Le Bernardin...

As part of graduation gluttony, I'm topping off a week of Reyarnd's, Kefi, Lincoln, Ai Fiori....with Le Bernardin lunch!

I have to say, service and cooking is immaculate--that's a good piece a fish ya knowhaddamean? Sauces were great, tasted asian-y is as best as I can put it. I don't remember much other than some kind of black garlic persian lemon sauce with my black bass, and pata negra emulsion with the roasted monkfish. Escolar was delicious with kaffir lime-lemongrass scented mariniere and sea beans + nori. Desserts were good. Everything was nice, just not mindblowing. Strangely enough I salivate more thinking of Tchoup Shop than I do Le Bernarin. Still, an experience to be had. I think so far on this level of fine dining, I still like Marea much more than the rest.

ONWARD!!

Oysters to start (Albie's)--assorted west coast/east coast including kumamoto and others I didn't pay attn to :)

I had the poached escolar. Sauce. was. amazeballs. Really dug the lemon grass and kaffir lime. Subtle!

Salmon rillettes--not a big fan of salmon, but I liked it enough to eat a significant chunk!

Roasted monkfish! monkfish was meh, sauce again was delish. Morels = <3.

Black Bass--tasty, cooked perfectly, wish there was a little more going on with this tho. Maybe some veggies!

Desserts--refreshing, light, nice...nice. no exclamation marks. :)

Yuzu:

Hazelnut-vanilla marshmallows:

...and...financiers & coffee to finish!

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!