[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: June 20, 2011]
Warm, humid, summer sales at Ermenegildo Zegna and Bloomingdale's, the Yankees beating the Mets. Typical June week. A couple of notable meals too. Can you believe Danube opened as long ago as 1999?
This was David Bouley's essay at upscale modern Austrian, in the building which had housed the original Bouley. At least I think so; it's been hard to keep up with the musical chairs the chef has played around a couple of blocks of Tribeca since he went independent in 1987 (wrong! As readers inform me, the original Bouley was at 161 Duane).
Heading the kitchen, Mario Lohninger, since returned to cook in Germany. A tasting began with an elegant seafood trio: fresh sardine on a sort of dignified potato chip, mahi mahi over shredded beets, and an oyster with an apple-mint dressing.
Three more seafood courses followed. A salad of Spanish mackerel, roast scallops, lobster with mango sauce. Not sounding so Austrian? Okay, here comes the main event. Beef cheeks, carrots, red wine sauce. Oof. Good stuff, but a gut buster on a warm June evening. Then elderberry soup as a change of pace, a little custard flan thing, and rhubarb and strawberry strudel to finish off.
A '97 Oberer Wald BlaufrÀnkisch stood up to the beef cheeks. I am sure we must have polished off some white wine with the fish, but my diary is silent on the subject.
The other restaurant highlight of the week, a classic lunch at Le Cirque. This had become a perpetual temptation to me, working as I did just a few blocks away. It was still a tough table for dinner, requiring several weeks advance booking, but lunch - especially just off peak - was easy and less expensive.
In the selfless spirit of research, I felt I had to try the then current version of the potato-wrapped sea bass in a red wine sauce famously created by Daniel Boulud who had cooked there 1986-1992. Also, I have just always like Sirio Maccione's style.
I ordered the paupiette de loup de mere, sauce Barolo, preceding it with a slice of terrine de tĂȘte de veau about which - frustratingly - I can remember nothing. I do recall the fish dish. It was made then by Pierre Schaedelin, in 2011 to be found at Ducasse's Benoit. The thin, crisp potato slices resembled scales. The sauce was rich.
I could the point of it. With these kinds of things, I usually can.
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