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**xadam** · 03-28-2008, 12:58 AM

Re: FOOD!

[quote user="Faust"]

that may be true - it's hard to strut the balance between professional critics and peeps. one may be too subjective (or worse, paid), another may be not sophisticated enough (although one would think, they proles' opinions would balance out statistically)

[/quote]

The fallacy of the wisdom of crowds is that it balances out at neutral.

Regardless, I think SZ should should support cooks that shop at A.

**Chinorlz** · 03-28-2008, 03:45 AM

Re: FOOD!

Sorry it took a while Faust... Neuro exam coming up haha

This review/food porn set was from my dinner there with my brother on July 15th, 2006.... damn it seems like just yesterday!



Arrived in NYC just barely in time. 10 pm reservation at WD-50, and I arrived at 9 pm in the city thank to our non-asian (hence: slow driver) Fung Wah bus driver. Taxi'd over to Derrick's where we sat around for a bit before cabbing to WD-50 and having a drink at the bar. Wonderful drinks that you wouldn't imagine could be made (mine involved numerous flowers, and other essences that worked together in a non-bubble-bath-tasting sort of way. Delicious!).



It was tasty and there was great attention to detail in making the drink. The orange peel was freshly shaved for the drink, the rim was rubbed with a cut lime before dipping in the sugar, and the angostura bitters were gently dripped onto the surface of the drink. 

We discussed the food concepts at WD-50 with the bartender and talked about his inspirations for his drinks along with Sam Mason's new restaurant opening in a few months in SoHo and how they're recruiting Alinea's Alex Stupak to join their team!

Then we were seated and the journey began. We of course ordered the 12 course tasting menu and added two dishes from the regular menu as well bringing our total to 14. The couple next to us had the tasting menu as well and had been there for two hours at the time Derrick and I sat down. We all talked about the food and chatted amicably.

So it begins:



Amuse Bouche: Tender tender hamachi with crushed roastedhazelnuts, somemango reduction, celeryand pea shoot leaves (decorative). An interesting start to an interesting meal. Sweetness of the fish was brought out by the peach flavor and the textures were contrasted with the nuts that also complemented everything as a whole. 



Course #1- Our starter was one I chose off of the menu because it sounded so nice. Sake pine nut gazpacho, drizzled with coffee oil, served with cherries and fresh oysters wrapped in spinach leaves and poached.

The oysters retained their ocean flavor and the sake pine nut gazpacho was extremely light with the coffee tempering the sweetness with a slight hint of bitterness. Cherries added another facet to the overall flavor.



Course #2 Carrot Coconut "sunny side up". An example of El Bulli technique. The carrot stock was mixed with alginate and scoops of it were floated in calcium carbonate to gel a "shell" to create the yolk. Some sort of gelled coconut... thing was the whites. The yolk popped ever so lusciously in your mouth with the slightest pressure covering your tongue with perfect carrot essence. Coconut was a light aftertaste.



Course #3 Foie Gras terrine with beet reduction, candied olives, pea soil. I was honestly disappointed with this dish. I LOVE foie.... almost as much as trufflesand this wasn't great. Getting the beet reduction inside the terrine was nice. It flowed out as you cut into this seemingly solid terrine, but the taste was eh. The candied olives had no taste (or was masked by everything else) and the pea soil was salty/bitter. Not a good counter to the terrine.



Course #4 One of the highlights of the evening. Shrimp cannelloni, chorizo, thai basil sauce. The chorizo wasn't visible in terms of sausage, but my GOD you could taste it in there with the tender tender shrimp. This was definitely cooked ever so slowly and to an 80% cooked phase. Perfect.... except that I now know that I'm also allergic to raw shrimp along with raw lobster (learned that at Nobu) and raw crab (learned that at Shanghai Cafe). 



Course #5 Pickled calf tongue (had a pastrami flavor), fried mayonnaise, tomato molasses. The tongue was a novelty. Tasty, and thinly sliced, but it was essentially pastrami. The fried mayo was another usage of technology. Gellan is mixed with the mayo, chilled and cubes cut to batter and fry. Eaten hot, the mayo is molten inside the crispy shell. Thesauce was a nice addition. Think of a sweet tomatopastrami sandwich with mayo. This would be the deconstructed version.



Course #6 A fun dish! A deep and strong miso consomme with a squeeze bottle of asesame noodle that you squeeze into the soup! Couldn't taste the noodles unless you ate them by themselves but the dish was tasty



Derrick went crazy.



Course #7. Roasted eel served withsmoky caramelfoam and some sort of celery/peanut/snow pea salad. I know I'm forgetting some ingredient. It worked pretty well. First time I tasted a foam. Interesting.



Course #8. Another major major highlight of the night. The ABSOLUTELY MOST PERFECTLY COOKED piece of lamb I have ever had. Hands down. With acarob sauce, dried slivers of lamb (crispy and rich) with a small salad of fava beans and sweet honeydew. I could eat pounds of that lamb....

orgasmic.



Course #9. Pork belly, sauerkraut spaetzle, swiss cheese consomme, romaine. Added off of the regular menu as La recommended this dish. Absolutely wonderful as well. Crispy skinned, the belly was perfect. The swiss cheese consomme was confounding as to how it was actually done, but absolutely delicious. I drank it all.The spaetzle... couldn't taste the kraut. No big deal though, the rest of the dish was solid.



Course #10. First dessert, and the best dessert. I don't really have a penchant for sweets and this is still something I want to eat over and over again. Corn bread ice cream (soooo perfectly creamy) served over freeze dried cornbread and some sweet crumbly topping. My god... it was perfect.



Course #11. Tonka bean brulee, sour cherries, marjoram, cherry soil. Tasty. The entire brulee tube was crispy shelled! I still don't know how the soils are made.



Course #12. I think it wassesame ice cream. I can't remember anymore. A creamy piece of chocolate, chocolate soil, some tasty chips and a ancho chile caramel smear. Really nice. Really really nice. 



Final nibblies. Pine nut jellies. Perfect essence of pine without tasting like pine sol. Refreshing.


So after 3 hours of eating, we relaxed for a bit and I asked the waiter if we could chat with Chef Dufresne. Without missing a beat he said "let me to talk to him, and when he's ready I'll lead you two into the kitchen". Awesome!

He comes back, moves the table aside and says, "follow me" and we go back. He introduces himself as Wylie and has an affable smile. Sam is off on the side as they're cleaning their already immaculate (and I mean immaculate) kitchen. We chat about the food, about food concepts, Alinea and El Bulli. Wylie refers to the chefs at these two restaurants as "kindred spirits" and says he's excited to be having Alinea's pastry chef at WD-50. He's flying to Chicago this week to eat at Alinea again and finalize things. He's also eaten at El Bulli "a number of times". Yikes.

The way my brother and I were discussing the food as we ate, the two tables adjacent to us asked us if we were chefs. Wylie asked the same hahaha. "No, we're just here to enjoy the food."



What a great way to top off one of the best meals I've had. Hands down.



Thank you WD-50. Not only was Chef Dufresne one of the nicest people I've ever met in the hectic hectic world of food prep, all the servers were patient, enthusiastic and nice, and the bartender was laid back and excited about what he was involved in. 

Tucked away a few avenues east of SoHo, WD-50. The place to go for that special occasion, or for any occasion. The dishes are both familiar and challenging and force you to think with each bite.

**Chinorlz** · 03-28-2008, 03:49 AM

Re: FOOD!

aaaand the story from last October-ish when I had The Best Meal Of My Life (which may be equalled or topped this summer when my girlfriend and I go to Alinea and Moto):

Enjoy the foters.

Dinner at Cafe Atlantico/the minibar.

I've been looking forward to this one for a month now and there was zero disappointment with this experience. I arrived at around 7:45 for the 8:30 reservation at the minibar and sat down at the bar and had a glass of riesling at the suggestion of the bartender when I asked him for something to complement my dinner at the minibar. We talked about the food, the ideas and how he used some of those approaches in his drink designs.

Finally 8:30 rolled around and Pablo, the server for the minibar gathered the 6 people who had minibar reservations that night (only two seating at the minibar every night and only six people can eat there per seating. That's right. Only twelve people eat there a night.) and we all headed upstairs.

Two chefs were on the other side of the minibar (Melanie and Mike I think...) and after talking briefly about how we were going to be there for two and a half hours and eat about 35 different things, they got to work.

I'll let the photos tell the rest with some captions.

Outside. It was raining. A lot.

My side of the minibar. A layout of many of the ingredients we were going to eat in the next 2.5 hours.

The silverware. Lovely stuff!

Preparation by Mike of the fizzy mojitos.

The beet tumbleweeds being topped with microgreens.

Passion fruit whiskey sours being finished.

The salmon roe cone (minibar interpretation of the lox & cream cheese combo) being finished.

In media res constructing the deconstructed glass of wine.

Foam. I think this one was passion fruit foam.

Construction of the Ajo Blanco. This dish was definitely one of the highlights.

Preparation of the caviar with quail egg cooked via "in-shell sous vide"

The tomato sorbet being put on the avocado for "guacamole"

Prep of the new new england clam chowder. On the left are freshly shucked clams.

Blowtorching kobe beef and mushrooms for the "philly cheese steak"

__________________________________________________ __________

OK! Now onto the dishes themselves.... there are a lot.

Olive Oil bon bon. A sugar encased liquid olive oil drop. Placed into your mouth, you cracked it and the most luscious olive oil flows over your tongue. The sugar isn't overwhelming (likely tempered by the coating of your tongue with the oil) and adds a subtle dimension to the pure flavor of the olive oil. I liked this start not only because it showed you what was to come, but because it let you actually enjoy the purity of olive oil. A flavor we almost take for granted now.

The fizzy mojito. Done of course with the alginate/calcium chloride gelation method. In your mouth it popped and fizzed lightly. A nice contrast to the olive oil. I saw it almost as the extremes of flavors you would taste over the evening. Note the El Bulli silverware.

Saffron yogurt merengue. A nice little bite. Very very light and subtle.

Next up were the beet tumbleweeds. Extremely fragile and sweetly delicious. They reminded me of a softer and more texturally interesting version of beet Terra Chips.

The passion fruit whiskey sour. Not really a shot in the liquor sense. Very flavorful. The way the menu was organized, each dish varied enough from the one before to keep the palate awake and interested.

Maple Syrup Pork Rinds. These were given at the same time as the whiskey sour. Definitely a play on bar food. These were perfect. Not oily, but those really nice thick pork rinds that the mass-produced bagged versions can't even touch. The salty-sweet combo and the crunchiness...mmmmm.....

Fried whole fish. This was pretty much the only dish that I found to be disappointing. These were like dried fish slivers that I can get in the Chinese market. Not bad, but not interesting either.

Lox with Cream Cheese. Salmon roe and light 'n airy cream cheese served in a crispy cone. One bite.

Cotton candy foie gras. A cube of foie gras terrine whisked quickly in a cotton candy machine. The classic pairing of something sweet with foie worked very nicely here. The foie was creamy and cool and the cotton candy was still slighty warm from being spun.

Minibar Olives. Definitely an interpretation of the El Bulli olives. Olive flavors encapsulated in the alginate/CaCl2 method. With an olive puree and bits of orange for a sweet addition to the salty olive flavor. Very nice! Although they were difficult to get off the plate without popping them.

Boneless chicken wing with bbq sauce and bleu cheese. Cute and a tasty morsel.

Conch fritter. Frozen conch chowder is battered and fried. I could eat a lot of these!

Salmon with pineapple, avocado, quinoa. Overall a nice dish, but the salmon itself was underwhelming. The razor thin slice of pineapple provided much more flavor than I would have anticipated.

The deconstructed glass of wine. The guy who sat to my right worked as a wine rep and was a big fan of this one. White grape juice gelee was topped with various flavors you'd get in a glass of wine and then it was spritzed with actual white wine to complete the presentation. Right to left (I could be rememering some incorrectly...) lemon zest, orange zest, lime zest, coconut, mint, pineapple, passion fruit, cantaloupe, apple, pomegranate, fig, vanilla. A really cool dish that I looked forward to trying out after reading about it.

Ajo Blanco. The minibar version of a classic spanish dish. This was the only dish that used a pacojet. Flavor-wise it started off very basic but as you dug deeper, became incredibly complex. Some garlic, almond (I think this was the pacojetted ice), intensely flavored tomato powder, top notch balsamic vinegar and olive oil. One of my favorites of the night.

Zucchini in textures. This was sitting in a warmer in the back of the minibar until this point. It was subtle. Topped with a gelee, you dug through the nicely cooked seeds into a puree underneath. I like zucchini so this was nice, but didn't seem to fit well into the overall scheme. Some would consider it a dull dish, but I can understand it as Andres' exploration into the potential of a single ingredient.

Lobster Americaine. A pristine lobster tail was sliced, quickly warmed in a pan and then affixed to the pipet. The pipet was filled with a strained puree of tomalley (the tasty stuff you find in the head). The instructions were to put the lobster/pipet in your mouth and as you pulled the lobster off of the pipet, you squeezed the sauce in.

For those that are allergic to raw crustaceans, the lobster is 90% cooked (as it should be) but I know I had a very mild reaction to it (prickly mouth, itchy back of throat). I get this from sous vide cooked shrimp (at WD-50) too. Not a huge deal, but just so you're aware.

Feta Linguine. Feta "water" (probably a consomme) was gelled into noodles and served with small chunks of actual feta, tomato puree and a light feta sauce. Not overpowering or boring, but with the minibar fork, it was hard to eat.

Organized Caesar Salad. This one took Mike a while to make. The skins were gossamer thin and you can see there needs to be a lot done for correct and clean presentation. A fun dish to eat with the hands.

Egg 147 and caviar. A quail egg is cooked slowly at 147 degrees and served with caviar. The bottom of the dish had a bit of passion fruit and banana puree too to offset the salinity of the caviar. Very nice, but the egg flavor was a bit too subtle. In the end it just added a creaminess to the dish.

Sea urchin with pomegranate foam. Really nice dish. Nothing like fresh sea urchin. They seem to love the salty/sweet combo at minibar.

Roasted corn on the cob. Definitely a fun dish. A little baby corn was seared and served with chopped corn nuts and a roasted corn puree. The roasted corn flavor came almost exclusively from the corn nuts. This is one that you could easily do at home.

Guacamole. Thin layered slices of avocado were rolled around silky tomato sorbet and garnished with chopped fritos, tomato and bits of lime. I liked the unconventional usage of snack foods (fritos, corn nuts) by Andres'. They fit perfectly for these dishes. Beautiful presentation and another one that isn't impossible to replicate at home.

Smoked oyster with apple. A fresh oyster (maybe lightly poached) served with a smoky lightly apple flavored sauce and smoke foam. A miniature cube of apple provided a sharper apple taste and nice contrast in texture.

New new england clam chowder. My god. This dish was amazing. Freshly shucked clams that tasted like the ocean. I did not know that raw clam could have such strong flavor. A potato puree, cream foams, bits of bacon and other ingredients came together. I could definitely have had much more of this dish.

Breaded cigala. A crayfish looking crustacean that was fully cooked and the a sliver of some crust added to one side. Served with a sauce that tasted like it was made from the shell and head. Very nice. Flavorful without being overpowering.

Philly cheese steak. Slices of kobe beef were torched along with mushrooms (I think they were the canned variety) laid on top of a crust tube that was filled with very airy cream cheese. It was finished with a few drops of truffle oil before being served. The cream cheese inside the tube melted a little and added to the mouthfeel and texture of this dish. Another nice interpretation of an american classic.

Young Japanese peaches served with light cream and foam. Droplets of balsamic vinegar added to the flavor of these interesting fruits.

Berries and pistachio. This was probably the closest thing to a "normal" dish all evening. A mixed berry sorbet, pistachio cream and some raspberries/blackberries. The red foam were solid foam chunks of berry essence that melted in your mouth. Nice and clean.

Coconut and Peanut "brittle". Not sure what their name for this dish was but it was definitely a difficult one execution wise. The peanut sheets were extremely fragile. Melanie had to go through 10-12 sheets before 6 good ones could be had. A light coconut sorbet was topped with the sheet and this was topped with a thick peanut sauce (essentially smoother peanut butter imo). The droplets on the sides are intense bits of tamarind syrup.

The final plate. A pipet of coconut cream with sweet cantaloupe and ginger (such a perfect combo!) skewered on it. Cocoa coated corn nuts, passion fruit syrup filled marshmallow, saffron gumdrop in an edible wrapper (rice paper?). All were really really nice. I was preoccupied with the pairing of cantaloupe and ginger throughout.

The Halls lollipops. Not overpowering, but very strong and a nice way to cleanse the palate.

Final "dish" of the night. Six servers come and each stands behind one person and announce that this is the final dish. They set an egg in front of you and they all smash them at the same time revealing..... your bill.

All in all, exactly what I hoped for in my minibar experience. In the sense that I both knew and did not know what to expect from it. After my meal at WD-50 a couple of months ago, this was a great next step in my foray into experimental/molecular gastronomy. Aside from the fried fish dish, I have essentially no qualms about the meal at all. For $95, it's quite possibly the best meal you can have at that price. A dinner, show, and absolutely memorable experience all in one. The two and a half hours went by so quickly.

Minibar and WD-50 have provided me with absolutely the two BEST dinners I've had all year. Hopefully my brother and I will be able to go to Chicago for a weekend to eat at Moto and Alinea in the next several months. With El Bulli soon opening lines for reservations in 2007, I hope that I can score one. Minibar has been both a great meal in it of itself, and also a primer for this almost uncategorizable style of cooking.

**jay** · 03-28-2008, 10:05 AM

Re: FOOD!

The chef from WD-50 was just on Top Chef. I seriously would go to NYC just to get a chance to experience WD-50. You are a lucky person.

**ddohnggo** · 03-28-2008, 10:44 AM

Re: FOOD!

albert, great post! i want to go to wd-50 again, but try the main courses this time! i'll definitely be showing pictures of the momofuku ko dishes when i get back on monday.


the fiancee and i will be making a trip to chicago at some point to go to alinea. yum.

**Faust** · 03-28-2008, 11:43 AM

Re: FOOD!

[quote user="keith"][quote user="Faust"][quote user="xadam"][quote user="Faust"]

Did a quick chowhound search - mixed reviews.


[/quote]

Two Bruni stars trumps the wisdom of the proles. 

[/quote]

that may be true - it's hard to strut the balance between professional critics and peeps. one may be too subjective (or worse, paid), another may be not sophisticated enough (although one would think, they proles' opinions would balance out statistically)

[/quote]

wisdom of crowds and all that... i look at the top-rated restaurants on yelp and remember why i have to balance out sites like that with a professional opinion. i love looking at one-star reviews on amazon: "amazon sent me the wrong book"--so you gave the book 1 star? i feel the same way about tripadvisor. i suppose a consensus will build at a certain threshold... it just might not be a consensus i like.


[/quote]

absolutely true. it depends on the site. i would say chowhound is not a bad one. tripadvisor.. well, that site should just be shut down. when i asked for london theater recommendations i got "cats" from many people. it was the last time i visited that site. london, theater, cats. ugh....

**Faust** · 03-28-2008, 11:44 AM

Re: FOOD!

[quote user="xadam"][quote user="Faust"]

that may be true - it's hard to strut the balance between professional critics and peeps. one may be too subjective (or worse, paid), another may be not sophisticated enough (although one would think, they proles' opinions would balance out statistically)

[/quote]

The fallacy of the wisdom of crowds is that it balances out at neutral.

Regardless, I think SZ should should support cooks that shop at A.

[/quote]

moot point [86][B]

**Faust** · 03-28-2008, 11:48 AM

Re: FOOD!

Albert, PM Sent. I'm going [:|]

**jay** · 03-28-2008, 12:27 PM

Re: FOOD!

Albert,

My mouth is watering just looking at those photos. The presentation is mind blowing.

**Chinorlz** · 03-28-2008, 01:55 PM

Re: FOOD!

Both were AMAZING experiences in different ways but both really pushing the molecular gastronomy boundaries. In Berlin I ate at ReMake and Pata Negra both of which utilize a bit of the molecular gastronomy cooking methods... I have the photos somewhere as well.

Joey, a trip to Chicago purely for Alinea would be well worth it. Alinea and Moto are on the summer agenda :)

Minibar is the only east coast location where you can get (actually... I think the only US location) the El Bulli experience. Difficult to get a reservation though. it's a restaurant within a restaurant and only 2 seatings of 6 people a night and its not available every night. My brother and dad were planning on going in april but the spots fill up near-instantaneously.

... I should get ready to call moto and Alinea.....

Joey, post up those Ko photos afte ryou guys get back fo sho!!!

**Chinorlz** · 03-28-2008, 01:56 PM

Re: FOOD!

... and Faust... I don't think you guys will be disappointed :)

Just be sure to go for the full tasting menu experience. There are dishes there that are not on the regular menu at all that should not be missed (the "sunny side up" egg for example). This food will make you smile!

**kira** · 03-28-2008, 02:19 PM

Re: FOOD!

[quote user="Chinorlz"]

... and Faust... I don't think you guys will be disappointed :)

Just be sure to go for the full tasting menu experience. There are dishes there that are not on the regular menu at all that should not be missed (the "sunny side up" egg for example). This food will make you smile!

[/quote]



I love that. My ex is a self taught chef, no formal training at all, but absolutely incredible (should be a chef) and would create these dinners for me and our friends that were insanely delightful. That is what exposed me to such fantastic restaurants. have not been in such a long time. this makes me want to go just to have the "sunny side up" experience...

**nycd** · 03-29-2008, 12:25 PM

Re: FOOD!

charlie rose interviews thomas keller

**ddohnggo** · 03-31-2008, 12:31 PM

Re: FOOD!

so i'm sick and still have reservations to momofuku ko. my nose is semi stuffed up and i think i have a flu. should i cancel???????????

edit: i just canceled. [:'(]

**laika** · 03-31-2008, 12:48 PM

Re: FOOD!

^Probably for the best.[:(] There is NOTHING worse than eating a great meal and not being able to taste it because you are stuffed up. [71]

Hope you feel better soon...i recommend hot lemonade with whiskey.

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