Fancy Schmancy

It was a quiet week here at work, with many of our regular number on vacation, or just mentally checked out. Two of my lady colleagues (ie friends, but I'm trying to sound classy, OK?), decided we deserved a very special lunch to celebrate the end of summer and our beautiful friendship. (I kind of made that part up but its sounds so nice, right? I'm SUCH a good friend, you guys.)

We don't mess around, now. We went to Jean Georges, in Columbus Circle (conveniently located across the street from our office). If you're not into food porn you can skip this post, but for those of you who like drooling, I present: our meal.

First, an amuse bouche trio, cocompliments of the chef: at the top is a cube of chilled watermelon topped with Roquefort mousse; at the bottom is pickled cucumber with dill gelee; and to the left is miso soup with popcorn. I liked the miso best - it smelled amazing! And the popcorn added a nice texture.

Stefanie had the gazpacho with goat cheese, pistachios, and berries to start.

Julie M went with the sweet pea soup with Parmesan...such a vibrant green! I was kind of jealous. I have a thing for green, you know.

Bet you can't guess what I had! Answer: tuna ribbons with avocado, spicy radish, and ginger marinade. I've kind of decided to start eating fish, a little. (I've been a vegetarian, no fish, for about 4 years now.) I thought I might as well splurge here, as they would probably know how to make it. And, they did. Don't worry, I'm not going to start throwing back the chicken wings and corn dogs, now. I still have standards. On occasion.

Stefanie then had steamed cod, baby bok choi, black bean vinaigrette and chervil next. I love at upscale places where they bring out the dish and then have a little pitcher of stuff to pour on top, as they did here. So cool!

I went with the corn ravioli with grape tomatoes and a basil fondue. Look how pretty! And tasty, too.

Julie chose a slowly cooked salmon with basil, crushed tomatoes, and olive oil. Here we ran into an issue - it was deliscious, but she couldn't finish it and didn't know if it would be de rigeur to ask for a doggy bag. We ended up leaving it. Alas.

Now for the sweet stuff: we ordered the chocolate selection to share - layered banana with chocolate ganache and a chocolate peanut butter mousse, vanilla bean ice cream, and molten chocolate cake. I will dream of this.

A few petit fours....

Lavender macarons - I've actually never had macarons before! These would be hard to top. Such a delicate flavor, and pretty color!

And finally, house made vanilla marshmallows, cut table side. This was pretty cool - the server came over with a huge glass jar on a cart and pulled out a strip of marshmallows. He then sliced them into bite sized pieces with scissors. So fun!

Thank you to Julie for the pictures and detailed descriptions, and for organizing such a lovely excursion! And thanks to Stef and Julie both for being such great dining company. Can we do this again?