New York City food fandango Tom Smith

I recently returned from a trip to New York City to meet a bunch of my Italian colleagues, hosted by an Italian man very deeply into Italian wine and food.  He took us to two interesting restaurants in the Big Apple, which as a blogger I feel it is my duty to report.   I  have no pretenses to being an expert on food or wine, except that when it comes to eating and drinking, I feel I can almost always hold up my end of the table.  Also, not many of us are experts in these obscure arts, so I think the ignoramus perspective may be useful.

The first spot was WD-50 on the lower east side.  We went there because the chef, Wylie Dufrense, is a friend of a chef who was associated with our host.  We met Mr. Dufrense after dinner, and I was impressed that he looked about 19.  The entire world is run by people younger than I am.  WD-50 had edgy, cutting edge cuisine, meaning my ignorance regarding it is more profound than usual.  The chef friend of Dufrense had raved about his Foie gras, and so our host ordered that for everybody, along with a white wine which the above I’m afraid I could not say, except that is was not dry, maybe a Reisling?  The foie gras was pretty edgy.  When I have had it before, it was, not to put too fine a point on it, fried in butter or oil, and delivered to your table hot, so that eating it found every “that’s fat, eat it!” receptor in your brain, and turned it on.  This foie gras had been pressure cooked, so that it was more like eating a liver, if you follow me.  It was topped with cooked lentils and had a yogurt sauce.  It may not sound good, but it was.  I probably prefer the old French bistro style myself, but it was tasty.  For the main course I had the lamb.  It was yummy.  I did not notice anything cutting edge about it, but it was delicious, tender and rare.  For desert, I had the Coconut mousse.  It was weird, but delicious.