Ma Pêche: The second half of our trip to NYC for the Fancy Food Show

I am sure you have all been waiting for is my review of Ma Pêche, a new David Chang restaurant. I have gone to Momofuku and thought it was good (click here for reviews of Momofuku, Perilla and WD-50 back in '06.) (Click here for a list of great places we have eaten. It's an old list and will need much updating.)

I liked Ma Pêche. The goats milk butter, a la carte, sold Kim on the restaurant. That and the sweetbreads. (I have no pictures of the goat's milk butter.) I had a bourbon old fashion which was nicely made but I would rather have a rye old fashion. I drink bourbon manhattans and rye old fashions. Yeah, I'm weird but that is how I was brought up.

It was like eating in a Giant Peach. Not the best color for a restaurant and the art they had up wasn't very good, conceptual or not. The service was OK but not anything spectacular. It was efficient.

Kim had the pork bao (bun) which she liked.

I started off with the baby octopus. I can't find a picture of it. Kim had the sweetbreads. I liked them so much I ordered some for myself. She had them in a dinner portion, I believe, and I had the appetizer size.

I also had the duck, which I thought was pretty good. It was so book I had eaten most of it before I remembered to take a picture.

We shared an unknown side that they gave us. I forget what this was. Can anyone help? I can't find it on the menu. Pretty good.

We had decaf lattes and espresso drinks. All in all, one of the best dining experiences we had until we got to Petrossian. Petrossian blew everyone one else out of the water. We only had lunch there.

Next up: Petrossian and the rest of the Fancy Food Show pictures. (All of these pictures were taken with my iPhone 4. The lighting was very low.)

Breakfast at SaraBeth's: The second half of our trip to NYC for the Fancy Food Show

I've been screwing around tweeting, mostly on my twitter account, follow me (click here), and posting on my Facebook account or my Life By Chocolate Facebook page, follow us, (click here). Or you can follow Life By Chocolate on twitter (click here). Time for some strenuous blogging! Back to work fingers.

This is my third post on the Fancy Food Show. Most of my posts about food are photo driven. These posts are no exception. See, Fancy Food Show Eatathon! Our trip to Manhattan and the fun we had (click here) and then Perilla: The second half of our trip to NYC for the Fancy Food Show to catch up. Don't worry. It's mostly pictures.

As you can see, we had a wonderful breakfast at SaraBeth's. The service was terrific. I had a very nice Salmon Benedict. My only complaint was that it came out luke warm and not hot. The eggs were poached perfectly and, apart from the temperature, the food was very good.

Kim had oatmeal. She liked it but I was disappointed it wasn't steel cut. They may have had a steel cut the menu but I didn't see it and neither did Kim. So, SaraBeth, please put steel cut oatmeal on your menu. Thank you.

I read my complimentary Wall Street Journal from the Essex House and Kim people watched. (She says she was only eating her breakfast but I know better. LOL. We talked over breakfast.) The OJ was also good if a little thin but it was probably fresh squeezed. And when the server forgot to bring my bacon to the table, she made up for it by tripling the size of my order, on the house. Kim and I shared in the bounty. I can't wait to have breakfast at SaraBeth's again. (Kim says that the huge bacon bounty was a normal sized order. Now we'll have to go back to see if that's the case or if the waitress was making up for her error.)

Coming soon: Ma Pêche and Petrossian. I promise.

Perilla: The second half of our trip to NYC for the Fancy Food Show

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I admit it. We had every intention of going to the Fancy Food Show for all three days. We even planned to leave NYC at 5:45 so we could spend all day on Tuesday at the FFS. But we didn't. After grazing and tasting and eating for 7 hours on the first night, Sunday, we had a different view of how we should spend our time.

We decided to explore new restaurants. I wanted to go to Perilla for one thing and one thing only, to try a new type of martini. I had my first Hendricks Martini there at Perilla and it was wonderful. I've been a convert ever since. So, I had a Greenhook Martini and I did not like it at all. I drank it to make sure but I was not a happy camper. It just wasn't my idea of good gin. I have drunk a lot of gin in my time and before Hendricks, I usually drank Boodles. But now nothing but Hendricks, please.

To be fair, before I say something I regret, I need to acknowledge that it was Sunday night. We had just had the cab ride from heck, through the Gay Pride Parade, which the concierge from the Essex House did not inform us was going to make getting to Perilla difficult at best. We were definitely under informed. If he had told us that we were heading into a massive parade, we might have postponed our trip downtown to the West Village. It all worked out anyway. Plus the parade, I love parades, was a blast. It reminded me of San Francisco's Exotic Erotic Ball, always a fun time.

Is Perilla slipping? I did not know if Harold was there but I have noticed that when he is not, the food isn't as good. Plus, as I said, Kim and I were stuffed. On the plus side, I asked them to make the appetizer portion soft shelled crab into a dinner portion and they did it. I love soft shelled crab and this was pretty good, even though it was batter dipped. I wish they'd just been lightly floured and panfried in butter or something like that. I had a nice white wine with it but forgot the name of the grape. Urp. Sorry.

And Kim had the stuffed artichokes. She thought they were good but that they were not outstanding.

I also got a very nice quinoa salad.

If you have not gone to Perilla, I would suggest it. It's a very solid restaurant. And the first time is magic. But please, Harold, change your menu. I can't wait to see what you come up with next. We didn't get any dessert that I remember but we were given these nice cookies.

More restaurant reviews coming up: Ma Pêche and Petrossian.

Fancy Food Show Eatathon! Our trip to Manhattan and the fun we had

Kim and I decided to go to the Fancy Food Show to see what the trends are. To sum up the trends, GF (Gluten Free) Food is in. Organic is waning. The last time we went to the Fancy Food Show, they had an organic pavilion. No longer. The only pavilion that was in evidence was the cheese pavilion. There was a What's Hot section but that was more of a Fancy Food Show thing than an actual trend. Who knows, perhaps they're good predictors.

The next hot trend was olive oil. Olive oil is the new wine. Or rather I should say, olive oil is the new chocolate because the last time we went to the show, chocolate was the new wine. There were not only single varietal olive oils but also single origin oils. I think I even saw single orchard oils but don't hold me to that. And speaking of chocolate, there were more retail and wholesale chocolate than ever before. Innovation was very evident. We even saw goats milk caramels, not enrobed.

When Kim and I arrived on Sunday, we checked into the Essex House, now taken over my J.W. Marriott. Sigh! At least we got Marriott points for our stay. The room was large and very nice.

Where do I start? How about we start at the beginning: The Train Station waiting for the train.

We checked in to our nice hotel room at the Essex House, now the Marriott.

Then a funny thing happened. We started talking to one of the security guards and he started talking about all the changes J.W. Marriott himself was making to the hotel. He also mentioned all the money Marriott was spending. The guard then took us on the tour of the new VIP lounges. They looked nice. We'll see once they're done if they come up to the quirky fun of the old Essex House.

After checking in we took a taxi to the Fancy Food Show and ate our way across the Javits Center. 6 1/2 or 7 hours of eating took its toll. That's a lot of eating. And it wasn't in any logical order. We did not progress from starter to main course to dessert. No! Nothing was that systematic. Even though we were systematic in our browsing of the show, what we sampled jump around. Chicken here, pork there, olive oil, a cookie, a tamal, some salsa, chips, chocolate(s), fish, Indian food, balsamic vinegar, chocolate, kefer, yogurt, olive oil.

The above were some of the more interesting products. Most were Gluten Free.

Olive Oil is the new chocolate and we all know that chocolate was the new wine. There were single varietal olive oils. Single origin, single varietal olive oils. There were even single orchard, single varietal, single origin olive oils. There were flavored olive oils. You name it; it was there.

I would say over the two days we went to the Fancy Food Show, we burnt out and didn't go the third day, I must have tasted around 100, maybe even 200, olive oils.

Gluten Free was the other trend. Everything was gluten free. Organic was absent. Vegan was too, regretfully.

Packaging was also very evident. And I must point out that there were more chocolate retailers and wholesalers than ever before.

I also took pictures of all the loot that was given to use over the course of the long weekend. (It actually started on Sunday and we left for home on Tuesday.) The first picture is Kim's Loot and the second is mine.

Kim's Loot.

My Loot.

My next post will be on all the restaurants we ate at, including Petrossian, Birraria, Ma Pêche, and SaraBeth's. You may now start being jealous.