Thanksgiving Showdown

Class have been drawing to a close and things have been getting busy, so It's been a while since I've posted something. I'll try and catch up with some things I noted over the past few weeks as soon as I can. To start things off, here's quick look at what was on my Thanksgiving menu this year.


To start the day, I popped open my cans of foie gras and duck rillette. I had bought these on a goose/duck farm when I was in France this summer and had been saving them for a special occasion. I also tried to keep it simple since I had a whole dinner to worry about as well. I served them with melba toast and topped the rillette with some cornichons. Everything was great - rich, fatty, and very ducky...



I've heard so much about Turducken (a chicken, inside a duck, inside a turkey) that I needed to try it just once. Combining all those meats into one could only lead to ultimate poultry bliss. Being in New York though, Turduckens weren't available at your local grocery store. Luckily, I had found CajunGrocer.com, which sells and ships frozen Turduckens directly to your door. The website was featured on Food Network and the Wall Street Journal. Turduckens they have come in two sizes of pure awesomeness - 15 lbs and 4 lbs (this one is just a turkey breast with duck and chicken meat stuffed inside). Of course, we got the 15 lbs bird(s).


After 7 hours of cooking, the bird was ready and we were ready to eat. The skin had an amazing brown color to it and was extremely savory. The meat was very tasty, but I'm not sure if I really would classify it as a giant improvement over normal roast turkey. At least I can say I've had it and next year I can just go back to normal turkey to make things easier. Other menu items included a sausage dressing (seen above), truffle mashed potatoes and green beans with country ham. Overall, a very satisfying meal with a mountain of leftovers (just as it should be).



For dessert, the easy way out would have been to just buy a pumpkin pie. This year I tried to challenge myself to make everything (from scratch too). Also, I thought why have pumpkin pie when you can have pumpkin cheesecake. The recipe I used was a variation of a Paula Deen recipe (found here) in that I substituted the graham cracker crust for a crust made with ginger cookies (see my earlier post on ginger cookies for the recipe). This by far I think was the star of the night. The filling came out creamy and light; the crust was sweet and crispy. It was a great dessert full of fall flavors (if I do say so myself) and a perfect way to end a great meal.

Neo-Japanese Cuisine at Ono

Last night, I had dinner with my uncle and cousin at Ono, a neo-Japanase restaurant located in the Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District. My uncle is visiting New York this weekend and he was in the mood for some good Japanese and was fine spending a pretty penny to get some (needless to say, I couldn't get a table at Morimoto on such late notice). Although definitely not for the budget conscious, Ono delivered a memorable meal which I would be more than happy to have again.

The concept of the restaurant is "family-style" eating with dishes placed in the center of the table for diners to share. I personally enjoy eating this way more as you get to try a lot more dishes, and as we were taught when we were little - everyone has more fun when you share. Highlights of the meal included Spicy Crab Pizza with avocado, radish sprouts and red miso, Duck and Lychee Robata (basically pieces of duck breast and lychee skewered and grilled - the combination of the saltiness from the duck and intense sweetness from the lychee was surprisingly satisfying), and Garlic Rubbed Whole Sea bass with black beans and peppercress. However, the definite star of the meal was the Togarashi-crusted Rib Eye, a 28 oz dry aged piece of Wagyu (Kobe) beef served with a red wine teryaki sauce (seen above - yes, you can start drooling if you already haven't). 

More pictures below...