My hubby and I are celebrating 22 years of marriage today and my hubby has spoiled me. He surprised me with a weekend in New York City at the Intercontinental Hotel at Times Square. After the decades of spending so much time on the road in Holiday Inns, my hubby is considered a platinum ambassador guest and that gets us special rates at all hotels under the Holiday Inn umbrella so here we are, at this lovely hotel.
We are sitting in bed after having come back from an excellent restaurant called La Silhouette, recommended to us by the hotel concierge. Both the food and the service were top notch, what I especially loved were the small portions, what’s funny is that we hadn’t really known if the portions were going to be small when we ordered, we ordered two appetizers each because there were too many appetizers calling to us, so when the plates appeared with small portions, I was very happy. The main courses were just the right size as well so we didn’t leave the restaurant stuffed and uncomfortable.
My two appetizers were very different in taste, texture and type. My first course, if you will, was a heritage poached egg on a bed of truffle infused white polenta with braised mushrooms. The dish was as light as a cloud, as fluffy as a custard and tasted creamy and earthy. The poached egg, when I broke the yolk blended beautifully with the polenta and the braised mushrooms provided a satisfying base to the light and fluffy eggs and polenta. My hubby chose a country pate studded with pistachios and raisins, it was a wonderful execution of the French classic and the way it was served, with coarse grain mustard and celeriac remoulade, it was delicious.
Our second courses came, I had the seared foie gras on a bed of caramelized diced pineapple and smashed plantains, in my humble opinion, seared foie gras is one of the silkiest and smoothest things that one can ever eat. It is often paired with a sweet compliment and an acidic component to counterbalance the rich and sweet nature of the seared foie. It was heavenly to eat. My hubby’s second course was equally lovely, large shrimp sautéed and presented on a bed of roasted root vegetables and served in a complex seafood broth. He was very quiet eating this course, that is how delicious it was.
At this point, we were still open for the final course and at least in my case, I was still very curious about my third course. I had ordered sea bass and lobster with a butternut squash and hazelnut risotto and I couldn’t wait to see what the creative mastermind in the kitchen was going to wow me with. My hubby had ordered seared sea scallops served on rutabaga and other root vegetables. Were we blown away by the delicate yet intense flavors of both our dishes? Oh yes we were, the marriage of the root vegetables and the butternut squash with the seafood was perfection. There was not a single flavor out of place or un-complimentary. I love butternut squash, it goes with everything, you can make it into anything; soup, mashed, gratin, sautéed, cassoulet and even pie. In the case of both of our main courses, the butternut squash played the supporting role in the dynamic of the seared scallops and in my dish, the seared sea bass and poached lobster. It was tremendous.
We didn’t get dessert or coffee because we were perfectly satisfied. Now we are going to continue watching t.v and enjoy playing hookey from home.
laurieanichols 