Pork-gasm

In the new Pineda tradition of foregoing home-cooked holidays in favor of James Beard award-winning meals, Trish, Juan, Val and I spent a delightful evening with Tom Colicchio & Sons on New Year’s Eve.  Why dedicate the hours sweating into pots and pans when you can pay someone else to do the sweating for you?  Trish and I met Juan and Val in the trendy meatpacking district where piles of gray-brown slush were still clogging intersections and sewer grates, the stubborn remnants of our Christmas “Snowmaggedon.” The restaurant is surprisingly off the beaten path (way over on 10th Ave), but the trade off is a huge open warehouse space that would likely cost a fortune mid-island. 

As for the food?  Two words - pork belly.  Dear God, how can I have lived 40 years without tasting this fatty cut of porcine goodness.  I think I had a pork-gasm.  Twice.  I couldn’t name every item we had, but the highlights for me: the pork belly (of course) butter-poached oysters w/ caviar, foie gras donuts, Juan’s skirt steak with bone marrow ravioli - oh, and did I mention the pork belly?  Desserts were equally decadent and between the four of us, we were able to sample just about every one.  Check out their menu to get your mouth watering and tummy rumbling.  I’m saving my pennies now so I can go back for the Tasting Menu.

So how do you top a meal like that?  By watching the ball drop with Ryan Seacrest.  Not.  We were so stuffed from dinner that our distended bellies couldn’t handle the antipasto, chips & dip and pigs-in-a-blanket (my personal favorite, more pork!) I had purchased in a panic that morning, thinking we might actually get hungry later that evening. 

By around 11pm, Juan and Val were fast asleep, their food comas getting the best of them.  Trish and I stayed up watching the severely toned-down Kathy Griffin with Anderson Cooper on CNN.  She seems so un-happy without the use of the “F” word.  At midnight, we pathetically donned our silly hats and 2011 glasses.  With a few sad toots on our bargain store horns, we welcomed in the New Year violently waking Juan from a deep sleep.  We didn’t even bother to pop the champagne. 

Oh well, after that meal anything is bound to be a letdown.  My upcoming fantasy holiday/restaurant couplings - Bastille Day at Bouley, Cinco de Mayo at Centrico and MLK Day at Amy Ruth’s!

Give me a New Year's kiss!

Trish shows off her snazzy New Year's hat. 

Juan sleeps through the ball drop.













Hope your New Year is filled with showtunes and pork!