The office x-mas (or holiday to be PC) party was at Cibo, which is a Zagat staple, and was named one of the best restaurants in NYC in 2001, having been called a “New American-Italian hotspot located in the landmark Daily News building, a neighborhood favorite for locals looking for inventive fare.”
Immediately upon arriving, we both had drinks in our hands. Seriously, I had hardly checked my coat, and I was half a glass of wine into the night. 1, 2, 3 glasses later I was feeling prettyyyy toasty. As more and more people arrived, the party was getting really fun! They were perpetually bringing around drinks when my glass was still a few sips away, which really put the pressure on my drinking (not usually how I roll, but hey, it’s free)! Open bar = amazing. They were also circling with hors d’oeuvres constantly, empanadas, spring rolls, won tons, etc. (I didn’t have any since they weren’t vegetarian, and likely fried in oil with animal fat). Kyle certainly enjoyed them though 🙂 An hour or so later we headed to the dining area to reserve seats, since we didn’t want to end up all split up. There were 5 big circle tables, a few smaller side booths, and then the big long rectangle table (for the important people, ie: the surgeons). We snagged a big circle table that seated 8, so I got to dine with my fave peeps.
Once we sat down, the waiters came around to take our orders. We got to choose an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. For my app I got the organic tomato and cucumber salad with golden beets, and lemon herb balsamic vinaigrette. It was great! Very balsamic-y but the tomatoes were red and yellow, as were the beets! I’d never had a yellow beet, so I was excited and curious. It was def a good choice. I was very drunk, so I’m sure I could have savored it more, but oh well…I was socializing so much I wasn’t concentrating on my food! For dinner there were no veggie options, so I did my usual veggie restaurant thing (order fish). It’s not that I think fish aren’t as important as other (land) animals, it’s just they tend to be healthier and with less cruelty in the harvest. Plus, I like fish, and I don’t really like other meat. I ended up getting the fennel crusted north atlantic salmon with scallion and celery root mashed potatoes, warmed grapes and caperberries. The best part of this dish was the grapes (enough said?). Caperberries will forever remind me of Bridget Jones’ Diary, when she prepares her own birthday dinner, and makes caperberry stew, which looks like congealed green goop…what I’m trying to say is – I’m not exactly in a rush to try them. I was pretty drunk and (thus) not very hungry anyways. For dessert I ordered the flourless Valrhona chocolate soufflĂ© with vanilla bean ice cream, which Kyle promptly stole (he did trade me his apple cinnamon raisin cobbler with vanilla ice cream though). The souffle looked good, but the cobbler was YUM! I only had a few bites and didn’t have the ice cream (obvi), but it definitely came close to the perfection that is my mom’s cobbler.
