Gotham Gal

11 Madison

In our quest to try out top restaurants in city, with the kids, we went to 11 Madison Park last night.  David Humm, the Executive Chef has been getting high accolades and recently a 3 star review in the New York Times so this seemed like a worthy pick.

I have always loved the space at 11 Madison.  High soaring ceilings ( an old bank ), beautiful flowers that reach to the sky, fantastic art work of the Flatiron Iron area and park, light pouring in the large windows and comfortable banquette seating. 

The food is nouvelle on many levels.  Not only are the ingredients interesting and fresh, the plating is like a piece of art.  What you order is not what you expect.  What you get are small masterpieces on a plate.  Sort of reminiscent of the 80's. 

They start you off with a small plate of four mouth sized appetizers.  Perfectly sized.  Think of going to a cocktail party and what is passed at the beginning.  Triple layered delicate square crackers filled with dots of goat cheese was delicious.  The taste of the cracker came through afterward.  Another cheese was probably used to make that cracker.  Small sliced meringue puffs, sliced in half and filled with fois gras.  The girls could have done with out that one.  Beautifully presented was the tuna.  Rare sushi grade tuna wrapped in layered small slices of cucumber and topped off with green roe.  The one bite lingers in your mouth.  Last which was all of our favorite was the phyllo wrapped sweetbreads.  Wrapped in the figure of a small bag that you would use to pipe pastries with a green scallion piece to close off the top.  Deep fried and incredible.  If they were passing those out at a party, I'd be following the server around all night. 

Next course was another treat from the chef.  We discussed this at length on how he made this.  If anyone has the recipe, please send it our way.  Strawberry gazpacho.  Rich flavorful gazpacho yet strawberry flavored with oil dripped on top and tiny pieces of croutons and a small shrimp.  Gazpacho always has that vinegar flavor and spices and so did this but the strawberry added a whole different level of complexity.  Absolutely delicious.

Next were the appetizers we chose.  I have recently got into beets.  I prefer the golden ones but it is the one food that I never really liked but I went with it last night.  On a rectangular plate, roasted squared beets served over a rectangular piece of soft goat cheese drizzled with olive oil.  Simple, elegant and good.  The boys ordered the same thing.  Gnocchi, which were light, served with a combo of prawns, calamari, pieces of cucumbers and a lemon buttery sauce.  The flavor was really good and the combo of textures were really interesting. 

Dinner was next.  In some ways I am sorry that nobody wanted to split the duck.  A couple of them came out of the back and they were just beautiful.  A golden crispy duck that had been cooked or possibly just served with a large handful of lavender shoved through the duck.  The presentation is pretty impressive in itself.  But, alas, nobody wanted to go for it.  Fred and Josh went for the suckling pig which is a specialty of the house.  Shaped in a rectangle type brick (think of a snickers bar) is pulled pork confit on the underside and a crispy top of skin that breaks like a creme brulle.  Served along side a plum chutney and a large piece of green onion over a spicy jus.  The girls went with the fish.  For Jessica, two square pieces of halibut served in a bowl with asparagus and black truffles.  Really simple and light, almost too simple and light.  Emily went with the loup de mer.  A piece of loup de mer with a crispy skin served in a soup bowl that had a interesting broth infused with saffron and endive flavoring.  Interesting.  I went with the veal.  Two pieces of veal.  One small conical piece of veal on one end in between a swath of perhaps a mashed root vegetable going over to another piece of veal that was crispy on top over a small round piece of root vegetable.  Next to the plate was a small fricassee of small square potatoes, peas and morels piped into a froth.  All good and interesting combos. Hunn is very into squares.  Everything is cut perfectly but lots of squares. 

Dessert was yet to come.  Fred went with the cheese plate.  Josh opted for the roasted Asian pears which were sweet and served with a tea infused ice cream which was weird tasting.  The girls and I went with the chocolate.  A large long squared piece of chocolate over a peanut concoction with salty peanuts sprinkled around it and cocoa bits.  Delicious.  You basically can't go wrong with chocolate and peanuts as far as I am concerned.

One last treat, from the chef, was the cookies served like lollipops.  A small sugar coated donut filled with passion fruit.  Wow.  The other was a meringue cookie filled with chocolate but the best was a chocolate cookie filled with peanut butter.  Each were bite sized just like the appetizers to finish off the meal.

I found the treats from the chef the best part.  The main courses were mixed.  The fish wasn't that interesting and although I liked the veal it wasn't a total wow.  What is a wow is the way the plates are put together.  For the kids, it was an interesting experience.  Reading the menu and then seeing what comes are totally different than what you envisioned.  For foodies, it is worth the experience.  But as a whole, the food is almost too delicate.  Small portions.  I would think most men would be hungry a few hours later.  There is a reason that places like Little Owl or the Spotted Pig have continued repeat business.  You get a meal that is reminiscent of home cooking but gourmet home cooking.  Although I applaud 11 Madison.  It isn't a place that I would patron many times over the year.  11 Madison is more like a foodies find.  Go to the website and take a look at the beautiful pictures. We were all fascinated with each plate and the combinations put together.  That was the most fun. 

Something to Cheer About

The movie selection out there for kids is truly lacking.  Not 7 year olds but 11 year olds.  We were at a loss on what to do last night and ended up seeing an interesting documentary at the Quad called Something to Cheer About. 

A documentary done in 2002 about the Crispus Attucks Tigers, the first all-black basketball team in the 1950's that went on to win State Champs of Indiana.  Crispus Attucks was a school built by the KKK  in Indianapolis to keep the blacks separate from the whites.  What the KKK probably envisioned is not exactly how it turned out.  Crispus Attucks had some of the best teachers in the state teaching there.  The basketball team, which was head up by a phenomenal man and mentor to these boys was Ray Crowe.

Ray Crowe taught these young boys how to be men.  The majority came from poor families and will tell you that if it wasn't for Ray Crowe, they probably wouldn't have even graduated from High School.  Instead, not only did they all go on to graduate High School and college.  There were scholarships and careers in basketball.  He not only changed their lives but he changed basketball.  He took the talent of the team and incorporated it into the plays that he ran.  The game became fluid.  Colleges and the NBA took notice too.  A few of them went on to play with the Harlem Globetrotters.  This coach and basketball team changed basketball forever.

This team traveled around Indiana at a time when the players couldn't eat in restaurants, go to bathrooms, be in certain parts of town.  It wasn't easy.  But they prevailed. 

Oscar Robinson was one of the players on this team.  Oscar Robinson is probably one of the top 10 players who ever played the game of basketball. 

Watching the interviews with the men who are now much older was really interesting.  Their perspective of prejudice then and the realities of prejudice and their perspective now. 

The movie is only a little over an hour.  If you have a kid who is really into basketball.  It is a slice of history portrayed through this documentary which is an eye opener. 

New Passports?

US Passports have been revamped.  If you are about to receive a new passport, instead of the basic blue paper, the inside sheets will have pictures of the American Eagle embossed over the Constitution, a picture of Mount Rushmore, 13 quotes from past Presidents, and other American symbols.  This change has been in the works for 6 years. 

Views have been mixed.  Personally, I am not a fan of this change.  Over the past 6 years, the disgust with America has risen around the world.  This passport is just another way of America pumping its muscle.  What I find truly incredulous is that this particular idea was spawned during the Bush Administration.  This Administration has been if anything un-American although wraps themselves in the flag through marketing campaigns feigning patriotism. 

George Tenet, who ran the CIA for 6 years, came out with a book this week basically giving his view of the behind scenes before the Bush Administration ran slipshod into Iraq.  You have to have some belief in what George Tenet is telling the American people considering he did hold one of the most influential jobs in the country for 6 years.  In essence, he says that the Bush Administration did not even vet the process of declaring war against Iraq.  They used 9/11 to march into Iraq regardless of any information connecting the two.  How can the leaders of the free world be so cavalier about sending our armed forces into a country with no plan and no reason to attack?  There is no end in sight and our armed forces have been left weak and depleted. 

On top of the disaster in Iraq, there has been the farce of firing Judges around the country that weren't backing up the Administration through the loyal yet not too bright Gonzales who runs our nations Justice Department.  We have Wolfowitz holding on to his job at the World Bank, another Bushie loyalist, who has been the complete opposite of loyal to his staff, unless you include his mistress.  This Administration has all but ignored the demise of New Orleans, used the death of Tillman in Iraq as another marketing angle to create smoke and mirrors against the realities of the war, eroded the Middle Class, back big business while destroying our environment, refused to create working relationships so  with Iran, Russia and Korea which has put us in a position of being weak, ignored any laws that actually were created to make sure there are checks and balances in Government.  Shall I go on?

Where were all the Republicans during this?  They were the majority of the Senate doing absolutely nothing even though they were fully aware of what was happening behind the curtain.  No leadership.  Each Senator chose to ignore Bush and his misgivings even though they were voted in to uphold the Constitution of the United States for the citizens that voted for them.  But now, as all underhanded illegal wrong things do, they eventually rise to the surface and seep out into the public. 

It is embarrassing, mortifying and disgusting all rolled up into one.  The Press on one level should be held accountable for not prodding and looking underneath the surface of everything from Abu Ghraib to Tillman, to going to war in Iraq.  I am not a big believer in impeachment.  It is bad for the country.  But, in this case, although there are only 18 months left of Bush, something should be done.  He might be a lame duck (certainly the Democrats have worked very hard to shed some light on the past 6 years now that they are the majority) but it is essential that no President in the future is allowed to do what Bush has done. 

Secretly breaking into the Democrat party headquarters is child's play compared to what the Bush Administration has done.  It is an embarrassment for this country worldwide.  Where is the anger, where is the outrage?  It isn't okay for this group of despicable people, Cheney, Rove, Condi, Bush, Gonzales, Wolfowitz to just fade into the wood work 18 months from now as good citizens that spent their years for the good of the country.  It isn't good and it isn't right. 

Theater Memberships

We are annual members of a few theaters.  I like it for a variety of reasons.  We like supporting the arts, pushes us to see stuff we might have never seen if we had to buy tickets here and there and opens our eyes to different theater.

For instance, last night we went to see Love Musk.  Truly I had no idea what we were seeing until we got there.  We found out it was a 2 1/2 hour musical.  We didn't take our seats, instead we sat in the way back near the door, just in case.  Fred fell asleep halfway through the first song.  By the fourth song, I was done.  I am not a huge fan of musicals.  We left, walked over to Esca, sat at the bar and had a great night.  Although I found out this morning that Love Musk was nominated for tons of awards including best musical, I didn't care.  We supported MTC this year and the majority of plays have been great.  It would be impossible to have every play to be fantastic and something we would like. 

A few years back we supported Roundabout Theater.  I found that the majority of the plays they put on were awful.  Instead of getting behind young playwrights or interesting content they put the majority of their effort behind remakes or larger than life plays.  So, we didn't support them anymore.  I am not sure what is going on at the Roundabout but after the series of phone calls that I have had from the Roundabout, I will never support them.  I have been solicited a variety of times the past two years to come back and be a member.  The guy on the other end is a total smart ass.  I have asked them to respectively take me off their list.  They never do.  The last phone call was two nights ago.  The guy on the other end was such a jerk trying to keep me on the phone.  Then, the spam began.  I have been getting emails from them.  I appreciate their need to raise money and memberships but when they are accosting people who have asked to be taken off the list numerous amount of times, not only is it unacceptable it certainly isn't the way to get them back in the theater.

As the year is winding down, we have decided to definitely support MTC again next year, also Second Stage Theater which was a true treat this year.  Considering others but two is a lot which ends up being about 14 plays a year not including the other stuff we do try and get to see. 

Shame on Roundabout, I will be taking a big pass on them for years to come. 

Christine Quinn

We had a fund raiser last night for Christine Quinn.  Fund raisers are not easy.  Getting people to pony up cash to support candidates out of the goodness of their heart is tough.  There are no tax deductions or benefits just your personal desire to support a candidate who represents your beliefs in Government.  We have had a variety of fund raisers for different candidates from local to state to national politics.  What was interesting about this particular fund raiser is everybody likes Christine.  Everyone I asked to give or come said the same thing, "I really like her", "Oh, she's great." 

She is great.  I was really impressed with her last night.  Christine is not only smart, articulate, passionate, completely understands the issues and knows them all, has gotten a tremendous amount done in a job that had been a bit stagnant so she really grabs the bull by the horns and quick on her feet.  But what I really liked is that she has a really good sense of humor and it comes across when she talks to people.  Great aura. 

I realize that Mayoral race has yet to truly begin but unfortunately as all races cost money.  Money takes time to raise.  She is definitely looking ahead at the next step of her career, which by all accounts appears to be the Mayors job.  So, if you like what you read or what you have heard about Quinn, call her office at 212.430.6354,  and send her a check at FRIENDS OF CHRISTINE C. QUINN 65 Broadway, Suite 833, NY, NY 10006 and support her voice.  We did.

(Her site is not live yet)

Dogs and city life

We live in NYC and have a dog.  Certain neighborhoods are dog central.  The toughest thing is you really can't just let your dog roam free in the city.  Walks at least 3 times a day.  A bag for scooping up the poop.  Leashes are essential.  Of course there are the dog runs in certain parks that are gated off just so the dogs can run free.  But trusting your dog to behave and run free down the street or in the park is a no-no.

Fred rides his bike up and down the Westside highway.  His biggest fear is a dog off a leash.  Some dog bolting in front of you, catching you off guard.  Your first reaction is to break and you go flying off the bike.  It happened to our friend this past weekend.  He broke his collar bone, thank god that is all, had to have surgery and will probably be fine after laying low for a good few months and then hitting the physical therapy route. 

If you have a dog, in the city, follow the laws.  Keep your dog on a leash.  It isn't fair to the rest of the people you live among in the city of New York. 

Reading..

I have returned to reading.  I took a small hiatus for awhile.  I wanted the first book I picked up be a page turner.  I read a review of Laura Lippman's new book, What the Dead Know and I thought it might fit the bill.  It did.

I used to be a mystery reader years ago but have gravitated towards new novels more than anything else but the story line intrigued me. 

Two sisters disappear 30 years ago at the shopping mall.  They never find the bodies.  An accident occurs 30 years later and the woman driving the car says she is one of the sisters.  Is she or isn't she? 

The story takes place in the present with conversations about similar abductions that if you have kept up on news over the past 30 years, you know about them.  I liked that.  Present day.  Lippman takes us through the detectives search to make sure this woman is who she says she is.  Lippman weaves the story from future to past.  We meet the parents, the girls, their past lives, the parents lives post losing their kids, the detectives, the lawyers.  Each character is well developed. 

The mystery isn't solved until the last pages of the book.  Very clever story, really well written and most important, I could hardly wait to get into bed at night to read the next chapter. 

We moved on quickly...

We have settled into our new abode and new hood.  I feel more relaxed as each day passes.  The big question, people always ask me is, do you miss your last place?  Any regrets?  So, I put the question to the kids.  Do you miss the house  ("the house" is  how we always referred to it)?

Josh.    Josh answered to one friend of ours, "at least I have a roof over my head".  Where he got there one, god knows.  But to me, he paused, thought about and said, "nope, not a thing.  Well, I do miss that shower." You know what, so do I.

Jessica.  No, not really but I do miss that shower.

Emily.  Not really but I do miss that shower.

Their answers made me laugh.  They know a good shower when they take one.  But most important, they have learned a really great lesson in life.  Moving on is okay.  New adventures, new surroundings, new experiences.  No anxiety from this group about change.  As far as I am concerned, that is a very good thing.

Dave Matthews

Love Dave Matthews.  He is beyond talented, tells wonderful stories in concert, continues to put out music solo and with his band and with Tim Reynolds who he played with last night at Radio City.  Radio City is one of my favorite venues in the city.  Also, this concert was entirely acoustic.  The stage looked as if they had just rolled up the vans and unloaded. Bare bones with good music.  So glad my friend asked me to be her date.  A real treat.

Battle of the Briskets

Our temple, the New Shul, came up with a great idea for a fund raiser.  Battle of the Briskets.  Members participate and there are judges who decide on the best brisket as well as the peoples choice brisket.  Everyone gets a say, and most important, everybody gets to taste.  So, I entered my brisket, along with 14 other people.  It was really fun.  After all, brisket is a very personal thing particularly among the Jews.  Everyone has a family recipe and believes theirs is the best.

The judges were Ed Levine from Serious Eats, Gail Simmons from Food & Wine and Josh Newman from Heeb Magazine.  I tasted each brisket. Each were different.  Some more traditional, others had hints of cumin, others were more of a barbecue thing going on.

In the end, I was thrilled to come in second.  It was such a fun evening and am looking forward to doing it again next year, maybe next year the main course will be kugel.  Another Jewish dish that is cherished in every household.

Click on here for my recipe on brisket, and here for my kugel recipe.