We jumped wallet first into East Ave.'s latest addition "Pearl" (349 East Avenue, 325-5660), the new restaurant owned by the same people who run the too-hip restaurant/club across the street, "Tonic".  I had been very reluctant to try this place, because, well it just looks too good.  The architecture and decorating is imaginative, moody, and jaw droopingly cool.  I knew you'd be paying for it.  And I feared an attitude that if the space impresses enough, the food doesn't have to.  But then I saw a very good review by Adam Wilcox at City Magazine.  He's yet to steer me wrong with anything, so I called up and made a reservation. 

The first major plus for "Pearl" last night (after the great space) was the valet parking.  I'm rarely one to scoff at doing some walking.  In the non-winter months, I routinely walk the 1 1/2 miles from my house to this area of the city.  But when there are four inches of slush on the ground and it's a Friday night with East Ave.'s crappy parking situation, getting out right at the door was a welcome luxury. 

Now, for the actual dining.  I had Tuna Tartar ($10) and Asian Spiced Rack of Lamb with kale, cranberries, and butternut squash ravioli ($28).  Laura had a Thai flavored seafood stew ($10) and Lobster with Fois Gras and truffle butter ($32).  The tuna tartar was presented beautifully, ring molded diced avocado topped with diced sushi grade tuna topped with wasabi caviar (whatever that is) on top of seaweed with a soy based sauce swirled on the plate.  Sound familiar?  It's sushi in a different shape.  It was good, the tuna was high quality, but there were no exciting flavors. 

The soup had very nice flavor, creamy, spicy, lemony.  It had lots of great, slightly crisp, vegetables.  But the lobster in it was quite overcooked and tough.

The lamb dish, overall, was quite good.  The meat was cooked to a perfect medium rare, and it's crust was good, even though the billed asian spices were hard to pick up.  The kale was cooked perfectly as well with a wonderful texture.  The ravioli was a bit limp, but tasted great.

The big downer that overshadowed the night was the lobster dish.  This was what the waiter recommended when Laura asked for a recommendation (it was also the most expensive dish on the menu).  The waiter also said this was an especially good "deal" tonight because it was usually served with a tail and claw, but they didn't have any claws so it would be served with two tails.  This should have set off major supplier problem warning bells, but we tend to trust wait staff, so it didn't.  Laura thought the lobster was quite overcooked, and although I'm not sure I agree that it was overcooked, we both agreed that it was definitely past its prime.  Not what you'd hope for in a $32 entree.  The fois gras was also an unrecognizable disappointment.

The dessert of warm centered chocolate cake with coconut sorbet was artfully presented and quite lovely. 

The service here was appropriately attentive and friendly, but not knowledgeable.  At a restaurant this expensive, we expect them to at least be able to fake it.  Our waiter knew what Port they had available, but could tell us nothing but the names.  I ordered the Graham's Six Grape Port which turned out to be pretty good, but I had no idea what I was getting.  Pretty much the same went for the wines. 

Overall, nothing except the lobster was bad.  But nothing was exciting, and when dinner for two runs you $150 you expect exciting, memorable dishes.  I'm sure there may be some on the menu. but we didn't find them on this trip. 

A bag of shrimp in the freezer left over from new year's eve was the motivation for this dish.  As with a lot of things lately, the first place I looked when I was having trouble coming up with ideas for the shrimp was The Best Recipe.  The Cook's Illustrated folks had no shortage of advice on cooking shrimp.  The most interesting of which was to brine the shrimp first for any dry heat cooking method.  That is, soak the shrimp in very salty water for 20-25 minutes.  The idea is that this process will allow the shrimp to maintain more moisture when cooking.

My intuition was asking me, "Isn't that shrimp going to end up salty?"  Well, I trusted the test kitchen and followed the instructions.  I brined them, and then seared them in a dry non-stick skillet over high heat for 1-2 minutes per side.  I then tossed them in with some lemon juice, cilantro, and shallots sauted in extra virgin olive oil and red chili paste.  The texture was firm and moist, the flavors were good, and the shrimp were too salty!  I think perhaps I brined them too long, or didn't rinse them well enough, or the shrimp weren't as large as those recommended in the recipe, or...   I don't know.  The texture makes me think the technique is sound, and I've got more shrimp left to experiment with.

The rice was simply cooked with a pinch of saffron and had a tablespoon or two of butter was added while it steamed.  It tasted great, and was an unexpected savior of this meal with the salty shrimp.

I'd just like to send a big shout-out to the rest of the food blog community and wish you all good fortune and great meals in the coming year.  I'd especially like to thank those of you who have been kind enough to link to my fledgling food journal.

• Paul at FOODBlog
• Robert Peyton at Appetites
• Blue at Frog-Gras
• tastingmenu.com
• InMyKitchen

Keep up the good work folks.  I enjoy reading about your experiences.  Cheers!

After the first round of cleaning, I finally poured myself that scotch and opened up The Zuni Cafe Cookbook which I just got in the mail today from Amazon.  The New York Times had a very good review of this on in the Book Review a couple weeks ago, and the reviews on Amazon looked pretty good.  I've only had a few minutes to look through this one, but every recipe looks to be accompanied with a couple paragraphs of theory and lore, which I love. 

While skimming through, and pondering possibly putting a hot pocket in the microwave, I saw a section on frittatas.  The advice Judy Rodgers gave on this dish was a bit surprising, but sounded great.  Two things stood out.  One, she cooks the eggs in good extra virgin olive oil.  Most recipes I had seen on frittata used butter.  Two, she doesn't finish this in the oven or under the broiler.  The pan is heated very hot with the olive oil, the salted beaten egg is added, scraped into the center a couple times, and flipped.  (Ok, my flip did not go well, but most of the egg ended up in the pan.) 

I used this as an opportunity to use some leftovers.  I pulled off a handful of fried chicken and a handful of lamb from the weekend's cooking.  I heated this up in the olive oil with half a shallot, added the egg, used the above technique, slid the frittata onto a heated plate with a slice of toast and topped with some feta and pepper.  I wasn't expecting a lot, what I got made me feel like Zeus after killing dozens of peasant chefs and finally getting the food fit for my palette.  It took about 7 minutes.  Cool.

My family came up to celebrate Christmas today at our house, since our attempt to go there on the 25th was snowed out.  Here's the menu:

• Rosemary Garlic Leg of Lamb
• Maple Glazed Asparagus and Carrots
• Butter Encrusted Potatoes
• Spring Greens Salad Rosemary Vinaigrette and Feta
• Bananas Foster

I'm too exhausted for a big write-up.  The lamb was awesome, extremely flavorful and moist.  Everything else was good and fully consumed!  Unfortunately none of the photos of flaming bananas showed the flame :(  But it was fun and impressive.  Bananas Foster is one recipe everyone should have in their repertoire since it's fast and easy, tastes great, makes tall flames, and there's a good chance you already have all the ingredients at hand.  I've actually never used the banana liquor that most recipes call for, and it still tastes great.  I've actually had this at Brennan's and if the banana liquor adds anything, it must be very subtle.