One of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had!
So as promised, here is a recap of my wonderful birthday dinner last night! We went to Pure Food and Wine (a raw food restaurant here in NYC). There were four of us and we all ordered the tasting menu (it has to be ordered by the whole table). The cool thing about the tasting menu at Pure is the fact that everyone gets a different dish for each course! So instead of trying 5 courses, you actually get to try a lot more!
I was only able to take photos of some of the dishes, but I will try my best to remember everything we tried.
To start everyone got an amuse of kumquat, mushroom and onion with a BBQ sauce. It was good, the sauce was amazing, I had to refrain from licking my plate!
Then came the first course. We all decided to taste everything and pass it around. The picture above was what I had in front of me and it was so delicious! I can’t remember exactly what it was since it doesn’t seem to be on their usual menu.
This was the Salad Of Winter Greens With Medjiool Dates, Pignoli And Saffron Meyer Lemon with curry vinaigrette, shaved onion, argan oil, chestnut honey (from the menu).This salad was a little too sweet for me, it might have been the combination of the dates and the honey. It wasn’t my favorite.
The other two first courses we had were the Hazelnut Crostinis With Crimini Mushrooms And Caper Bearnaise with caraway sauerkraut, in a local apple cider reduction (from the menu). This was good, but I didn’t like it as much as I liked the first thing I had.
Lastly there was a pressed salad with avocado. I forget what else was in it, but I do remember that it has asian flavors and there was a delicious sauce on the plate.
Our second course was a soup course, so everyone got the same thing. It was a butternut squash soup. There were some very delicious flavors in it, but I can’t really remember the exact description.
For our third course I found myself in front of a lovely taco with spicy sun-dried tomato filling, corn cilantro guacamole, tomato-lime salsa, and cashew sour cream. I’ve had this before at One Lucky Duck and it was delicious as always.
There were some maki rolls which were very good.
We had the Pizzette in The Style Of Southern Italy With Almond And Rosemary Crust with spinach pesto and arugula (from the menu). This was not my favorite, it didn’t have as much flavor as everything else we ate, and it was difficult to eat because the crust fell apart.
Lastly we had the Pad Thai With Kelp Noodles And Baby Bok Choy with snow peas, king oyster mushrooms, tamarind sauce, sesame salted cashews, and cilantro oil (from the menu). This was really good! This felt more like regular vegan food to me than raw food. Needless to say, it was with me last and I finished it all!
This was my fourth course. It’s a balsamic marinated portbello. There were carrots and other veggies underneath. It was tasty.
This is the Spanakopita with Spinach, Almond Feta, Cucumber Yogurt, local cauliflower and grapes (from the menu). This wins, hands down! I absolutely loved this! Creamy spinach, light flakey crust…so yummy!
We also had the Sweet Corn And Cashew Tamales With Chili Spiced Portabella with salsa verde, cashew coconut sour cream, avocado, and raw cacao mole (from the menu). This was really good. Everyone enjoyed it because it was really hearty.
The final 4th course was the Porcini Ravioli With Truffle Cream Sauce, Baby White Asparagus with pickled ramp, parsley salad, porcini oil (from the menu). This was just ok for me. It was a very strong mushroom flavor.
Before dessert we had a simple palate cleanser of coconut ice cream with cilantro syrup. You couldn’t really taste the cilantro, all you tasted was coconut, but it was refreshing.
Then came the desserts! In front of me was a mexican chocolate cake with a pear sorbet and pear crisp. It was tasty. (I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth, so all these desserts was a little overwhelming for me.)
I’m not 100% sure, but I think this was the Mexican Cinnamon Mousse guajillo chili pepper chocolate cake, pear relish and sorbet (from the menu). The boys really liked this one, it was too sweet for me.
We also tried the Trio Of Dark Chocolate Coated Indian Spiced Ice Cream Treats - chocolate cardamom coconut ice cream cone, pistachio gelato ice cream sandwich, and chai tea creamsicle (from the menu). These were good, the chocolate was REALLY dark. It made it difficult to taste the fillings because all you tasted was chocolate.
The last dessert was a passion fruit mousse, with a chocolate sorbet and tropical fruit. I like this one because the fruit really balanced out all the chocolate.
My favorites from the meal have to be the Spanakopita, the Pad Thai With Kelp Noodles, and whatever it was I ate for my first course! Everything was delicious and now I feel like I have a much better handle on the menu at Pure Food and Wine, and I will be able to recommend dishes to all of you when you are in NYC!
Overall the meal was an amazing experience and a wonderful treat! (I would do it again anytime anyone wants to!)
A big thank you to my 3 amazing (meat eating) friends who came with me to enjoy this meal, you guys really made it one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.
