[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: July 11, 2011]
As you all remember, July 4th fell on a Wednesday ten years ago. Whee, talk about entire week of work disrupted.
I marked the occasion by signing up for a blow-out at Jean-Georges on the preceding evening. Easily done, thanks to vacationers.
My journal tells me it was a beautiful day, which is good to know. I guess I spent it working. Pre-dinner drinks at Whiskey Park were a huge mistake - a shabby, seedy scene. At J-G I ordered from the carte for once.
To begin, asparagus in the Chateau Chalon sauce which graces the restaurant's signature turbot dish. Some morels in cream to lift the dish. A drop of pink champagne.
Then a veal sweetbread en cocotte - i.e. in a big covered pot, the lid swept off as it's served - with baby carrots and scents of ginger and licorice. I remember this dish well. The big pot was a bit Asian-ish. The aroma when the lid was lifted was spectacular. The big, blobby sweetbread sitting in thin broth was, well, entirely bland. What a disaster. Great theater, and that's it.
I tried to cheer myself up with some cheeses, then some vinegared figs with honey ice cream. A bottle of Blagny 1er Cru "Sous le dos d'Ane" helped out. But I still resent that tasteless sweetbread.
Readers are spared a detailed account of the holiday festivities as the page in my diary is entirely blank. It's clear, though, that I took the rest of the week off. On Thursday I hid in the sunshine at the New York Society Library and spent the evening at Jimmy's Corner (one bartender featured in my marginalia still works there; girl!).
Friday was spent strolling in Washington Heights. Lunch at one of the many Colombian restaurants, La Esquina Criolla: matambre (a favorite), an empanada or two, then one of those big mixed grills. In the evening, the one time I saw David Johansen in his bluesman persona, perched on a chair with his harp, growling Mississippi John Hurt songs. The Harry Smiths was the name of the band, after the legendary musicographer, and there wasn't a fishnet stocking in sight.
Okay, he "covered" one "Dolls song." "Don't Start Me Talking." Know what I mean?
Comments