Weekend With Mom

Mom came to the city this weekend to visit me. She's been pretty worried about my whole apartment search and just the idea of living in the city. I grew up in the Midwest, not exactly near a farm (though some of my friends did live on farms), but not the most urban setting either. In the past, I don't think it would have really cared if my mother approved my living situation as I was always a very independent person, but lately, family has taken on new meaning for me so it was important for me to get Mom's approval of my new digs. I took her by the apartment, did a quick walk-through, and then took her around the neighborhood. Thankfully she approved and she even thought I had done a good job at finding a place.

Mom's been to the city many times before so we didn't do anything touristy. Most of the weekend was spent eating a lot, paid for by her (of course) and finding ways to escape the heat. For one of our dinners, we ate at Joe's Shanghai around Midtown. Mom had eaten here before and loved it. I was just happy to have some good Chinese food (Now that I think about it, I might have eaten at Joe's Shanghai's location in Chinatown down on Pell Street before). It also helps that Mom speaks fluent Chinese so she can converse with the waiters and find out if there are any specials or dishes that aren't on the menu which is usually the case at Chinese restaurants. We started off with an order of soup dumplings. These are always great and Mom loves them because they are pretty hard to make so it's not something she would make herself (Mom's a great cook!) For our entrees, we shared a Chilean sea bass and a duck dish. Both were excellent.

For another dinner, we ate at Triomphe, a little French restaurant located at the Iroquois Hotel. I had read some good reviews of the place so we thought we'd give it shot. The restaurant itself was small, but nicely decorated. It was pretty empty when we got there and didn't get much busier throughout the night. However, the food, except for a few missteps, was fantastic. We started with the scallops and the cumin-crusted quail as appetizers. Both were great dishes, but Mom and I both loved the scallops, especially since they were topped with porcini mushrooms and foie gras butter. For entrees, I had the muscovy duck while Mom choose the pan roasted shrimp with risotto. The duck was moist and flavorful. It probably wasn't the most adventurous choice for a dish since I've never had a bad duck at a French restaurant. However, Mom's shrimp was pretty disappointing. For one, the shrimp were pretty small and they were only five. Also, the whole dish was watery. Maybe it was suppossed to be part of the white wine sauce, but at the least, the chef should have used some restraint. Who wants to eat risotto swimming in water?

We finished off the meal with some coffee and tea and split a very light, champagne poached pear. Overall, a very good meal however I would avoid the shrimp in the future and the mixed drinks weren't all that great either. I had a mixed berry mojito to start the meal off. It felt a little watered down and the overall taste was nothing special.