21 May 2007

Lady of Leisure has been a force of nature in her retail odyssey over the weekend. Having arrived with largely empty suitcases, it was a rather clever ploy on her part to stock up for her sojourn in Dublin.

The week end in New York has passed far too quickly. With MoMA our only real tourist attraction visited, we packed a fair bit into a few days. Vodkas in Pravda, meal in Chinatown, strolls through Chelsea and the West Village but the highlight was definitely the meal in Per Se on the Saturday night.

With a stunning view over Columbus circle and all the way down 8th avenue the setting was spectacular. The food delightful and the story behind each dish, detailing the provenance of every ingredient. The epitome of this was detailing the butter which came a small farm in Orwell, New York. Amusing called Animal farm, they have 6 cows and all of their milk supply is hand churned into unsalted butter specifically for the restaurant. The chef then hand seasons the butter in the restaurant using fleur de sel. Pretentious nonsense all of it but I was loving every moment. My one complaint was that the tasting menu did not come with a pre-chosen accompaniment. We chose a fine selection of individual glasses and half bottles. My favorite course was the fois gras taken with a 5 putt tokay but the real treat of the evening was the half bottle of 1971 Chateau Petrus. We asked to keep the bottle as a memento and they obliged. Unfortunately a maid dutifully tied this up from our hotel room the next morning while we were shopping.

A final trudge up and down 5th avenue and Lady of Leisure and myself went for lunch in Rockefeller Plaza. Monday lunch time and sun was shining as we sat among the tourists and Manhattanites. I had fallen in love with New York that weekend and we talked seriously about considering it as the next stop on my career world tour.