I’ve always loved a good dinner party. Or an average party – still a party! So here’s a fantasy that I have. I like to imagine using my newfound Instagram fame to invite select random guests over and host a dinner party. It would be BYOB set to a theme and I would experiment and cook different types of foods each night. Imagine going to these once a month, meeting new people and eating and drinking new things. Cool right? Reality bites. I don’t even have a dining table (the fame came pretty quick though). Holding out hope for post vaccine one bedroom apartment parties though! Stay tuned…
One of my good friends had a birthday recently (Hi Caroline!) and we went out to Niche Niche in the West Village. They’re living out my dinner party fantasy and actually making money (which is my second fantasy btw).
They had a lovely set menu and wines paired with every course. I’m usually averse to tasting menus as a vegetarian cause it’s never worth the money (conflicts with fantasy #2). This place offers a veggie sub for every meat dish and the night we went only had a trout entree that they swapped with artichoke. Yuuuumy.
We started with white asparagus, moved on to cheese, then artichokes and finally a citrus pavlova with blueberries. The stage for the night was wines from the Finger Lakes. How many of you know where the Finger Lakes are?
There are a couple of ideas I picked up that I want to implement at the fantasy dinner parties (and in life):
- There has to be a cheese course. How was this not a given?
2. I need to bake more fresh bread. I never hopped aboard the sourdough starter train but I think it’s time. Dinner parties have to have fresh bread
3. I want to be more experimental with wines. I usually do Decoy or Josh cabernets but at Niche Niche, I had an orange wine that I would never have picked out myself but was so tasty. I think you can buy some here
4. I want to have nice plates!
5. I should try out more vegetables. Maybe dinner parties could feature new seasonal veggies each time. I didn’t like the Kohl-Rabbi here but I discovered Ramps and they are my new favorite thing
Five things makes a pretty good list so I’m going to wrap this up here before I think of 5 more ways of spending all my money on food and alcohol.
Thanks for joining me as I ruminate. See you at the next dinner party!
Vish Eats Delish 