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Another Year Older

Yesterday was my birthday. All in all, it wasn't a great day. The baby was really cranky and I was very tired with a lot of stuff that I needed to get done. It did end on a nice note, however.
My wife took me out to Balthazar on Spring Street in NYC. This is one of the places I've wanted to go since I moved back here seven years ago, and I finally made it. I have to say, it didn't disappoint (well... except for the dessert, which is kind of tragic in a dinner/dessert sort of way). I've always been a little wary because this place is labeled a tourist trap, but it's well regarded anyway.
For starters, my wife had the Onion Soup Gratinee and I had the Chicken Liver and Foie Gras Mousse. They were both fantastic, but I think I liked the soup better - it was the best Onion Soup I've had outside of France. We paired our appetizers with a "carafe" of one of the 2 house whites - Pinot Blanc "Reserve" A Seltz, 2005 (by "carafe" they mean a full 750mL bottle). Our main courses consisted of Pan Roasted Chicken "A La Creme" for my wife and Duck Confit for myself (which I paired with a glass of Cote De Beaune Villages "Combottes" d'Ardhuy 2005).
Finally, we rounded out the dinner with some Warm Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Ice Cream. Unfortunately, this was basically a brownie with a scoop of ice cream. There were other choices that would probably have been better. The cafe au'lait was good though.
Forget about the dessert and I had a great meal. It was a very nice birthday.

NP:

The Tradition Continues

Yesterday marked my 3rd wedding anniversary, and for the 3rd year in a row we celebrated at Babbo Ristorante in New York. Well... I'm going to finish this later... watch for it.

B Is For Belgian

The other night we decided to check out a new restaurant in our neighborhood called the B Cafe. This is a new Belgian Beer Cafe that has opened on the Upper East Side. We read that they have a great back yard dining area, which is good for kids. So, we loaded up our son in his stroller and off we went (we were meeting two of our friends there). Unfortunately the backyard was closed for repairs/reports of bad weather, so we had to sit inside where it's louder (which resulted in waking our son up a couple times during the meal). The place is very nice inside, and has the feel of a place that should be downtown and not on the UES. We started with some appetizers - salt and pepper shrimp and bitter ballen - which are deep fried meatballs served with a spicy mustard dipping sauce. Nice.
For dinner, 3 of us had variations on the house specialty - moules frites (mussels and fries). I got the mussels cooked in beer (Hoegarten), parsley and garlic. My wife got them cooked in white wine, vegetables and fresh herbs, and our friend got them cooked in saffron, chicken broth and white wine. All were terrific. And the fries came with ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard for dipping. Our other friend got the beef stew, which was also very good. To wash it all down I had a couple bottles of Leffe Dark, which went very well with my meal. Unfortunately our son got too cranky and we had to leave before dessert. Maybe next time.

Better Butter

So, I think I finally realized I have turned into a food-snob (or Foodie if you want to use the kinder, less offensive terminology) when I went from getting my butter from the local Gristedes or D'Agostino and now have to go to Agata and Valentina (where I do most of my shopping anyways) or Citarella to get my French, Italian or Danish butter. Land O' Lakes or Breakstone's used to be good enough for me, but one day I decided to try some of the fancy stuff - it was on sale - and it really was a ton better. It's much creamier than the basic American product (which to me, tends to crumble easier) and the taste is so much better on toast or bagels or English muffins. So, now I'm stuck, paying more than I should for butter. But I don't want to go back to regular butter and that's why I've realize I have finally crossed the line... Oh, you can also get the Plugra brand, which is made in the good ol' U S of A (I think it's from Vermont) but in the "European style." It's pretty much the same as the one's from Europe but cheaper (I guess you're saving on the importing costs).









NP: Wish Upon A Dogstar, Satellite Party