NYC Restaurant Week

AKA #NYCEatLikeAFatKidWeek

I know. I know. I'm late. With this entire blog and even restaurant week. I have a job people! I'm busy watching the Bachelor and thinking about my next meal.....while watching the Bachelor. No, that's not my job, but if it was I'd have time to keep up with this.

Anyways, back to business. This past week was my favorite time of year! An entire two weeks dedicated to the gluttonous offerings of NYC's food scene! Every year, NYC decides to open the doors of restaurants that you would probably never eat at otherwise (for the peasants that can't afford them) for two weeks in the Winter and Summer months. Three course offerings for a mere $25 lunch and $38 dinner! (used to be $35...crooks). I have celebrated this event in the past, but of course. Multiple times. But never with a food coma because the portions are so small (they get you there). So obviously, I celebrated. I rejoiced. I spent my entire paycheck on every single restaurant offered. I wish that were true, since I really only spent it on one. A lunch. Not even a dinner. But it was fancy and I'd never attend otherwise so that should matter....somewhat.

What is this fancy place of splendor you ask? Tom Colicchios Riverpark, located on the East River overlooking the wondrous Queens. Tom Colicchio is a big time chef, but really I went since it's close to work. And fancy, since I'm basically the peasant that falls for this. You know it's going to be a meal to remember when there's basically a butler service to take your coat and pull your chair out at the table. I've never even had a man do that for me! (Chivalry is dead? Not here). From the start, I knew this was worth my $25 bucks.

RiverPark offered their entire lunch menu for Restaurant Week, which most places rarely do. So props to them on that. Points deducted though for charging extra for certain dishes. If you offer it, keep it within what we are supposed to be spending. I don't want a supplemental fee! Then it basically shouldn't be on the menu. To start, I made a mess by eating this:

It's not jello. With green goo.

This, ladies and gents, is Duck Liver Pâté (I got those accents because I keep it classy...sometimes). Apparently, this is actually the cheapest form of liver, turned into meat paste, unlike foie gras (no accents). Meat paste....sounds appetizing right? I started out eating this with just my fork digging into the pâté ....not realizing the bread was there to put it on. Peasant. Apparently, this dish contained blood orange, pine nuts, and rosemary. I have no idea what the green goo was, but I didn't hate this. It was basically an expensive form of spam.....if you like things like that. But it was delicious and I was glad to try something new. Also, the salad was cute.

This just looks like a slew of pretty colors....but there's fish too.

For the main course, I tested my palate to some Merluza, because I love eating things I've legitimately never heard of before. If you have heard of it, you should take over my food blog. Apparently, with this fish, I was also eating a meyer lemon, fennel, Tokyo turnips, and bok choy. You would think this fish was from somewhere in Asia with the bok choy and turnips named after the capital of Japan, but no, it's basically the Spanish name for Cod. Ya know RiverPark, you could've just said that, rather than make it sound so fancy and high class. This was decent, but I probably should've gotten a leg of lamb, just so I could've said I ate the leg of a baby lamb.

Far too majestic to ingest

For the final course, which was obviously dessert, I had the apple tarte tatin, (couldn't just say an apple tart without that extra e) pictured terribly below:

Still not any form of jello

This consisted of pickled raisins, vanilla cream, walnuts, and apple fennel sorbet. Basically, this was a fancy apple pie. And we all know how much I love apple pie. Skip the apple fennel sorbet and give me some vanilla ice cream, or would that be too much like Applebees? Ok, I accept the sorbet. 

All in all, this entire meal was definitely worth it for a Restaurant Week lunch. I was highly impressed with the fact that although I forgot to put my napkin down on my lap and made it dirty with some duck liver, nobody kicked me out. They cleaned it up with a blade and gave me a new one, all while probably thinking I didn't belong there. Does it get better than that?