Hellooo Summer from Lafayette!

Happy summer folks! 

For Slow Foodies the arrival of summer can only mean one thing...amazing produce! This July 4th was also my mom's birthday and my job was to find the perfect restaurant. 

I stumbled across Lafayette during my ny.eater.com search and was immediately drawn to its menu. 

Featuring delicious french fare using fresh local produce and a special of rabbit, I knew it'd be a winner. We met up with some of my mom's college friends and awaited our table. 

In addition to the restaurant, Lafayette also features a bakery with delicious all-time favorites like croissants, éclairs, and baguettes, and exotic confectionary creations like 'Lune D'Automne' (The Autumn Moon), a blackberry mousse with apple compote, and hazelnut financier. Well worth checking out if you don't have time for a sit-down meal. 

The hostess led our party of 8 to a cozy booth, where we were given fresh sourdough bread.  

 For appetizers we ordered: 

Wood Oven-Roasted Carrots, with blood orange, cloumage, and flax.   The carrots were tender and sweet, nestled on top of the cloumage, which is essentially fresh cow milk cheese curd that has the texture of ricotta and deliciously light. 

Grilled Asparagus, with Bayonne ham, and citrus mimosa

And the epic Noho Plateau, featuring 12 Oysters, 4 Prawns, 4 Clams, a seafood salad on top, and a salmon tartare below. 

The oysters were located from three different locations in Massachusetts, resulting in varying flavors, and the prawns were perfectly tender, but everyone's favorite was definitely the seafood salad.

Once we had finished the glorious seafood plateau, we ordered a set of lovely entrees:

Skate Wing a la Plancha, summer squash, buckwheat, smoked tomato

Steamed Black Bass, shellfish, bouillabaisse jus

Dry-Aged Strip Steak Frites, béarnaise butter 

The rabbit special: Roasted Rabbit Farcis

local zucchini Provençal, basil, olives 

Black Fettuccine, cuttlefish, ruby shrimp, clams & chorizo 

And Wood-Grilled Local Trout, market beans, rhubarb, fennel velouté

My all time favorite was definitely the wood-grilled trout. Somehow the chef was able to add such an intense smoky flavor that it almost tasted as if I was eating meat! The rhubarb added fresh notes of summer and the velouté kept the fish deliciously tender. 

But what's a birthday party without cake?!

For birthdays Lafayette whips out this nifty little cake contraption that, unfortunately, is inedible but adds a good deal of spark and just the right bit of embarrassment to the birthday gal or dude! For us, it was our version of fireworks for July 4th.

For the actual dessert:

 We went with caramel popcorn bombe with salted caramel ice cream, and decadent warm chocolate sauce...

And a chestnut mille crepe cake, with burnt honey chantilly, and a roasted apricot. 

Usually I'm really not a big fan of sticky too sweet caramel but the caramel popcorn bombe was not at all sickeningly sweet, and the popcorn added a really yummy crunch, without getting soggy under the chocolate sauce. The mille crepe was super chestnut-y, which I loved, and the honey added just a hint of sweetness. 

Plates were devoured, conversation flowed, and wine glasses were emptied.

If you are in the Noho/Soho area of NYC be sure to check this lovely place out! Make reservations too, they get booked up pretty quickly. 

http://lafayetteny.com/

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Another recipe post about chocolate! This here is Chef Sophia Garcia's recipe for delicious steaming mexican hot chocolate. 

Secret ingredient? Corn flour is added to make the drink extra creamy mmm 

So go grab a big pot and pour in your milk and heat it so it starts steaming, no need to boil. 

Open up your Abuelita Chocolates and chop them up.

 Throw them into the hot milk and stir.

Take a whif and bask in the glorious chocolate mixture. Whisk in the corn flour until it reaches a creamy consistency. 

Crack open some sweet treats too, while you're at it! Here are some flaky almond croissants, apple turnovers, and pie. 

Keep the munchkins away!

This recipe will surely produce smiling faces...but too much sugar can make some interesting situations.

Thanksgiving Part 2

Everyone knows about post-Thanksgiving leftovers and only a few will stretch out the holiday season to do another gathering. For the Suns, we invited over some very old family friends. The best part was that these people were old friends with my grandparents and hadn't seen each other since the late 70s. 
This time, the lunch was more focused on delicious seafood. 

How was your post Thanksgiving? Did you spend it lazing like Fluffy here? 

Thanksgiving Part 1

Thanksgiving, that lovely time in the middle of November where weary college students return home for some good old fashioned home cooking! Also a time of thanks, I suppose...
At the Sun residence, we also dragged two Garcias back to celebrate! 
Fluffy, the master of the house, decided to pamper them with massages. 

The morning of Thanksgiving was blistery and cold but I decided that these Californians didn't know cold until they saw the majestic Hudson.

Lucy seemed more interested in the ice though...
After our walk, we got back home and got ready to entertain the guests. Food was made, tables were set up, and drinks were poured! Like any huge gathering there was the kids table,

The college/ graduate school/ high school kid table, 

The adult's table

and last but not least, the senior table plus a few grad students with old souls. 

To feed all these people, we asked everyone to bring a dish of their own, all in the spirit of giving and thanks!

What turned out was an epic potluck!

There were vegetables, fish, duck, chicken, tea eggs

jellyfish, but no turkey! At our chinese thanksgiving, we prefer good duck.

Everyone chatted, ate until we groaned, and laughed late into the night. It was definitely a very successful thanksgiving.