One of the perks of working here is the fine dining we do sometimes and my meal on Thursday evening was really fine indeed. The venue was Per Se, which is situated near Columbus Circle, on the southern part of Central Park.

The restaurant is on the 4th floor, so as you enter the dining area, you get to soak in the view of Central Park and bits of the Manhattan skyline.

Okay, so this is Per Se, a subsidiary of the very famous French Laundry restaurant. The chef who created this line was Thomas Keller, and while I don’t know very much about, is very famous indeed. He is so famous, that he played a part in influencing the style of the movie Ratatouille, which I only watched the weekend before. Heh, and that signature dish was actually served on the vegetarian menu, and it looked very similar to the dish I saw on the big screen.

So the menu is fixed at $250 per person, where you are given a selection of wines and food determined by the head chef for that day. Heh, the selection of food is amazing, and even the condiments that come with it are amazing. We were given an appetizer to start of with, that came in a something that looked like a painters tray, but with holes to prop up the food. It looked like an ice cream cone, with raw salmon moulded into the shape of ice cream on top in a thin wafer and filled with onion cream cheese (I think) inside. This was the only thing I didn’t take a picture of.

After that we were served a small bowl of what’s known as oysters and pearls. They are oysters in a broth alongside caviar and what can I say, it was tasty!

The next dish we had was a yellowtail sashimi, known as hamachi. It had a lemon, basil marinade on it (if I recall correctly, ate so many exotic and unique dishes I have trouble remembering what went into them).

Heh, back to the condiments. We were given a tray of 9 salts and 2 types of butter. Four salts were from Hawaii, and I couldn’t remember the names, but they were all harvested near the seashore, giving them their various flavours, from the local vegetation or the volcanic rock of the area. There was one that was like charcoal and had the characteristics of whitening your teeth. Heh, there was also one salt that was nearly 150 million years old and they have a piece of it at the back where they chip away at it each time. Then there were some from Europe and the one in the centre was from Japan, that had sea kelp infused into the flavour. Not that you needed to use the salts as the food that came afterwards were well seasoned. The two butters consisted of one salted and one unsalted, with one of them originating from France.

As a side to all of that, we were also given a large selection of freshly baked breads, all in miniature sizes. The bottom two are probably the spiced bread and the multigrain bread. This meal is really about eating and you need to come with two empty stomachs.

Per Se is a mixture of American and French influences on food, so you get small sized portions laid out delicately but it certainly looks appetising. It’s in contrast to the Italian styles I’ve noted watching Jamie Oliver cook shows where a sizeable portion of pasta seems to be always served. Those meals have a more hearty feel to it. With the food here, you are just in awe of the crisp flavours that subtly melt together. Heh, to get an understanding of how flavours meld, you can watch Ratatouille that gives you a visual description on how it works.

Heh, here we see the spread of food.

Next up we were served a foie gras with 3 slices of paper thin biscuits. This was the first time I tried foie gras, which is basically goose liver and it tastes like pâté. This was served with some peach jelly and cilantro shoots. The saltiness and the sweetness just blends together and this was a rather heavy dish as it’s really creamy and rich.

Next up we had a grilled fish with a crisp skin facing us. Heh, fish would probably be a very generic description of it. It was served with beans on a mustard sauce. The fish was delicate and soft, without any hint of fishiness.

This was a 10 course meal, and was meant to be served with various types of wines to go along with the food. We started out with champagne and then I eyed some whisky on the menu and I had to try it. I asked what was good and since I wanted something really smoky, I was recommended a 16 year old single malt whisky. Unfortunately I couldn’t remember the name as it was long and not quite English, heh, but it tasted really, really peaty and smooth. Next up on drinks, my colleague ordered a round of the signature French Laundry drink, a Ruby Martini. It’s lemony and grapefruity, with the flavours just nicely matching the alcohol in it.

The next dish up was something I was looking forward to and it did not disappoint. It’s Nova Scotia lobster poached in butter with 100 tomatoes (a kind of tomato) on a basil sauce. The meat was sweet and just melted in your mouth.

By now I had lost count of what I had eaten and the next dish that came was duck served with radishes and mini mushrooms. Heh, I know I’d make a terrible food critic with my non existent knowledge of the more exotic ingredients but that was what it was. The duck was succulent and blended with the semi sweetish taste of the radishes.

The duck was so good that I mopped up the plate (I am a big fan of duck), but after that I was already starting to feel quite contented inside and when the next dish was served, while really taste, I was having trouble putting in another bite. We were served some lamb with a roll filled with wilted greens and a side of mashed red peppers.

Moving away from the heavy dishes, we start rolling out the desserts. This one is not quite a dessert but it’s apricots on a bed of pistachios with cheese. The two flavours work quite well together, with the sweetness of the apricots melting into the saltiness of the cheese and the nutty pistachio sauce wrapping it all up.

The desserts that came after I had trouble identifying as I don’t really know what’s inside unless you taste it. So here’s the next few dishes in a row.

The thing on the side is actually raspberry and it had a rich intense flavour, to go with the cream on the side.

This one is a doughnut with a coffee ice cream. The foam on top is most likely beaten egg whites.

And we are still not done! Next one up is something I’m not too sure about. The ribbons were like caramel, and the white dollop on the side tastes like condensed milk with the shiny brown thing a chocolate coated cake, but very soft inside.

So we finish off with coffee and there’s still after dinner chocolates! There was a wide selection to choose from but I managed a nibble of the peach and mint chocolates.

The whole dinner took nearly three and a half hours to complete and is really an experience that one should try at least once if given the opportunity. Heh, as a parting gift for the dinner, we were each given a small packet of nicely wrapped biscuits.