TaurusxFoodie: Riddle Dinner Series
I am people pleaser :-)
Now, I know in this day and age of creating boundaries and maintaining them that I shouldn’t care about what others think. But,but I am genuinely excited to see people enjoy the good food and great restaurants that I may have recommended to them. And this is the extent of my people pleasing guys! (slow clap or no?)
So I have this idea brewing around in my head where I would invite a bunch of people out to a central location and then have them solve a riddle to discover where we would be dining. The restaurant would be a place that I knew was popping but not well known by the group dining with me. The people would connect over food and develop an appreciation for eating not only to nourish the body but to feed the soul, appreciate the flavors and just flow organically! For now, I will try this idea out with my friends and see how it flies. And maybe in the future, it will extend to others I don’t know but these would definitely have to be adventurous people, no boring eaters over here, yes I’m judging you (if you a bore bore with your palate)!
visual of riddle for context
So the other day, I tried this idea out on a few of my friends and they played along quite well! (Thank you Gigi and Sam). I shared with them via text the riddle. The riddle was “When we meet at “Please Don’t Tell” (meeting place)... our final meeting location will be at a place where dinner is prepared during the week.” Many guesses were thrown out there from ABC Kitchen to Supper. There was even discussion that I was taking them to Friday’s! But eventually, they figured it out.
Thursday Kitchen had been on my Yelp bookmarks for a few months. What drew me to the restaurant was the fact that they served items tapas style. After a light research, I discovered that the items on the menu were a reflection of the Owner/Chef’s training in French Cuisine love for Spanish food and Korean background! They do not accept reservations and we had to wait about 2 hours to be served despite arriving there about an hour after they opened. This was very interesting to me because that meant that people were probably waiting to get in before they opened.
Once inside, the lighting was low but the vibe definitely felt festive. One of my friends pointed out that this place gave her Claw Daddy Vibes because they served drinks in the Capri sun - like pouches with lighter ice cubes. Right on the money with that assessment because many of the alcoholic drinks in these pouches were also soju based, just like at Claw Daddy.
Truffle Mac n Cheese
A few moments later, we were seated at our dinner table and given a food and drink menu. I wish I could say that we tried the whole menu but we didn’t and according to my calculations, we tried out about 40 % of the menu.The menu is divided into Veggie, Seafood, Starch and Meat. From the veggie, we tried to the not so plan-tain, - very different a sweet yet savory treat. From the seafood, the table shared truffle mac & cheese and the kimchi paella. The mac&cheese was truffly indeed and could be sniffed walking into the establishment, hence why it was a must try for us. The paella fell low on the list for us. It was too wet for me. I have been told this is how paella is prepared but I have had it a nice mix of wet and fried, which is how I prefer it. I have been on the hunt for some good paella like my whole life and I do recall finding some as I good paella on a small island called Formentera off the coast of Ibiza. Though the kimchi paella ranked low, it did not dictate the rest of the meal which included ·
Popcorn Chicken
lamb meatballs, duck confit empanada, popcorn Chicken, pork frita, lucky noodle
Lastly desert: Bread Pudding.
All of these items were yummy but the top dawgs for me were the duck confit empanada and the pork frita. I have a love hate relationship with Duck. See, my mom prepared duck for Christmas dinner 3 years in a row when I was a teenager and yeah im over duck but this empanada was so flavorable an paired nicely with the dill flavored creme sauce on the plate. The pork frita was moist and juicy. I love pork with fat on it and thought I was not gonna like this dish because there was no fat on it but man oh man, fat wasn’t needed and the sweet cured bacon crumbled over the pork was enough fat to quench my palate.
Duck-Confit Empanada
At the end of the meal, the people pleaser in me was very happy. Everyone at the table, said that they would definitely return and one even said this was now on the top of her lists of NYC restaurants!
