Since my blog has lacked in the content department recently I thought it'd be good to start a new series where I can talk about one of my many passions, food.

I'll start the recap's with one of the more hot-to-trot restaurants in NYC, in fact even the world. wd~50 was ranked 45th in the world.

As mentioned a couple of month's ago I took Lindsay here for her birthday, as it was kind of a treat for me as well.

Wylie Dufrense's restaurant takes everything you've ever known about food and turned it completely upside down. He has been a leader in the molecular gastronemy movement and has been garnered a lot of praise amongst his peers and reviewers alike.

The Prix Fixe menu is certainly pricey and me being the poor SOB that I am, I chose not to partake in the tasting menu. $140 for the nine course tasting menu, and another $75 for the wine pairing....Hmmm no thanks.

So to my memory these are the menu items that we had.

Corned duck, rye crisp, purple mustard, horseradish cream
(An interesting dish, while it didn't thrill me, the tastes were right up my alley. I don't know if I'd spend that much on an appetizer usually but for this one time tasting it was worth it.)






Aerated foie, pickled beet, mashad plum, brioche
(My first time having foie. Without knowing anything about the taste of Foie Gras, I thought it was very rich and delicious. The aeration of the Foie Gras allowed the flavor to explode in your mouth which was a great experience.)





Entrees:
Lindsay: Arctic char, snow pea, fried yucca, cherry-black bean
 (I tasted Lindsay's dish and all of the flavors came together quite nicely. The tartness of the sauce along with the added texture of the Yucca was a nice compliment.)





Myself: Iberico pork neck, endive, buckwheat, clove 

 (My First time eating Pork Neck and probably the last. While I love all things pork, this cut was just very tough and tasted similar to a country ham. The texture of the buckwheat and clove was interesting but the taste of the clove was too strong for my liking. 

It's unfortunate this meal left a bad taste in my mouth. My intial choice was sold out for the night, (Venison chop w/ freeze dried polenta, fennel, asian pear) so I was left with an interesting choice.  

Overall:
It was an interesting meal and I enjoyed the way the flavors were presented in an unorthadox fashion. I don't think I'd go back though. There are plenty of other restaurants in this city that'd I'd like to try, than spend this kind of money for a meal I wasn't in love with. 

If I were to go one more time and have an unlimited budget I'd probably go with the tasting menu paired with the wines for a cool $215. 

I've been pretty bad as of late keeping the blog updated. For all of those keeping tabs on me I'll give you an update since the last time I updated.

• Continue to not drink Soda's (This was my first resolution I was actually able to keep in 25 years, probably 15 or so years of actual resolutions)
• Use my passport to visit a country I have not been to yet.
• Remove fried foods from my diet.
• Read more books (May be tough since I think I read 6+ books this past year)
• Be cognizant of my posture, walking taller is a good thing.
• Write more posts (Both at Yankeeist and here)
• Cook more frequently
• Spend less time playing Xbox360 update: I've been an epic fail at this, playing a ton of Modern Warfare 2.
• Learn something completely new
• Take a surfing lesson
• Take a couple of golf lessons to fine tune my swing
• Keep the weight below 205 lbs
• Join a rec softball team

I got a new computer. A beautiful 17" Macbook Pro that is a major upgrade from my 4 year old Dell Inspirion.

Attended a beautiful wedding down in Miami, stayed at the Eden Roc.

Went to Vermont for Lindsay's birthday with a great crew and I was able to keep off the slopes for yet another year.

Went out to dinner at WD-50 for Lindsay's birthday.

Will be attending my first bachelor party in Las Vegas in June. I was able to leverage my knowledge of Social Media to get Jetblue to submit to my demands.

Fantasy baseball season is just around the corner and I'm hoping to defend my title in all three leagues.

One of the most anticipated announcements in 2010 comes from Apple, who have announced the iPad today.

My initial reaction seems to think that this is a really cool and innovative product. (Basically a pimped out iPhone). Although I am not a big Apple user I would have no problem using any of their products. I currently only use the iPod but used a mac during my tenure at Takkle. I love the UI for Apple products yet can't seem to get over the hurdle of their price points. I plan to migrate to the iPhone whenever it goes to the Verizon network, and I'm currently in the market for a new computer but not sure if I want to migrate to Mac.

Check out what some of the top tech blogs had to say about the iPad, as I am basing a lot of my opinion off of what they have to say, especially since most of them get to see it in action first hand. (Gizmodo, Engadget, Mashable, Techcrunch)

In essence this is a beefed up netbook/iPhone. I don't see people walking all over the place with their iPad's but it certainly is a great way to stay connected and get stuff done when not working on your regular computer. It does however spell the end for all of the new book readers, in my opinion. Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Sony and whoever else is deciding to make these new readers have a bumpy road ahead of them. Overall, the reading experience looks much more like you're actually reading a book and all of the apps available at your finger tips along with an unlimited data plan via AT&T make it quite the hot item.