New York, NY Part I

So this past weekend I enjoyed the trip of a lifetime to New York. I love, love, love NYC and any moment I get to spend there is such a thrill, but this went beyond exciting. My girlfriend, Katherine, turned 30 this Friday--clearly a big deal milestone. Her husband decided that to celebrate her birthday he would send Katherine and two of her gal pals on a weekend getaway to Manhattan. I got an email from Brian about a month ago asking if I would be interested in going and could I arrange my schedule with the kids/family to accommodate being gone for the weekend. My response was, and I quote: "Um, Brian...I would sell my children to the gypsies to go to New York with Katherine." Fortunately, my wonderful husband agreed to being Master of the House for a weekend so I got to keep the kids AND get away for the weekend. A win-win!

As I said, Brian was sending Katherine and two of her girlfriends along for the weekend and while I was excited to go, I was a little nervous about the fact that I would be spending this much quality time with someone I didn't know, since the other friend Katherine was bringing was a gal named Andrea that I had never met before.

Now let me pause here and mention that girls in threes are kind of like that show Elimidate...the one where the guys go on dates with three really trashy women all at the same time and periodically he gets to eliminate the two that aren't 'jiving' with him until there's only the one girl left and the audience is left to ponder whether he chose chlamydia, gonorrhea or Hepatitis. 

Not that I would ever watch a show like that.

At any rate, girls in threes often ends up with at least one good catfight or at the very least some hurt feelings over being 'left out' or 'ignored'. Well, the good news for this trip is that Andrea turned out to be a fabulous, funny and insightful woman with some seriously fantastic taste in food and wine. From the moment we met, I felt like we'd been pals for ages, so off we flew into the wild blue yonder.

I'll skip some of the less interesting details of the travel time, but suffice it to say that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the Taj Mahal compared to the aeronautical armpit of the East Coast, LaGuardia. It made me very grateful for the many dining options available in the concourses of Hartsfield, not to mention air conditioning--for the love of all that's right and good, please do not make me schlepp my bags through your grimy airport without at least cooling the temperature down to something lower than a sauna.

So we eventually arrived at our hotel, which was beautifully situated right in the heart of Times Square. It was unbelievable. We had a lovely room with plenty of space for three feisty women and we immediately set out for the TKTS line to see what Broadway shows were available to us that evening. We were thrilled with all of the choices (it's a luck of the draw-type discount ticket dealer) and landed on the ever-popular Avenue Q. If you're unfamiliar, it's like Sesame Street for grown-ups...puppets and songs and educational experiences with a decidedly "adult" content, if you catch my drift. There's something hilariously funny about swearing puppets and fuzzy frontal puppet nudity. It's a naughty pleasure, yes, but hilariously funny and very witty and smart...just not for the mild mannered or easily offended. I'd seen the show once before, but I was thrilled to experience it again and I think Katherine and Andrea enjoyed their first experience with it as well.

I'm getting a little out of order here, so I should stop and tell you about dinner. Ahhh...dinner. We should have a little moment of silence for the dinner.

Holy cow. It was unbelievable. 

So we went to this little place in the Village called Perilla. The winner of Top Chef Season One opened it a year or so ago and it was beyond incredible. What made it so much fun for me was that I was surrounded by girls who liked food as much as I do, which frankly, I wasn't sure was possible. I live in a house of fuddy-duddy eaters who would prefer baked, unseasoned chicken on a bed of white rice more than anything else in the world. And I'm not just talking about the children, if you get my drift. At Perilla, we had a wonderful dinner--I had Kingfish poached in black olive oil with grilled scallions and little Meyer lemon gnocchi. Dear lord, it was the most incredible thing I've ever put in my mouth. The kingfish was meaty and a little oily, like a salmon-type fish. It was seasoned so perfectly and the scallions added a little extra bite while a parsley puree added just a tiny bit of earthy sweetness. And the gnocchi. I had a love affair with that gnocchi. They were like tiny little pockets of perfectly cooked dough and as you bit into them and felt them melt in your mouth you suddenly got this burst of lemon flavor right at the very end. It was insane. How do you DO that?! How do you make something so perfect with so many layers of flavors?! I have no idea. But what I do know is that Chef Harold earned his Top Chef card with that dish for me. 

Andrea and Katherine both had delicious dinners as well. Andrea had this beautifully cooked pork tenderloin and Katherine had Sheep's Milk Ricotta Ravioli. They were both perfectly delightful and we all enjoyed passing bites around the table. The girls had a bottle of red wine between them and I had a glass of white wine with my fish. I know about as much about wine as I know about nuclear fission, so I tend to keep things pretty simple. From what I understand, white wine goes with fish. 

Yep, that's about as much as I know.

Okay, and now the most important part of the meal: The Risotto.

Where do I begin with the risotto? It was made of Parmesan cheese and an artichoke confit with a tiny little grape salad on top. Had Katherine not heard of how great it was, I would never have given it a second thought on the menu. Fortunately, Andrea saved the day and ordered it along with her pork. What we would have missed had she not?!?! It was the most perfectly creamy and wonderful concoction of flavors that have ever danced around my happy little mouth. We couldn't stop talking about it or eating it. It was other-worldly in way that makes it deserving of a love song or a Shakespearean sonnet. Seriously. It was that good.

After the meal, we enjoyed some perfectly cooked little doughnuts with two sauces...one Meyer lemon and the other a chocolate espresso. They were both delicious and the most wonderful way to end a perfect meal...especially a birthday dinner. And especially since they were kind enough to put a candle in the chocolate sauce. How cute is that?

After dinner we headed to the show and then finished up the evening in a piano bar, but I'll save those details for another post. I'll just tease you with the fact that it included Katherine participating in her first ever drinking game while enjoying a fascinating piano-bar version of The Police.

For now, suffice it to say: should I find myself sitting in jail guilty of some horrendous crime, and they call to ask me what I would like my last meal to be...

Well, I just hope Perilla can FedEx risotto.