Dinner #4 - The Pressure of the In-Laws

I write this in retrospect of what was a great Thursday. I have not been able to get to it earlier as we had a very busy weekend, but we had a very special Thursday as it was the first time we host one of our parents to Thursday’s at Worth. Our special guests this week were Tamy’s parents, so of course the dinner had to be amazing. The menu was set on Wednesday night, once again at around 11:30 I finished writing the last item on the grocery list. This time, however, instead of visiting my favorite Whole Foods market in TriBeCa, I made my way to perhaps one of the best blocks of food in New York; Bleeker between Leroy & Morton street. In this one block you have the Lobster Place (Seafood Market), Murray’s Cheese, Faicco’s Italian Specialties & Amy’s Bread. This place is amazing. I headed there straight out of work on Thursday… first stop The Lobster Place.

My menu called for some King Prawns, when I got to the store, the vendors looked at me perplexed. I figured it had been a while since someone came in asking for some King Prawns, something which they obviously did not have. So quick change in menu and they recommended for me to take the Blue Shrimp, which arrived this morning straight from the Australian southern shores. Perfect, they looked amazing and had to be very tasty. My plan… poach them in butter!

Next stop, Murray’s cheese to pick up some artichoke hearts that have been sitting in olive oil, parmesan cheese and white truffle infused olive oil. Then to Faicco’s for the risotto, the mascarpone and the cream. Finish it off a the local grocery market (Bleeker Farm) on the corner to get the peas, bananas and everything else that was missing and I was set.

The evening was starting perfectly. I had plenty of time, the menu in itself was very straight forward. The only complicated plate was the dessert which I got out of the way very early in the night. But any good cook will know, the smallest mistake can make or break your plate, and unfortunately I made one of those. My mistake was that I forgot to peel the shrimp before poaching them. It sounds insignificant, but what happened was that the shell stuck to the shrimp and once cooked, made it very difficult to peel. I served the shrimp with shell and only when the guest began trying hard to peel the shrimp did I realize my horrid mistake. It was a bit of a mess. The saving grace was that the shrimp were delicious, the sauce fantastic and the risotto was perfect.

In all honesty I was upset at myself for not thinking the recipe through all the way, but at the end of the day a great lesson was learned. Its how I will continue to improve my technique in cooking and its will only make me better for the future. In this case I was very lucky to have great parents-in-law that only spoke praises of the dishes and the night. For this reason Thursday June 24^th was a great night!

An (un)forgettable night with "El Patron"

Last Thursdays at Worth Street was delicious. The theme: A touch of Mexico, which is exactly what we were craving for. Mexico had just won the game against the French in the World Cup, and it was time to celebrate, and what better way but to attempt beating them once again only this time, we would challenge them in the kitchen!

The invitees came with a touch of Mexico as well, besides having over a couple who were originally from Colombia and Venezuela, we had invited a good friend of Felipe’s from Mexico. He had brought with him yet another crucial touch of Mexico, the big guy, the dangerous one, a bottle of Patron.

Guests, check!

Food, check!

Alcohol, check! We were ready to go.

But “the touch of Mexico” didn’t really arrive until later, our Mexican friend as usual, and like a good NY banker, was working late. So for all of us who were already there, our night began with wine and conversations around the kitchen counter, Felipe cooking and me, pretending to peel a mango. Our friends were telling us about their trip to Colombia, it was the very first time they had gone as a couple, and the very first time she had visited his home country. From their trip, she had brought back a really interesting theory: Can the success of a country be based on the love its own people have towards it? What she loved the most about her trip to Colombia was to see the gratitude, faith, love and respect Colombians had towards their own country. Maybe it was the glass of wine, or the beer she had earlier on during a business lunch, but before she knew it the sentiment had taken over. Soon enough she felt a deep desire for Venezuelans to be able to love their own country in that same way so that her country could begin healing and recovering.

We heard the door knock three times, the touch of Mexico had arrived! And right off the bat, our friends called out the “banker” in him. I, personally called out “the nerd” in him. The guy had pretty much memorized the blog beforehand. And like a good student, was using language and words from it so that we would know he had done his homework. Ok, so the guy is really not that bad, and his banking mannerisms wore off soon after we cracked open the bottle of Tequila.

We talked more, about advertising and Obama. About BP and our dependence on oil. We talked about girls, or “touch of Mexico” and his now empty bottle talked about girls, and most importantly, we ate extraordinarily and drank some excellent tequila. No matter where this project takes us, if it guarantees us nights like this last one every week, then I gotta say, I put my cards on the table and call all in.