culinary tour, part 3 (New York)

Finally, I ended the week in New York:

Bouley - I was determined to finally try Bouley this time in New York, since it's one of my sister's favorite NYC restaurants, so I booked a reservation to celebrate a friend's birthday. Unfortunately, I had not properly prepared for my visit, since I had had a normal sized lunch.

We started out with apple raisin bread and a baguette, which was soon followed by an amazing amuse; I can't remember any of the details except shrimp and some kind of jelly, but it was sweet and tangy and had great texture and turned out to be my favorite dish of the evening. Next up, my appetizer, the "Return from Chiang Mai - Chilled Maine Lobster, Mango, fresh Artichoke, and Serrano Ham with Passionfruit, fresh Coconut and Tamarind Dressing":

It was quite good except that the Serrano made it hard to cut, but not as awesome as the amuse.

After a selection of bread from the bread cart (I chose black & white pepper and pistachio, and preferred the former), I had "Tea-Smoked Organic Breast of Long Island Duckling with Vanilla glazed Baby Turnips, Oregon Porcini Mushrooms, Lima Beans, and Quince Purée" as my entree:

The duck was perfectly tender and the layer of skin and fat on top was delicious, but I only made it about halfway through the dish, since we were given a complimentary potato puree as a side, and I also wanted to save room for dessert.

Good thing too; first we were treated to a vanilla mousse in passionfruit coulis with espresso gelee, and then to a lychee ice cream and fruit sorbet. Those were followed by the desserts we actually ordered; a warm chocolate brioche for my friend, and a strawberry and white chocolate parfait for me:


At that point we thought we were done, but the waiter came out with a strawberry and rhubarb "gratin" with white asparagus ice cream, with a cute candle stuck in a raspberry, as a birthday treat:


Finally, we were served a selection of petit fours (which we had boxed immediately) and were sent home with loaves of Bouley's signature lemon tea cake:


Yes, mega dessert overload. My favorite was the lychee ice cream; the flavor was quite strong and it went well with the lighter sorbet. Sadly, I didn't eat the petit fours until I was on my flight home from Newark three days later, and half of the tea cake is still sitting in my kitchen.

Morimoto NYC - I really enjoyed Nobu, both in New York and Las Vegas, so I jumped at the chance to go to Morimoto NYC. Looking at the menu, the appetizers looked more interesting than the entrees, so we ended up ordering five appetizers, two entrees, and three desserts, for four people.

The appetizers:
- "beef curry bread - panko crust" - A bit too much like one of those beef curry Chinese pastries, for my taste.
- "wasabi noodles - chilled coconut broth, lobster, yuzu, basil" - Sounded cool in concept but the wasabi and coconut flavors weren't very strong.
- "spicy king crab - tobanjan aïoli, micro cilantro" - I think this was better than the king crab at Alexander's. Delicious:

- "yose dofu - fresh tofu prepared tableside, lobster ankake, dashi soy, fresh wasabi" - This was a really fun dish; the waiter poured some hot liquid into a clay pot and eventually it turned into really soft yummy tofu, which was eaten with a lobster dashi sauce.
- "kobe beef carpaccio - yuzu soy, ginger, sweet garlic" - We ordered this at the end because we weren't full yet, and it was an excellent addition. The beef was sliced super thin, and the top was cooked and the bottom raw. The sauce had almost the consistency of sesame oil, but was lighter and more flavorful:


The entrees:
- "duck, duck, duck - foie gras croissant, roast duck, soft duck egg, red miso sauce" - Definitely the most interesting looking entree; I'm not a fan of egg yolk and I'm not hugely fond of foie gras either, although I will eat it, so I stuck to the roast duck, and it was good, although unspectacular. It appeared that other people particularly enjoyed the duck egg:

- "braised black cod - ginger-soy reduction" - I stuck to my "no-cooked-fish" rule and didn't eat any of this.

The desserts:
- "tofu ‘hot & cold’ - soy milk soufflé, tofu cheesecake, maple ice cream" - The tofu cheesecake was yummy, but I liked the soy milk souffle even more; it was served with ice cream and the combination of hot and cold was amazing. Strongly reminiscent of tapioca pudding.
- "blood orange panna cotta - kuzukiri noodles, satsuma mandarin sorbet" - The "noodles" were yummy but the panna cotta was a bit too creamy and not fruity enough for my taste.
- "chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake - pomegranate gelee, green apple sorbet" - The combination sounded strange, a bit like the chocolate with lime at Charlie Trotter's, but it turned out really well; the chocolate was rich and not too sweet, and paired well with the tartness of the apple. It was hard to decide whether this or the tofu dish was my favorite dessert: