OK, so maybe every moment of the 4 years hasn't been bliss. But the
last 4 years have probably been the best of my life, and for our
anniversary I took Betsy to Montrachet in Tribeca. A lunch there had
figured in our courtship (though neither of us were conscious of it at
the time), so this had sentimental value.

I met her in the city after her rehearsal, we drove down to Tribeca and
then walked around in the mist for a while. Eventually we made it back
to the restaurant, and settled in for quite a nice meal. A lunch visit
a couple years ago had been slightly disappointing, but Thursday almost
everything was quite good. Of course, a slow night (combination of Yom
Kippur and rain) might have helped- restaurant had many empty tables,
so we had very attentive service (and some bonuses from kitchen).

We had an amuse of risotto balls with parmesan. I started with sautéed
langoustines with gingery pickled peaches, while Betsy ordered the
seared foie gras. She actually got Foie Gras 4 ways - the seared foie
gras with Muscat grapes, cold terrine of FG, poached FG with daikon and
a fruit sauce, and a molten FG ball/truffle.
For the main course I got duck choucroute- duck wrapped in cabbage with
a daikon sauerkraut. Betsy's veal ended up being Veal 4 Ways- there was
roast loin with a parmesan crust, sweetbreads, and a luscious hunk of
cheek. There was another risotto ball (balls and daikon seemed to the
evening's theme) - Betsy said it reminded her of a Burger King Tater
Tot, in a good way. When I looked at her she insisted she likes BK
tater tots. Go figure. Actually, the kitchen was very on, and
everything was delicious, except for maybe the duck was a bit bland ( I
guess it was maybe steamed in the cabbage? Both the cabbage and the
daikon kraut were superb, it was just the duck that needed a bit more
flavor).

I ordered a rather inexpensive wine, the 1998 Prager "Weissenkirchner
Steinriegl" Riesling Federspiel (Wachau). I'm more concerned with wine
matching than Betsy, and thought this would be versatile enough for the
langoustines, the veal, and dry Riesling is my usual choice for
choucroute. I consulted the sommelier and he agreed. I offered to get
Betsy a glass of demi-sec something for the foie gras, but she declined
(and said the Riesling went fine). I was worried re the age of this, as
a Federspiel, but it had youthful bright fruit, though there were
mature petrol notes also. The petrol, spices, and maybe some mineral
notes dominated on the nose, but on the palate the lemony fruit took
control. There seemed to be some peach notes too (at least with the
peach accents on the langoustines). Nice acidity made it quite food
friendly; there was a good clean lingering finish. All in all, quite a
nice wine for $40 on a restaurant list. B+

I had cheese and Betsy an "avocado-lime vacherin" dessert. The cheese
course included one soft sheepmilks cheese whose name I didn't get, a
Camembert, a Pont L'Eveque, and a very good Mimolette (there can be
such a thing). I thought the Mimolette would benefit from a red, and
ordered a glass of the 2000 Ch. Clarke (Listrac). Ripe cassis and red
plum fruit, not the most compelling 2000 Bdx Ive had recently. Some
light earth and cedar notes, but mostly a fairly soft anonymous red. B-

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of
consistency.

DaleW wrote:
> OK, so maybe every moment of the 4 years hasn't been bliss. But the
> last 4 years have probably been the best of my life, and for our
> anniversary I took Betsy to Montrachet in Tribeca.

I have totally lost the thread on this one. Is this in Japan?

Margie wrote:
> DaleW wrote:
>
>>OK, so maybe every moment of the 4 years hasn't been bliss. But the
>>last 4 years have probably been the best of my life, and for our
>>anniversary I took Betsy to Montrachet in Tribeca.
>
>
> I have totally lost the thread on this one. Is this in Japan?
>

No, Manhattan.

Mark Lipton

Dale,
I assume that you've seen the article in the NYT regarding the "five
who changed NY dining." I took Jean to Montrachet in '90 when we were
visiting and had a great meal there (great wine list, too). I'm pleased
to say that, of the five chefs cited, I've eaten at restaurants run by 3
of them (Meyer, Nieporent and Vongerichten). Glad to see that you had
another good experience there.

Mark Lipton

Mark Lipton wrote:

>> I have totally lost the thread on this one.Â*Â*IsÂ*thisÂ*inÂ*Japan?
>>
>
> No, Manhattan.

I would have thought that by now senator Clinton had changed the name
to "Womanhattan." ;-)

Godzilla

"Godzilla" > skrev i meddelandet
...
> Mark Lipton wrote:
>
>>> I have totally lost the thread on this one. Is this in Japan?
>>>
>>
>> No, Manhattan.
>
> I would have thought that by now senator Clinton had changed the name
> to "Womanhattan." ;-)


Excuse der foreign gentleman - but it should be Personhattan, withut a
doubt.

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

--
Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se

Pretty good for someone who doesn't live around here!
Just to be technical, neither Drew Nieporent nor Danny Meyers are
chefs.
I've still never eaten at a Bouley restaurant, but hope to soon. I have
eaten at :
Gotham under Portale
Vong (Vongerichten)
Montrachet, Nobu, the late Layla , though not Tribeca Grill (may do an
offline there soon) (Nieporent)
Union Square, Gramercy, 11 Mad, Tabla (Meyer)
Living in region makes it easier.

Dale,

Congrats to you and Betsy on your aniversary.


--
Lew/+Silat

"Nils Gustaf Lindgren" > wrote in message
...
> "Godzilla" > skrev i meddelandet
> ...
>> Mark Lipton wrote:
>>
>>>> I have totally lost the thread on this one. Is this in Japan?
>>>>
>>>
>>> No, Manhattan.
>>
>> I would have thought that by now senator Clinton had changed the name
>> to "Womanhattan." ;-)
>
>
> Excuse der foreign gentleman - but it should be Personhattan, withut a
> doubt.
>
Not with "son" in the middle!

Mark Lipton wrote:
> Margie wrote:
> > DaleW wrote:
> >
> >>OK, so maybe every moment of the 4 years hasn't been bliss. But the
> >>last 4 years have probably been the best of my life, and for our
> >>anniversary I took Betsy to Montrachet in Tribeca.
> >
> >
> > I have totally lost the thread on this one. Is this in Japan?
> >
>
> No, Manhattan.
>

It's DeNiro land. And the name of his film studio.

Isn't Tribeca's name something to do with Triboro?


I finally got to see Sideways last night.
I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would.
Although Church slays me no matter what he is in.

Being a liker of but no expert on, was the wine trivia well researched
and accurate?

mk5000

"I don't believe anyone for not believing my history. If I had not
experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself"--Joseph
Smith

> Isn't Tribeca's name something to do with Triboro?

No. Tribeca stands for "triangle below Canal (Street)" Soho stands for
"South of Houston (Street)". I think both names also take some of their
cachet from other places - I think there's a Soho in England for example.

Triboro is the area (and bridge) that encompases Manhattan, Bronx, and
Queens (three of the five boros of New York City, which is (nearly?)
unique in being politically divided in boroughs, which are somewhat
different from other kinds of divisions (but the difference escapes me).
Rumor has it that this division, which occured hundreds of years ago,
is actually illegal. I wouldn't be surprised.

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
> > Isn't Tribeca's name something to do with Triboro?
>
> No. Tribeca stands for "triangle below Canal (Street)" Soho stands for
> "South of Houston (Street)". I think both names also take some of their
> cachet from other places - I think there's a Soho in England for example.
>
> Triboro is the area (and bridge) that encompases Manhattan, Bronx, and
> Queens (three of the five boros of New York City, which is (nearly?)
> unique in being politically divided in boroughs, which are somewhat
> different from other kinds of divisions (but the difference escapes me).
> Rumor has it that this division, which occured hundreds of years ago,
> is actually illegal. I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh, DUH thanks

Incidentally, have you seen this week's Newsweek (with the Mormons on
the cover), p 53 Lifestyles section.

First article is about marketing wine with cool labels. I have to
admit that I tend to buy experimetnally the bottles that have brighter
labels, but not necessarily weird names.

The second article is "The Day California Won First Prize"

mk5000

"You're so lucky
Oh lucky lucky
You're so lucky
Yeah"--franz Ferdinand, do you want to

Congratulations, what a great experience. Not living in a food city
makes me jealous of such choices you have.

In article .com>,
"DaleW" > wrote:

> OK, so maybe every moment of the 4 years hasn't been bliss. But the
> last 4 years have probably been the best of my life, and for our
> anniversary I took Betsy to Montrachet in Tribeca. A lunch there had
> figured in our courtship (though neither of us were conscious of it at
> the time), so this had sentimental value.
>
>

DaleW wrote:
> Pretty good for someone who doesn't live around here!
> Just to be technical, neither Drew Nieporent nor Danny Meyers are
> chefs.

Yeah, I was having problems finding the right term for them:
restaurateurs, I suppose is what I should have said.

> I've still never eaten at a Bouley restaurant, but hope to soon. I have
> eaten at :
> Gotham under Portale
> Vong (Vongerichten)
> Montrachet, Nobu, the late Layla , though not Tribeca Grill (may do an
> offline there soon) (Nieporent)
> Union Square, Gramercy, 11 Mad, Tabla (Meyer)
> Living in region makes it easier.

No joke! Of the various one's I've tried, Montrachet and Union Sq. get
my votes for the most interesting food (perhaps if I'd tried Vong in an
earlier time it might have seemed more innovative, but then again the
Asia-Europe cooking nexus had been done to death on the West Coast
before Vong ever opened its doors).

Mark Lipton

Salut/Hi marika,

le/on 16 Oct 2005 21:50:25 -0700, tu disais/you said:-


>First article is about marketing wine with cool labels.

Interesting! Might be quite useful in a country where meam living room
temperatures are too hot for serving wine. What technology do they use to
cool the labels.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website