lunch at restaurants i can't afford dinner: eleven madison park

Is there a more appropriate restaurant than Eleven Madison Park to continue our “Lunch At Restaurants I Can’t Afford Dinner” series? @SimpleSocial treated me to a belated birthday lunch here recently, where a two course prix fix meal is offered for $28. It’s still special occasion fare, but when compared to the unremarkable $19 burgers and insipid $12 make your own salads that are the norm in my work neighborhood, you realize even more just what a great deal you're getting. Eleven Madison Park was awarded four stars by the Times over the summer - I've never eaten at a four star restaurant before! It's part of Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group - I've never eaten at one of his restaurants before either! It's no joke when people talk about the high level of service at his restaurants. Our waiter was attentive without being overbearing and informative without being show-offy. He was knowledgeable about wines and even plated the desserts.

We began with a round of amuses. In the foreground, duo of beet marshmallows and foie gras with red currant atop a very delicate cracker. Both Molly and I broke our crackers between the plate and our mouths. We were both trying very hard to be proper and ladylike, but I guess we are too strong for our own good. Perfect, fluffy gourgeres, a dish of sea salt and butter are in the background.

Molly's first course: the slow poached organic egg with Parmigiano-Reggiano and mushrooms. Foamy deliciousness on top.

I opted for the balik salmon with pommes dauphine, frisée and crème fraîche to begin. There was also a bonus circle of salmon tartar in the middle. The balik salmon was so tender and perfectly smoked.

For my second course, I went with the day's special of pork loin, Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. As with my first course, my protein was prepared two ways, which I didn't anticipate. Paired with the loin was basically a hockey puck made of pork, if hockey pucks were amazingly crisp on the outside and amazingly porky and fatty on the inside.

Fried pie. Just kidding! This was Molly's skate.

We indulged and got dessert. Two of them. Chocolate caramel tart.

Brown sugar and blueberry crumble.

Boerum Hill Green Chile Festival

Oh, hello there! How's it going? Guess what? The PSG is back in Park Slope. Even back to the same street where the PSG originated. Clinton Hill, we already miss you tons. Before we made the move back, we attended the First Annual Boerum Hill Green Chile Festival at Sean and Rebecca's newish apartment. DMR and I were introduced to green chile in New Mexico two summers ago but had been since deprived of this wonderful member of the capsaicin family.

A beautiful spread of pickled, cured and cultured edibles greeted us.

The chiles arrived from Hatch, NM, but were roasted by hand in small batches in Boerum Hill. By Sean and Rebecca's hands! Or maybe just Sean's. They were chopped up and incorporated into an elegant version of cheese fries. The chiles, not Sean's hands.

And of course, the chiles were used as a topping for cheeseburgers. The burgers were six ounce patties of Pat La Frieda's original blend - a mixture of brisket, chuck, and short rib. If you're going to go pre-made patty route, this is the only way to go. They are super flavorful and create a very juicy burger. A colorful salad of tomatoes and greens with Rebecca's homemade ranch dressing shared the plate and helped move the healthy needle to the right just a wee bit.

To drink, the only proper beverage to pair with a burger - BEER. Bud longnecks, PBR extra-tall boys and a hodge podge of others. A truly lovely meal.

DMR posted some photos of not food.

Brunch at Roberta's

Starting off the meal with a Hara-Kiri, Roberta's version of a bloody mary. Sake instead of vodka, and a pepperoncini garnish instead of a stalk of celery or olive skewer. The sake makes for a lighter, sweeter and smoother drink, but I much prefer the traditional version. I did like the extra large square ice cube that floated in canning jar.

Dan and I wound up splitting an order of Bane's fried chicken and a guanciale and egg pizza. I forgot to take a picture of the chicken before I started eating. When I remembered, my hands were already chickenified, plus I was holding a baby, so a photo was not going to happen. The chicken was incredibly moist and juicy, and came with a yummy buttermilk biscuit and a gently dressed, small bibb lettuce salad, but for $14, I want more than two small pieces of chicken. And some sort of potato, preferably mashed or au gratined, thank you very much. The pizza could have benefited from a tad more guanciale, but boy was it delicious. Just like you'd dip your toast into a sunny side up egg for breakfast, you could smush around a piece of the pizza crust in the yolk.

Schnitzel!

This is currently my favorite thing to eat for lunch in the wasteland that is Midtown. It comes from a truck called Schnitzel & Things. They recently won the Vendy award for Rookie of the Year. Congrats, guys!

Here we have a pork schnitzel platter with a beet and feta salad and Austrian potato salad. A couple lemon wedges and a pesto mayo round out the meal. The cost? $8. This is a great deal. Most delis around here charge you $8 for a pre-made sandwich that's been sitting around for 6 hours. The schnitzel is the size of a small country. The pizza places around here charge over $3 for a slice so I repeat, this is a GREAT DEAL.

If you time your visit to get to the truck right when they've parked and set up, there's not much of a wait. Don't bother dealing with a knife and fork; the best way to attack the cutlet is to pick it up with two hands and chomp away. Sometimes the meat can get a little tough (a by-product of a very thinly pounded cutlet), but the crust is always delectably crisp. I've also tried the veal but pork is my go-to. For my sides, it's hard to stray from the beets and feta but I rotate in the potato salad and sauerkraut. I strayed from a mayo as my condiment once and paid for it big time! The ginger, scallion and garlic relish was an oily, flavorless bust. Mayo is the way!

Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereal

We are Sammy and Otis and we are almost six months old. Last Friday, we ate solid foods for the first times. We ate the Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereals. Our mommy and daddy feed us the cereals. First we was confused because we only ate the liquids. Mommy and Daddy shoved this long plastic thing with the foods in our mouths. This is a spoon. We both like nipples better. Nipples rule, spoons drool. Eating from the spoon is a weird feeling. We got more cereal on our faces and bibs than in our tummies but we like eating the cereal. We are some again on Saturday and Sunday. And Monday, too but Daddy got some up Sammy's nose and Mommy had to clean it up. Yesterday we ate some more and we liked the cereal. We give this cereal a B+. - Sam & Otis

lunch at restaurants i can't afford dinner: nougatine @ jean georges

Some coworkers and I decided to treat ourselves to the lunch special at Nougatine at Jean Georges. Three courses for $24.07. An expensive lunch, yes, but I thought of it as an early dinner, and an affordable one at that, at a restaurant that never fit in the budget before the arrival of Double Trouble and certainly does not fit in post DT.

I started with the tuna tartar, which was built atop a mash of avocado and adorned with radish slices on top. A ginger marinade, oozing with umami, was poured around the tuna by the server.

My second course was the grilled beef tenderloin with garlic, parsley and chili, served with sauteed spinach and a rough mash of potato. I normally get my meat cooked medium, but the kitchen suggested medium rare so I went with it. It was perfect. I am sold on medium rare meat now but only at places where I think they'll know how to cook meat properly.

Your final course is a choice of two desserts. I went with the molten chocolate cake, considering JG is credited with inventing it. Not ordering this would be like eating at one of Bobby Valentine's restaurants and not ordering a wrap sandwich.

it's cookie time

TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo, I presume?) from Bouchon Bakery @ the Time Warner Center. Also sampled a blueberry cheesecake macaron and chocolate chip cookie which were both really, really good. The cherry pistachio brioche was just eh.