C.I.A. day 2

Today was a day of mise en place. Mental mise en place ranges from thinking ahead about the procedures, cooking times for each item, and setting ourselves up for the next day. We did everything we could to make our next day easier because we  knew the day we were off to the city.  On todays prep list is S.W. green chile pork sausage, duck sausage w/sage & roasted garlic, smoke our beef jerky, and check the brining pig heads. 

On another note our trip to the city was an amazing 5 hour adventure with a visit to Columbus Circle to see my old work place Cafe Gray, which has since been replaced by a new restaurant called A Voce. We were able to walk in and explore the dinning room and check out the kitchen. Our next stop was Bouchon Bakery, Masa, and Masa Bar. Another interesting part of the food mecca in 10 Columbus circle is Thomas Keller's Per Se where I spent 3 hours with Johnathon Benno the chef de cuisine and got a full tour of the kitchen. Per Se has a new addition which is a bar with a projected wine menu on the bar itself where you can scroll through the list with your finger, crazy cool! Also across the street is another Chef I admire named Jean George where Tobin and I watched the kitchen in action from outside through the window. 

At the end of the night at 3am Pete and I ended up at a traditional diner with the silver sides.  The cooks and servers where happy but bickered in Spanish at each other while cooking up our orders. The place was packed and all of us participated late night conversation about nothing with plenty of laughter. If you park in the Bronx and are leaving your vehicle for a late night jaunt park in front of a 24 hour diner where the cooks can see and watch out for you and don't forget to tip well. I had the classic pancake & maple syrup and it was exactly as I expected but what was amazing was a plain muffin that was sliced in half buttered and grilled to crispy and if was the best muffin ever, plain & grilled YUM!