balthazar

I'm so lucky to have nice friends, and luckier that they have even nicer parents who helped me cross Balthazar off of my "list of restaurants to try, but probably won't ever try until I am one day a real adult living, maybe." So yes, I got to go to Balthazar!!!! I was so excited and also freaking out, like I was on the subway nervously sweating even though there were no people in the car and the A/C was blasting.  I don't really have the right words to describe how much I enjoyed my food here, so I won't  try. But it was great, so so great. And it has such a nice atmosphere, you know, a big room with lots of mirrors and little tables and funny yellow light, and that weird buzz of lots of people talking within really close proximity to each other and there's constantly all this beautiful French food being moved on and off of tables and you're just waiting waiting waiting for yours to arrive, then when it does, you go sort of deaf and everything turns into this low hum and all your energy goes into eating your food and it's a great day.

 Chicken liver and foie gras mousse with red onion confit

This is what dreams are made of. My dreams, at least.

My saffron risotto with shrimp, leeks, and mascarpone cheese

 Pan roasted chicken with beet greens, chanterelles, tomato confit and potato gnocchi

David and his mom got the same thing, but she had mashed potatoes instead of the gnocchi, which was probably a good idea because they tasted like someone just added potatoes to butter, not the other way around. I mean that in a good way.

Duck confit with potatoes, cipollini onions, wild mushrooms and frisée salad

Caramelized banana ricotta tart with banana ice cream


:) :) :)