NYC - Pure Food and Wine Pt 3: Dinner #1

~ First Course ~

We had reservations for Pure for both Friday and Saturday evenings as the aim of our excursion was to experience as much raw food as possible ..and Pure seemed like one of the best places to do that. All of the food was amazing but my favorite of the 1st course dishes we tried were the King Oyster Mushroom Scallops with Hijiki Seaweed served with chive creme fraiche, wilted watercress with a black garlic tomato sauce.
One of the mushroom scallops was actually quite tough, but despite that, it had a chewy texture that I have not experienced since being raw and left this feeling in me that I wanted to experience those more often. I still can't get the texture out of my mind, they were wonderful, tasted wonderful. This is one of the dishes that still stays with me & as soon as I get back to NY, I am coming to Pure and ordering these again. ..or maybe I will have to experiment with creating them here to satisfy my own craving. The recipe is in Sarma's new book - which, although only out a month, I read like a novel, cover to cover, before making the trip!

Next up: Tokyo Turnip Carpaccio with Marinated Provencal Truffle served with English Pea Cream dressing, baby celery and house made winter truffle oil

The sauce, truffle and truffle oil really make this. The flavor was wonderful!

I dont have a picture of the whole dish, which is too bad, because it was beautifully presented with raspberries lined up and pine nuts and vinaigrette. And it was delicious!
Salad of Mache, Summer Berries and Fennel with Truffle Framboise Vinaigrette topped with aged cashew cheese cured with dill and fennel pollens, toasted pignoli

Zucchini Fettuccine with Basil Crema and Red Pepper Bruschetta spicy pumpkin seeds, basil sprouts, Shyrian pumpkin seed oil

This was also delicious.. but I expected bruschetta to be served on some kind of bread.. and am very into raw breads right now, so other than not having bread under the bruschetta, it was great as were the rest of the dishes.

~ Second Course ~

Zucchini and Local Hothouse Tomato Lasagna basil pistachio pesto, sun-dried tomato sauce, pinoli ricotta
How could we go to NY & not try Pure's Lasagna!? It's the most popular dish on the menu and one which has remained on the menu since the start. & it was delicious, very simple. & I must say, after all the prepared foods we had been eating, it was a welcome sight to see those thick tomato slices! I was completely enjoying eating all this food, but my diet is so simple usually at home. We thoroughly enjoyed this - simple, delicious and I also realized something - Ambiance, which Pure has lots of, goes a long way!

Thai Coconut Noodles in Galangal Red Coconut Curry mung bean sprouts, heirloom carrot, saffron oil, thai basil
This dish, while still delicious, was perhaps my least favorite. But I have to admit I am a bit fussy here. I make a Red Thai Curry paste & sauce, which I love and is very flavourful and spicy. I found this kind of bland, not bad, nothing at Pure is bad.. but I expected more. There just wasnt the flavour I would expect from a red cconut curry sauce. Thats ok. just a preferance.

We were brought a tasting plate of the Sweet Pickled Beet and Rosemary Cashew Chevre Ravioli wilted spinach, grapes, saffron cream, green olive tapenade
I am so glad we got to experience this dish.. if I had known before hand I would have ordered it for sure - It was amazing!! Everything about it was really, really, really delicious!

~ Third Course ~

We were so full by this point we changed our dessert plan to ice cream, which for some reason we thought would be light, and the peach cobbler. I am not sure why I expected the ice cream t be just a small portion.. I was very surprised when they brought out this trio of ice cream treats!!
Trio of Dark Chocolate Coated Indian Spiced Ice Cream Treats chocolate covered cardamom coconut ice cream cone, pistachio gelato ice cream sandwich and chai tea creamsicle.

Nostalgic, Fun, Delicious, Beautifully presented. I was prepared to just have a bite..because I had already eaten too much. We had eaten so much even before getting to Pure that I wasn't even hungry to start with.. now I was bursting. Despite this we ate every bite of the desserts. Just too incredible to miss!!!

Warm Peach Cobbler maple soaked peaches with buckwheat streusel, vanilla cardamom ice cream, bourbon barrel aged maple syrup and a white chocolate tuile
So delicious! At first I felt the cardamom was a little strong in the ice cream - & I love cardamom.. but it blended so well with the maple and peach, that I disregarded that thought after about 2 seconds. Peaches are in season right now and delicious. We saw at least 3 raw peach cobblers this weekend. This one was the best!

Pure makes very beautiful food! & Delicious!! ..eating here is an absolute pleasure.
My deepest thanks to everyone involved in making, helping to create and assisting in any way to making this food available for us to enjoy. Thank you. Salud!
& to Tom for bringing me on this great business trip! : )