Took advantage of the parents of some friends to drop off Aidan and go for a day in the city on Sat. Lunch at Bouley was the first focal point (followed later by 'Spamalot' which was the priginal reason for the trip).
We all had the slightly larger of the two lunch tasting menus offered, at $45 prix fixe. Food was more variable than I had expected; I think I would characterise it as 'going for the glory' (a good thing) but sometimes missing. One dish - a marinaded and braised beef cheek - was just plain *bad*: tasteless and limpid meat rendered essentially inedible by the accompanying ultra-violent chinese cucumber puree. And one was - to me - inconsequential, a blanched PA chicken breast; that one, though, was swooned over by two of our party, so it might be me :). And the rest were good-to-great: a lot of intensely fresh tastes (pea puree, apple-rosemary gelato, candied tomato) accompanying some great fishes (tuna tartare tart, pan-fried halibut [superb] on chive risotto, etc.]. I'd read mixed reviews of the service online; for us, at least, it bordered on excellent and was never below very good (I suppose this might be related to the fact that I had taken note of the request for jackets etc., unlike the couple who were seated along from us in ripped and dirty T-shirts :) ). The bread trolley was a joy: I think nine different premise-baked varieties, *and* they had managed to get the different flavours actually into the dough as well as osmosing from the fruit/nutes into the immediate vicinity. Really glorious bread, A+.
Anyway: wine. With most of the meal, we drank the consensus of the sommelier* and I, a Ken Wright '03 Pinot Noir (and I forget the exact vineyard, sorry, notes with our friends). I thought this might be too young, was assured not, and the assurance was correct: delightful for a mixed bunch of dishes with some odd gems: it matched superbly with the canape of tomato mousse, granite, and apple foam, for instance. Seemed fully ready, would not want to try to age it; needed maybe 10 min in glass to open up fully but was very good. B+/A- on Dale's scale. $105 list price, which I have no idea on value for.
With desserts** we had an Elderton Botrytis Semillon, mostly because I've never had this wine. 2001, I think (see above disclaimer). On sniffing I was ready to send back: verging on unpleasant, chemical/petrol, yuck. Tasted anyway: *utterly* different, bizarre. A _little_ over-oxidised-tasting for me, but the luscious sticky honey of a sauternes; lots of toffee and peach. Yummy, and matched well even with the chocolate but also with the caramlised pineapple, berries, and brandysnaps. A good experience but not likely to tempt me again as a sticky. B-, $60 list price for the 375 ml.
[**Yes, we ended up with lots of extra desserts for no obvious reason, but they were appreciated :). We'd just asked for 'four mixed tasting menus'- each course had two choices, so we got two complete sets - but I guess the litchen had additional sweets they wanted to show off :)]
[*complete with really, really ridiculous Monty-Pythonesque French accent.] [[[Utterly OT: Spamalot is good but not great; well worthwhile for anyone and probably required for Python fans, they struck an *excellent* balance between known favourite elements and new stuff. But, the singing was - well, just kinda pointless, and the lack of an actual focus showed through toward the end of the first act. I laughed a *lot* - as did everyone - and they pulled off an extremely difficult task, but I liked the NYT review comment along the lines that this is undoubtedly the best musical on Broadway, but that doesn't say too much for the rest. The actors were also extremely friendly afterward, which was apppreciated.]]]