it wasn't just this guy.
There was also this guy! They were a duo performance! That was so cool, because they actually interacted with each other. Maybe I just don't know much about music, have a huge bias towards strings, and was just so happy, that I really felt they were working with each other and playing off each other's cues and making eye contact, and it made this amazing! I can't help but tip when I hear really nice strings, so I gave them some monies. I didn't actually have any $5 notes, thank goodness, otherwise I would have lost my money fast!
They made the performance so captivating that you can literally see the space they create. There was a natural circle between these two and the commuters, and I'm not sure if they only draw in tourists, I feel like unless you'd seen their entire repertoire, you'd (well, I would) be compelled to keep donating! I was so happy to just watch and listen till the train came!
I went back to Columbus Circle, this time for pelmeni. I saw the shop yesterday while exploring - there's a market under the Time Warner Centre called Turnstyle Underground, which features small shops and food stalls. They had Taiwanese noodles and pancakes, the ice cream mochi place, a macaron shop, mediterranean food, juice, a cafe, everything! Having had pelmeni once before in Perth at a local cafe and being disappointed that they weren't that great - they tasted like very bland wontons, I wanted to see if New York could do it better, since I figure in a city like this, only the best survive (even if the underground market itself was relatively new lol). Wow, yes! This is how I imagine pelmeni to be! I ordered a small set, half pork, and half lamb, and these were full of flavour! I liked the pork ones better, and I actually don't know if I got capsicum or eggplant dip, but I think it was eggplant cause that's what the shop recommended. So amazing! Yes! This is Russian food!
There was also a local shop near us called The Food Emporium, and what I love about supermarkets here is that they all have a hot and cold food bar. You can buy heaps of prepared foods, and I just love looking at supermarkets. I just love supermarkets. They're same but different different in every part of the world, it's so much fun!
But I took this picture especially for the Vegetarian Chopped Liver. Um what? Chopped liver of vegetarians? Maybe it was a tofu style blend as "vegetarian liver". Who knows!!!
This was the most extreme variation on "plastic bags in trees" in the city I've seen! Though to their credit, I did see a concerned resident reach out with one of those extended picker things and fight with a plastic bag until he managed to win and get it out of a tree branch. There is hope yet!
And more trash bags. Just because it's so New York.
Day 12 – 15/04/2019
Welcome to Cafe Grumpy! It'd been on my list, but what gave me all the more reason to go was when I saw someone walk into Sey Coffee while we were there, and he was carrying a Cafe Grumpy bag. Maybe it was one cafe staff interacting with another! Who knows! But the mystery was enough to make me want to visit.
A poursteady system! I'm pretty sure I haven't seen one of these before, but my memory has often proved me wrong, so I can't be too sure if it was my first time. But it felt like it's the first time I've seen it. Pretty cool to watch!
And here's my pourover! There's not a huge food selection here, but I did get an orange and olive oil bundt cake that I didn't take a photo of. The cake was of a very different texture compared to my earlier funfetti bundt cake at Black Fox. This one, having olive oil as the fat, felt more moist and softer, but in a way, my mind thought that it was "heavier" in texture without actually being of a "weighs you down" kind of feeling. I actually liked it a lot!
Smokey tower things!
I only saw a handful of these during the first half of my stay, but in the second half, I started seeing a lot more being fitted out. New York is finally moving into the modern age of tap and go! Well.. still in testing. It's gonna be a while. Since I never really rode the train in peak hour (I had one sardine moment, but even then it never really got to the sheer crush of my experience of London Underground, where the trains and platforms are both so packed that there's really only an exchange of about 3 people per carriage, and then the line would move forward for the next train, and so on, until all the people on the platform emptied), I didn't see exactly how slow and annoying this system of swiping a flimsy card could actually get.
Hello Made Nice! I figured now was good a time as any for trying this place out, since all I'd had to eat was a small cake. The salads here all looked tempting, and it was actually the duck and waffles that caught my eye. I really wanted the roast chicken and chips though... decisions! The ordering system here is very different from what I'm used to as well. The entry point of this restaurant had two lanes, entry and exit. Walking through the entry, you end up in an "open" space in front of a board with the menu, and a person is standing there - not behind a counter or anything - with a tablet, and you place your order to them. That was pretty cool, and the staff member explained to me that the duck and waffle serving was quite small and recommended getting something else, and when I asked about the frisee salad (I saw veges and egg tempting me), he said that it's been on the menu since day one, so I got that too. The place is cashless, so I gave him my card and he did the old swipey thing. Then he told me that when my order was ready, the name on my card would be called out. How cool! It reads the name and that way there's no way to incorrectly take down your name!
So, the duck and waffle was a tad bigger than I imagined, relative to how much I wanted to eat. It was also very different than I imagined, because usually the waffles are served on a plate and with a confit duck leg. The flavour was good though! And the salad was about twice as big as I imagined! That being said, it was mostly lettuce so it was actually easy to finish the whole thing and not feel completely full. It was a good feeling! Another vegetable top up complete! Those fried potato croutons were incredible, but there were so few that I had to ration them out!
I also decided to try their cranberry soda because the staff said it was all house made. I generally avoid them because fizzy drinks hurt my throat and cut my appetite, but I put a lot of effort into finishing this one!
After that, I decided to take a walk, with the intention of finding a tea place. However, travelling on foot is perilous because it means so many distractions! Like this cupcake!
The cupcake isn't their main feature though. It's actually these face cookies, which are absolutely adorable!
I got the cupcake instead of a face cookie because I can't resist a good buttercream, this one was not quite as buttery as I'd hoped but still good! I was so full though!
The buildings here are all so crazy different!
And finally I was here! I really wasn't sure what to expect, since tea shops seem to be quite hit and miss for my particular preferences. I like shops similar to Zensation in Sydney, where you know the tea is incredibly good. I hate feeling the disappointment when I go into a tea shop and there are too many flavoured teas and the focus on "pure" tea is lost.
Magic, as soon as I walked in. The place was beautiful! The tea person greeted me immediately upon entering, and asked me if I was having some tea. I actually had no idea what I wanted, but my mouth kind of just started talking before my brain could process anything and said yes!
It was a narrow store, but it felt so right! The decor, the theme, it was exactly what I was hoping for! And the reason I experienced a disconnect between my brain and my mouth was because there was just so much to take in, my brain was still oggling away. Even on the left side, where the tea server was, was amazing, because it was an entire long table full of tea tables! If I remember correctly it could serve up to 4-5 people. And there were more tables towards the back of the shop as well. I absolutely knew I wanted to have tea here.
Since I said yes, the tea server (does this have a name? Like coffee is barista, so what is a tea person??? Server sounds too lowly, I'll call them tea sommeliers from now on!) instructed me to pick a tea pet from the shelf to accompany me.
Wow, what's a tea pet? Is it just because I was by myself? Or does it have some sort of purpose? Considering it was made of clay or wood or something, I felt like it was part of the tea making process.
I decided to choose this cute little piggy! The next tough decision was deciding what to drink. I browsed through the menu and there's some really interesting stuff here. They also have cute comments, like on the red tea page - "known as black tea in the west for reasons we do not understand". Lol, I know that feeling! What caught my eye though, was the yellow tea section. I've so rarely seen yellow teas that I forgot they existed, but upon seeing this, was reminded that I tried a golden needle ages ago from somewhere, which was a yellow tea.
That means I absolutely had to pick yellow! But wait, there was also something weird going on. This section was divided into two parts, INSANELY EXPENSIVE and sort of expensive. What??? Well, all the teas were pretty expensive, on average over 20USD per serve, a serve being 4 brews. It makes sense though, if you take into account that you are using a lot of the tea somm's time by drinking four brews. Tea is a very zen, very free-time-flowing (lol what kind of phrase did I just attempt to make up) activity, so that amount of money does get you a couple of hours with personalised service.
Back to the yellow teas. When I say insanely expensive, I mean triple digits. Over one hundred US dollars. The second section was only in the mid thirties, so I tried one of them.
This was the Huang Ya, Jin Ji Shan, Huo Shan. A very light coloured tea, and while it sort of tasted like green tea, it was definitely less tannic and grassy. Not a bad tea to drink but the flavours were super subtle.
There was a man sitting on the next table over, and he offered me a cup and a tasting of his tea. Wow. That kind of punched me in the face with its tannins, but it followed up with some great flavour! Apparently it was a pu-er tea, and quite enjoyable!
We all started talking about teas, and how I usually order teas from a Melbourne company called Kuura Co. The tea somm recognised that name and said that sometimes Ayden posted on his Instagram too! What a small world! I also mentioned I was on holiday, and when it became evident that I was on a foodie tour, the man sitting at the table fistbumped me for every high profile restaurant I went to! He was excited for me! That was pretty cool. It turns out he's a foodie too, and he was from Chicago. He can't really drink coffee but he loves tea. We had a small discussion on pizza and hot dogs, and concluded that New York was better at pizza, but Chicago was the place to go for hot dogs. Also, he ordered yet another tea and shared that one too! This time it was an oolong, Dan Cong, or Phoenix something something. Zhi Lang Xiang, I think was the farm. This one was so floral and juice, it was incredible! I'm so glad I was here when there was a regular, because tea sharing is so great! It's the same as coffee culture, it's nice to taste all the different flavours and I love that tea and coffee are both such social drinks that you can also appreciate!
My friend had arrived at this point so he got to try some of the other teas too, but we soon finished up and I decided to purchase that Phoenix Oolong for my mum. 27g of tea, plus my yellow tea, cost about 100 AUD all up! Whaaat! So expensive!!! I'm used to paying silly amounts for tea, but this was crazy! I didn't mind though, and given that I've not had an experience quite like this (though honestly Zensation is MUCH more affordable for the same thing), it was worth doing once, and I did actually want to go back again because the atmosphere was so friendly!
There was a mochi shop nearby too, and I can't resist mochi, so I got this little plate with some with a half half of peanuts and kinako. Not too bad! I was so full from all the food and tea still though, but there's more eating to be done...
I saw this restaurant on my way to Tea Drunk, and after doing a very quick skim of the menu, it seemed like it was a vegetarian restaurant. It seemed to have super cute decor. I mentioned passing it while drinking my tea, and learned that the tea somm was vegan, and said that Ladybird was a nice place! The Chicago foodie also mentioned Avant Garden being a good vegan restaurant. Since Ladybird was right here, I decided I should check it out, and see what vegan cuisine is like. Just so you know, I am legitimately curious and have always wanted to go to Yellow in Sydney, because I'd love to have a fulfulling, vegetarian meal!
The inside is so fancy!
These maitake buns were amazing. I love mushrooms and I gotta have my fill of fungi! I forgot that buffalo means spicy, but I ate the whole thing cause the mushrooms literally melted in the mouth. I had no idea that mushrooms could take on that texture!
Wow yes, these brussels sprouts were so good!!! They were super charred, but didn't taste burnt, instead, they had a great flavour that was balanced by the apple and chicory. Also, I feel like there was some good crunch to this, that didn't come from quinoa, but rather, crispy soy bits. That was amazing!
Haha this was a funny looking dish. Sliced avocado, with seaweed salad piled on top, then two bits of fried avocado. It actually wasn't too bad, the fried avocado was crispy on the outside and reminded me a little of a yum cha dish that's like fried taro or something, where it's super light and crispy, and inside is creamy. It was a fun dish to eat, though not spectacular on a technical scale apart from the fried bits since they were preparation based.
When this dish came out, I commented that it was like corn jenga! To be honest, I find stacking a little boring, but I couldn't think of another way to present this so stacking it was! I love baby corn and this was pretty tasty!
I don't exactly know what flavour this was, but this was pretty good! This is their fondue, and it's tasty! That toasty bread with its oozy filling, and while the bowl was more akin to a capsicum-tomato soup, it was still so good! I was super full though since I'd eaten just so much throughout the day, that I couldn't have much of this.
The place is actually quite tasty and I was very impressed by the range! I love vegan restaurants!
I had to walk off all of the day's food though, so we took a walk to Chinatown.
Seems the Chinatown here has a jail problem. There were also heaps of bail bonds shops too!
I heard someone saying that Little Italy was close to Chinatown, and hey look, there's the sign!
I feel like all Chinatowns are roughly the same. Generally, you can't tell them apart, except this one has the classic New York orange and white striped tubes everywhere!
I also managed to grossly miscalculate my need for a bathroom, because I'd consumed so much tea, and I also had a mocktail at Ladybird. And the problem with Chinatown is that I hadn't marked a place with a bathroom, and being here, it was unlikely there'd be public restrooms? And all the eateries would require me to pay for something. Luckily, I found a store that looked like it had a bathroom, so I forked out some money for water and a cannoli. Phew!
Day 13 – 16/04/2019
Alright. Since I knew where the Reserve Roastery was and marked it previously, it was time to head in. Today was the day to see what the Starbucks Reserve brand is all about. It was so big and such a cool place that I had to make a separate post about it!
After coffee, it was time for food, and this is a place called Very Fresh Noodles in Chelsea Markets. The smell here is interesting because it's good, but it smells a little... fermenty? I don't know what it is,n but it's not like a Cantonese noodle shop or a ramen shop, it was very unique! Fermenty in a good way! The noodles are also pulled to order, so you can see the guys behind the glass just stretching away before throwing the fresh noodles into the pot!
The little cards reminding you to clean up after yourself is hilarious!
Wait, what? What am I seeing here?
It looks like they were taking photos of the bagel place next to us! How interesting! I'm surprised they brought along an unwieldy light reflector and a massive camera. I hope their shots turned out nicely!
And here's my bowl of noodles! I'd actually eaten some food from my Starbucks visit, and even though this mock duck was "not spicy", there was still some spiciness to it that prevent me from eating it at full speed. The noodles were amazing, and I like enjoying this kind of soup broth mainly because it's so different from other soup broth noodles I usually have! Also that drink in the background was a tofu drink that I got. So full!!!
Walking around the garment district. Here's a cool statue!
I think we wandered aimlessly quite a bit, since I don't have too many other photos for this particular timeframe. However, you know the weather is warming up when the ice cream cart appears! The first time we saw this card, we heard a lady comment to the vendor that it was that time of year again! So it sounds like these places pop up every year. How cute!
You know how I'm starting to complain a lot that I'm really full? Well, here's an ice cream to add to my fullness! These little scoops are $2, and this one was lime and pineapple flavoured. Makes me wonder how much sweetener and artificial colour goes into these though! It also made me think about whether or not these vendors have other jobs, and exactly how hard they're working. I can't imagine this cart by itself earning enough to pay the bills, and they don't operate on cold and rainy days, so how much does the average labourer earn? Scary to think about given how much I've been paying for my stuff.
Finally my body had digested a bit to the point where I didn't feel like I couldn't eat anymore. This place somehow popped up on my feed, a newly opened mazemen place that had some insane looking noodles - the photo I saw was one of mazemen with cured salmon and heaps of salmon roe - my dream! I decided, with this much yummy stuff on offer, there was no way I'd keep my rule of "don't eat ramen cause you'll be in Japan soon".
Their main shop, Nakamura, is a ramen joint right next door. Wow, both places mirror each other and are so intimate! The place is absolutely tiny, and it's a 16 seater communal table! What!!! I've never seen a restaurant like it! Usually you'll have a bar space or window space, or maybe a tiny number of 2 seater tables, but no. It's one massive table and that's it. Each seat had a coathanger behind it on the wall, for all your coats and bags. Wow! And the server comes around to you and takes your order. That's pretty cool.
Oooooh yessss. Oh my goodnesss. YES. Wow. WOW. This!!!
Ok so. What I'd ordered was the yuzu vongole mazemen. I love clams so I wasn't letting go of a chance to have some vongole! I wanted this so much that I ignored some of the other more luxurious ingredients like beef and foie gras.
But that wasn't all. You could add on things like the cured salmon, roe, uni, etc, so i added the uni and the salmon roe. I was absolutely blown away by how much I received!!! It doesn't look like much in the photo but I can assure you it felt like at least 2-3 sea urchins got shelled out and into this bowl. It was so sweet and creamy, so sweet, soooo sweet! This was incredible. It was also different because all the "bits" weren't cleaned properly, but I don't mean that they were dirty, what I mean is that they looked like they were so freshly scooped out of the actual animal, without being tidied up and neatly presented first and then packed into a wooden box. Yesss it made all the difference to flavour! Based purely on just the uni, the uni here gave me so much more happiness than Omakase Room! But only the uni haha. The two experiences can't actually compare, and even though this was a more communal setting, there wasn't really discussion between groups of people. However, it's always my belief that a communal setting really is dependent on its crowd, as Kisume has shown me, so I can imagine this place being so much more if you had a full interaction between diners!
And here's the damage. It actually doesn't look like much when you think about it. I've splurged how much on high end restaurants? But this receipt was the biggest shocker of my trip because look at the base price of the noodles. I'd essentially doubled the cost by adding the ikura and uni, and then, the tax got applied, and a 20% tip, so by the end of it, this seafood bowl cost me over 70AUD!!! That's the most expensive bowl of mazemen I've ever had! It was totally worth it though! But I think it was this that all of a sudden triggered some sort of stingy switch in my brain so I was conscious of the cost of everything from here onwards. What a good meal!
Thanks, train, for reminding me that I have no money :P
And best moment of the night, look at this adorable little puppy!!!
Day 14 – 17/04/2019
Some birdwatching! Well, I spotted these birds dustbathing so I had to take pictures. I think some sort of conservationist noticed me looking at the birds and tried to talk to me, but they kind of stayed behind my line of sight and was only talking sort of in my direction rather than looking like they were actually talking to me, and he asked me some question probably related to conservation, I'm not too sure, but I had no idea what was going on so I kind of just said no and he walked away. Well that was rather odd!
It was time to visit the original Shake Shack, here in Madison Square park. This time however, I wanted to try the hot dog instead of the burger. This was the Shack-cago dog, and it was great! I actually don't like the split sausage, I find that it "thins" out the flavour (same reason I like chunky meat and cheese). However, it's definitely tastier than the street stuff (and costs more too, obviously).
I also tried out the "Pie O My" concrete, which features pie and their frozen custard. This is special because this particular menu item donates a portion to a cause, I just don't remember exactly what the cause is but possibly more park sponsorship?
I don't even know what flavour this was but it tasted good! I hope it was pumpkin pie..
More doggies!!! All of them are so cute! Though it;s interesting to see some of the dogs being randomly aggressive to other dogs. People say that dogs are so nice and kind and man's best friend, but really, if the wrong two dogs see each other it gets pretty violent!
What, two hot dogs in one day?? Well this is a special cart. It sells 99c hot dogs! That's a bargain since most sell them for $2.50 and over, you're even quite lucky to find a $2 hot dog cart, so this was a rarity! Oh yeah, Shake Shack's sausage quality is definitely better, but this was a great buy!
The rest of the day was quiet and didn't involve eating, because this was for tonight. My Per Se dinner, a place I've waited 7 years to go to. My dinner here concludes part 4!
Wildair
Sometimes, I distinctly remember how I hear about a restaurant, and what possesses me to visit. Other times, I just forget! Wildair is one of those restaurants where I don't remember exactly how I came to know the name. It was probably via Instagram or something. However, I do know why this place got my interest. It was contemporary, experimental, fun looking, and more importantly, walk-in friendly. I like keeping a list of interesting restaurants that don't take reservations, or at a minimum, have the possibility of accommodating for walk ins, because I don't like having strict plans when travelling, so I want to keep my food options open. The downside is that I have to decide within 30 minutes to an hour of the restaurants' opening time, whether or not I'm going to go there.
Wildair is actually the baby sister of Contra, which is owned by the same people and is a more formal, degustation, bookings essential restaurant. I have a strong preference to restaurants that have the same calibre food in a more casual setting, so Wildair was my must go to non-reservation place.
And random shots because I can! So as we walked in, I actually got asked if I'd put my name in the book. Huh? That book that I spotted earlier when I scouted the place, actually had a purpose? I thought this place didn't take reservations? Something about this was confusing! Maybe my research wasn't as thorough as I thought! However, they did have a table available, but we'd have to vacate at about 8PM or so. See, this is why you always need to take the table at opening times! That was plenty of time and really the norm for a restaurant like this, so it was fine.
The decor is also pretty cool It's a smaller place than I thought, and they have two particularly cool seating areas. The bar facing the kitchen, but more uniquely, on the very opposite side, a bench setup that faces a mirror. I'm not sure why you'd want to look at yourself when eating, but it makes for a great way to people watch the rest of the restaurant!
Look, another quirk! The tables actually had a shelf tucked away underneath where the cutlery was hidden! My friend and the waitstaff both mentioned (at separate times) that this felt almost school-like, how things were under the desk. That's so cute! And a nifty way to increase the available space without taking up actual floor area!
Oyster time! Always such a treat!
It was the clams that were really impressive though! Clams are so hard to get in Australia, and the last set I ate were $12 each from Cumulus Inc! How eye wateringly expensive! With conversion rates, tax, and tipping though, I can't actually be sure these were any cheaper, but hey, I was on holiday so it didn't count towards my budget! That being said, I really wanted to order another plate of these, but that would just be a bit too far for my sensibilities (famous last words, *coughEMPcough*)!
This is actually one of Wildair's more famous dishes. Radishes and butter. So simple, but I liked it! Mainly because I love radishes, and breakfast radishes also seem to be another rarity in Aus. These were not peppery so I could eat my fill! The seaweed butter was a bit of a challenge though, since it was still kind of hard so trying to scrape it off the plate with the radishes was a bit of a challenge!
A beautiful ugly thing. Maitake mushrooms! With straciatella, chicken skin, tomatillo. Now that's an amazing combination! Mushrooms and chicken go really well together, and I loved the straciatella being in there, but it was the tomatillos that really made the whole thing taste amazing - that touch of lightness and acidity were so good! This is totally something I would re-order!
The pork milanese is what my friend ordered. Again, like at Roberta's, I'm really not a fan of meat mains and other large dishes at the bottom of a menu (I even didn't consider the lobster! Gasp!). And, again, I was proven oh so wrong! I didn't know what a milanese actually was, so I imagined just a chunk of pork with vegetables and stuff.
Little did I know that what came out was the best pork schnitzel I've ever had! Wow, I really should start trying out meat mains again at this rate! This was a very thin piece of pork, very manageable and not at all heavy/filling, perfectly tender, and that batter. That fried crust was unimaginably perfect! There was no trace of excess grease, there was no crumbling or sogginess, it was light, uniform, and was almost like a skin in terms of how well, thinly and evenly it coated the pork while still maintaining its definition as a coating and not stuck onto the meat. Wow! Woaaah wow! My mind has just been blown! I am SO glad that I got to try this!!!
Okay, things got serious. I thought this was a great, cute, experimental restaurant. No one told me it was also consistently technically brilliant! What an incredible set of skills the chefs have! I say this because I ordered the passionfruit millefeuille thinking it'd be small and light, a perfect end to my night. My friend ordered the chocolate tart.
I had a little giggle because when they were served, the waitstaff had assumed that I'd ordered the chocolate dessert. Nope, I went for the "lighter" option! Or, the non-chocolate option. Whichever stereotype she'd used to try and guess who ordered what haha! I don't really mind, I just like wondering how waitstaff read their customers at restaurants because it's actually a skill that the best waitstaff have.
Okay, so I got this millefueille. My first reaction was, it looks like the potato and butter dessert I had at Franklin! Similar format, two thin crisps that sandwiched a luscious, generous chunk of cream. Yeah. That's the stuff of my dreams right there. I tasted the cream, and it was great! I never actually knew I loved the balance of tangy passionfruit/lemon against the richness of cream until I ate passionfruit truffles at Sue Lewis Chocolatier in Perth. I had an appreciation of the combo when I was loving Haigh's lemon white chocolate truffles, but Sue Lewis showed me the light, and now this dessert has proved the combo is godly.
Then, the icing on the proverbial cake. The pastry. A pastry that cuts perfectly vertically with a spoon. IT CUTS VERTICALLY CLEANLY. Wow!!! It didn't snap, it didn't flake, it just... it was a perfect pastry. I couldn't believe my eyes! This was way better than I thought I'd be, there was just so much enjoyment in the cutting and the eating!
The only downside was that I was getting really full because it was a larger dessert than I expected, but that's hardly a fault! I actually attribute that to too many carbs in the morning from two croissants and a bundt cake, because I'd had a slight tummy ache in the afternoon as a result. I don't really know what caused it, since I never get tummy aches, and it went away overnight. My friend also liked the passionfruit millefueille better, stating that the chocolate tart was a bit too heavy. I had an inkling that might be the case, which is why I avoid chocolate desserts, and having had a small taste, was pretty sure my suspicion was right. But, I didn't have enough to determine if the technical proficiency I'd seen extended to the chocolate tart, but I really don't have any doubts that their entire menu was curated to their strengths.
We finished our meal in plenty of time! Overall, I'm really glad I got to try this restaurant because their skills were way higher than I'd anticipated! I went in thinking "oh yeah I'm probably gonna experience some new flavour combos here" and walked out thinking "these chefs are insanely good at what they do and know exactly how to perfect their food!"
Yep. Go. Now. To. Wildair!
Omakase Room by Tatsu
There are lots of sushi places in New York, and Japanese food overall does seem pretty popular. There are tiny ramen joints every few blocks and all of them looked good. However, I was after something specific by deciding to try a sushiya in New York. I was hoping to try out ingredients that are abundant on this side of the world, and not to have the same things as I would in an Australian sushi restaurant. I had a few choices, and my original one was a place called Gaijin. My friend had a bit more of an extensive list though, and after browsing and doing a very small amount of research, I settled on Omakase Room because it felt more like what I wanted out of a New York sushi experience - I didn't actually want a crazy New York experience like Sushi on Jones, and I certainly didn't want to fork out a stupid crazy 600USD at Masa. Omakse Room seemed to be the perfect price point with the kind of atmosphere I had in mind.
This was the only restaurant that I didn't scout out prior to the reservation itself. It has an address, I have a hipster sense, how hard could it be to find? Well, it turned out it's only the second restaurant that I've been completely baffled by the entrance of (the first being Waku Ghin even though the door was 100% obvious)! I'd spent the whole time looking up for a sign, that I didn't think to look down for a sign! And finally we went through the curtains into a wonderful, very traditional looking sushiya.
I believe this is only an 8-seat counter, but nevertheless, I was impressed that the staff greeted me by name! It was very much like Waku Ghin, the only other place that's done that. It makes me wonder though, does that mean you could walk in pretending you were someone? We were the first people in the restaurant, and got seated closest to the door.
This is chef Tatsu, and his sous-chef. I don't actually know if sous chef is the correct term. Is it more like an assistant or apprentice? I wish I knew more about how the cook hierarchy of these places worked! We were offered a choice of drinks, and I chose sencha, even though normally I don't like Japanese green tea, but hey, I was at a Japanese restaurant. It was kind of a must! The good thing is, the one drink cost does include all refills during your meal (I'm always worried that I'll accidentally end up at a place where they charge per cup)!
I asked the chef if photos were allowed, and he was okay with it. However, when I took out my camera, it was the waitstaff who spotted this and let me know that cameras weren't allowed, but phone cameras were. She seemed a bit apologetic but I thanked her for letting me know! I think that a full camera was probably intrusive and wouldn't have really been respectful to the art of sushi anyway, unless you'd specifically contacted them for a photoshoot, so I was definitely understanding of why she said it! As a result, the photos here aren't as good as I was hoping to take, but it's not the images here that count, it's what actually happened in the restaurant, that made the best memories; the photos really are only a way to trigger those memories!
Right at the beginning, the chef started grinding fresh wasabi into paste, and I was already excited! I can get quite gushy and vocal at restaurants (in hopefully a very polite and ladylike way), so he explained that this was wasabi from the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan.
Our first course was yellowtail from Japan. The thing that I noticed from our first piece of sushi, was the rice! Red rice vinegar is used here, which is cool since I'm pretty sure all my other experiences involved white rice vinegar. For the first time, I also chose to eat all these by hand instead of using the chopsticks, just to make the experience even better!
Aji came next, and I love mackerel! I liked this one better than the yellowtail.
Oh yeah, scallop! I love Japanese scallops cause they're massive and sweet!
The first locally sourced piece was this fluke nigiri. Not too bad, but a lot of white fish taste the same to me haha.
I took a few general shots too, just because I could. By this time, other diners had entered. I believe it was a group of four men. I think they initially came in as a group of three, for a reservation of five. Then, one more came in so that they'd fulfilled four out of their five person reservation, but that last person couldn't make it? Whatever they'd done, it'd confused the two waitstaff a lot, and chef Tatsu didn't look happy when they were all trying to figure out exactly what was going on and how many people to expect. I wasn't very impressed either, mainly at the way the guests had let it all unfold - no advance notice, no apology, they just kind of treated it in such a way that didn't reflect the place they were dining at! It pains me because of how much I appreciate restaurants as a business, not just a place of eating.
Service continued for us, and it was tuna time! Spanish bluefin tuna, marinated in soy to give it that cured-ness on the outside. This wasn't my favourite piece of tuna, I think that still belongs to Tetsuya's all those years ago, though I'm pretty sure I have a close second from one of the omakases I've been to recently too. Also, this is specific to akami tuna and does not cover otoro, for hopefully obvious reasons!
Whoops, I think my list got messed up sometime between the visit and now. I seem to be missing a piece somewhere, but I'm going to say that this one was the kinmedai.
My records don't seem to have this bite listed, but I'm pretty sure it's prawn, and on this side of the world, most likely a langoustine of sorts. Not quite as crazy good as Minamishima's scampi trio, but also still very tasty!
Woah a smoker! Yeah! I was very excited to see this come out because I love just... seeing things lol. Chef Tatsu even told us to get ready to take a video!
And behold, the smoked spanish mackerel nigiri! While I couldn't get too much smokiness from the sushi itself (I have a really bad sense of smell), there was still a very light waft of smoke lingering around, so I closed my eyes and kind of just took a big sniff in the air and just enjoyed the thought of the smokiness when eating the fish.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the lady waitstaff laughing! I'm pretty sure she was giggling at me! I didn't mind if I looked silly, I just smiled because she probably knew I was enjoying the experience a lot!
Yes! That's right, it's springtime! This is the season for hotaru ika!!! Woah! I'd totally forgotten this is a super seasonal treat, so this was super exciting! Sadly, it didn't have the cutesey eyes that I totally adore looking at before popping the whole thing in my mouth, but this was seriously the best (and only) firefly squid I've had! I know I ate a similar baby squid in my last trip to Japan, but I just feel it wasn't THE type of firefly squid I was after, as it was a different colour and shape, so I consider this the first time I've properly had it. I actually had a disastrous attempt at tasting this squid when I bought some frozen stuff from my local Japanese shop but had no idea how to prepare it, and it was just unpleasant fishiness as a result. However, this had a great flavour, no gutsy/squid innard thoughts formed in my head while eating it, it was just a nice savoury oceany goodness, with a lovely burst of shiso!
Otoro! Yep, I've been spoilt. My favourite two otoros are still from Sokyo (not the omakase version) and Daiwa Sushi, but it's a really high bar to clear! This was actually super delicious too, especially once it started melting in the mouth, but for some reason the impact/memory of the others was a lot stronger.
What's this funkly ugly looking blobby thing? Wait, is that what I think it is? Oh, it's an oyster! An oyster from Washington! I didn't recognise it in its "naked" form because 99% of my oysters are eaten when they're cosy in their shells! It's weird, I have this perception that oysters taste better when they're in their shell, and this bite totally proved me wrong! It was big, it was sweet, and tasted like the pacific oysters we get here in Aus!
I felt like my tastebuds on this were correct because I wasn't the only one who mentioned to the chef that this was great, the old men dining next to us did the same! Yay my opinion was validated by random rich men who just talked about Hudson Yards and sounded like they had money to throw around and sort of ate at a few restaurants which I could tell from the vocabulary used but were quite clueless with some things I was used to, like they mistook scallop for clam and I'm like how do you even do that???
More tasty treats. Nice, my shima aji is served "millefeuille" style! Three thin slices piled on top of each other so elegantly, I never get enough sushi made in this style! Also, I'm pretty sure this was an accidental shot, but I gotta change up the angles and keep it interesting, right?
It was squid time! Oh no it's the thin squid that I don't like. The cutting on this was super cool though, because both sides of the piece were scored! I've only ever received single-side-scored squid before, so that was actually a really nice thing to watch the chef do! That being said, yep, I definitely like chunky squid better than thin squid. I've just come to accept this as a fact of life and that no sushi chef can change my mind about this haha.
Yes! Oh my goodness yes! It's uni time!!! Three morsels of sea urchin from Maine, tidily arranged on a bed of rice. This was super nice, sometimes I get worried that the species chosen for a meal is the iron-tasting kind, but these were the sweet kind, so i was really happy!
WHAT WOW OH MY GOODNESS A DOUBLE WHAMMY but this was a MASSIVE tongue of urchin that was so big that it's actually chopped in half to fit the nigiri hahahaha. It wasn't until after I finished my meal that I learned that chef Tatsu actually watches your reaction when eating the sushi to determine what to serve next. That means my face must have really kind of said "I love uni" on the previous course! This was a californian sea urchin, so I feel like I just did a sort of east coast to west coast uni adventure! I liked this one a lot more, I feel like there was just more oomph in the sweetness and creaminess of this one!
Actually, him reading the reactions of us diners makes sense. I couldn't figure out why the old men dining next to us received different items, but this now makes sense! Also, I'm really glad that we didn't receive the salmon nigiri because salmon is such an Aussie thing and I'm all Aussied out - I don't want that stuff while in New York!
Salmon roe on the other hand, yes! I can't get enough roe. It's so good, so tasty!
Ah, this tuna hand roll must indicate that I'm getting close to the end of my omakase session!
A lovely miso soup served as a good, warming break from all that sushi. I had to ungracefully use my chopsticks at this point to pick out the tofu that ended up being stuck at the bottom of the bowl though, because I always seem to not be able to slurp up the tofu when drinking the soup, so they end up getting left over in the bowl.
And our lovely sous chef person pops into action! He helped out a few times during the course of the meal, but I felt like most of the time he was just standing there. My friend noticed that he was leaning against the wall at times, so we were wondering exactly how Japanese-culture-like it would be if he stood to attention the whole time we were there! It still takes a lot of self discipline as he was attentive, since his job was to do things like heat up the miso soup at exactly the right time so that we were served this without needing to wait too long between courses, and here, he's grilling up one of our final bites.
Anago was the last piece in our omakase, and it was cooked perfectly! I really liked this, and I'm glad it wasn't unagi because that's everywhere. This was nice for a change!
I also didn't realise this until after we'd finished our meal, but tamago, which I was used to being the actual final bite, is available on request, but he doesn't seem to provide it by default. If only I'd knew at the time, or decided to foolishly ask! But now I know for next time, always ask for tamago if it isn't served, as it's likely that you'll get one. I also think we were asked if we wanted any other custom pieces, but I was pretty full at this point, and couldn't think of anything I really, really wanted to repeat, since I knew I had plenty more crazy good tasty things to eat during this trip.
At the end, the lady waitstaff came over and presented me with Tatsu's book, Kowadari by Omakase Room. WOAH. HIS BOOK. IN MY HANDS. WhaT. Isn't this usually something sold for $50 or more??? And Chef Tatsu just wanted me to have it? Oh my goodness I didn't know what to say! I've never owned a chef's book before, or any restaurant book, so this was a major honour! Wow! I will treasure it so much! Except I can't find if it actually has a price, so what if he does this for all customers? Hahaha. Either way, it doesn't matter. I totally wasn't expecting it, so the very gesture, the experience and conversations I had with all the staff made receiving the book far more memorable than just simply purchasing it or being given it for no reason, it was the entire experience from start to finish, that really defines the value of the book. I'm so happy!
This is definitely a lovely place to experience Japanese sushi. Sometimes I crave sushi but I can't fulfill it, and it wasn't until the days leading up to this trip that I realised why I couldn't bring myself to go to any sushi shop when I wanted to eat sushi. It's because the craving I had was for the artform, not just the ingredients. That's what makes all the difference for me, so this definitely hit the spot!
Hooray for a wonderful experience!