After the food fest of yesterday I needed to do some serious walking to work off the desert calo-fest. I headed down to Chelsea and went to the northern end of the High Line. Wow how much it has changed. At one point a temporary bar and skating ring had been setup but now there was a 25 story condo complex and heaps more construction going on. Construction all along the Highline was evident and similar to Brooklyn, many buildings had been demolished making way for condos.
Once at the Southern end I wandered around the Meat Packing District. This is also undergoing change and seems to becoming more and more like SOHO every day. The character it had is slowly being replaced by modern convenience. At least the cobblestones are still there but I wonder how long for.
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| This used to be a French restaurant called MPD, sensational cream brûlées. |
I ended up at the Chelsea markets and was making a beeline to the fishmonger for a lobster bisque. The challenge was I had to go to the bathroom and the Chelsea Market bathrooms are not somewhere you want to go anywhere near on the weekend unless you want to queue for half an hour.
So that brought me to my dilemma. By this stage it was 2pm and I had a 6pm booking at Jean Georges. Also the fish monger had opened a hole in the wall oyster bar next door to it call Cull & Pistol and lobster rolls were on the menu. So let's assess the situation. Queue up for half an hour to pee in a public toilet or go grab a seat at a cool oyster bar and smash a lobster roll and use the bathroom there. Not a difficult decision.
I started off with a mixed oyster platter with a crab claw. Shucked right in front of where I was sitting these were solidly fresh. For main I had a lobster roll which was really lovely. My ever increasing cholesterol level got the better of me and I rebelliously knocked back the side of fries in favor of a salad. The first and last on this trip.
I swung by Citipups to have a squiz at the rovers there. This is where we got Dash from. The guy we bought him from was there and we had a good chat. A tad more retail and I made it back to the hotel to suit up for dinner.
Jean Georges is in the Trump Tower up by Columbus circle. It's been around for awhile and is a well reputed restaurant in NYC. I was surprised to be able to get in only making the booking the week before. Maybe that's saying something about the place. It's high end stuff although the room is relatively benign in comparison to places like Eleven or Daniel.
I went with a friend from work and our first challenge was figuring out which tasting menu to have. First world problems. As tempting as the black truffle inspired tasting menu was, the $200 supplement on top of the GDP of a small country cost of the base was a bit of an inhibitor. We both ended up going with the signature menu which is a variety of the chef's signature dishes. The two things which were memorable was the egg and caviar. It was a lightly scrambled egg with cream on top and osetra caviar. The other thing was the chocolate desert tasting plate. Extreme goodness. They say you eat at this place purely for the food and the interior is deliberately bland so as not to distract from the menu. this was clearly evident.
What an awesome foodie weekend.
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| Ok not the best angle consideirng it looks like something Dasha coughed up.....but it was nice |
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| Tracy would have been in heaven |
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