A lovely feast @ Damon Frugal Friday (now every day but tuesday!)

Damon Frugal Fridays (New American, Tom Collichio)

Tom Collichio's brainchild in the midst of a terrible recession - a wallet-friendly, interesting menu of New American dishes to be helmed by his head chef, Damon Wise every day of the week except for tuesdays (when he has his Tom: Tuesday Dinner).

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The Decor: (9/10)

The ambiance of a restaurant really counts for a lot with me when it comes to having a great dining experience.  Damon Frugal Fridays is held in a space 2 doors down from Craft where private events are usually held and is absolutely beautiful.  The exposed brick walls, interesting wine racks covering a whole wall of the restaurant, open kitchen layout and spacious candle-lit tables immediately made me feel comfortable and heightened my anticipation of the meal itself.

Shot of interior courtesy of nbcnewyork.com

(I've been terrible at getting good restaurant interior shots so I'm leaving this one to the pros :) )

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The Food: (8/10)

My frequent fooding companion, Connie, and I ordered up a lovely Smörgåsbord of dishes from the eclectic menu.

  

19th Street Headache (Aperol and Prosecco, $4); Sneaky Ninja (Gin, Tea, Fresh Lemon, $7)

We ordered up a round of very inexpensive cocktails to kick off the evening.  Mine (the 19th street headache) tasted like a light beer in a good way.  The bubbliness and sweetness of the prosecco complemented by the bitterness of the aperol made this cocktail very refreshing and easy to drink.  Connie's cocktail (the sneaky ninja) tasted like a really delicious lemonade and didn't have much of a bite from the gin.

 

Soft mozzarella and spicy tomato jam, $5

Loved the spicy tomato jam mixed with the contrast of the buttery soft mozzarella.  I think a sprinkle of sea salt on this dish would have made it better.

Guinea hen leg rillettes in a jar, $7

Hands-down my favorite dish of the night.  The rillettes of guinea hen leg (cubed, chopped meat salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until tender enough to shred and then cooled with enough fat to form a paste) was incredibly flavorful and rich and we couldn't get enough of spreading this on crispy toast points. 

Crispy chicken wings and cabrales cheese, $5

Definitely not a winner - the cabrales was a cold, liquidy layer at the bottom of the bowl and overpowered the entire dish.  The fried, boneless chicken wings were also a bit overcooked and rubbery.

Salt-baked bone marrow and stew of mushrooms and tail, $9

Very rich and indulgent and a good comfort food dish.  I would have loved to have had some bread to spread the bone marrow on instead of eating it purely with the mushroom and tail stew.

 

Pheasant confit spring roll and sweet and sour chestnuts, $7

Just an average dish - I couldn't really taste the pheasant as it was overpowered by the sweet and sour chestnut sauce .

Smoked beef tartare and paprika flatbread, $5

Even though I'm not a big fan of beef tartare (mostly because of the texture of raw beef), I really liked this dish.  The beef was really smokey and paired really well with the paprika flatbread and was layered with all sorts of interesting flavors.

Apple berliner, vanilla custard and hot caramel, $5

Awesome - fried apple fritters, a streak of vanilla custard and a nice tub of hot caramel - what more could you ask for?

Trio of ice cream sandwiches, $5

Another favorite - the cookie layers in these sandwiches were perfect - flakey, buttery and not too sweet.  We had a trio of ice cream sandwiches - peanut butter, cappuccino (with a dash of cinnamon) and my favorite, dark chocolate.

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Summary and More info:

Overall, I had a great time at Damon Frugal Friday and would recommend this restaurant as a great date spot (an easy way of seeing what your date's food tendencies might be) or for easy nights out with friends.  Though the menu is a bit uneven, the prices can't be beat and there are some real winners in the mix.  I can't wait to go back to try out the rest of the menu!

Address: 47 East 19th Street (between Broaway and Park)

Link: The full menu

A Feast for the Senses @ Perry Street

There's a ridiculously good lunch deal out there in the wide, wide world of Manhattan restaurants and I've finally taken advantage of it. I'm talking of course, about the $24 lunch menu at Perry Street. This is the place to go for a meal with a dizzying array of colors, flavors and textures working together in harmony and appealing to nearly all the senses. Even better yet, you get to have your meal in a gorgeous, minimalistic dining room with an appealing hazy glow that evokes lazy afternoons spent whiling away the hours with a good book by an open window.

The Decor: (8.5/10)

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The Food: (9.5/10)

Amuse Bouche: Strawberry Gazpacho
I believe this was blended with tomato? Beautifully smooth and refreshingly tart with just the right touch of strawberry in the aftertaste - I could easily see myself drinking an entire jug of this.

Arctic Char Sashimi, Lemon, Olive Oil and Crispy Skin
Really fresh fish, beautiful colors and the crispy skin on top gave the dish a great textural component.

Crab salad with edible flowers, scallions, cucumber, radishes
Simply AMAZING. I'm usually not fan of overly complex dishes but somehow, every single component of this crab salad was balanced and contributed to the overall deliciousness of the dish. The crab was really creamy and seasoned perfectly and offset by the bright, summery flavors of the scallion, cucumber and radishes and the edible flowers lent a distinct sweetness to the whole affair. Isn't this also one of the most gorgeous presentations you've ever seen? I could barely bring myself to eat it.


Hangar Steak with creamed basil and fava beans and an onion ring
The steak was really moist and tender and worked well with the creamed basil and fava beans but this dish wasn't particularly interesting. I did like the crunchiness of the onion ring though and how it fell apart in layers.


Chili Oil-Poached Red Snapper
I was a bit worried that this dish would be too spicy for me but it wasn't at all - the chili oil lent a very mild flavor to the beautifully flaky, poached fish. The combination of the earthiness of the radishes and the distinct flavor of the red snapper really worked well together and the colors in this dish are again, incredibly striking.



Peach Melba
A perfect simple, summery dessert - white and yellow peaches covered with a raspberry puree and a milky granita.

Chocolate Pudding, Devil's cake, Whipped cream and Crystallized Lavender
Appallingly good - it seems like a rather simple dessert but it's somehow elevated beyond the ordinary. The pudding was creamy and dense and full of chocolatey goodness and perfectly offset by the thick, fluffy whipped cream. The crunchy crystallized lavender bits were really pretty look at and also quite good though really intensely strong (take just a few bits with each biteful or else they get overwhelming).

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Conclusion
This was easily one of the best dining experiences I've had recently and I'd definitely frequent Perry Street more often but the location makes it a bit of a trek to get to on most weekdays.

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A taste of the Bar Room at The Modern

As a prelude to the Arcade Fire concert at the opening of the High Line Festival, Connie, Nicky and I were wandering around the bleakly corporate area of Midtown near Radio City in desperate need of some good food. After much deliberating, we decided to pop into the Bar Room at the Modern to get a sampling of some of their interesting and beautifully presented dishes.

The Decor: (7/10)

Shot of interior courtesy of The Wandering Eater

The interior of the Modern is really quite pretty - clean lines, artfully placed plants and plenty of room around tables.
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The Food: (8.5/10)

Every dish on the menu is a small plate broken out into 3 sections: section I (primarily cold plates), section II (primarily hot plates) and section III (half sized entrees).

Roasted Long Island Duck Breast with peppercorn crusted apples and toasted pistachio-truffle dipping sauce ($16)
Since I'm slightly obsessed with duck, I ordered this dish of course and was so incredibly glad that I had. There's something about the combination of incredibly tender roasted duck and the crunchy tartness of apples that creates a nearly heavenly sensation. The toasted pistachio-truffle dipping sauce was just the icing on the cake and lent the dish a really mellow, earthly flavor.

Slow Poached Farm Egg In a Jar with maine lobster, roasted jerusalem artichokes and sea urchin froth ($17) Wow. There's not much else to say about this dish - you just really need to run out and get a few jars. There's been this craze surrounding egg dishes that I've totally bought into:

At Degustation:

Slowly Poached Egg with jamón serrano, chorizo, smoked cheese and rice cracker crusted asparagus

At Inoteca:

Truffled Egg Toast (photo courtesy of Kathryn)

At WD-50:

Carrot-Coconut "Sunny Side Up"

And the list goes on and on over at NYM's list of the top egg dishes of NYC

But back to the matter at hand:

Beer Braised Pork Belly with sauerkraut and ginger jus ($19)
Ah, pork belly... it's really hard to go wrong with this dish - I'm not a huge fan of sauerkraut but it really worked with the sweetness of the beer braised pork belly. Everything was perfectly cooked and everything on the plate served a purpose.

Roasted Garlic Gnocchi with wild mushroom, sage and crispy sweetbreads ($17)
Really tender, flavorful gnocchi and deliciously crunchy sweetbreads. The sage was also fried which lent a nice texture tot his dish.


Beignets with maple ice cream, caramel and mango marmalade ($10)
Ah, beignets... these were a bit too soft for my taste but the sauces more than made up for it. There's just something so deliciously decadent about swirling caramel around maple ice cream and topping it off with a big chunk of fried dough...
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