NYC: Eleven Madison Park Tasting Menu

The best dinner of my last NYC trip? Easy. Eleven Madison Park.

"Taste of Autumn" menu - $125 (yes, this was back in late November - a belated post) in a art deco dining room with magnificently high ceilings. It's quiet, it's classy. Frank Bruni gave Executive Chef Daniel Humm's food four stars before leaving NY Times, so I came with high expectations. Luckily, they were met.

Warm gougeres to start the meal that will be marked by courteous and professional service.

A plate of pretty and whimsical amuse bouches came immediately after: beet marshmallow, foie gras pate, fried sweetbread mini come (and another which escapes me at the moment).

Hawaiian Prawns Roulade with avocado, lime, and yogurt
First impression: gorgeous. Lasting impression: a delicious play of crisp prawns and the smooth and creamy avocado, both of which were so fresh their flavors scarcely needed the yogurt.

Sea urchin cappuccino with Peekytoe crab.
The uni here contributed to a rich creaminess, but the flavor did not come out as strongly (to the delight of my companion, who didn't like uni all that much).

Dover Sole. Slow cooked with Matsutake sabayon and Nasturtium.
Firm yet moist and tender, the Dover Sole's texture was little overwhelmed by the creamy sabayon, but the flavors worked quite well.

Four Story Hill Farm Suckling Pig Confit with spiced plum chutney, cipollini onions and cider jus.
Tender confit topped with crisped crunchy skin. The spiced plum chutney was both interesting and had nice flavors, but was perhaps unnecessary for this confit. The combination was a bit too rich and sweet. Regardless, the confit itself was excellent.

Millbrook Farms Venison, herb roasted with gingerbread puree, porcini, and black mission figs.
See how pink it is in the center? Loved it. It's tender, it's almost rare, it's a little gamey, it's perfect. The venison and the figs were a winning combination.

As a palate cleanser, "Kir Royale" on a ceramic pillow. Cassis, meringue, champagne emulsion.
A light palate cleanser that did its job nicely.
Oh and that ceramic pillow almost fooled me. Good thing I didn't break it :P

Araguani Chocolate Ganache with Sweet Potato Dauphine and Chestnut Honey.
A rich and decadent Valrhona ganache will get my vote anytime, but the sweet potato dauphine was surprisingly good for me who was never all that big on sweet potato (I like it but I don't love it like many people I know).

Mignardises involved macarons and chocolates.
Some of the macaron flavors were almost as whimsical as the amuse bouches: violet, peanut butter and jelly, black sesame.
The chocolate truffles also involved me going "Ohh, hmm ..." when they asked me which flavors I wanted.

A box of fruit jelly for the ladies to take home. My snack for the next two days.

It wasn't just the food. It was the space, the service. After rushing around the city, I felt calm and relaxed dining here, but never were we waiting too long for the next course slightly annoyed. The food itself deserved three or four stars. One Michelin star? If you ask me I'd give them at least two.


Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10010
(212) 889-0905
www.elevenmadisonpark.com

Lido Deck & a mini foodbloggies reunion by the sea

LA & OC Foodie asked if I wanted to join a dinner in Newport Beach on a weeknight. Eh ... kinda far ... but then he said that the space used to be Blanca, which was where I first met him along with other bloggers for a Foodbuzz-hosted dinner.

inomthings and RumDood are coming also, he said, both of them I also met for the first time at Blanca. Oh! It's like a mini foodbuzz reunion at the exact same spot (though different restaurant now). We were also joined by Hey Hey Scenesters and e*starLA.

That Blanca space is now Lido Deck, a new restaurant helmed by Chef Don Schoenburg, formerly of Leatherby's Cafe and Tradition by Pascal (which I remembered reading a good review by LA&OC Foodie).

Though the space is right by the water and there are plenty of outdoor, water-side seating, as luck would have it, it was raining and freezing that night, thus we were seated inside one of their dining areas.

We started with a Charcuterie platter, all made in house: rabbit rillette, duck & olive, pork & parsley terrine.
Cheese: Humboldt Fog, 18-month dry aged Gouda, Spanish blue cheese (made from goat, cow & sheep), hard Tres Leches cheese from Northern Spain. Accompanied by honeycomb from Santa Monica Farmers Market.
I liked duck & olive terrine but my favorite was hands down the rabbit rillette. As for the cheese, I particularly liked the hard Tres Leches, especially with the honeycomb.
The platter was paired with a crisp 2008 Round Hills California Chardonnay.

New Zealand calamari, english cucumbers, black jewel heirloom cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives.
The squid was meaty, chewy, and firm. The black tomatoes may look funny and unnerving at first but it was actually firm and crisp and had a lot of juices. This was a nice and light dish to cleanse the richness of the charcuterie platter.

Next, to warm ourselves up in the chilly and wet night: Tomato soup w/ fennel, gruyere & brioche. Served with a little grilled cheese sandwich

Spicy shrimp w/ mango sorbet and mango gastrique
The shrimp were rubbed with Chile, pepper, and cayenne. The idea for this dish was for a beer-friendly dish, which it certainly was. It was on the spicy side for me though (working on it, I promise), but the others seemed to like it.

We then move on to the "main entrees" (not that we're not already getting full! :P ).
Cinnamon rub pork tenderloin w/ ratatouille, sweet corn polenta, with red mole.
The pork was well prepared, very tender and goes well with the sweet, flavorful mole.

Scallop, bacon, white truffle foam. Braised escarole.
The scallop is nicely seared and the bacon is a pretty tender and fatty slab. This is a revved up rendition of "bacon-wrapped-scallop" that is a tad decadent. Luckily the braised escarole helped balance it out.

Braised rabbit roulade, asparagus, chanterelle, celery root puree, white truffle foam.
The roulade was a rabbit tenderloin stuffed with mushroom salad (it had a nice fatty skin too). My only complaint was that the celery root puree was too cold. The white truffle foam shows up again here, but in both dishes I feel that the flavors of the rest of the dish overpowered the truffle foam, making it perhaps unnecessary.

We had another game meat entree in order: Venison, honey glazed, red wine reduction, root cauliflower puree, cippolinis.
We were so full at this point that we couldn't finish it. The venison was so good though, tender and pink in the center and just a bit gamey, the way I like it. I was sad to see them take away the uneaten pieces, but I couldn't fit any more.

We all shared a plate of four desserts, made by pastry chef/wife Christi Carter.
1) Medjool date cake, 2) Brioche french toast w/ brown sugar, braised pineapples, bananas.
3) Chocolate cake, 4)Sorbets: Strawberry, poached peach, lemon mango.
The date cake, dubbed "crack cake" by inomthings, was easily the table favorite.

I also really liked the Brioche French Toast, especially the addition of the braised pineapples.
The slight tartness from the pineapples really helped cut the richness of the french toast and made this exceed your usual french toast.

Don & Christi came out after dinner to chat with us and shared a bit of their story. They're both so friendly and are such an adorable couple.
Apparently if dining next to the water is not romantic enough for you, you can get a three course dinner from Don on a gondola!

While not all the dishes worked 100% for me, it was a solid meal throughout. This husband and wife team is a deserving star of the OC dining scene and I'm glad to see what they are bringing with their new restaurant. Waterfront dining with house made charcuterie, game meat, and decadent, addictive desserts? Maybe the OC isn't so bad after all ...

The Lido Deck
3420 Via Oporto Suite 101
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 673-9500
www.thelidodeckrestaurant.com


Disclaimer: This meal was hosted.

Cart for a Cause: Eat off a Truck, Feed a Senior

"Meals on Wheels." What do these words mean to Angelenos these days?

Taco trucks, cupcake trucks, banh mi trucks, bustaurants?

But that's not what the term used to mean, is it?

Meals On Wheels Association of America. Provides home-delivered meals services to people in need.

That's what the term "Meals on Wheels" was all about. But now, with Cart for a Cause the two come together.

Cart for a Cause is a food truck-based fundraising where every Tuesday brings gourmet meals from a different famed Los Angeles chef to the LA area.

All the proceeds will go the St. Vincent Meals on Wheels.
In short: you buy lunch from this truck, one homebound senior gets a hot meal delivered.



Sounds good enough? It gets better. This truck isn't playing around food-wise. They've got quite the chef lineup to feed all you hungry, picky folks:
Alex Becker (Nobu West Hollywood), Susan Feniger (STREET), David Myers and Dong Choi (Comme Ça), Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook (Animal), Josef Centeno (Lazy Ox Canteen), Eric Greenspan (The Foundry), John Cuevas (Montage Beverly Hills) and Sal Marino (Il Grano).

We don't know yet what they'll be offering, but the possibility of eating kaya toast or poutine or pig trotters while knowing you're feeding a homebound senior is high.

So stay tuned for their menu and locations via @CartForACause or their Facebook page.