This past weekend, I was lucky enough to take a vacation with my family to the Big Apple. My brother and his girlfriend extended an invitation to mi madre and I to join them for Mother's Day Weekend. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt New York in Midtown Manhattan. It was a relaxing stay in a comfortable room in a funky, modern artsy kind of hotel. And the best part was that it was attached to Grand Central Station and all it's awesomeness!!
We arrived by Amtrak via Penn Station on Friday afternoon and decided to explore Grand Central Station before we headed out to the West Village for our 7pm supper reservations. We found ourselves amid the evening commuter crowd and Holy Crap! The saying "as busy as Grand Central" rang true. We decided to have a quick couple of drinks at the Oyster Bar and Restaurant. It was a chill environment and just what the doctor ordered after our four hour commute from South Station. After chatting for a while, we ventured out into the crowd to check out Grand Central Market. OMG! The scents and aromas of the cheeses, meats, veggies, fruit, fish, breads, pastries, and basically anything and everything you can think of to ingest, were absolutely to die for. I seriously considered just grabbing a baguette, some cheese, and some deliciously fresh meat and head on back to the room to call it a night. But thankfully, I did not.
We arrived at Perilla a bit early and situated ourselves at the bar for a quick libation and munched on one of the nightly specials which happened to be fresh popcorn popped in duck fat. YUM! The dude who worked the bar was ironically from Roslindale which I found hilarious. Such a small world and what a nice guy. Shout out to Tommy O'Malley! And I don't think that A&N has better pizza than the Pleasant but we can agree to disagree. HA!
Perilla is so quaint and adorable, (http://perillanyc.com/) and is co-owned by the winner of the first season of the popular show, 'Top Chef.' Harold Dieterle is the senior chef of the Seasonal American cuisine, neighborhood type joint, 18 table, restaurant, with a tiny bar, located on Jones Street in NEW YORK CITY. BABY! Just an fyi-Perilla is an herb and relative of mint and basil with a strong anise-like flavor. The staff, from the bartender, to the runners, to the wine connoisseur/manager, to our waitress, to the bus boys, were magnificent. So accommodating and down to earth. The dining experience was absolutely amazing. And to top it off, Mr. Dieterle sent out signed dinner menus to us from the kitchen, as we enjoyed our last course. Bonus.
Since I have yet to experience the luxury of dining on a six course tasting menu with a wine pairing, I decided, HEY! Why the heck not? You only live once. To tell you the truth, I was sort of nervous because as you all know, I am not a huge seafood fan and you never know what the chef will decide to serve up. But I decided to be a trooper and go all in. And I am super glad I did. No. I did not love all of the samples, but I kept an open mind and totally tried each and every option that was placed in front of me. And please keep in mind and don't get annoyed, I can't remember every little detail of this fine dining experience. I blame it on the six glasses of wine. There are some details that I may not recall, especially the brands and types of the wines that were served. But, I do know that the vino selections totally enhanced our dining experience.
After our Cava Brut sparkling white wine was poured and our crusty bread was delivered with some tasty olive oil, our first course arrived. Bigeye Tuna Carpaccio- "Vitello Tonnato", veal bone marrow crostini, chia seeds, and spicy almond sauce. Sounds like something I would never order but the combo of the ingredients was yummo.
The same sparkling white wine accompanied our second course which was the Spring Vegetable Salad, rover radish, Greek yogurt, pumpernickel and liberty farm greens. So fresh and tasty. Love. Our third course was the Crispy Soft Shell Crab, roasted vine tomatoes, spicy giardiniera, and grilled bread. Again, not something that I would normally order but I was pleasantly surprised by the tenderness of the crab meat and the weirdness of being able to eat the shell. Totally don't remember the wine option by this point but I do recall it was yummy.
The fourth course happened to be one of the specials of the evening which included snails mixed with housemade linguine tossed in a thick, rich sauce. The linguine was the bomb but I just couldn't get my head around eating snails. Call me crazy but I just couldn't! The texture was chewy and it tasted much like a crumbled, spicy, Italian sausage. And those lil' bastards are trying to destroy our garden so I am kinda not loving their general existence. Don't even bother asking what kind of wine was served at this point of the evening. I am thinking it was the nice sparkling red one. Hmm.
Our fifth course and entree was a sliver of duck breast cooked medium rare and a spicy duck meatball, mint cavatellli, spinach, and quail egg, well known as being one of the Chef Dieterle's specialties. The ball was delightful but I did not care at all for the rare piece of duck breast. That's just me. I tend to appreciate things that I am going to put into my mouth to at least appear to be cooked.
Our final and most delectable course was the Dark Chocolate Souffle, with coffee creme anglaise and almond-hazelnut biscotti. So freaking delish. And because none of us really care for dessert wine, the waitress let us choose our fave vino of the evening to accompany our sixth course . I went with the sparkling red option which was previously served with either the snail sample or duck entree. It was fabulous and even more bombastic was discovering a RED sparkling wine, Lambrusco di Modena, Opera 2002, (pictured below)! Our waitress was so sweet and offered to throw in cappuccinos and/or tea with homemade snickerdoodles to boot.
Keep in mind, the menu isn't huge but the options are diverse. Our entire night at Perilla is one I will cherish forever. It was great being able to hang with my family and to treat ourselves to such an amazing meal in New York. (photo above is of the South Reflecting Pool at the 9/11 Memorial)
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