Since last posting Prandium this week, I’ve enjoyed quite a few restaurant cena. The other night, one of the Restaurant girls introduced me to black truffle-infused honey at Otto. On bread with fresh ricotta, I have fallen for my new obsession. Though, it took four wine tastes before settling on a fifth variety. Typical, it was a $22 quartino that I preferred. I went by taste alone and wasn’t looking at prices. Ouch. Restaurant girl confirmed, the first four were dull. And the Vespa Bastianich 02005 was indeed worth taking a crack at the austerity budget for a midweek splurge.

Then as mentioned in yesterday’s post, there was brunch at Clinton St. Baking Company. Twice I bit and imbibed with friends at Dell’anima where a minor cock-off is brewing. Two of my colleagues are developing cocktail book proposals for their final projects. S, my favourite wine guy, had the bartender mix me one of the concoctions he’s working on. Delicious. Of course. He currently places as my new favourite genius friend. Dinner at La Lunceonette for Monsieur’s birthday was not so fortunate. It was beyond disappointing. We made up for this, yet another failed French bistro experiment with lunch at our favourite, Balthazar. Variation on a black truffle theme. The papillote de sole, newly on the spring menu, was served with flecks of it.

Before I forget, a friend in from Colorado and I enjoyed vegan fare at Angelika Kitchen. I wound up in a scarily deep slumber on the subway ride home after. And then an unexpected and special treat. During Food History presentations last Tuesday, one presenter who is working on a paper about medieval feasts brought in lunch for everyone—henne dore golden cardamon chicken and fruytes ryal rice artichokes with blueberry rice.*

Not a bad restaurant week for Daily Prandium. My personal foodways have indeed taken a turn and my re-education into Gotham restaurant fare is well under way.

As for prandium at home, here is the list..

Café au lait (Porto rico fair trade beans & Fairway milk)
180th street café con leche
Oat bran
Liberté yoghurt
Huevos (NY)
Corn tortillas
Canadian six year aged cheddar
Roast corn and red bean hot salsa
Loaf of Fairway bread
Romaine lettuce (Salad bowl, CA)
Endive (CA)
Aguacate (Viva Mexico)
Baby carrots
Asperges (NY)
Whole wheat pasta
Ricotta
Pastina
Pancakes
Gasp, sliced fresh strawberries (CA)
Dried apricots (CA)
Achem, yoghurt and green onion Kettle chips
Berkshire bark tropical heat bar
Maple syrup (NY, VT, Canada)
Olio (Italy)
Balsamic vinegar (Italy)
Dijon moutard (France)
Melinda’s XXXtra hot sauce
Garlic
Sel
Cracked piper
Crushed red pepper
Seltzer (NJ)
Fairway fresh squeeed orange juice
Martinelli’s apple juice

Bon appétit..

*Recipes were taken from Over 100 Recipes From Medieval Manuscripts. Spelling was reproduced here as printed there.

Just in. I phoned Otto. They’ve printed this week’s menu, and the Vespa bastianich is now priced at a one dollar savings whence I imbibed—$21.