Last week was quite the food week for The Wine Chef, ranging from simple, fresh oysters and clams to an elaborate, four hour long tasting menu at one of the world's most influential restaurants. Take a look below at my favorite dishes of the past week in and around the New York metropolitan area and hopefully you will be inspired to get out and try some of them yourself!

ONE:

The black truffle cavatelli with sweet corn and a poached egg at The Bar at The Modern, 9 West 53rd Street, NYC. Creamy and cheesy with perfectly cooked al dente pasta and lots of truffle flavor.

TWO:

Littleneck and Cherrystone clams at Peter's Clam Bar, Island Park, NY. The clams here are always so fresh and full of flavor; nice and cold on a hot day after the beach!

THREE:

Cull & Pistol's oysters, Chelsea Market, NYC. I especially enjoyed the Ship Shoals from Hog Island Bay, VA. Check out the full blog post here.

FOUR:

Pistols on Horseback. Also found at Cull & Pistol's in Chelsea Market. These fried oysters wrapped in Jamon Serrano are to die for!!!

FIVE, SIX, SEVEN AND EIGHT (all from Eleven Madison Park, 11 Madison Avenue, NYC):

The whole meal here was simply amazing, but that's a future blog post! This was a four hour long tasting menu experience and the following four items made me swoon with pleasure!

The homemade bread. It's served with cultured butter that has dried Vermont cheddar cheese on top. Good thing my husband doesn't eat cheese because I was not sharing this one!
Cantaloupe with smoked watermelon. The watermelon tasted like smoky prosciutto! Such a creative, mouth-watering bite!
Corn Custard. This side dish had a creamy texture with the essence of garlic and lime.
Brook Trout with lemon and seaweed. The delicate fish is steamed and brought to the table in the steaming pan. Brushed with a delicious barbecue sauce and served with squash and heirloom tomatoes, the trout tasted lightly smoked and buttery... perfectly cooked!

NINE:

Grilled maitake mushrooms at ABC Cocina, 38 East 19th Street, NYC. They are served with goat cheese and a fresno pepper vinaigrette. They had a hint of smoke from the grill and were so very tasty!!

TEN:

Grilled Arctic Char in my very own kitchen! After gorging myself on oysters at Cull & Pistol, I headed over to Spices and Tease in Chelsea Market and bought two spices, the Special Seafood (predominantly lemongrass and cardamom) and the Lemon Pepper. I mixed a tablespoon of each blend with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt then rubbed it all over both sides of the Arctic Char filet. After a few minutes of grilling on each side, the fish was ready ... simple, easy and very flavorful.

Sorry I didn't take a photo of the arctic char. It smelled and tasted so delicious that it was gobbled up before I had the chance! I hope you get the chance to try some of these dishes very soon.

Bon appétit!!