I feel the best entry for my First Post on Steemit is fittingly my trip to the current number one rated restaurant in the world, Eleven Madison Park (At least according to the Peligrino list certainly not my own personal list but more on that later!).
A good friend of mine from culinary school wanted to come visit me in the city and go to emp so we set out for a few Saturdays calling and trying to get a reservation for the Saturday a month later and after a few tries were successful. I don't usually like to get dressed up for anything, let alone for going to a restaurant, but of course I had to make an exception for EMP and I had a full month to prepare myself to be at least somewhat presentable to be let in the door. Finally the day arrives and we show up fashionably dressed as well as fashionably early (but not too early).
We were greeted and given our menus with a few choices within the tasting menu for that season me and my friend decided to get as much different stuff as possible so we could try it all, though we both decided on the duck considering its reputation precedes itself. I also ordered a champagne a white wine and a red wine to go with our courses (even though I really don't believe in paying absurd amounts of money for wine all three were phenomenal). Enough of this lets get to the food!
for the amuse they bought over this massive Settlers of Catan board like presentation with four different amuses from front to back they were a fried basil creme with mustard seed fava bean and an edible flower, goat creme cheese mini sandwiches, fresh shucked oysters, and fresh baby radish and peas to be dipped in either a brook trout caviar or a popped quinoa salad. the fried basil was in my opinion the star here i really had no idea what to expect when I popped it in my mouth it was much hotter than I was anticipating but not so hot I burned myself. it was sweet and savory and rich with basil with a satisfying crunch once you finally brought yourself to chew admitting the unfortunate defeat that you would indeed have to swallow and move on to something else for you only get one each. I don't much care for creme cheese so the second amuse did not have nearly as strong an effect on me but I still commented something along the lines of "well I still don't like creme cheese but if it was all like this I might consider trying it a little more". The oyster was an oyster not much to be said there, and the vegetables were nice and refreshing. Albeit in my opinion a little odd but i could see what they were going for.
For our first real course we were given a tin with osetra caviar flower pedals and a ham infused hollandaise served with 2 little baby english muffins to spread it on. The english muffins were to die for. So light and fluffy and even though they were so tiny They were clearly all sliced and toasted like a real english muffin. The combination of the 4 ingredients was stunning my only complaint was i wish i had more muffin because I don't like to load caviar on a piece of bread, but I understand they don't want you to fill up on bread even if it is tiny!
On that note it was time for more bread!!
If you continue to read more of this Steemit blog as time goes on you will VERY quickly learn how much I love bread (both because i will say it all the time and because there will be so much of it). If i had a gun to my head and absolutely had to rank my top 5 breads croissants would have to be in there. So a croissant at the best restaurant in the world was a welcomed addition to this meal. To my surprise they were actually kind of like a brioche and croissant hybrid (EVEN BETTER). They came with Pennsylvania butter (which EMP buys exclusively) and sea salt. If they just gave us like 10 of these and a stick of butter i might have still been happy paying the ~ $400 that the meal was.
(top photo not mine I didnt want to take a picture of the chef when I went)
The next course was very unique a single stalk of asparagus cooked inside a pig bladder table side. I am still not sure if this was just a gimmick though I am inclined to believe it is. I know the asparagus was already cooked and put in the bladder or at least i am like 99% sure of it and really how much could it cook just by basting something massive containing 2 spears of asparagus. still it was a perfectly cooked spear of asparagus and the two black truffle sauces were delightful.
The next course was a single piece of seared foie gras with a spinach gastrique. foie gras in my opinion deserves no less than to be served exactly like this. Too many times you get foie in a terrine or mousse that just muddles the flavors with an exorbitant amount of butter cream and bread. foie is an absurdly expensive ingredient and it deserves to be served almost untouched simply with seasoning and a hard sear all the nutty (pistachio reminiscent) savory flavors come out on their own. This was by far my favorite course of the evening.
For this course instead of foie my friend opted for the fluke containing a beautifully presented piece of grapefruit marinated fluke under a nest of spring peas sprouts sprigs and flowers. This dish was very fresh and refreshing but I could not be happier that I opted for the foie.
My next course was a delicately cooked halibut in a fava bean sauce under a beautiful array of fava beans flowers mushrooms and a precariously placed chip. The dish was flavorful but forgettable probably my second least favorite after the asparagus.
Finally the lavender duck. A staple of EMP a dish they have been doing for years and will likely continue to do for many more years to come, did not disappoint the skin was perfectly crispy and the lavender, honey and spices on top were a welcomed bonus to a delectable perfect duck skin. and the meat was equally cooked to perfection. The rhubarb and spring onions underneath were a welcomed accompaniment. Rhubarb here was treated as a vegetable instead of its usual sweet fruit like handling for deserts the savory almost cinnamon flavored rhubarb brought this dish to another level for me. The robust flavors of this dish were a perfect end to the savory potion of the meal.
I did not get a picture of my friends dessert but mine while delicious i thought was severely lacking in both creativity and presentation. As it basically was just 2 scoops of ice cream, some creme and strawberries.
For the final dessert amuse they had a fun little game where you got 4 different chocolates made from 4 different animals milks and got to try to guess the animal to the chocolate. (we were both woefully incorrect).
All in all there are many New York fine dining restaurants that I would recommend before EMP, but i would not go as far to say it disappointed and there are surely some dishes that i will not soon forget (the foie and duck for sure).