January 5, 2008

• LIVE AT BUDDAKAN! NO CHEAP TRICK!!

  
  So another coworker abandons the Big Apple for the Other Coast.
    Another Manhattan social obligation,  a night on the town,  a chance to live and experience life and you better enjoy it because it costs one hundred dollars,  generally.

  Buddakan

  The hot Chelsea place to go and splurge and taste exotic food in a luxurious environment.  We were 7 and the bill was $800. 

  Of course there were 4 bottles of wine,  and we ordered, let's see, I'll go backwards starting with desserts because that's how I remember it.

    Crying Chocolate:  don't ask me what it was but it was most certainly chocolate and deep and dark and dangerous chocolate.

  Vanilla Pumpkin Souffle,  some kind of Apple Fritters,  and some kind of Spicy Chocolate, and Chocolate sorbet with Avocado sauce. 

   I can't describe the taste.   I can't figure out the spice.

  I had no idea that there were Yellow Beets in the world!  Can you imagine!  I thoughts Beets were Beet red, but in the OCTOPUS SALAD, were,  among the tentacles,  YELLOW BEETS which are sure good but hard to figure out what the hell that familiar taste is until someone tells you its a yellow beet.

  The octopus,  and I only ate 2 small bits.  I went for a singed, spiral, the end of a curly tentacle,  the companion said   "no take it from the fleshy part, up here" , and pointed to where and octopus's shoulder would be.

  It was really interesting,   it was not as I expected.  Like biting into a firmly baked yam,  creamy texture and tastes like a very very very mild tuna,  in fact you hardly notice the fishy taste until the end of the bite.  I hate to admit it and I won't eat octopus as part of my regular diet but it was good...

  I couldn't help feeling like some type of huge monster digging into the shoulders and the spiral end,  crunchy and savory,   buttery even....   I lay in bed thinking about that episode of The Simpsons where they are going to be eaten by aliens with tentacles...

  I ate Edameame Dumplings,   pot stickers,  beef , sole, chicken...  things with sauces I couldn't identify...

  In my opinion, you are paying for the presentation,  the ingredients and the atmosphere mostly.  I thought much of the food was kind of bland.  The beef was very good and the sole was good but the Tea Smoked Chicken was tasteless.   Another dish cold noodles with lime ice sorbet that you mix in with was unusual, but also kind  of plain.

  Not that there isn't plenty of volcanic chili sauce, if that is your thing.

   The food was more interesting than delicious or satisfying.

   They have an array of interesting cocktails too.   The staff treat you like royalty.   You could live in the bathroom and the decor and space,  HUGE< GIANORMOUS< ENDLESS and with a variety of rooms,  I found  puzzling.    I couldn't quite figure out where I was or what type of environment I was in.  Is this Asian?  It certainly seems gothic,   yet overdone and sparse,  richly designed with medieval tapestries and Chinese art. 

  Hmmm.

   We sat at the bottom of the big room at the end of the COMMUNAL TABLE which had about 50 seats,   the longest,  royalist table I've ever sat at...

  And I have no regrets, blowing 100 bucks on a night on the town with friends.

  It's totally a New York thing, which I rarely do.

  Live here while you can,  but not very often.  

  Pretentious?

   Buddakan  tries hard not to be.....

  I found the arrogant Manhattan Restaurant DIVA on YOU TUBE.  This Diva's personality sums the place up.  Rich Bastard!

  You can see the menu at the web site.

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  Buddakan NYC

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  • 11:34 am
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