Birthday Dinner: Part 2

And now for the rest of our dinner at Eleven Madison Park. I realize that this would be better if I had taken pictures of our meal, but I think it would have been a little to cheesy to pull out the camera and take pictures at such a nice restaurant. However, I did find this blog, which has great pictures of the restaurant, and some of the dishes that we ate.

Our fifth course was a rich, spicy bouillabaisse, with black bass, octopus, calamari, scallops and prawns. So delicious, I think it also had a little chorizo in it, so just like a super creamy gumbo (but no okra ;) ). Unfortunately, this is where we realized that finishing this dinner was going to be a struggle. We were starting to feel full, with 6 (really 7 or 8) more courses to go.

A lovely lobster dish came next, which was excellent - lightly done, with carrots, a citrus sabayon, and vadouvan (no, I did not know what that was, but looked it up here - it's just a spice blend).

A small glass bowl came out next, filled with little juicy frogs' legs floating over a porcini custard. I had never had frogs' legs before, but if that was the only thing on the menu that I had not had, we were doing well - at least there wasn't offal on the menu. The legs DO taste like chicken, but teeny tiny dark meat chicken. This was the first dish that I did not finish - there were just too many little legs in the bowl (yes, I realize that sounds gross, but I'm leaving it like that).

The mini-meats continued with a portion of roasted quail served with dates and juniper. MMMMMMMM - tiny, perfect roasted bird. Very good.

The milk-fed veal cheeks were absolutely delicious - served with celery root and black truffles - like a perfect bite of short ribs. A perfect bite that I could only eat half of - I actually contemplated telling the waiter to call it off - just bring the dessert and we would be done. What I actually did was joke with him that we would be crawling across the finish line.

Next, our server brought around the cheese cart - mmm. Cheese. I normally like smelly cheese, and after the waiter told us about each of the cheeses I selected a couple and then Mr. D selected three, one of which was the "ripest" on the card. I tasted the ripe one, and then decided that I do not like all stinky cheeses - this one looked like earwax, which did not help. I will save the stinkiest ones of all for someone else.

Though you would think the next course would be the last (as it is number 11), but the chef had added a dessert amuse, so we would be having twelve courses. Aha chef, you are a worthy adversary, but we have come this far already - you cannot beat us now. The "Soda Pop" was a mix of flash frozen tangerine soda and pop rocks, with pieces of grapefruit, pomelo, and lemon beneath it. Now, I don't think the pop rocks added to much to the dish, or maybe what I thought was soda fizziness was actually pop rocks.

Our "last dish" was the Milk & Chocolate (with Happy Birthday delicately written across the plate), which had dehydrated milk solids, soft chocolate mousse, a crunchy chocolate something, and the most delicious ice cream ever - brown butter ice cream. It was so good I cannot explain it, except to say I want to try and make it (can't be that hard, right), but cannot yet make it, since I asked for a ice cream maker attachment for our Kitchen-Aid but did not get it. I will have to wait and get it when it warms up, or wait even later until our anniversary.

Finally we were done. Except we weren't, because they very generously brought us macaroons with our bill. A whole plate from which to pick - beautiful cream, yellow, green, purple, and brown macaroons. I was so full, I only asked for one, but Mr. D asked for three, at which point the server decided that I also needed to try the ones that my husband had chosen. I actually left the on the plate (though I think the hubs ate most of those, too). With the macaroons, the server also brought us over a bottle of cognac and poured us each a glass. Not that you should have to eat until you are literally brimming with food to realize this, but a drink after dinner does actually work to help your tummy feel better. :)

When they brought us our receipt, they also brought us each a box of pieces of fruit jelly to take home (tangerine, lemon, lime and I forget the last flavor). As I was the birthday girl (or actually just all the girls), I also received a box with what I dubbed my birthday macaroon, which was almondy deliciousness when I ate it for breakfast the next day. OK, ate it after my breakfast as a breakfast dessert, it's ok it was my birthday.