Still here... and still eating!

It's been almost a month since my last restaurant post.  To be honest, my better half and I have steered clear of fine dining ever since we made our highly anticipated reservation at Per Se (coming up in May).  We currently set a spending budget each month and since we know Per Se is going to usurp a large allocation of next month's budget, we've been spending on other things lately.  

For one, we took our very first cooking class in March!  And what a blast it was.  We took the "Weeknight Dinners" class at Camaje in the West Village on a Sunday evening from 5:30-9pm, which cost $175 for 2 people.  There were about 16 people in the class, and we were split into 4 teams of 4 people.  Each team put together 4 recipes, and the intent was to combine all our dishes at the end of the class and have a dinner buffet spread of 16 different dishes that are tasty, healthy, and easy to throw together on a weeknight!

Hubby-to-be and I were in a group with another couple.  They were very nice and Brooklyn hipster-esque, which was cool since we don't encounter many of those types in our everyday corporate Manhattan lives!  The 4 dishes we put together as a team were: kung pao tofu (I was very excited about this dish!), pork chops, celery root apple soup, and chicken with apricot sauce.  There was a lot of chopping involved - onions, garlic, apples, celery root, tofu, etc.  Those onions sure made me cry!  We also learned about and passed around various spices and sauces, like curry, sriracha sauce, fish sauce, and so on.

Now, Camaje is an actual restaurant/cafe, so fortunately no one was dining in the restaurant that Sunday because our entire class took up the entire place.  We did all our preparation, chopping and mixing in the restaurant, and then took turns moving to the kitchen to cook our food.  The kitchen was very small, hence the reason behind taking turns.  It was a lot of fun though and definitely a great couples bonding activity!  People in my family know that I once literally fainted (back when I was 19 or so) during one of my first experiences cooking.  Fortunately I was at home, so I fainted in the middle of the kitchen floor and my grandfather had to lift my legs up to let the blood flow back into my brain!  The reason for the fainting was lack of ventilation.  I am a delicate flower.  :P  I didn't faint at Camaje though, so I think that is a sign I have truly grown up!

Anyway, at the end of the class, everyone combined their dishes and we had a buffet line of several different types of salads, chicken breasts, pork chops, beef, soup consommes, curries, and so on.  We ended the night eating our meals at the very spot in which we prepared what we cooked.  (The waiters cleaned up the tables and tablecloths, of course.)  Although the class was stated to end at 9, we were there until almost 10!  It was a great time and a fun way to get to know other New Yorkers.  Not to be biased, but my favorite dishes were the kung pao tofu and the celery root apple soup!  (It's too bad they didn't give us rice to accompany the tofu!)  We added a small scoop of sour cream into the soup and it really added a nice tangy touch.  :)

Unfortunately, we haven't pulled out any of the recipes ever since the class!  The recipes were fairly easy to prepare, but a lot of the ingredients were bought at farmers markets and we hardly encounter those in our daily lives.  Also, it's tough to feel motivated to cook when your kitchen is literally 6' x 6'... smaller than my cubicle at work!!  

Besides our fabulous cooking class, I've been busy wedding planning.  We are now under 90 days away from our wedding and there's still a bit to do!  In fact, we are heading to buy our wedding bands after work today.  Ah, I love wedding planning!

Live To Eat

This is my very first post on my very new blog!  I am thrilled that I finally got the chance to sit down, sign up for a blog, and write.  I used to have a couple of blogs back in high school (seven years ago... eek!), but ever since college and kicking off the beginning of my working years, finding the time to sit down and write has taken a backburner.  Until now, that is.  :)  Since it's been all of seven years, I am experiencing a bit of writer's block typing this introduction... so let's cut right to the chase.

As mentioned in my profile, I am currently 24, a Manhattanite (although I originally hail from the eastern hemisphere), and engaged to the man of my dreams.  Unlike many young women my age, I LIVE for life experiences... not so much cute things or luxury goods.  Give me $200 and I would much rather spend it feasting on frogs' legs sauteed provençale at La Grenouille than on a new Coach bag or jacket from Bluefly.  Even now that my darling fiance and I are planning our wedding, we have happily maintained a small guestlist (comprised solely of our nearest-and-dearest) so that we could allocate a significant chunk of our wedding budget to our upcoming honeymoon (hello Maldives!).  Why spend money on a larger wedding when we could instead be pampering ourselves alone as a couple in paradise?  In short, I love to eat, travel, and experience new things.  Most of what I enjoy doing in life is evidenced entirely in my memory... hey, it makes for more closet space!

Secretly, I've wanted to write my own blog for awhile now.  I love to write.  Ever since I was a kid, I've always been better at expressing myself through writing than speaking.  Then a couple of days ago, I was having brunch at Boqueria with my sister and she asked for my recommendation on where she and her friends should go for Restaurant Week.  A sister is one thing, but apparently even her roommate (who I do not know personally) always asks my sister to ask me what I think about specific restaurants in NYC!  Even among my friends, I've earned the reputation of being somewhat of an informal restaurant guru and fine dining vanguard.  I think that's pretty cool and I thought it would be fun to record my dining experiences somewhere, both for my own reflection and enjoyment as well as for others' reading pleasure.


So without further ado... here is my first review!


Brasserie
(53rd Street b/w Lex and Park)


My fiance and I went to Brasserie for Restaurant Week last night.  We live in Midtown East, and as such we've walked by Brasserie a million times, always mentioning that we should try it out someday.  It was our first time there, and I don't mean to start my blog on a negative note, but it was pretty awful.  In absolute terms, it was average.  But I thought this was a French restaurant... and from the outside of the building, I assumed the restaurant would be nice and relatively classy.  Upon walking into the establishment though, everything was stark white.  Seats were made of plastic and my first impression was that it looked like a cafeteria.  This is probably a restaurant you'd see on Sex And The City and one that is self-professed as being modern and trendy... to me, it was just plain white.


We ordered off the R-Week menu: I had the split pea soup, ocean striped bass, and chocolate brown butter torte.  The mister had salmon carpaccio, a seafood soup medley, and toasted almond cake.  I drank a glass of Pinot Noir and he a glass of the darkest beer I've ever seen.  (I don't even know the name of it!)


The only noticeable pro for me was that the food came out fast.  We were seated right by the kitchen (not in a bad way, there was a wall separating us) and it never took more than 5 minutes for the waiters to switch our courses.  


Cons: The food came out really fast... almost too fast (it was pretty obvious they had a million desserts lined up and ready to be served in the kitchen... I suppose it is Restaurant Week, though!), our server was pretty lame (he handed me my plate when he could have very easily walked over and put it down in front of me), and the food was average AT BEST.  It was all very underwhelming, to say the least.  Average food is admissible in average venues, but not in restaurants that try to be higher-end.


M-Stars (my ratings) are as follows:
Decor/ambience: 2 out of 5
Food: 2.5 out of 5
Service: 2.5 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5 (we were, after all, paying R-Week prices)
"It" factor: 0 out of 5
M&M's (my fiance's and my) overall satisfaction: 2 out of 5


Bottom-line: We won't be going back!  It wasn't terrible, but nothing set it apart from its peers.