Vong New York

Last night was H and I's date night. We are well into our second year of long distance relationship (220mi), and each chance we get to spend with each other is nothing to take granted for. (I love you baby!)

As I've mentioned before, it's NYC Restaurant Week and basically you get to have a Gourmet Prix-Fixe Menu offered by many of the famous high scale restaurants in the city for a much lower price, $24.07 for lunch and $35 for dinner. Ok, maybe not so cheap compare to most reatarants, but compared to NYC standard, that's a great price to pay to test out the expensive restarants.

Vong is a Thai-French fusion restaurant, and a part of the restauant group owned by Chef Jean George. He's a cool old man, he's even got his own blog! Vong's a pioneer in southeast Asian fusion food in NYC since it's inception in 1992. I've always wanted to try the Spice Market (same owner) in the meatpacking district, but never got the chance. So Vong's a perfect introduction to the world of Jean George.

Side note: I rarely eat out in expensive restauants when H's not here. I simply don't enjoy the food as much when H's not here, because he's my parnter in critiquing crime. Here is the scene: I'd act as if I'm the judged on Iron Chef. Start by looking at the presentation of the dish, take a tiny bite of the food... slowly chew it.. taste it... get it all over the tongue... make sure every taste bud has met the mush of food in my mouth.. Then take a sip of water.... swallow... then asks H:"Can I have your food? I don't like mine". Of course, he surrenders his plate in exchange for my tasteless tofu, cus I was supposed to be eatting healthy... =)

Ok, maybe I don't always order the best tasting food, but the point is we LOVE FOOD! Our sizes should explain that, when combined, we are a whopping 380lbs. You be the judge when spliting that number between the two of us.

ok, back to Vong. We simply cannot just spend $35 each on a dinner, that'd be so not like us. So here is what we've ordered...

2 cocktail drinks
2 appitizer sampler
1 coconut chicken soup
1 spicy beef salad
1 duck with tamarind sauce
1 roasted pork
2 desserts
Grant total = $175

The appitizer sampler was the best~!!! omg, the crab spring roll and roasted spicy quail were so gooooooood. I really didn't like my entree - Duck. I don't usually eat duck, but for some reason I ordered it last night.. Now I remember why I hate duck, it smells disgusting. And the sweet tamarind sauce didn't help either. H finished my dish and I ate the garnishes.

I'd say, go for the appitizer and dessert. The condensed milk ice cream was really good - it's like a good ol' vanilla ice cream without the overly sweet taste.

Anyways, I'm going to rate this restauant 8 out of 10.
Pro: great appitizer and very friendly services.
Con: dimmed lighting and sometimes overly noisey enviornment

Next: Brasserie 8 1/2. EN Japanese. Sushi Samba. Ben Benson's Steak House. 4 Restauants, 2 weeks. I'm budgeting around $50 per dinner and 5lbs of weight gaining.