I read a couple months back that the revamped Torrisi Italian Specialties would have a special 20 course historical tasting menu available with reservations 30 days in advance. I went to a talk at the New York Public Library last year that featured former NY Times food critic William Grimes and his new book called Appetite City. The NYPL has a huge archive of menus from NYC restaurants dating back hundreds of years. You can really learn a lot about a society from what they ate. I highly recommend the book. The Chefs from Torrisi utilized the same archive to come up some dishes based on these old menus with their own twist. We recently went to their newer and more casual restaurant, Parm, and enjoyed it very much.

A couple days before my birthday, The Ulterior Epicure came out with his review of the menu and got me even more excited!! There is also a great photo set on Flickr (much better than pics below) with more thorough descriptions of each course. Sorry we didn’t take notes during the meal.

It was $125 per person, but actually the Monday after the price went up to $150. After we were seated by the friendly staff, we were informed that there is an optional wine pairing for $75 pp. Yikes! We just shared a bottle of wine instead. Shockingly, the cheapest bottle was $50. I guess they plan on making a profit through wine sales instead of food?

There are two seatings a night for the special tasting menu so we had the earlier one at 6:45. I don’t think we could have handled the 9:30/10 seating. Since they have a set number of diners and we all arrived at the same time, the food starting coming out immediately. They still had a couple of tables available for their $65 four course prix fix. I am pretty sure they only had a max of 10 tables (mostly two tops) and a handful of seats at the small bar. The space is SMALL, but there is just enough room between tables.

The first couple of dishes were bar snacks that came out quite quickly one after another. We were warned.

They started us off with a mocktail called “Our Americano.” Since they only have a beer & wine liquor license, they can’t serve full-on cocktails. Although I don’t drink Americanos very often, I am familiar enough with the flavor of Campari. This definitely had that same unique taste. A refreshing way to start.

Pretzels- These tiny little pretzel balls were served fresh out of the oven. They were sprinkled with some salt and caraway seeds. A great salty snack with the mocktail.

The Quail’s Olive- An olive course. Or is it? Fortunately, it was not or else CT would probably have gotten up and left due to her hatred of olives. These were actually compressed quail eggs dyed with squid ink that looked exactly like your standard whole black olive. Both egg and olive flavors are usually quite strong, but in this preparation each was muted perfectly.

Smoked Sable Cigarette- It consisted of gnocco fritto, sable, cod roe, and poppy seed “ashes” served in an ashtray. When I first heard about this course when the menu was announced I was a little apprehensive since no one eats cigarettes. Remember the massive fail of the edible “cigar” Chris made on Top Chef last season? I am not really a fan of cream cheese but it was a small cigarette, so it was ok. The crunchy fried dough with the creamy cheese and just a hint of salty fishiness from the sable and roe was delicious.

Clams and Oysters on a Half Shell- I forget what type of oyster it was, maybe a Bluepoint? It was topped with a chili pepper mignonette that was very good and packed a nice hit of heat. I believe the chili pepper was locally grown. I think the clam was a Littleneck that was served with a beer foam on top. It was also very fresh and delicious.

Buckwheat Caviar Knish- I loved the antique silver serving dish. Tiffany’s? I am by no means a knish aficionado, but this was a very good bite. Topped with caviar, how could it not be? I made sure to get plenty of toasted kasha stuck to the bottom to add some extra crunch. I tasted some of the kasha on its own and liked it very much. Great roasted toasty flavor.

Escargot Casino- It is hard to see the actual snail on the skewer. It was wedged on with some house-smoked bacon. It was a tasty bite that was mostly bacon flavor, but the snail did add some texture. I appreciated that they used a classic escargot dish as the serving dish. They were really creative when designing the menu!

Chicken and Cashews- A nod to that classic Americanized Chinese Food dish. I am pretty sure we always ordered Chicken and Cashews when eating Chinese food growing up. Here they used the chicken “oyster,” which some consider the best piece of meat on a chicken. It was poached and then lightly fried and rolled in chopped cashews & oyster sauce. Those forks are Tiffany too. As expected, it was really delicious! Rich meat and crunchy nuts was a great combination.

Brighton Beets- A nod to the Russian population in Brighton Beach. A simple yet delicious beet course. I believe the beets were locally grown(starting to notice a theme here?) and served on pumpernickel cream. I think there might have been some slivers of pear too.

Mackerel in Crazy Water- The mackerel crudo was served in a tomato broth aka “Crazy Water.” The fish was light and fresh, not too fishy. The best description of the broth comes from Serious Eats, “The amazing broth tastes like the best gazpacho you’ve never had.” Yes, CT & I made sure to get every last bit of broth in our bellies. We would have picked the bowls up to get the broth faster, but since we were “dining” we stuck to using our spoons.

The next two courses were served simultaneously since they were both a nod to Delmonico’s, considered to be the first restaurant in NYC.

Foie Gras Newberg- CT was quite ecstatic when this was served. Although she is much better versed in duck liver than I am, we both agreed that this was of the best preparations we ever had. They did a great job taking the “liveriness” out of it, while not making it too cloyingly sweet. It was served with a couple of slices of toasted brioche on the side.

A closer shot was needed. Such a beautiful presentation.

Delmonico Tartare- This was an amazing beef tartare plated beautifully with an expertly place spread of cornichon slices and a “bernaise egg yolk.” It was served with some thick potatoes slices that were surprisingly quite crunchy and a little heavy on the salt. However when eaten with the tartare it was a great bite.

Dancing Ewe Sheep Ricotta and Ramps- Simply this was the BEST GNOCCHI I HAVE EVER HAD! Super light and buttery, it just dissolved in my mouth. While I could care less about ramp season, they were a nice touch to bring some roughage to the rich dish.

Lobster Cantonese- An Italian twist on a Chinese dish. Spaghetti with lobster and I believe a bit of crumbled sausage with toasted breadcrumbs. It was almost carbonara-like. With the first taste I thought they may have made a call to the bullpen and brought in Michael White to cook this dish. Very close to the pasta served at Ai Fiori or Marea. I was very very happy with this course.

Ravioli Caruso- The last of the pasta courses was a ravioli filled with chicken liver puree. Fortunately for me the liver wasn’t too minerally, so I went ahead and ate this perfectly cooked pasta pouch.

Jewish Lamb- We were actually presented with the whole lamb chop at the table before it was carved up, but we were too busy to take a picture. It was cooked with a Manischewitz glaze that had just the right amount of sweetness, unlike when drinking the wine straight from the bottle. The lamb was very tender and delicious. I believe it was served with some fried sunchokes and potatoes.

Bitter Greens- How appropriate on the last night of Passover to be served bitter greens. This was a small salad of radicchio and other unknown greens tossed in a light vinaigrette as a palate cleanser. It did exactly as advertised to counteract all of the butter/pasta/meat we just ingested.

Cheese Danish- Like the lamb, the entire danish was presented tableside on a nice marble plate, but I didn’t get a picture. We were each given a quarter piece to start. The base danish was light and flaky, while a somewhat funky cheese was used on top which was then topped with a slice of pear. When I think of cheese danish, I think of Entenmann’s classic cheese danish that has a sweet cheese. The stronger flavor cheese worked like any good cheese course would. I actually needed a second picture to show you how gooey the cheese was. After we finished, we were given the option of having our second piece. Of course we said yes, haha. Diet starts tomorrow.

(2nd) Palate Cleanser- Green Apple Italian Ice. Cool and refreshing with just a hint of apple flavor.

Maraschino Float- Again, I need to borrow from the Serious Eats’ description “A maraschino float made with housemade maraschino cherry soda…with an edible evaporated milk straw… and a malted root beer candy bar …sour cherry vanilla ice cream with pretzel breadcrumbs.” What a dessert! Super creative and everything was delicious. I am not the biggest maraschino cherry fan, then again not many people are, but it worked.

Pastries- A whole bunch of mignardises were served on a beautiful antique platter. Apple fritters, pizelle cannoli with Salvatore filling, fried pastry, pine-nut biscotti sandwiches, custard cakes, celery cake with grape jelly, sesame saltwater taffy; and chocolate-mint truffles. We were pretty beyond full at this point, but we made an effort to at least try each one (for the sake of the blog). I couldn’t appreciate them, so it wouldn’t be fair to pick a favorite.

We ordered some espressos to aid in the digestion.

Our parting gift was a little box with a rolled newspaper. Inside the box was a classic rainbow cookie while the newspaper was actually a copy of the menu. A very nice touch.

All in all, the special 20 course historical tasting menu at Torrisi was FANTASTIC. Not only were was all of the food cooked perfectly, the service was top notch. Definitely the same level at some of the Michelin starred restaurants in NYC. Eventhough the price has now gone up to $150, I would still say it’s worth checking out once. CT and I will definitely be back for the $65 prix fixe. Thanks again CT for such a wonderful birthday treat!

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Nolita, special occasion, tasting menu

We arrived right during the thick of a busy weekend lunch service, so there was a bit of a wait for a table. Fortunately, there was plenty of room for us to hang out at the bar for a drink. We decided to share the Salumi e Formaggi platter ($13) to tide us over until the table was ready.
According to the menu; the salumi was coto, chorizo seco, soppressata picante and the formaggi was pecorino brillo, fontina, manchego. There was also some olives, fruit spead (fig?) and walnuts. It was all very good with the chorizo being my favorite. Only CT’s Mom and I had the olives and they were quite good and had a fair amount of chili flake mixed in. Everyone else’s loss, hahaha. This definitely kept our stomachs at bay until we could have our lunch.

As Teresa’s is well known for their pizza, a couple of us tried them.

TL got the Bistecca Pizzette ($15). It had fontina, organic eggs, skirt steak, potatoes and mushrooms. This was quite the perfect brunch pizza. He made a comment that the mushrooms were especially good.

CT ordered the Quattro Formaggi Teresa ($16). It had ricotta, gorgonzola, fontina, fresh mozzarella, organic pork sausage and caramelized onion. She had trouble deciding which pizza to get but once TL ordered his she figured she would order the other pizza she was interested in. Fortunately, TL is not shy about sharing. I believe she liked her pizza a lot. Good quality ingredients = good pizza!

Since CT believes a pizza must have tomato sauce in order to be properly classified as a pizza, not a flatbread, she got a small bowl of marinara sauce on the side. She mentioned that it was very good sauce that was jazzed up with too many ingredients. The chef just let the tomatoes shine.

I order the special pizza of the day, the Pizzette ($16). It had ground plum tomatoes, pineapple, prosciutto cotto, jalapeno and gorgonzola. I definitely got my fill of ham between the starter we had at the bar and now this pizza. While I was taking a risk with the pineapple, since the beginning of April isn’t exactly the season for it, most of the pieces were ripe and juicy. There was a lot going on flavor-wise, but it worked. I don’t usually eat gorgonzola on its on, but the funkiness of the cheese worked well against the salty ham, sweet pineapple and tomatoes. While I wouldn’t have been offended if there were more jalapenos, they brought just a touch of heat to wake up my taste buds.

As you can see from the upskirt, there was a little bit of char, which I always like on my pizzas.

ML got the Insalata ($15). It had green leaf lettuce, tilapia, hearts of palm, orange supreme. red onions, goat cheese, pistachio and white balsamic dressing. She seemed quite happy to have a “lighter” lunch.

CT’s Mom asked our friendly waitress if they had any of their famous lasagna prepared since it wasn’t on the lunch menu. They did so she ordered that for lunch. She remarked that one of the reasons she liked Teresa’s so much is that they are almost always very accommodating like that.

All in all, Teresa’s Caffe was an excellent choice for a leisurely Italian lunch. Everyone was quite happy with their choices and we all left stuffed! Although there is a good chance I will never go back since CT’s Parents are moving, if I find myself in Princeton and hungry I know where to go now.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Princeton

Chouettes, which were airy puffs with sugar crystals on the outside. Light and tasty but I won’t order these again – not to my fancy.

Fresh chocolate chip cookies that tantalized us with the scent, so we had to grab one and my oh my, these were fantastic. Soooo good, warm, and slightly cakey in the center with a chewy edge… mmm.

It appears that stopping by Dominique Ansel pre-road trip is becoming a tradition… yes, this was the day before I headed to DC (posts to come). I also picked up a few croissants for the trip, which I know were appreciated by DLS (though I didn’t get to eat much of either, boo).

For more Dominique Ansel coverage along with location information, check here and here.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cookies, croissant

We opted to order a bunch of things to share so we could try more things. Nearly everything arrived at once: first up, eggplant fritters. Both of us had expected more like eggplant mashed into a beignet/doughnut/zeppole dough before being fried, so we were surprised to find thick slices of eggplant breaded and fried. I thought this was okay, though the name on the menu was completely misleading.

I’m not really sure why I took such unfocused photos – too busy gabbing away, I suppose? – but this was a scallop dish, served with sauteed mushrooms on the side. The scallop – yes, singular – was sweet and cooked properly, but again, nothing stood out about it.

I really don’t know what I was photographing, since this dish – the pate – well, you can barely see it! I thought the pate was once again just OK. It was creamy, and perfectly spreadable, but nothing notable one way or the other.

After my recent positive experience with mussels (literally 3 days prior to this) – plus Hungry‘s comment to me when I mentioned where I was going for dinner that La Carafe often had moules frites specials advertised – I mentioned this to Felicia, and she was game. For $17, you could pick your choice of broth, the dish came with a giant portion of frites that were slightly soft but otherwise a great accompaniment, and a glass of house wine.  I found these pretty good – plump, cooked properly and not mealy or dry like I dislike in mussels – and just overall, very tasty. I was just starting to think that maybe I’ll start actually liking and eating mussels again, after a long hiatus from eating them – I tend to find them overcooked, crumbly, and unappetizing – when disaster struck.

I take my share of responsibility for this occurrence; having little to no experience really eating mussels like this, and certainly having not eaten more than one or two at a time in very spaced apart periods over the course of the last 30 years, I didn’t recognize the signs of “don’t eat that” – I ate one that tasted slightly off. I mean, it didn’t taste as good as the others, but I shrugged and instead of spitting it out, I swallowed it.  I am fully aware that one bad mussel in a pot doesn’t mean all of them are bad, and that the onus is on the eater here to not eat food that’s spoiled, as the kitchen just can’t know if a closed mussel, once it’s steamed open, has turned, and they aren’t going to sit there and check each mussel before serving a whole pot of them to us.

I have a very funny stomach, and many friends have suggested that I’m insane because there’s no way I could immediately feel ill effects of food. Whatever, I’ve been like this my whole life (and my mother is as well); within 15 minutes I realized something was wrong. However, we had tickets to Peter & the Starcatcher, so I didn’t say anything and just prayed that it would pass. Towards the end of Act 1, though, when I broke into a cold sweat and probably turned 6 shades of green, I knew I wasn’t going to make any longer and rushed out of the theater (which is something of a no-no, but I’m sure the people I disturbed to get out of my row preferred being disturbed for 45 seconds over me throwing up on them).  That mussel wanted OUT and it was going to come OUT, STAT.

I know this is a food blog, so I won’t give more details other than… yeah, I missed the last 10 minutes of Act 1 and the first 5 of Act 2  in order to calm my cramping and aching belly.

Having said all that, though, I don’t find myself holding it against La Carafe. While the food was all very middle-of-the-road, it was enjoyable enough with very reasonable prices that I see no reason to refrain from returning simply because I had one bad mussel. Felicia was fine, and we shared everything. It really is less a jab at them and more my lack of experience eating mussels that caused this issue.

Yvo says: Extremely reasonably priced pre-theater dining, with pleasant service, good location and nice decor. I believe they are also on Restaurants.com if you want an even bigger discount. While nothing will blow your mind, it is a solid choice for a few bites before a show, or just to catch up with a friend.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: frites, mussels, pre-theater

The restaurant is spread out on different levels and has a couple different bars. The HH is only available at the oyster bar upstairs. It was a small bar with only a couple seats, but fortunately it never got that busy.

Our friendly bartender informed us that only Bluepoint oysters were on offer at happy hour prices. No trying a variety of oysters like at Mermaid. I was also happy to see that the few beers they had on offer were a reasonable $6 each. I would have been annoyed if the money I was “saving” on oysters, just went to the jacked up drink prices. They also had a couple wines by the glass on special.

Here is the first ten we order. They were served with cocktail sauce, shallot mignonette, lemon and a tiny bottle of Tabasco. They did a pretty good job, not great of shucking the oysters as you can see. I have shucked some oysters in the past and it isn’t easy. Especially when trying to keep as much liquor in the shell as possible. They were super fresh and delicious! Quite easy to polish off.

MMM OYSTERS!

They surprised us by serving some crusty multigrain bread with a red wine shallot butter along with the oysters. We both appreciated the compound butter and bread to cleanse our palates.

We ended up getting another ten to share. They were the same in size and presentation.

Our friend, KR joined us later on and had a couple of oysters herself. However, we felt we needed something a little more substantial than just oysters for dinner. Since it was an especially nice March evening, we walked a couple blocks south to Shake Shack.

We weren’t super hungry, so we only got some burgers. CT had the standard single Shack burger (left), while I had their special burger called the Smoke Shack (right). It was a cheeseburger topped w/crisp apple-wood smoked bacon, cherry pepper relish & Shack Sauce.

I enjoyed the Smoke Shack a lot. It had a fair amount of tasty bacon, almost too much. However the vinegary cherry pepper relish helped to cut through the richness of the bacon. The relish also left a nice lingering heat in the back of my throat. It was a nice change of pace from my go-to order of a double Shack burger. If you see it as a special, I would definitely recommend trying it.

Surprising everyone, I decided I actually wanted dessert. I needed something sweet to counteract the oysters and burger and the special custard of the day was S’mores. Who doesn’t love s’mores? Ah fond childhood memories… Anyway, it was super creamy with plenty of marshmallow swirled in with some crushed graham crackers.

All in all, the oyster happy hour at Millesime was pretty good. I still don’t think I will ever eat a full dinner there however. It is a little too expensive and doesn’t have any dishes listed that intrigue me. The space and location of the restaurant is quite difficult, so I wish them the best but don’t have high hopes for the long term existence.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: frozen custard, oysters, Shake Shack