for the love of good food...: Eleven Madison Park

Monday 26 August 2013

Eleven Madison Park - New York

The month leading up to my NY trip I was extremely excited, excited because I was going to visit the legendary French-American restaurant headed by chef Daniel Humm (also the mastermind behind NoMad), a restaurant I had read (just a little) too many articles, reviews and blog posts on...

Hence from the moment I left Hong Kong for Boston, Eleven Madison Park was always on the back of my mind, curious as to what I would be served... The below will be mostly pictures, with a few comments here and there. Given the time we were seated, we weren't able to do the full tasting as it lasts 4 hours - i.e. we would've finished eating 2am! So the four of us went with the more feasible 4-course tasting...

dinner menu - one choice per row if you're doing the four-course, all 4 x 4 if you are doing the tasting.

Savoury Black and White cookies

Parmesan and black truffle flavoured cookies - a delightful way to start off our meal.

apple tea

Second amuse bouche was smoked apple and celery tea with a bundle of fresh thyme. As this was being served I could only think of "mad hatter's tea" for some reason. Random thoughts aside we didn't find this enjoyable... too medicinal and strangely sweet from the apple.

Bacon chive brioche topped with a quail egg

The eggs were cooked very gently so the yolk remained runny, sitting on a perfectly toasted brioche... I like.

yellowtail on bonito chips

scallop on scallop chips

Both these fish and scallop amuse-bouches were my favourites - particularly the scallop chip which I thought was fairly genius.

chickpea batons

Crunchy on the outside, mushy on the inside these panisses were quite like a croquette in terms of texture...only much tastier!

Greek yogurt lollipops with curry and lentil

Dinner rolls

Beautiful, no?! These dinner rolls were no ordinary rolls.... the only way I could describe it would be buttery and with a lot of layers like a croissant, but has a crunch of a roll. These packets of what I will call croissant-rolls were given to each diner, to go with the below butters and sea salt.

goat's milk butter

cow's milk butter

sea salt

"Hamachi" - pumpernickel crisps, horseradish on sorrel sauce

And finally the arrival of my first(!) course. Incredibly fresh fish with a perfect pairing of sorrel sauce and pumpernickel crisps for crunch.

"Foie gras" - seared, with pickled kohlrabi (turnips) in pork broth and burned ginger/scallion oil

"Asparagus"- poached in buttermilk with a quail egg

"Lobster"

For my second course I chose the lobster. Plated to look like a plant, this dish of succulent lobster and charred leeks managed to look elegant with its edible soil and smoked green leek puree (top right), all of which rested on pool of squid ink-laced shellfish bisque.... Hands down the best lobster dish I've ever eaten.

"Plantain" - with ham and black eyed pea ragout, cilantro and cheese

My cousin A had this dish, and the face she had whilst enjoying this said it all.

"Duck" - honey and lavender roasted with Szechuan peppercorns

For the mains the four of us went with the Duck. From time to time they change what the duck is paired with according to season, but the duck itself remains the same and remains Chef Humm's signature dish. How could we choose anything else? This dish is known to take a lot of prep... if you care to read more about it, I'd suggest a quick look through this article. FYI two diners at least must opt for the duck as their main course to try this dish!

If however, you only wish to see how it's presented, then the above is what they show you (if we were there during day light I have no doubt my mouth would've watered) before carving the duck.

The duck breast, perfect pink and gorgeously presented

I loved the spices and sweetness on the duck skin, and that breast was perfectly cooked, juicy and left you wanting more....

Duck confit in potatoes mousseline

The leg part of the duck is then confit and served in an airy, buttery and creamy-rich potato mousseline that had little to no resemblance to mash potatoes... potatoes done and served THIS way? Yes please.

After our third course a little cart was wheeled out after our plates were cleared. We were told "egg cream" was the next course to prepare us for dessert. A bit of whole milk, a bit of cocoa nibs, soda, orange oil and syrup......

Voila! Sweet orange and cocoa fizzy egg cream

"Cheesecake"

This was good enough to be a dessert in itself - but this was our pre dessert! Goats cheesecake, meringue, with cara cara orange sherbet..... I tell you this deconstructed cheesecake was delicious!

"Chocolate"

My final course was this wonderful mess of a dessert - dark chocolate, cookies, lavender crumble. The larger chocolate piece actually encased fragrant lavender ice cream.... yumm

"Malt"

One of the other desserts - malted sorbet, peanut butter, pretzel shards and dijon. Thanks to A I had a spoon of everything together - it tasted like a Butterfinger bar.