Dining NYC Style

It's been quite a week for fine dining in NY town and beyond. Last Sunday night Tracy and I ventured up to Westchester to a restaurant called Blue Hill at Stone Barns. It's the sister restaurant of Blue Hill down in the Village and one of those perennially popular farm to table type places. It was a bit of a hike to get there. A subway to Grand Central then an overland train to Tarrytown then a cab from the station. It was well worth it though. The restaurant is on a  working farm. Sadly it was dark when we got there but it would be a great place to come back to for brunch and explore the gardens. 


We got there a touch early and pulled up a couch in front of the fire in the cocktail area. It was a pretty chilly night so was great to get in there. I would have been pretty content sitting there all night but I suppose you have to eat at some point. After about a halfer we got seated in the main dining room. There is no menu as such. You basically select a 5, 8 or 12 course meal and go with what the chef had brewed up for the day. We sat in the middle and went for the 8 course. As it was more than 5 seconds ago I cannot remember the exact menu but it was delicious. Definitely one of the better fancy places we've been to.

Raw 'mini' vegies on this random plate with spikes. (Yes I even wore a tie to dinner - NERD)

Last night I managed to snag a booking at Momofuku Ko. It's the Momofuku franchise's flagship venue and about as high end as you'll ever get for Asian food (Got a double michy star). The place is notoriously hard to get into. They have this website which you have to log into at exactly 10am and refresh like mad. Anyway it's located down in the East Village and not far from our place. It really is an experience walking in the place. It's tiny. Picture a gallery style kitchen with a bench along the side. It only seats 12 people at a time and you're right in the action of the kitchen. 

Not my photo - We sat right down the back

It's a set 8 course menu that went from strength to strength on a deliciousness scale. I've always had a bit of attitude that certain cuisines can only be taken to finite level of fanciness. Asian and Mexican for example. Don't get me wrong. I love this food but I just have trouble picturing it in fancy restaurants. This place proved me wrong for Asian style food. By far the two biggest highlights was this soup with lamb and brussel sprout leaves which had been grilled. These was also this delicious pasta with cow tongue. It was a pretty monumental dining experience for Madam Tracy. She was well out of her comfort zone of grilled cheese in this place but took it in her stride to try everything. Di - You would have been impressed. I couldn't quite get her over the line with smoked boiled egg and caviar but I was not trying to hard. I ate it! The other thing which I really enjoyed was the sake. I've not had this a lot before but when I had I really was not a huge fan. The stuff I had last night however was delicious. Almost tasted like apple juice. 


It's definitely a place that is a unique dining experience. I'd go back more if it was not so much of a pain to get into or exxy. After this week's dining it's onto baked beans for a month now.

I cracked up when I saw the cheque. "Albino Python" and "Clown Shoes".......They're a couple of micro brew beers I had.

Out the front of Ko