Bests and Wursts

From the $30 foie-gras-and-shortribs-stuffed hamburger at the DB Bistro Moderne at lunch to a Bauernwurst at Hallo Berlin, you could say I had an interesting gastronomic day [May 4th - I started writing this post a while ago ... better late than not at all, I guess].

My editor decided to take me out to the Daniel Boulud's Bistro Moderne for lunch to thank me for my three months of service, and I'm pretty sure it was my first lunchtime in a powerlunch-y kind of place. Beautiful atmosphere, but full of suits.

We started off with a bright-magenta, naturally-sweetened hibiscus tea paired with asparagus soup. Not the most elegant pair, but both were excellent. The cream-based soup had a generous number of tender white and green asparagus tips floating around.

The original db burger (flickr photo) was an experience. It came highly recommended and didn't disappoint in the least (except that I could hardly fit it in my mouth). The thought of a hamburger stuffed with short ribs, foie gras, and truffles still boggles my mind. The taste was intensly meaty and savory - the earthiness of the truffles and foie gras gave the burger an unbelievably rich my-god-i'm-a-capitalist taste to them.

It came with three different sauces - a mayonnaise, a mustard, and a superb horseradish mayonnaise. The latter completely rocked; it struck a perfect balance of mellow mayonnaise mellowness with spicy horseradish kickyouinthefaceness.

Then Meg took me to the Daily Show. Rock.

Afterward, Liz, Lyssa, Meg, and I went to Hallo Berlin where we got some great cheap wursts. I've had the knockwurst (beef and pork), bauernwurst (also beef and pork), and the currywurst (just beef but with a curried mustard) and they're all good in a standard way. It comes with mustard, sauerkraut, and onions unless you specify differently (try it the first time to get the experience). The schnitzel is nothing special but the potato pancakes are so full of greasy wonder that I'd eat them every moment of every day. Well, maybe not every moment, but often. Each of the single wurst platters are enough for a meal if you share a potato pancake and a beer. They've got a great beer selection, like the Germans are want to have. The atmosphere is about what you'd expect from a beer garden - tacky, sticky picnic tables, European techno, etc. A great place to go with a large group.

I love New York. Four-star $30 hamburger for lunch and four-star, $8 bauernwurst for dinner.

Technorati Tags: Food, Hamburger, Daniel Boulud, Wurst
A big 'ol danka shoen to diddi over at flickr for the great bratwurst photo and being cool enough to surrender enough of his creative writes to let us republish it.