Saturday, October 8, 2011

Interesting dining experience at Park Avenue Autumn

Yellow peas in filmjölk sauce with semolina
Food Diary (October 08, 2011)
Breakfast: Rolled oats with coconut, banana, sunflower seeds and flax seeds
Lunch: Yellow peas in filmjölk sauce with semolina
Dinner: Pork curry with flatbread
Baking/sweets:


Today's Favourite Photo
Beetroot and pine nut risotto with Chevre dressing



Today’s Favourite Blog
Strange and interesting. Park Avenue Autumn, the upscale New York restaurant known for their interesting art collaborations, will be serving an Iraqi delicacy of venison and date syrup on plates once owned by Saddam Hussein.

A press release from the restaurant states:
“As symbols of the past, they represent the rich and complicated history of a place long misunderstood by its invaders. With over 627 varieties of dates grown in the country, the date is to Iraq as a cigar is to Cuba, or Champagne to France. In fact, 99% of all date syrups available in the United States originate in Iraq, but today are usually labeled as a product of Lebanon due to United Nations sanctions.”

I wonder whether customers will have positive or negative thoughts when they eat their meal? Will it make the meal more or less enjoyable? I have never had this experience so I cannot even speculate but it is interesting for sure. I have eaten in a palace owned by a Middle Eastern businessman in a fairly 'rough' country. The businessman has good reputation and this left positive memories. What we ate was delicious because of the circumstances. I am curious about the dining experience at Park Avenue Autumn.

The last sentence from the press release is also very interesting. The syrup originates from Iraq but it is labeled as a product of Lebanon to bypass UN sanctions. I didn’t realize it was that easy to fool certain organisations, or they know this already. Its like putting carrot puree in brownies and telling kids the brownie has no carrots even though they know there is! 

Most Recent Recipes

Most Popular Recipes

8 comments:

  1. Wowsers! Thank you for linking again! The mention of pork curry with flatbread has me salivating!

    PS I think the restaurants serving food on plates once owned by Saddam is outrageous! I like the date industry mention though...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm loving these beetroot photos you have been posting. The color is just so vibrant.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never had yellow peas prepared this way...the sauce sounds really yummy!
    Thanks for sharing the tempting beetroot pyramid!
    ANgie

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a cute dish! I thought at first it was a dessert ;-)
    I think every controversial detail attracts the clients, so the restaurant will probably have lots of orders for this dish...
    I know it's very easy to cheat with every type of food. The other day I saw a tv programme with a hidden camera, looking at the Paris restaurants' menus, talking to the owners and then checking the garbage at night. Apparently 40% of the French restaurants serve frozen, pre-cut food portions (desserts are the most frequent) and of course they always lie saying it's made in their kitchens. They also lie about the origin of say ducks and serve for example Romanian ducks saying they come from the South-Western France. Awful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. i love how SCHMANCY that beetroot risotto looks! i need to get some molds to make my rice dishes look like that!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Martyna: you are welcome. Pork curry was good and your dishes are making me salivate too

    Elaine: thank you

    Angie: it was yummy, it went well with chickpeas

    Sissi: already the restaurant has attracted publicity. Its bad when restaurant lie about the origin of the food, if they don’t want to disclose the truth they should perhaps refuse to answer. I wonder whether Romanian ducks differ in taste but I suppose that’s not the point

    Junia: SCHMANCY – that’s a new word for my dictionary:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love today's favourite photo too! The beetroot rice just pops out of the picture!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love that series from Wholesome cook, everthing is so artistically done

    ReplyDelete