Corinne's birthday dinner (lyn)

Tonight, eight of us go out to celebrate Corinne's birthday.  The restaurant, Bar Boulud, is the casual restaurant of a renowned NY chef, Daniel Boulud.  His other restaurants are more formal.

Immediately upon entering, it’s clear that this place is more hip than most.  Every table is filled when we arrive at 7:45, and every table is filled when we leave three hours later.  We are first seated at a table for six, but then moved to a big round communal table.  There is more space, but unfortunately the eight of us are now spread out in a horse shoe, so if you are at either end of the horse shoe, it’s impossible to speak to the people at the other end, without getting up and walking over.  But that is exactly what we end up doing.  At some point, we switch around seats and get to talk to everyone.  It’s nice to be out with eight people, all of whom you genuinely like.

I got to know Corinne last year when she chaired the school Benefit.  Over the course of the year we got to know each other, and by the time of the Benefit last May, we were friends.  Corinne has an innate sense of style.  Everything she does is done with precision, and is always beautifully executed.  There is nothing careless about Corinne.  She also happens to be tall, slim, beautiful and nice.

I am always a little nervous about going out, and tonight is no exception. As soon as we sit down, a basket of warm mini popovers appears.  I try one and could easily eat the five sitting in front of me.  But I don’t.  We order a couple of bottles of red wine, and it seems my glass is never empty.  But I drink slowly, and in the end, feel only slightly tipsy.

Three of us decide to split an appetizer, described as Pate Grand-pere, coarse country foie gras, with truffle juice and port.  I am pretty confident that this will not be listed on the ww site, so I only eat about two forkfuls and give myself three points (which I’m sure I’ve over estimated).  For an entree, I order something called Poulet Roti (roasted chicken served with braised swiss chard and smoked onion mashed potatoes).  It’s beautifully presented, although the mashed potato serving is so small I originally mistake it for some kind of white melted cheese.   The woman next to me orders Steak Frites and I am unable to resist her offer of, “Try some.  These are amazing.”  I do and they are.  The dessert list includes things that are so detailed in description they are impossible to visualize, let alone calculate.  Here are two examples:   Versus milk chocolate and peanut tart concord gelée, jivara-concord ice cream.  Or, you can have Pomka green apple lambic mousse pop rocks, green apple tonka bean ice cream.   I wonder if there really are diners who know what these things are, or do people just pretend to know.   I opt for something simple that I can visualize, has little fat, and most importantly, that I can calculate.  Sorbet.  But an intriguing flavor:    mandarin and violet.  It arrives with three little butter cookies and is perfect.

The meal is delicious, but the camaraderie is even better.