Two For The Table : NYC 2012 : Tuesday

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

We set out walking on Tuesday morning from our apartment at 63rd and 2nd and ended up at our lunch destination, at 18th near Broadway. Most of the walk was in a light rain, with umbrellas up. It might seem that we "waste" a lot of our vacation walking. But walking is as important an activity as anything we do in New York. It allows us to soak up the city (literally, as it rained), people watch, and walk off all the calories we consume!

Since our "Hot and Crusty" was no more, we set out for the "top rated" bagel store in the city — Ess-a-Bagel on 3rd Avenue. We purchased a dozen and sampled one. Marlene gave it a thumbs up. I thought it tasted like a bagel.

We then headed downtown on Lexington, "people watching" along the way.

We were apparently the only ones "watching" — nobody else seemed to care. With journalistic passion, I subtly snapped a photo with my iPhone.

We finally arrived at our lunch destination, a bit soggy and very hungry.

ABC Kitchen is a Jean-Georges restaurant which we've recommended to many travelers to NYC. It's a great place for lunch. Last year, we were giddy after eating the pretzel dusted calamari, the kasha and bow-tie pasta with veal meatballs, and the sundae of salted caramel ice cream with candied peanuts, popcorn, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. This year, we vowed not to repeat.

We started with a tomato gazpacho with watermelon, which was both sweet and spicy. Our waiter was nice enough to split it into two bowls for us. Yum!

Our second starter was crab toast with lemon aioli. It came out larger and more substantial than we had imagined and it was unbelievably tasty.

For our first (and it turned out only) entrée, we split a pizza with mushrooms, parmesan, oregano and (soft boiled) farm eggs. It was wonderful, even though it brought back memories of the raw egg dish that had made Marlene ill in Lisbon. But it was fabulous and we recommend Gerard Craft add it to his new St. Louis Pastaria menu.

After the pizza, we had intended to order the crispy skate salad and perhaps revisit the salted caramel ice cream sundae, but remembered our promise to pace ourselves and called it quits more than satisfied.

After lunch, it was still raining, so we took a taxi to the Prada store on 5th Avenue. I don't like shopping for clothes, but a number of years ago both Marlene and I hit it off with David, my salesman. Together, David and Marlene have successfully broadened my horizons, sometimes with me kicking and screaming along the way. On this visit, I came away only with two replacement dress shirts.

We walked back to our apartment in a steady drizzle and collapsed. We were tired. But after some down time, we were ready to walk back, umbrellas up, to Le Bernardin. We contemplated taking a taxi, but decided we needed to bank the calories for the meal ahead.

We arrived at Le Bernardin, and after a short wait at the bar, were taken to a prime table in the center of the restaurant. The staff that had waited on us at lunch came over and greeted us like old friends. Our waiter gave us menus and exclaimed with a smile, "You know the drill!" Our drill for the evening was the tasting menu.

Katja, one of Le Bernardin's ever present sommeliers, had selected a wonderful white Burgundy for us for lunch and I asked her to find us another, but to raise the bar a bit. She did, and then some. The 2008 Chassagne-Montrachet she chose for us was fantastic.

Katja told us she had grown up working on her family winery in Austria. She had sworn she would never work in the wine or restaurant business; she wanted to be a teacher. But she came to New York and was now a sommelier at one of the best restaurants in the world; she was also a delightful teacher.

We were served an amuse bouche trio of warm cauliflower foam, warm lobster on a chip, and raw salmon.

And then the show began.

I like to "rank" things on a vacation; best plays, best restaurants, etc. The perfect dishes we were served on this tasting menu were unrankable. The quality of the fish was beyond first class. The sauces were so wonderful, without overpowering the fish, that I understood why I had a utensil to get every drop. Our waiter told us the saucier had been with the company for twenty-six years.

Without further ado, here's what we ate every bite of.

Wild Striped Bass Tartare; Baby Fennel, Zucchini Crispy Artichoke, Parmesan Sauce Vierge

Chilled Peekytoe Crab Salad; Baby Radish and Avocado Green Apple-Lemongrass Nage

Warm Scallop “Carpaccio”; Snowpeas and Shiitake Lime-Shiso Broth

Poached Halibut; Glazed Baby Bok Choy, Bergamot-Basil Emulsion

Baked Skate “En Papillote”; Pickled Chanterelles, Baby Turnips, “Green Marinière”

There were no bloating side dishes; no potatoes or rice or pasta. Only the fish. Only the fish. Only the fish.

As we prepared for the two dessert courses, our Burgundy all but gone, I asked Katja to recommend a dessert wine. She presented us with two different wines; Marlene's was a lighter Riesling, which was sweet and floral, and mine was a heavier chardonnay, which was sweet and fruity. Both were delicious.

Neither of the two desserts were overpowering; a perfect finish to a perfect meal.

Plum Foam, Ginger, Shiso, Sake Sorbet

Dark Chocolate Cremeux, Kirsch Bavaroise, Belgian Kriek Beer Sorbet

The food gods were smiling down on us as we left the restaurant; it had stopped raining. We walked back to our apartment in a surrealistic fog. Did we really see pink fish swimming around pink high-heel shoes in the window at Barneys?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012