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NYC: Kappō at Má Pêche (Mar. 2013)
Authors: Victor and Monte
Restaurant: Má Pêche
Owner: David Chang
Chef: Paul Carmichael
Date: March 13, 2013
Kappō at Má Pêche (aka Kappo at Ma Peche)
Victor’s Notes:
Má Pêche is the last NYC restaurant in the Momofuku empire that I haven’t really tried yet (and I still haven’t really eaten here yet—I don’t really think Kappō counts as eating at the restaurant). Anyway, they recently got a new chef and launched a new “secret” tasting menu called Kappō! It’s only been out for a few weeks, so I was pretty excited to try it out.
Chef Paul calls you the day before your reservation to confirm it, and he also asks you what your names are as well as your favorite cocktails. You basically get that drink, with your name on it, right when you sit down. I didn’t really want to drink much that night, so we just get non-alcoholic drinks.
There’s one seating a night for eight people, and you get to converse with the Chef and other staff about anything, such as food, life in other countries, or even sports. There was even one moment where Chef Paul called me out for preferring Minetta Tavern’s Black Label Burger over In-N-Out and Shake Shack hahaha :(.
We got non-alcoholic drink pairings to go with our meal.
NYC: Per Se (Feb. 2013)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Per Se
Exec Chef: Thomas Keller
Chef de Cuisine: Eli Kaimeh
Date: February 15, 2013
Notes:
I haven’t had the chance to go to Per Se in quite a while, and I was lucky enough to have the chance to try Per Se again this weekend! I’m happy I made the trip as I got to try out a few extra courses, some from the vegetable section and some that they played around with.
The cauliflower terrine was especially excellent. It’s the highlight of the meal for me, and it was one of the best vegetable courses I’ve had in my life. Also, the beef course was spectacular. (The beef ones tend to be haha.)
ALSO, SOMEBODY PROPOSED TO HIS FIANCÉE THIS MEAL!!! It. Was. Awesome. A waiter carried this huge covered dish to their table (I had never seen a covered plate that big and was wondering what the heck it was…), and the proposal and ring were underneath. It was a subtle proposal that definitely surprised her, and she said yes to him!
All the symptoms of sudden euphoria were there haha: the increased heart rate and breathing, dilated pupils, and higher-pitched speech. She was basically radiating joy. Heck, she was so happy that we couldn’t stop smiling for quite a while. To quote Michelle, “she made my day!”
Good food + good company + a proposal that I got to witness = a successful meal!
NYC Sushi: Ichimura at Brushstroke (Feb. 2013)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Ichimura at Brushstroke
Chef: Eiji Ichimura
Website: http://www.davidbouley.com/brushstroke-main/brushstroke-menus/brushstroke-sushi
Date: February 11, 2013
Notes:
I’ve been wanting to try this sushi bar–only restaurant for a while now. It’s in a more private dining area than the main dining area of Brushstroke, and there’s been a lot of hype around this restaurant. Reservations are pretty hard to get for this place right now, and there are only 16 covers a night (two rounds of eight).
There was a pretty large selection of fish, and apparently the vast majority of the fish gets shipped from Japan every few days. Everything was really fresh and high quality. Chef Ichimura had the usual choices (tai, saba, otoro, kohada, uni, and so on), but it was nice being able to try kuromutsu (black bluefish), higetara (a type of cod) , shirasu (baby anchovy), and shiraou (icefish).
The rice was soft and fluffy, though I like the sushi rice more at a few other places in NYC (like Yasuda). On the negative side, it started off too warm at first before finally getting to a good temperature (just sliiiiiiiightly above room temperature).
Anyway, you start off with an appetizer or two (chawanmushi and then some fish/vegetable bite-sized tastings) before trying sashimi, sushi, or a mix of the two. I went sushi-only because I was in a sushi mood. (Then again, I’m usually in a sushi mood…)
Positive dishes/pieces:
-The anago, akamutsu, kuromutsu, tai, and uni were really good.
-The ōtoro and chūtoro were AMAZING. Winter is a great time for toro haha ^_^.
Negative dishes/pieces:
-The one disappointing part was the tamago, which didn’t taste special at all.
I had a really good time here, and I thought the meal was really well-priced for what you get. The value to quality and quantity ratio is REALLY good here for sushi! Chef Ichimura is also REALLY nice. That might have helped haha.
Monte
Victor
tadv3
Happy Noms 