Ancho-Rubbed Rabbit Near Maya Angelou
Ken Is Blocking My View Of Maya Angelou
Originally uploaded by tangentialism.
It's good to have two foodie brothers living in New York, because there's three times as much pressure to eat at a "nice" restaurant when the parents come to town, as they have for Christmas this year. Instead of a pleasant dinner in Chinatown, Ken pushed for Mesa Grill, which I've always avoided, because Bobby Flay is my second-least-favorite person on the Food Network (just above Emeril).
I used to like Flay, but I got to feeling like he was a one-note tune with all the peppers. Plus, he started sporting those weird close-fitting shirts that everybody in TriBeca wears on Saturdays, and I began to wonder if this guy wasn't just NYC's own Jamie Oliver, a decent cook with just way too much coke at his disposal.
So Ken's picked Mesa Grill for tonight's dinner, and I'm thinking "chipotle, ancho, jalapeno, whatever". Okay, so I'm wrong. Flay is right about the peppers. The Cascabel sauce for the Pan Roasted Venison had a totally different timing and spike than the Ancho-and-cumin-rubbed rabbit, which was like a chile time bomb. Contrary to what I had feared, the seasoning didn't in any way obscure the flavor of the meat. Every dish on the table was well worth the expense -- not that I spent any money on the dinner, but that's what Christmas is for.
I'm still not sure about Bobby Flay, The Man, but I'll now give him the benefit of the doubt when I meet him. He's got a good thing going on.
Two other things: Dessert was great, and easily as enjoyable and well-executed as the dinner itself; and Maya Angelou is totally sitting behind Ken's right shoulder in this picture.
Posted by tangentialist at December 24, 2004 01:30 AM | more tangentialism
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