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| This year's NYF was beset by a rather silly theme: "Around The World in Eight Courses". Despite the wacky travel, the courses seemed to transition nicely from region to region; we even managed to through the cheese course and enjoyed hot chocolate chip cookies with our Veuve Cliquot midnight toasts. The big winners of the evening were definitely the gnocchi, the curries, and the ceviche. |
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We served most courses with regionally appropriate beverages - a newly designed cocktail with the teasers, Asahi with the soup (I wanted Bababa, but couldn't find any on short notice), a white reisling and a dry muscat with the curries, a red and a white bordeaux with the gnocchi, a rioja and an albariño with the pork, Cusqueñas with the ceviche, and champagne at midnight.
The gnocchi were especially interesting for me; Parisienne gnocchi are made with pate a choux, rather than the potato-based dough I'm familiar with. (Pate a choux is the same stuff you use to make cream puffs and gougeres.) Cooking them is a dual-stage game: first squirt inch-long pieces out of a pastry tube into simmering water and poach them; later pan-fry them in butter.
The menu, in all its full-color glory.
USA
shanghai'd basiliks (Mandarin orange & basil martini)
proscuitto or crepes with warm sage oil and chestnuts (and a port-reduced shallot)
JAPAN
kumamoto oysters with sake & caviar
shiitake mushroom with sake
VIETNAM
canh chua dau hou (Buddhist sour soup; tofu, pineapple, tamarind, tomato, and oyster mushrooms)
SRI LANKA
crab & coconut curry
shrimp & tamarind curry
tofu, carrot & tamarind curry
FRANCE
gnocchi a l’alsacienne (gnocchi pan-fried with hedgehog mushrooms, sage-fried butternut squash, and a brown-butter, lemon & parsley sauce)
SPAIN
costillas con setas (pork belly short ribs cooked with mushrooms & sherry)
sherry-hazelnut orzo with asparagus
cauliflower with saffron & pinenuts
PERU
scallop & halibut ceviche salad
USA
san andreas with fig-sesame conserve
Souvenirs
saffron crème brulee
crema de chocolate
warm chocolate chip cookies
Ok, I'm back to confused - are the gnocchi Parisian or Alsatian?
And while I hate to say "everything was the big winner", the Buddhist sour soup got by far the most appreciative comments and "what's in this?" queries at serving time; the later courses may have been fresher in people's memories after midnight.
Posted by: rsl on January 3, 2005 1:38 PMThe soup was mentioned during gnocchi course as being pushed to second place, but yeah - I think freshness in memory (or champagne, as you say) may have had an effect.
The gnocchi themselves are French/Parisienne (as opposed to Italian) - the full dish with mushrooms, parsley, sage & squash is Alsatian (according to Bouchon, where I picked up the recipes).
Posted by: meriko on January 3, 2005 2:03 PMOK, I need to come over to your house and sit there until you feed me.
Posted by: Kathryn on January 4, 2005 10:33 AM