EPTMy friend came down from Quebec City to visit (suddenly, you are ever so popular if you live in New York).
Our tour began in Guggenheim museum. Guggenheim is a relatively small museum and it is currently exhibiting artworks from a Chinese artist call Cai Guo Qiang. I don’t know if it’s always that busy, but when we went, the line went from inside the building to all the way around the corner of its outer wall, a two hour wait minimum. We jumped the line with my Morgan Stanley badge, and got in for free with corporate passes. Supposedly, we should have taken the elevator to the top floor, and walk from top down, but we decided to go from bottom up anyway. Cameras and any recording devices were strictly forbidden, so obviously, I was unable to take any pictures. His artworks are very unique and interesting. I especially liked this one
![[image loading]](http://boscoh.com/images/2006_HeadOn_1.jpg)
He also had a lot of paintings done by igniting gun powder, and had videos of the makings of those paintings, which was also very different. If you are in town, you should definitely check it out.
For lunch, we went to Jean George at the bottom of the Trump International Hotel. Jean George is rated as one of the best New York French restaurants (other ones are Daniel and Per Se). My original intent was to book Jean George for dinner (Per Se is just out of my league at the moment, maybe next time), but they were all booked out, so I decided to go with lunch instead. Everything was simple, but extraordinarily well done. I especially liked the bread that was given prior to the meal. The trout entrée was fabulous, and the skin was cooked just right so that it was extra crispy but still unburned. The sorbet before the dessert ensured that the palate was refreshed so that the biscuit with cream could be fully enjoyed. Fabulous meal.
Not many hours after, we went to Del Posto for dinner. Del Posto is owned and run by the Italian Iron Chef, Mario Batali.
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Mario_Batali%2C_2005.jpg)
One of my goals in NY was to try all three Iron Chefs’ (yea I know, there’s five, but only three real ones by my count) restaurants, and this is the last one on my list.
Bobby Flay is mentioned Here, and
Morimoto is blogged Here
The décor in Del Posto is very classy, with contrasts greatly with the other two iron chefs, whose restaurants are hip and trendy. There was live piano and trumpet playing in the background, and the waiters were in suits and ties, while the waitresses were in long and proper evening dresses. “A perfect place to take your grandparents”, commented by my friend. A full basket of bread was immediately served after we sat down, along with two types of spreads – butter and cheese. The breads were not as good as those at Jean George, but still much better than what I had in other, less fancy, restaurants, and the butter was a much better dip. Our meal consisted of five courses – Appetizer, 1st pasta, 2nd pasta, entrée, and dessert. The cold salad appetizer was average at best; the 1st pasta was spicy and chewy, but lacks complexity; the 2nd pasta was green and more flavourful, but I still expected more; the entrée was a pork dish, which again, was very good, but not outstanding; the dessert was very average. As you can see, I was greatly disappointed with Del Posto. Out of the three restaurants, I would rank Morimoto 1st, then Mesa Grill, then Del Posto.
Between then and Sunday night, we went to see Wicked, which was a fabulous show. We went to the MET and visited the armour exhibition, and saw countless paintings with subjects centred on Jesus Christ and Virgin Marie (perfect for Easter weekend?). As well, we went to Statue of Liberty and toured Ellis Island. Somewhere in the middle, I took him to Katz for a bite of NYC’s best pastrami sandwich.
Of course, I concluded his tour by taking him to my favourite restaurant. So, after forty-eight hours, we went back to the street Del Posto was on, but this time, we went inside the restaurant that is directly across from Del Posto instead, and it was Morimoto. Since it was my second time dining at Morimoto, I recommended him things to order and he gladly did so as I suggested – and he thoroughly enjoyed them. As we were looking at the menu, our waiter informed us of their new cold appetizer additions: fugu and some other fish. We ordered a plate of fugu sashimi for $50; the texture of the meat was extremely chewy, and the flavour mixed very well with the peppercorn flower and the Morimoto teriyaki sauce. Was the dish worthy of fifty dollars? Probably not. But the experience of having fugu at Morimoto was definitely worth it. He ordered surf and turf which consisted of yellow tail and kobe steak; and I ordered seafood taban yaki, which was a huge bowl of various high end seafood. Everything was as good as I remembered it to be, if not better.
In conclusion, awesome weekend!
