Oh the pain.

Guess how much it would cost to get the old domain name back $69 or more!! That'll teach me for not keeping on top of things. Had a look at statcounter and my traffic is woefully low. This is despite me spending hours making sure the content from the old blog is accessible on the new site. Ah, well.. if you liked me you will find me..

Phew!!

With that ends the marathon New York trip review. If I have any readers left after the domain-name debacle you will know it's taken me nearly four months to write up all the reviews. Why so long? Not because we ate so much it took forever to write up, well, we did and it did, but because my energies have been diverted elsewhere!

I have thought long and hard about mentioning this but have decided to as it directly impacts on the blog. I am having a baby. Not a food baby but a real one! As a result food seems to have lost some of it's appeal, and when morning sickness was an issue writing about it was the last thing I wanted to do. Food that is not the morning sickness. Now that it has passed I still find it hard to muster enthusiasm to write up posts, primarily as eating out has become a bit of an nightmare.

However, I still have some good meal to write up including the Providores, the Wolsely, La Trompette and Cinc Sentits. So, without further ado...

Clinton St Bakery & The Spotted Pig. Again!

This was our final day, and other than that we had at Shopsin's this was one of the best breakfasts we had. Now, I don't normally like brioche, finding it too sweet but when it is made into french toast and topped with caramelised bananas, it really comes into it's own. It has just the light and fluffy texture to carry off the sweet toppings. Yum Yum.



One thing I did notice was that whilst we shared this between the two of us, our fellow breakfasters opted to have this to themsleves whilst their companions had something equally large. Maybe they knew how yummy it was, maybe they were just greedy! Who knows. All I know is that I left with a happy tummy feeling and a couple of hours later when we had our last meal of the trip, at the spotted pig, I was able to put away these mamas.



If you can imagine a plate of warm cheesy savoury goodness, then that is what this tasted like. Ricotta gnudi with crispy sage leaves. Very good and very bad for you.

L'atelier de Joel Robouchon.

It was my birthday and to celebrate the occasion I chose to go to Atelier at the Four Seasons. The small plates idea appealed and given we had stuffed our faces with two kinds of pizza earlier on in the day I thought it a safer bet than a tasting menu.

The atmosphere is quite relaxed and I think that has to do with the counter seating, which I requested in advance. That way we had a full view of the 'ballet' going on in the kitchen whilst ogling what our fellow diners were consuming. Here is the legendary bread basket that many people make the mistake of gorging themselves on, but not us!


We started with a foie gras amuse bouche.


As you know I am over Foie Gras, so I didn't have one but I was informed by HI that it was very rich and smooth just as you might expect from a fattened goose liver! As if that wasn't enough fat in one dish HI outdid himself and ordered another foie gras dish, which didn't look that appetising.



I had La langoustine, which was ok.


I have read reviews where people rave about how the brik casing is not greasy but I thought it was, kinda like a posh scampi.
The Free-Range Caramelised Quail Stuffed with Foie Gras, Potato Purée was good but not as good as the quail from maze.



HI had the original Mcfoie burgers (Beef and Foie Gras Burgers with Lightly Caramelised Bell Peppers) but ended up preferring the ones from Tapa C24 more!


I then had the standout dish of the night which made me wish I hadn't ordered anything else as I was quite full by then.




Veal Cheeks Braised in Red Wine and Cumin-Scented Carrots . I could happily eat this over and over again. It was tasty and filling, the sort of dish you would wish to come home to on a cold and wintry night. It is not often that kind of feeling is evoked in a restaurant as high end as this, but they managed the mix of sophisticated with homely, perfectly. It reminded me of the veal cheek dish at Cinc Sentits HI went a step too far and ordered the steak tartare which he proclaimed to be a big lump of rich meat.


I reminded him that he had just chosen to eat two foie gras dishes in a row, and then some more foie gras to be topped off with some raw steak. What did he expect? As steak tartare go, it was pretty damn fine especially as accompanied by some frites.

I don't think they believed us when we said that we were full so they proceeded to give up a pre-dessert shot, some sort of passion-fruit sabayon



and then as it was my birthday they kindly gave us 4 slices of pudding to eat even though we protested we were full!



So, some dishes were just ok, one was outstanding. It was quite an expensive meal and I don't know if I would go back. I think I have eaten similar dishes executed better elsewhere, but at least I can cross it off my list.

Bah!!!!

Bum and double bum.


Attention to anyone out there who cares! Someone has stolen my domain name so I now am www.curious-eater.com!!


If I have any readers left out there can you please change your favourites/RSS feeds to the new address or else you get to look at a snazzy advert for car insurance or something.

Loosing my domain name made me realise how much I still care about my blog so I will try to pull my finger out and start posting again. I have a good excuse really!