Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Eating through the Big Apple: Still eating...

You'd think that by now I would have gone into cardiac arrest, had my stomach pumped, or suffered from foodie exhaustion, but fear not! This connoisseur of cuisine, duchess of delicacies was not thwarted. Sadly, I can't say the same for my friend, who at this point was thoroughly traumatized, or at least her stomach was. We decided to take a bit of a food break and peruse the Brooklyn Flea. No worries, I did find a hotdog to nosh on.





The Brooklyn Flea has markets around Brooklyn featuring a lot of vendors selling new and used items. The one we went to was along the East River Waterfront.


Old school keys.

My friend really loved these old printer type blocks. They would look cool as mounted art, maybe in an office?


A lot of the older "antique" like items were really pricey. I think these old soda crates were at least 20-30 bucks!



On our way to the flea, we stopped by Momofuku milk bar. If you haven't heard of this dessert branch from the Momofuku restaurant, check it out. I recently ordered their book, and they do a lot of very interesting, and definitely non-traditional cakes. For example, their cakes may use 'cereal milk', which is milk that has been infused with cornflakes. They even make soft-serve out of the infused milk!


They were serving up a range of cookies, including their famous "compost cookie", made out of common cookie ingredients, and your not-so-common ingredients such as graham cracker crust, coffee, potato chips, and pretzels.


Since I was in a breakfast-y mood, I bought one of their bagel bombs.


Yes, it looks like a normal bread roll, with just some bagel toppings on it, right?


But oh no, these bagel bombs are so rotund because they're filled. Yes, filled. Mine had bacon and cheese in it. Really peoples, you can't get any better than bacon and cheese enveloped in soft and chewy bread. Yum.


Fast forward a few hours and we had dinner reservations at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. The two Michelin starred restaurant is located in the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Since my friend is a vegetarian, she didn't opt for the tasting menu. I however did. Moderation is not one of my many strong points.



We started off with some olive focaccia and baby baguettes. The baguettes were crunchy and warm, so tasty that I think we asked for seconds and thirds.



To be honest, I have no idea what the first amuse bouche was. I think it was a vegetarian tomato carpaccio. The second was a shot of foie gras mousse with a port wine reduction and parmesan foam. Leave it to me to only remember the one with meat in it.



Up next was a delicate chilled corn veloute with caviar. Generally I'm not a fan of cold soups, but this one was tasty. The crunchy croutons offset the creaminess of the corn and caviar.


While I was downing the gazpacho, my friend's vegetarian salad was served. Very colorful!


My next dish was scallop carpaccio served with a citrus glaze, frisee, uni (sea urchin) morsels, and thin toast rounds.


Up next was a custard of mushroom in a parsley cappucino.



All of the dishes were very simply, yet elegantly plated. This garnish that came with the custard was not edible. Trust me, I tried... even though I was told it was just for decorative purposes only.


Following the custard was seared duck foie gras with muscat grapes and ginger confit. I prefer my foie gras cold on toast or a salad, but it was perfectly cooked and not too mushy. I really don't like mushy foie gras!



 The second seafood dish of the tasting menu was seared cod with daikon in a yuzu broth. I think at this point, I started getting full... or maybe the mini baguettes had started to expand in my stomach.


My friend ordered a basic pasta. I'm glad that they didn't skimp on the portions, since haute cuisine isn't noted for being particularly gut busting.


While she devoured her pasta, I was served foie gras stuffed quail with truffle mashed potatoes. I really don't know how more opulent you can get, unless you garnish with gold foil.


Prior to dessert, a second amuse bouche served as a nice palate cleanser. I think it was something citrusy. Part of me wants to say a yuzu raspberry sorbet, but my memory is a bit hazy.


My first dessert (yes there were two, but I shared!) was a passion fruit cream with rum granita and coconut silk. It came in funny domed little serving vessel. We had a bit of fun posing with the lid.



The second dessert was "Le Tendance Chocolat", a chocolate cream, bitter chocolate sorbet and oreo cookie crumb.


They also garnished the cream with crispy Valhrona perles, that I'm very familiar with from my interning in Paris days.


Last but not least, we left with a mouthful of more sugar. If you can't make them out, the hard candies read "merci" and "l'atelier." With the price tag on the tasting menu, they should be saying merci indeed!





382 Metropolitan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(Various locations)



57 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022
Tel: 212 758 5700

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