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.

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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.

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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

Thanks to CT for taking most of the pictures while I helped Aunt B out with various tasks.

The coffee table full of appetizers.

CT and I went to Murray’s and picked up a couple of different cheeses. They have such a great selections and very friendly staff. They will give you a taste of any cheese you want! I can’t tell you the names of all the cheeses we got, but I know there was a bleu, goat, manchego, brie and cheddar. We used ML & TL’s ingenious idea of putting the stickers on the cheese platter so everyone knew what each one was. There were all very good, but the brie was my favorite.

It isn’t a party at Aunt B’s without some shrimp cocktail. She cooks them herself and jazzes up pre-made cocktail sauce with extra horseradish. YUM!

We also got some parmesan cheese sticks from Murray’s. They had the more traditional cheddar, but when I saw parmesan I chose those since I never had them before. Quite tangy and crunchy. I could eat a whole bag in one sitting, fortunately I did not since there was so much more food to eat.

Also in the same picture was salmon tartar and creme fraiche that Aunt B made. I love tartars and enjoyed this one too. Salty, but not too fishy.

A selection of grapes, olives, almonds and I think chocolate covered espresso beans. Those big green olives have become my new favorite kind. They were quite meaty and solid, not mushy at all.

As if that wasn’t enough, we both helped Aunt B grill up some bacon wrapped scallops. We got fresh scallops that morning so they were still sweet and juicy. They played off well against the salty bacon.

Although we all could have left satisfied at that point, there was still a full dinner to come.

Aunt B likes to look out for our well-being, so we started with a salad. Some greens tossed with pomegranate seeds and toasted almonds and a homemade viniagrette. Aunt B has her salad dressing recipe down pat. Everyone really enjoyed the salad. Even CT’s Dad raved about it and he is not a veggie guy.

Risotto cake with grated parmesan on top. Aunt B found an interesting recipe where she made the risotto and then baked it in her convection oven. It turned out perfect; crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

The MAIN EVENT! Hibiscus marinated leg of lamb. Here it is out of the oven resting, while the juices were reducing to make gravy. I am not sure where she found the recipe, but it may have been this one from Epicurious. Basically you marinate the lamb in red zinger tea for a day.

Here was the lamb sliced up by yours truly. Not as easy task and it was my first time, so my butchery skills definitely need some work when it comes to carving bone-in meat. Regardless, the lamb was really, really good. Perfectly cooked, super tender and flavorful from the tea. CT’s family are big lamb eaters and their seal of approval they gave went a long way.

There was also some haricot vert for us to get some more veggies in.

For dessert, there was a plethora of options.

As if all the cooking Aunt B already did wasn’t enough, she made macarons for the first time ever. I think they were vanilla? They turned out really well. They had that nice crunch at first that turned into a chewy bite as any good macaron should be. It was quite impressive for her first time making them.

CT baked up some frozen cookie dough she bought as fundraiser for her boss’ kid. Who cares if they weren’t made from scratch, they were good!

ML & TL brought some Brooklyn treats with them.

I suggested they get another Salted Caramel Apple Pie from Four & Twenty Blackbirds since Aunt B is a salted caramel FIEND. It was just as good as the one we had at Thanksgiving. We took some home and I noticed the next day that this pie is best eaten on its own otherwise the salted caramel flavor gets lost. It actually had a fair amount of salt, but in a good way. Aunt B was quite happy that ML & TL brought us.

What’s apple pie without some ice cream? (I actually prefer my pie to not be a la mode, but I’m weird.) They brought a couple flavors from Blue Marble; ginger, pistachio almondine, vanilla. I had a little ginger on the side since it helps with digestion. It worked well and was quite gingery.

All in all, it was quite an amazing meal. Everything was delicious including the wine and port brought by the Dads. It was a fun evening with plenty of great conversation. Strange, but it seems good food and drink works wonders in bringing two families together. Thanks again to Aunt B for EVERYTHING, she really outdid herself this time.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: home cooking

I have this thing for root beer, especially brewers I haven’t yet experienced. Fitz’s is one such brand – I thought it was a nice, light root beer, without a dominating root taste (some root beers can be super birchy or licoricey and I don’t like that). It wasn’t too thick or too sweet, but just the right balance. I would definitely order this again and give it a try if you like root beer.

Just one of the many reasons I adore Sarah is that while she went straight to looking at dessert, I was drawn to the cheese&meat platter… but she was game to get both, so why not? I sadly have no memory recall for names of meats and cheeses (which gets me in trouble when I try to remember what I liked next time), but each and every single one of these was delicious, while we both had our favorites. I enjoyed smearing the not-too-goaty soft cheese on the thick country bread with some apricot compote and taking nibbles of the crunchy almonds, the pickled veggies and fatty meats… so good. This was just about the perfect snack for a perfect day of bliss for both of us, still riding on our respective highs from the night prior.

As for the dessert that caught Sarah’s eye… well, I immediately said “oh my god!” when I saw it listed on the menu. Blood orange yogurt panna cotta. If you read yesterday’s post, you know why I said that: it’s what I wanted to make but failed to find any blood oranges. Well, good to know that other people far more culinarily talented than I had the same idea…! Plus they were able to execute it to this – just astonishingly delicious level; the panna cotta was creamy, smooth, and while it was apparent that it was made from yogurt, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of it, wow. The blood orange countered the sweetness perfectly and honestly, overall, this is just the heights of dessert that I can only hope to achieve one day; the perfect bite with a bit of acidity from the blood orange, a little sweetness, and then texture from the chocolate layer. Absolute perfection. Sarah and I agreed: this was dessert nirvana.

Yvo says: This was the perfect shared afternoon snack for two girls to gab while devouring; service was pleasant and unobtrusive, the light inside TWC is perfect in the early afternoon, and it just continued our happy highs for the rest of the day…. parfait!
highly recommended

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Post tags: meats & cheeses, panna cotta, root beer