[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: January 23, 2012]
Can it really be ten years ago I was reading Francis Ponge for the first time, French-English facing texts? Can it be ten years ago I ate at Craft for the first time? Indeed, and the early pages of the eGullet thread on Craft from late 2001/early 2002 are a reminder of what that forum once was.
I also had another return match with San Domenico.
At home, I was keeping a wintry potée au choux on the stove, refreshing it with the odd bit of pork belly or boudin noir, drinking Bandol and fighting a cold.
These were the days when Craft still boasted its revolutionary menu concept which invited diners to choose "a protein", as the staff liked to say, and the other ingredients of the dish, and pretty much specify how they'd like it cooked. Rather more radical than anything Eleven Madison Park is claiming to do today.
I shrugged off the novelty and treated the place like a bistro. Rabbit ballotine - excellent, as it would always be - to start, with an aspic of the cooking juices and a green olive tapenade. Then roast guinea hen with pommes boulangère - awful, as they continued to be until I gave up ordering them - parsnip purée, and roast cauliflower.
Then a put-it-together-yourself dessert of pain perdu with hazelnut ice cream and toffee and choclate sauces. Malbec with the bird, a German dessert wine with pudding. I loved the room, liked most of the food, and so began a long relationship with the restaurant.
No longer, and less intense of course, than my relationship with San Domenico. Off to my local indulgence for a midweek dinner, only to discover guest chefs from Naples in the kitchen. A couple of unfamiliar dishes, then, to start: stuffed eggplant with zucchini and peppers followed by an anchovy casserole. They have faded in my memory. Baked kid with truffled potatoes sounds more like the place. I finished with sfogliata Napoletana, a rich pastry. A '95 Brunello with the meal and a drop of Limoncello to finish.
I'm headed to Craftbar already next week.
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