The Dutch!

Another long overdue post. These things are getting harder and harder for me to keep up. I could promise I will try to do better, but I really cant guarantee that. Just being honest.

Last Friday I was supposed to have a "Meeting of the Minds" with my 2 besties Amanda and Nicole. Unfortunately Amanda wasn't feeling so hot, so it was just a Meeting of 2. We've coined the "Meeting of the Minds" phrase a few years back because usually the 3 of us go a few weeks in between seeing each other. Usually that means tons of "stuff" has happened in that time and we need a MOTM to help get our thoughts together. It sounds funny, but these past few years with these girls have been the greatest support system anyone could ask for.

The MOTM is almost always over food. and drinks. Obviously.

This time we got lucky with someone who knew someone, who knew someone else, who knew a popular NYC chef, who got us a reservation at one of NYC's hippest, hottest restaurants that just opened a month or so ago. I'm being slightly sarcastic, but this was pretty lucky of us. It's a pretty big deal in NYC when press gets a hold of a new NYC restaurant. It usually takes 15-20 tries of calling and getting "we have either 5pm or 10:30pm available next Monday", when you finally give up and stop calling and wait for the hype to subside. So I was pumped when Nicole told me we got resys at The Dutch! The chef was also from one of my other favorite spots in NYC, Locanda Verde. I knew it had to be good.

The Dutch, Soho

Nicole stays away from meat, but it was fine by me, we had a seafood feast that was spectacular! We ordered our first bottle of rose wine of the warm season (even though it hasn't been all that warm). Then we were greeted by a fabulous waiter and some awesome jalapeno cornbread. Gluten or no gluten, I ate it.

Nic and I, mid feast- it was a lot busier than it looks

Nicole had heard their oyster sliders weren't to be missed, so she nabbed one of those (not only do I have a gluten allergy, but the oyster allergy is even worse!). Then we split a crab appetizer with a bloody mary "broth". They called it Dressed Crab, Bloody Mary, Green Goddess. It was definitely one of the best crab dishes I had ever had. Thank you waiter for the suggestion! We also had a seafood ceviche of calamari, shrimp, lime, champagne, lime and red onion that was great.

The oyster slider and an aggressive flash.

Bloody Mary Crab and the Seafood Ceviche

We decided on scallops and escolar for our main courses. Another benefit of eating with another foodie.... you can split everything and try twice as many things as you would if you were alone! The escolar was grilled with yellow eyed pea chili and scallion. Whatever that means, it was pretty fabulous. We also chose the Sea Scallop with Spring Peas, bacon (although with Nicole not eating meats, our waiter assured us it was still fabulous without the bacon, and it was!) and ramps. Maybe the best scallops I've ever had... and for those of you who know me, I HATE peas. HATE, HATE, HATE peas. I think people that eat peas are weird, people that like them are even weirder, and the idea of putting peas into dishes is just wrong. All wrong.
Well not only did I like the peas in the scallop dish, I went back for more and filled my fork with ONLY peas to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

The Escolar

The Scallops and the PEAS!!!! and more terrible camera flash

  Just to top it off, we had to try the desserts... along with a late harvest Riesling that was fabulous!

Again, the flash...... forbidden black rice pudding, with mangos, pineapple, passion fruit, macadamias and coconut sorbet.... AMAZING!!!

The strawberry rhubarb pie, also amazing!!!

Overall.... great food, great wine, great service, great desserts, and GREAT company. Thanks Nicole for knowing people in important places and getting us this resy. Cant wait for the next MOTM.