In November, I went to foodie heaven. A 3 Michelin starred restaurant in New York City. Ranked 4th in the world by San Pellegrino in their annual rankings - the top in North America. Eleven Madison Park.
Anyone who loves food, and loves innovation, should try an experience like this at least once, if they can possibly afford it. They serve a 15 course tasting menu, with optional beverage pairings. No menu to order from, though there are some choices to be made.
To me, it was a perfect evening. Beautiful, interesting, tasty food, carefully paired drink, and service unlike any I have experienced. Plus the good company of my sister in one of the most vibrant cities in the world. This place starts taking reservations at 9:00 am EST, 4 weeks prior to the night in question. So I called at 9:00 am, 28 days prior to November 11th. A couple of weeks before our dinner, I received an email from the head waiter, asking about dietary restrictions, allergies, and if there was anything he could do to enhance our visit. A nice touch.
My dining companion was my sister, K. We had a long-planned trip to New York as a celebration of a milestone birthday for me (40!), and this dinner was the pinnacle of my trip. We arrived a little early and were taken to the bar to wait. There, the bartender questioned us on our preferences and crafted a cocktail to cater to those preferences. Mine, on the left, was tart with citrus, not too sweet.
Then we were seated. The room is large. High ceilings. Art deco grandeur. We were among the first diners there (the meal takes a good 4 hours, so starting around 6 seemed like a good idea), and it seemed to us that there were many, many servers based on the number of possible seats. This allows them to offer a level of service that I have never before experienced. The staff truly anticipate your needs, enhancing your dining experience. I think many of us have the viewpoint that being a waiter is a stopping point, something you do to make ends meet as a student, an actor, an artist, etc., rather than a profession. And in most places in Canada this is the case. Here, the waitstaff are professionals, and it shows. (Aside.... in general, I must say the service in NYC was far and above anything I have ever seen in Canada - from store clerks, to waitstaff, to ticket takers, people were so friendly and kind, whether it was a role where tips were a possibility or not.)
Upon being seated, we were brought their signature black and white cookies, which both start and end the meal. The opening cookies are savoury, the closing cookies are sweet. The opening cookies, which I sadly neglected to take a picture of, were cheddar cheese with apple. We were asked to choose our protein - duck or venison. After a short discussion, we chose venison. It isn't as commonly found in grocery stores and on menus here in Ontario, particularly in K's medium-sized town, so we felt it might be the more interesting option. Personally, I also frequently cook duck and cook it well. I know venison, because of its leanness, is more challenging. This default preference to things I can't cook easily made our second choice for us: for the foie gras course, did we want the foie seared or torchon? I can, and have, seared foie gras at home, but foie gras torchon is a labour intensive 2 - 4 day process requiring much more (expensive) foie to start with, so our choice was obvious. Also in front of us was an envelope with two cards inside, each with 4 punch outs with a flavour profile written underneath. Maple, cranberry, apple, and celery. We each were able to choose the flavour profile that would be reflected later in our meal. We punched our cards. I chose cranberry, liking the idea of the tartness of it, and K was intrigued by the idea of celery.
I figure that you don't do an expensive, splurge dinner like this without being willing to go all in. So we went all in. There are two options for the beverage pairing. The premium pairing features more difficult to find, less common, less available, or just plain better wines (mostly, there was beer with one course as well). So, naturally, we went with the premium.
The first thing brought, also not pictured, was a cup of venison broth (the first reflection of our protein choice), with bread and butter. This was savoury and intensely flavoured, and got us ready for the march of culinary delight that was about to commence.
Kabocha squash, roasted with pear, chestnut, and radicchio, paired with the 1989 Hans Kramp Ayler Kupp, from the Saar region in Germany. From a little googling, this wine is quite a find, and we were lucky to get to sample it. Not surprising something like this was first in the liquor line up, before our palates got muddled with food and drink.
Followed by the foie gras, with marinated grapes, truffles, and mushroom and breadcrumbs, served with NY Malmsey. You can see the decadent little cylinders of foie gras torchon beneath the mushrooms. Torchon, by the way, is a preparation where a whole lobe of foie gras is prepared, seasoned, shaped, rolled tightly and bound, then lightly poached at a low temperature, with resting phases in various parts of the process. The result is an unbelievably creamy, smooth, rich texture, with perhaps a slight taming of the liveriness of it all.
The next course honoured a New York tradition: deli. Pastrami on rye, but more elegant and elevated. First, a deli sandwich needs a soda:
My cranberry soda, and K's celery soda. K loved the celery - found it unusual and refreshing. My cranberry was just what I would expect, tart and a little sweet, and nice against the fattiness of the pastrami...
Made in house, this was delightful. Those who have only had pastrami from grocery stores don't know what they're missing. Proper pastrami is so tasty. We assembled our own sandwiches with:
Rye bread. Dollops of different mustards, mayo, charred leeks and fingerling potato chips. All in all, this dish was fun, playful, and, above all, delicious.
The next course involved four different preparations of Long Island seafood, served with Larmandier-Bernier 2008 Blanc de Blancs champagne. Oyster with yogurt and lemon, in a mignonette gelée.This had a nice flavour, but over all, the gelée was not my favourite, and I lost the texture of the oyster.
Scallop with pistachio and apple. The scallop was ceviche style, nice texture and acidity, the apple gave a bit of crunch.
Marinated blue crab with pickled radish. Nice blend between the sweetness of the crab meat and the brine of the pickle.
Vichyssoise with caviar, smoked blue fish, and quail egg. With the caviar and egg yolk, this was the most luxe of this quartet. I loved the saltiness of the caviar, and I enjoy that popping texture of the little roe.
Continuing on the ocean theme, the next dish was striped bass, slow cooked with clams. There was a pool of a squid ink sauce that was very interesting, and a parsley shellfish sauce. This was served with some potato foam/soup and sea urchin (uni!!) in another bowl. This whole combination was one of my favourites. The fish was cooked beautifully, the clams atop it added depth and texture. The squid ink sauce added visual interest and tasted good - I had never had squid ink before. The side, well, foam is foam. But sea urchin. Uni. Long time readers know that I have had uni before and, well, it didn't delight. Much to my surprise, this preparation worked for me. The aggressive fishiness that turned me off before was tamed into a pleasant brine with a hint of iodine. The soup/foam also counteracted the textural issues of pure uni. I am going to take this experience and try uni yet again in sushi form to see if my feelings have changed or if it was just this one dish.
They brought our next course to the table as it was still being cooked, just to show us the technique. An old, old school version of the trendy sous-vide method, celery root, flavourings and aromatics were sealed in a tightly tied pig's bladder and floated gently in a pan of liquid.
It sounds, and looks, strange, I know. But you need an open mind when going to a place like this. The end result was delicious. A ball of celery root in a truffle sauce. Under the white disc of pureed celery root, there is a smaller wheel of black truffle puree, taking the whole dish up a notch. This was paired with a 2011 Domaine du Montille burgundy.
Next they brought us our main protein, the venison, to show us the cooking method. Sealed in wood and ash, on a bed of aromatic evergreens, it smelled smokey and delicious. The intent behind sealing the venison away is to keep the ultra lean meat moist.
Back that went to the kitchen to be finished off, and to prepare us for the meatier protein, the next course was charcuterie, all venison based. Hunter sausage, cured loin, and a liver pate within a piece of brioche, along with the requisite pickley accompaniments.
And then, the main. Venison, slow roasted in an ash crust, with beets and onions, and paired with Domaine du Terrebrune Bandol, from Provence. The venison was silky and moist, cooked perfectly. The sauce, which I suspect was blood-based, was sublime. The beet chips added a further earthy crunch. The table next to us ordered the duck, so I saw that plate. I think we chose the better option.
So, having reached the pinnacle, we begin the trip down the other side with a selection of local cheeses. As I have seen and experienced in France, they wheeled over the cheese cart and we each chose 3 from the 7 or 8 they had there. I chose a blue, a creamy, surface ripened cheese, and a firmer cheese. K's choices were different. These came with a house made soft pretzel (so good), bitter greens, and plum conserve, and the course was served with Brett Farmhouse Ale from Transmitter Brewing.
From here we begin our foray into dessert. First, something of a palate cleanser: variations on milk. Whey sorbet, with caramelised milk and milk foam, served with a 2011 Marco de Bartoli Bukkuram passito. The sorbet had the acidity that sorbet often does, and a slight sourness from the whey. The caramelised milk (dulce du leche, essentially) was very good.
Dessert was Baked Alaska, served with Wiengut Kracher Zweigeit Beerenauslese from Austria. First they brought the whole thing out and made a show of spooning fire over it. Then they returned to the kitchen to plate it and brought our servings back out. Beside mine is a little candle in honour of my birthday! This was my first Baked Alaska, and my first Italian style meringue. It is quite different from the French style meringue most of us are more familiar with - a different texture that would make it easier to pipe and make interesting effects with. Also more stable, I believe. But I digress... The cake was a darker cake, with rum and caramel, making it more interesting and tasty than the simple white sponge generally used.
Do you think we're done? We're not done. House made hard salted pretzels, dipped in dark chocolate, served with an entire bottle of apple brandy to drink at our leisure. We did not drink an entire bottle of apple brandy. I liked the saltiness of the pretzels with the dark, bittersweet chocolate. And the closing black and white cookies, sweet this time - chocolate with apple molasses.
As a closing salvo, they sent us each home with a mason jar of house made granola for future breakfasts, and a decadent chocolate bar for me, also for my birthday. After all that food, and all that wine, we opted to walk the 25 or so blocks back to our hotel.
This was an epoch meal. The sort that comes but rarely. Expensive, yes, but I don't regret one penny spent. It was a glorious and unforgettable evening, and memory that will stay with me forever.
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