If food was my religion, this would be my church

Friends, it finally happened. I made it to Eleven Madison Park. It was a dining experience unlike any other I've ever had. I'd heard from friends who'd been there of the incredible attention the waitstaff gives to each customer, of the perfect execution of the food, and the way in which the restaurant is able to produce a meal that lasts for 3 hours and never feels slow, rushed, or anything other than divine. They were all correct. I'm completely overwhelmed by all of the wonderful things I have to say about my meal and can't possibly do it justice in a blog, so let me be clear. GO TO ELEVEN MADISON PARK. GO. Go for lunch, go for dinner, both will be incredible (although I hear there are even more perks to going for dinner) (the only difference might be that some of the special bonuses--like the infamous "have as much of this bottle of cognas as you want"--only come with dinner). The reviews are entirely earned and it is entirely worth any amount of cost-cutting to save up the money to afford it. Seriously, go, you can eat a plate of food as pretty as this one (crab salad between pickled daikon)


Some highlights--

--The Leisure Suit--a cocktail of gin, vermouth, and maraschino liquer. To be honest I have no idea what maraschino liquer is or tastes like, but I like things that resemble a martini and this was definitely that, with the added benefit of not being quite so strident as the run of the mill martini you order at a bar.
--A 135-page wine list. As we know I don't know anything about wine (except that I like to drink it), but 135 pages are bound to contain many goodies, and the sommelier definitely steered us in a delicious, if pricey, direction.
--The bonuses. By bonuses I mean everything that wasn't part of the 3-course meal: the bread (with two butters, one made of cow's milk the other goat's milk), the chilled pea soup with buttermilk "snow" (hi liquid nitrogen!), the egg cream at the end of the meal (with a twist, of course), and my personal favorite, the smoked sturgeon sabayon with chive oil, served in an egg shell. Holy sweet mother, it was amazing.

 

Moving on to the star of the meal, the menu. The menu at Eleven Madison Park is unlike any other menu I've ever seen. For each course you get one word--asparagus, pork, crab, snapper, egg to name a few--and you choose one per course. You then tell them if there's any ingredient you don't like (I asked them to leave out portabello mushrooms) and away they go to perfectly cook your food. I went with asparagus, which came out as a composed salad with hard-boiled egg, bulgur wheat (surprised, Miriam and Hilary?) and some sort of cured ham.

 

I also got the lobster (all I remember about it was that it was butter poached) and the pork (there was a pea puree, clearly my ability to retain information about each dish decreased along with the amount of wine left in the bottle). Everything was perfectly cooked, tasted deliciously, exquisitely seasoned, and the tableside presentation was a nice extra flourish. At the end of the post we're right back where we started--I can't say enough great things about this meal, and what I can say I can't say well. Just go and see for yourself

Some sweets to make the finals pass

It occurred to me recently that a self-professed expert in cupcakes, such as myself, should probably be doing a lot more sampling of and blogging about cupcakes and a lot less about Italian food. I can think of no better time to go for cupcakes than after a tragically hard final. So, after a brutal Securities Regulations final Kat and I walked over to Sweet Revenge for some tasty rewards slash consolation-in-dessert-form. I was first introduced to these cupcakes last year by a wonderful professor. While there's not a lot of variety, which can be a problem when you're in the mood for something specific, what I love about Sweet Revenge (aside from its proximity to school) is the fun way they serve the cupcakes--they're in cups!

 This is the Sweet Revenge Cupcake, a peanut butter cupcake with ganache filling and a peanut butter frosting. It sounds like a LOT of peanut butter so I was a little wary that it would be overwhelming and way too rich, especially when combined with the ganache in the middle. I worried for nothing. It's a delicious cupcake, made even more delicious by the fact that this cupcake manages to somehow be moist without being dense. It's a little crumby, but that's ok because it's in a cup! I also find the cupcake to frosting ratio to be ideal. Sweet Revenge is a great cupcake when you're looking for some variety from the usual suspects and their cookie-cutter vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Stay tuned for a very exciting upcoming post, after Katie and I enjoy the best meal of our lives at Eleven Madison Park.