NYC Tastes

Each year Mr. T and I celebrate the holiday season with a special meal alone in lieu of presents.  This year we took a half day off work and celebrated with a long fancy lunch at Asiate, on the top of the Mandarin Oriental.   We began with a tray of Herb Gruyere Gougeres... ...and an amuse bouche of salmon tarter with pickled cucumber.   The gougeres looked tame but each one had a spicy jalapeno kick that warranted a few big gulps of water.  Onto appetizers Mr. T ordered the Butternut Squash Soup with Grilled Kale and Croutons. This was a fantastic seasonal soup, the strong flavor of kale paring nicely with creamy broth.  My dish was just as wonderful...Smoked Sturgeon with Barley, Cucumbers and Honey Mustard. I've really been enjoying the flavor and texture of barley lately and once again it was a perfect complement to the tangy mustard and smokey fish.  Onto entrees...

Mr T's sister and husband are moving to Florida in about a month so Kate and I decided to meet up for what may be our last "fancy lunch". There are so many great lunch deals in this town I can only take advantage when I have a day off. Since Kate works from home and enjoys food just as much as me, she's the perfect companion for these excursions! We were a little disappointed with our last lunch at Perry Street, so I was somewhat apprehensive about our next pick Asiate. I have heard very mixed reviews but figured the view should hopefully make up for anything bad! I showed up right at 1:30 for our reservation and the hostess started to seat me at a table in the middle of the room. There were a few tables open right at the corner of the wall to wall windows and she happily obliged when I asked to be seated there. I didn't get any good pictures of the restaurant so I borrowed some from the Asiate website. The view is really stunning. You can see all the way uptown a...