Our journey began in New York. We were only there for a little more than 24 hours and most of that was spent in either restaurants or sleeping. We stayed at the Muse Hotel, 130 W 46th Street, in Times Square. (www.themusehotel.com ?) This was my first trip to New York in over 30 years. I found Time Square to be like a scarry Las Vegas strip on neon steroids. One stroll around the block and I was ready for the peace and quiet of our room. One gets sticker shock with New York hotel prices and the sticker shock pain was somewhat lessened by an upgrade to a suite. Without the upgrade, and almost 30% in taxes, it would have been a big ouch! Dinner that night was at A Voce, 41 Madison Ave. I was too tired for pictures having gotten up for our 5:45 AM pick-up to the airport. Even without pictures I can remember not only what the food looked like but how it tasted. (And, I'm writing this a week later.) I first read about the restraunt in the New York Times in May. The chef, Andrew Carmelline, was the main guy at Cafe Boulud. I was very happy that we were able to get a reservation on a Saturday night, even if we did sit next to the kitchen. We had a perfect vantage point to see all the food that went out. We started with sheep's milk ricotta, whipped till creamy, with a glaze of olive oil, salt and spices. It was served with grilled Ciabata bread slathered with olive oil, garlic and salt. There was nearly a cup of the dreamy cheese. That equals about 100 Weight Watcher's points, and the daily allotment fr Weight Watcher's points is 20. So, after eating almost 3 days of Weight Watcher's points I never looked back! We ate every morsel and moved on to duck meatballs, ground duck, pork and foie gras served on a bed of dried cherry sauce. Did I mention that these were the appetizers? The meat was ground so finely that they melted in your mouth, no need to even chew. Thank God they were the size of a big walnut and we only had 2 each. We had a lot more food coming. Next to hit the table was the gnocchi in an oxtail ragu. The dish is hard to describe because it was so simple but yet so intense. The gnocchi were double the size of a green pea and tasted more like a potato souffle. It is hard to imagine that any flour was used. The oxtail ragu was just a perfect blend of tomatoes, herbs and succulent meat. We shared this dish so we were able to move on to more substantial food. I had the best duck breast on a bed of spinach with a side of vidalia onions and sausage, and roasted figs. I could have cut the duck with a fork. The skin was crisp, the meat cooked to dark pink perfection. Arnie had the Tonno Bianco, not a white tuna but a fleshy white fish, on a bed of baby veggies with a pesto sauce. They were out of our first choice of wine and we didn't write down the substitute because they kept it off the table. How rude. Our only complaint was that, for the 25 minute wait between the gnocchi and the entre, we had no wine. It also meant that we had wine to drink with our entrees that we would probably have finished before the entrees arrived. For dessert... are you kidding? Even we have limits.
We left the restaurant to meet cousin Roger and his wife Saundra for a drink.
It was good to see Roger for the first time in almost 10 years.
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