Park Ave Winter...

*sigh*. that's all I'll say about...the context of this dinner. *wink!* i'm half joking. It was the Gossip Girl promo @ Park Ave Winter wherein you get your entire meal comped (1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert, 1 sides per 2 people, and 2 rounds of drinks per person!) if you...wore...garbs...resembling...plaid skirts, button ups...etc. O.o hehe

ANYWAY...so since there were 12 of us we were able to dabble in most of the menu in all categories. (see pic of the bill at the end! :D we ran them dry)

Wouldn't have this been a nice shot if I had managed to hold still?

They were carving up and moving about rather quickly, and people kept on effin' walkin' past my shot and I kept seeing asses blocking the meat carving and multitude of hands serving so much -.- ANYHOO...

For appetizers, we got the calamari salad (salty--i very very much liked over some others), the Park Ave Winter open faced scallop sandwich with brown butter and bacon with...some other stuff, sashimi of hamachi, the Nantucket Bay scallops in some..sweet sauce and what I remember as panko crumbs?

No venison tartare :( we were sad. I think our other table got salmon tartare, but I don't remember anyone getting butternut squash soup (which i love! esp as a drink w/ palernum & rum at Tailor's hehe) or the porcini mushrooms (very sad to not have tried that one =/).

And here you see my Nantucket Bay scallops. Was thrown off by how sweet it was--made even sweeter with the thick cream. Not sure...how...I feel...about that! Otherwise, perfectly cooked :)

SiDES!! BROCCOLI and CHEESE! I don't...understand, but eh. yum. VERY yum were the brussel sprouts w/ apples which--can't make what the sauce was but it was buttery and savory :D Also had the creamed spinach and parsnip puree since the Crispy Cauliflower was actually in tempura batter =/ EH.

Entrees! Had to hurry it a bit w/ taking photos b/c the ladies were ready to dig in and with my--obsessive shooting things would er...get cold and whatnot :) hehe Opted for flash, kinda wish I edited some more but...OH wellllzzzzz. :) Miso glazed lobster with citrus fennel salad, John Dory w/ brioche encrusted poached egg & black truffles,

Filet mignon braised short ribs w/ root veggies, Dover Sole filet with herbs & brown butter (there was even a brown butter pecan ice cream! they lurves their brown butter...and so does the rest of the word ^_^)

Seared yellowfin tuna w/ avocado, grapefruit & ginger--and I think someone got the Organic scottish salmon w parsnip puree blah blah...Can we do more pics of lobster? mm surely!...

DESSERTS! - Chocolate flourless cake w/ Kentucky bourbon and peanut brittle mousse, Pistachio brown butter cake with red wine pears & Bartlett pear sorbet, Preserved plums with Ricotta custard, polenta crepes and pignoli...and THE CUBE! :) Chocolate cube with caramel mouse and chocolate cake bits inside, with what I remember as a coffee/chocolate-ancho ice cream on top of a meringue. Desserts were HUGE. :)

I really liked what they did with the sugar components in a few of the dishes--I mean nothing extraordinary in terms of flavor but made it quite memorable and enhanced my experience with the desserts--just...threw in some edge and complexity in it!! :) I mean honestly--kind of gimmicky but it really displayed a kind of mastery and playfulness u usually encounter when people are more than capable at what they do so it frees them up to play around with what's 'basic'! :) love love!!

B/c I'll never post if i have to discuss at length--everything was SCRUMPTIOUS. If I could afford it I'd eat here on the regular. Entrees are on average ~$40 bucks with appetizers and desserts clocking in at ~$15-20 each. This...is worth it. Butter--similar pricing, maybe a little less--more of a scene...food was WHATEVER. Can't wait to see the other seasonal incarnations of Park Ave Spring/Summer/Fall!

And this be our bill...notice on top the Gossip Girl promotion :P HEHE...miscellaneous items not listed in order of....order...-.O And then somewhere in the 6.50 tax. HEHE. I guess for that capuccino (was not included in the comping)...Needless to say, we left quite a tip.

A lil' shout out to Juan Carlos--our baddass and cheeky server with lovely suggestions to ensure we maximized our fun potential--and foodie potential!--at Park Ave Winter! A rare break in the lack of people appearances in the blog...but well deserved and noted :P This was only our table. Not gonna post the other ladies on here cuz that just might be weird to have ur face blasted on the interweb no? :)

I am conveniently absent since I'm taking the picture :D ANYHOO...The staff was extraordinarily nice and accomodating. A smidge cheeky, as I prefer it :P, all in good fun sorta spirits and helpful. Everyone was really nice and jocund--I'd say 85-90% of diners were 'school girl's including what I can tell was a mid-50's yr old woman in super pig tails. ROCK ON. reappropriating the whole trope as a sort of...empowerment...foodie thing! :)

Oh, and featuring the fellas from www.brokeassstuart.com who partook in such revelry :) Enviable gams, gentlemen!

Honey + Miso chicken...

I think my obsession with leeks has overtaken my obsession with brussel sprouts. >.<

Didn't wanna let the giant leek stalks go to waste so I thought I'd make some chicken out of it since I still had a ton of miso leftover (and tomatoes as u can tell). I made the same thing in CA for that giant post-xmas dinner w/ the famiglia except I used a honey miso soy sauce marinade/glaze. Ran out of soy sauce (incredible fail as an asian, I know!) but I still had my fish sauce HEHE!! Didn't do too much with the fish sauce tho except to season the leeks b/f i dropped in the chicken.

we also had some salad--the dressing was sesame whatever mixed with the juices from when i sauteed my spinach in garlic with some tomatoes and fish sauce (not shown). YUMMAAAAY!

Again, I don't...really...measure much when I cook. It's just straight eyeballin' and in my head so..here it is!:

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Honey-miso marinaded chicken!...

1. cube chicken breasts (big chunks--1-2 inches?)
2. drizzle honey over it--just enough to splatter most of the chicken but not cover EVERY inch. drizzle like u would olive oil cruet.
3. 1 tablespoon-ish for every couple pieces of chicken breast...granted i kind of add as i go along, but i always mean to start with a generous tablespoon (heaping really).
4. massage that sh*t in! i like using my hands when i have to marinade with oils and meats--always feels really productive and visceral and connected to ur foods i feel...
5. saute garlic and leeks (and i threw an a$$load of leeks cut thin in there!) olive oil or butter (or if u will a combo of both to get the taste and...unsaturated goodness--btw i've been meaning to switch out of using olive oil b/c it's a heavy/flavored oil and the italians only dress with it and not actually cook anything in it and use sunflower seed oil insead but i haven't found the right alternative =/)
6. pour in the marinaded chicken (it doesn't need to sit too long to season the chicken bits) and let it cook on med high heat w/o turning it for about 1-2 min? then toss all around. throw in some tomatoes just towards the end so that it wrinkls and maybe chars the peel a little--then put a lid on the whole thing to let steam it thru--maybe 2 min like that?
   

Scallops + Soba noodles w/ sugar snap peas & cherry tomatoes in a yuzu miso honey vinaigrette!...

I made this for a post-xmas dinner for my fam in CA, and I've decided to do it for NYE dinner too :) So...onward!

This is the scallops--seared 1.5 min each side with nothign but salt & pepper...plus sauteed in butter with leeks and garlic. LOVE LEEKS!! My mom's pot for some reason--was pretty tough to get super hot--u know how u gauge that it's gonna brown your proteins w/ that sizzle, and apparent when u throw in the garlic and it browns pretty quickly. Couldn't get the same browning/carmelization but..whatebbers, still tastay! me likes scallops!

This is the soba noodles after I've tossed it with the yuzu miso honey vinaigrette plus blanched sugar snap peas and raw cherry tomatoes.

ANNNND...this is the vinaigrette!

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RECIPE to make the Honey-Yuzu vinaigrette (to serve about 6 or more really)...

1 cup yuzu juice (~5 oz)


2 heaping table spoons of miso sauce

3 tablespoons of honey

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of lime/lemon juice

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons olive oil (but I think sesame oil is the better way to go).

Tons of pepper, a smidge of salt--but if u like the savory from the miso then maybe nix the salt. I def didn't really like the olive oil in mine so I actually tried to split with 1/2 of it as sesame oil to compensate. Yuzu is pretty frickin' strong--granted the "juice" they provide is pretty...mixed in with a bit of other citrus juices and garlic etc so...eh.

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So...I dunno wtf happened to my memory card but it seems to override images/naming convention so...i effed up on my xmas post :( it was bootiful. Jaime bought us a tree for the apt with quaint lil' ornaments etc--and we had purtay kate spade boxes wrapped all nice and presents that I wrapped myself with an embossed white parchment paper with a cherry tomato red wired ribbon double bowed and all. AND...we had Amadei hot chocolate with some Kahlua and Bailey's AND Jaime's gingerbread cookies!! >:( very displeased to have lost these images!! they were quintessential holiday pics!! boo!