Jun 8, 2011

Another lunch done right

Lunching at Jean Georges is a great way to experience a three-star restaurant without burning a hole in your wallet. In fact, a number of high-end restaurants in New York offer shockingly (relatively) inexpensive lunch menus. While the standard dinner menu is $98 and the tasting menus even more, lunch is offered at a much gentler price point of $32 for two courses. I had fun shooting the lunch with the 24-70mm, the first time I've ever really used anything but the 50mm for a meal I think. Dinners are generally too dark to use my "slow" zoom.

Below is Jimmy's little blurb:

Jean Georges is the home restaurant of Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Chef Vongerichten himself now owns a menagerie of restaurants across a mind-boggling number of genres, but the food at Jean Georges is what he is personally best known for cooking - Alsatian food with a heavy Southeast Asian accent. The four of us who were at lunch had among us 8 different savories, three desserts, and three cheeses.

As expected, the meal had a number of highlights. The first was a velvety cucumber soup with brilliantly contrasting beet foam as part of the amuse; full of flavor and perfectly executed. My sweetbreads were excellent as well - perfectly fried without a hint of grease, accompanied by watercress and a tangy sauce that offered a very interesting flavor complement.

My cheeses were a bit mediocre in comparison, but the desserts sounded like they were anything but. (Silly Jimmy for getting cheese when the rest of us sprung for sweets.)

The meal was very good; the price, relative to the quality, even better. (Yup, except I did NOT appreciate getting called "Mrs." Gao when I got my portion of the check. This rivals the time someone at a party thought I was 30. I mean, what?! I thought "Ms." was standard these days.)
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Super early flight tomorrow and I haven't packed as much as a toothbrush yet. I'm definitely looking forward to escaping the oven that is NYC these few days.

8 comments :

  1. Classy indeed. Another advantage of having such lunch is of course the light =) Beautiful

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  2. oh wow, those desserts look so yum and photogenic.

    have a safe flight! hope you bring your large format camera. :)

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  3. gorgeous photo as usual, especially the sweets. can't wait to see you photos from your trip!

    I thought Ms was standard, too *shrugs*. Often at work I get called 'the lady' when someone is referring to me to a child, lol.

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  4. this looks like the perfect lunch! PS. Just found your blog and I love it!

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  5. Such beautiful photography, straight out of a magazine Alice! So clean and crisp, I love it!
    Goodness those desserts are making me very hungry this morning! ;)

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  6. dat le petit four looks so damn delicious!

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