The Quickest Way to a Man’s Heart

And mine, is through the stomach.

Keith knows that well, so for Valentine’s Day, he took me out to dinner at 10 Downing in Greenwich Village. The restaurant was offering a special four-course prix fixe menu for the night, plus an amuse-bouche. I’d wanted to go to 10 Downing for Restaurant Week, so it was nice that I finally got a chance to go.

I'm not sure if I like beets, but they sure are pretty.

The restaurant was decked out for V-Day, with flower petals on the tables and candles everywhere. The amuse was “eggs and caviar,” a little cup of soft-scrambled eggs and black caviar. It was my first time eating caviar, and I’m not sure I’ll ever eat it again — way too fishy for me.

For our first course, I had oyster bisque with a crab cake and Keith had a goat cheese and beet salad. The salad was gorgeous to look at, and the bisque was very good. Keith had seared foie gras for his second course, while I had diver scallops. The scallops were delicious, seared perfectly and sweet.

Keeping with my seafood trend, I had vanilla-poached lobster with risotto for my main course. The lobster was sweet and pleasantly vanilla-y, and the risotto was creamy and sharp enough to contrast well with the lobster. Keith got the Wagyu beef filet and shortribs with a syrah and anise reduction, which was very good too.

Dessert looked good -- and the hearts were a nice touch!

Dessert was an … interesting … end to the meal. Keith called it “random stuff on a plate,” an apt description. “Seduction and capture” consisted of chocolate pudding, rose gelato, a pistachio crumble-ish square, two different types of fruit jelly (we couldn’t figure out what either of them were, but they were both very sour) and something that resembled a bird’s nest. It was bizarre, to put it mildly.

Overall, the food was very interesting — a lot of unexpected combinations. Some worked and some didn’t, but it was a wonderful Valentine’s Day meal!