Picholine

Curtis and I celebrated two years of marriage last week and we celebrated by having a fancy dinner at Picholine in NYC (Rated 2 Michelin Stars!) It was a fancy decor and while I was nervous as to how stuffy the place would be, I was pleasantly surprised by how non-pretentious it was. We decided to do the four course tasting menu. It came with a prelude, a pasta, a fish or beef and dessert. We were stuffed by the end of the meal -- I don't know how people can eat a 7 or a 9 course tasting menu!

We couldn't take pictures in the restaurant but I did get some photos off their website and off of Google image searches. (Obviously, I'm not the first to blog about Picholine)

We started with an amuse bouche from the chef. It was a trio of tasty things: tomato water with basil foam, a deconstructed ceasar salad and some kind of a pannacotta. For my prelude, I had the “Croque Madame”: A Soft Farm Egg, Ibérico Bellota, Gruyère, Truffle “Snow”.

Curtis had the warm maine lobster with Fried Vanilla Milk, Endive, Kumquats (pictured above)

For our pasta dishes, Curtis had the wild mushroom risotto with Local Corn and Vacca Rosa Parmesan (pictured above). I hate mushrooms and I took a bite of this and it made me a believer - simply amazing! I had the sheep’s milk ricotta agnolotti with Artichokes Barigoule, Bottarga and Parsley Pistou. It was light and heavenly.

For our main items, Curtis had the hudson valley rabbit with Date-Mustard Spread and Onion Variations. It also came with a side dish of Spätzle (a type of egg noodle of soft texture) with rabbit confit and mushrooms (above).

I had the squab with Spiced Rhubarb Cloud and Foie Gras Roulade. It was cooked perfectly! At one point I said the foie gras reminded me of scrapple and Curtis laughed at me.

For dessert, I had the liquid chocolate “tart” with Malted Meringue and Confiture de Lait Sorbet. It was super rich - and the dessert cracked open to reveal a pool of melted chocolate.

Curtis had the apple confit Pain Perdu with Vanilla-Hickory Ice Cream. It was also really good - tasted like a deconstructed apple pie! We also got an extra dessert of some kind of chocolate and hazelnut cake with sea salt. Super super yummy. Overall, the meal was lovely. The restaurant had printed "Happy Anniversary" on the menu and they let us keep them as souviners. The wait staff was super friendly - we will def. be back one day!