Today my husband, our daughter and I drove down to New York to stay with my mother and we took the occasion to take my mother out to dinner in the city to thank her for all of her hospitality. I remembered that she had been to Lure and had really liked it a few years ago; particularly Lure’s crab cakes, those had stuck in her mind and I figured that she would be happy to go back once more.
The picture up above is the salmon tartar that our daughter ordered; she is the queen of tartar; that was her appetizer and for her main course she ordered lobster ravioli. My mother ordered two appetizers; her crab cakes and she was very happy with them and then she had grilled Spanish octopus and she enjoyed it very much. My husband started with a tuna ceviche and finished with sautéed soft shell crabs. I had an exquisite fluke ceviche; it was so very flavorful with a citrusy zing that made my taste buds sing with every bite. It was so lovely on the palate. My main course was steamed Red Snapper on a bed of steamed Bok Choy with a red curry sauce right next to it for the swabbing, because that is what I did with my fork, I cut a piece of Red Snapper and Bok Choy and swabbed it into the red curry broth and it was fantastic, I normally shy away from red, green or yellow curries because I am not too sure what to expect, but tonight I threw my usual caution to the wind and I am so very happy I did. The dish was perfect; the fish was flaky and clean tasting, the Bok Choy is one of my favorite greens so I was instantly happy but the red curry broth blew my taste buds away, it had so much flavor and depth, it gave real character to the fish and the Bok Choy.
We all left Lure satiated and happy and intent on walking for a while taking in the sights and sounds of New York on a Saturday night.
As we headed North or uptown, we stumbled across a Francois Payard patisserie on West Houston. Here is a picture of something that they offer:
This is a rouleau hazelnut, doesn’t it look delicious?
We looked, salivated and kept on walking uptown. We passed my alma mater New York University and then continued up to Union Square Park. We followed Broadway up towards 23rd and stumbled upon another fantastic French patisserie; Erik Kaiser, it was here that we made a few purchases; a pain au raisins, a financier praline, an eclair au chocolat, an eclair Paris Brest and a Sainte Honore:
As soon as we got home, my mother asked me if I was going to have a taste of the patisseries; when my mother says it that way, she means that you take out the patisseries and cut them into small pieces so everyone has a tiny bite. It is a great to eat patisserie, just enough so that you have a wonderful flavor lingering in your mouth, but not too much that you feel guilty.
Tonight was a very lovely evening.
My husband has been busy in the kitchen, our son and his girlfriend are coming for Sunday dinner. I think he has done a wonderful job, everything looks quite appetizing. He had fun with the slab of pork belly we got from our local Mennonites, they have locally sourced grass-fed beef, pastured pigs, raw milk and organic, free range eggs. I forget what he did to the pork belly before it ended up in the slow cooker, but it smelled real good during the entire process. The mashed potatoes went under the broiler after I took the picture, they smelled delicious after being browned by the flames.
