Birthday Dinner at Craft

On Wednesday, while we were in New York, Brad, Andrew, Jordan, and I went to Craft to celebrate my birthday.  Craft is Tom Colicchio's restaurant.  I was so excited to go, and the food was AMAZING!!

Brad and me:

Jordan and Andrew:

The entrance to Craft (thank goodness Andrew knew where this place was):

We all got the tasting menu.  It was seven courses, and like I said before, amazing.

The first course was Hamachi with satsuma, hon-shimeji, and coriander.  It was a light start to what would be a very heavy meal.

The second course was Andrew and Brad's favorite.  It was a Jerusalem artichoke soup with a six-minute egg and black truffles.  The egg is soft boiled for five minutes, then breaded and deep-fried for another minute.  Seriously genius. (I forgot to take a picture of this course until I was almost finished; oops.)

The third course was my favorite.  It was Columbia river sturgeon wrapped in pancetta and roasted with roasted cauliflower, almonds, and capers.  So creamy and delicious.

The fourth course was a guinea hen with foie gras, black truffle, and cranberry jam.  Other than the really good foie gras, we all agreed that this course was probably the weak link of the meal.

The fifth course was a veal breast with chantarelles, parsnip, and whole grain mustard (which they left off for me).  I have never been the biggest veal fan, but this might have made me a convert.  It was so rich and so good.  This was Jordan's favorite.

The sixth course was a grapefruit-cardamom granita with citrus and honeycomb.  Boy did we need this course after all that heavy, rich food.

Dessert was a chocolate stout cake with malt and roasted banana.  There was also some sort of ice cream, but I was too busy eating to hear what kind, cinnamon maybe.  The malt on top was awesome, especially with the banana.  

They also brought us little petit fours.  They were ok; the top one was a little strange.  It was all texture, no real flavor.

And then, because we didn't have enough desserts, they brought me a birthday treat.  The waiter had overheard our conversation about it being my big day.  It was a caramel mousse with some sort of chocolate toffee cake, wrapped in a chocolate ganache.  Oh my Lord, it was amazing.  I made everyone share.

Needless to say, it was my best birthday dinner ever.  The food was great, the company was great, it was a really fun night.