On day 3 of our trip we walked to Morning Star Restaurant a block away from the hotel for breakfast. I was intrigued by the menu since there were a few things I had never heard of before on there. Louis had the Irish Breakfast which included 2 eggs, black and white pudding, bacon, sausage, grilled tomato, baked beans and toast.
Ya know, a light breakfast to start the day.
I tried the white pudding which is an Irish oatmeal sausage and was surprised at how delicious it was! The black pudding I wasn't brave enough to try but Louis swore it was very good. I feel like I'm a pretty adventurous eater but blood sausage is where I draw the line.
I got the Cypriot breakfast which was 2 eggs, grilled halloumi, Loukaniko, Lountza, Potatoes and Toast
By the time I remembered to take a pic I had already dug into my plate, so I know it doesn't look great but I promise you it was! Sometimes you just can't beat greasy diner food, and this was a great place to get it! Halloumi is a firm Greek cheese that can be grilled or seared and this was perfectly crisp. I thought it was strange that the potatoes were actually just fries, but I am a French fry addict so it was totally fine with me. The Loukaniko is a Greek sausage flavored with orange peel, fennel seed, and herbs- to me it had a strong wine flavor and I loved it! Lountza is pork tenderloin that's brined, marinated in red wine, dried, smoked and sliced thinly. So so yummy and would be delicious on a sandwich as well!
For two coffees, and two HUGE plates of food our bill was $20 less than the one gross croissant sandwich that room service had delivered the morning before so this was a good pick and we left happy!
After breakfast we headed to the Food and Wine Fest and got there just in time to see Paula and Bobby Deen cooking together. I was really surprised to see them there since I thought she was banned from Food Network?!
Anyway, I love Paula and thought they were really cute together and she kept insisting on going into the crowd to let people sample the things they were making.
A few of the stand out dishes of the day were this cute little ravioli with micro greens and the truffle cream sauce gnocchi. The gnocchi were literally the best I've ever had- pillow-y, light and airy. I could have eaten an entire plate of them....if I hadn't eaten my weight in food at breakfast.
One thing that stopped me in my tracks was the 3D Systems sugar sculptures! Look at these things!! I sat there staring at them in awe and fully expected Willy Wonka to show up at any moment. They had a printer right there that just created whatever design they inputted into the sugar pieces and then airbrushed flavored colors onto each piece. This was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever seen and it really made me want one for myself. Can you imagine having friends over, giving them a cup of coffee and then a pink sugar hexagon?! Or popping one of these in your kid's lunch box. The teachers I'm sure would not appreciate a kid downing sugar cubes in the middle of the day but my kids would think it was amazing!
As if we hadn't eaten enough already, we headed to Morimoto for dinner. The restaurant is absolutely beautiful, and as weird as it sounds, the bathrooms are a must see!
I don't know how they do it but the infinity wall is amazing to look at! The seat lifts automatically when you walk in, can be heated and there is a long silver bar on the wall that has buttons for options to choose from for your "experience". I don't know who is hanging out in there long enough to need all of these services, but it was funny to see it there!
I started the night with a Sesame Raspberry cocktail that was absolutely divine and now I'm mad at myself that I didn't take a pic of the drink menu because I can't find it online
As a starter we tried the Oyster Foie Gras
Oysters, foie gras, uni and teriyaki sauce
After reading the description I was totally on board with this one and was really disappointed once I tasted it. The oyster, foie and uni were all the same texture and temperature. It was neither hot nor cold. I think I was expecting a cold oyster with seared foie on top but everything was luke warm and for me I need oysters either icy cold or hot- not somewhere in the middle. I had one and let Louis have the other two
My favorite dish of the night was the Toro Tartare with Kaluga caviar, wasabi, sour cream, chives, dashi soy and these delightful little crisps that looked like sprinkles
It was beautiful, interactive and totally delicious. We scraped this one clean!
Miso Glazed Roasted Bone Marrow with sake ikura, mitsuba chimichurri and grilled sourdough was next. While I'm not a huge fan of marrow like Louis is, I loved the sake ikura (salmon roe cured in sake) and the chimichurri which was made with mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) on the grilled bread
My second favorite dish of the night was the Braised Black Cod with Ginger Soy Reduction. This was one of those dishes that felt like it disappeared off the plate way too soon! We couldn't eat it fast enough. The fish was so flaky, the sauce was sweet and sticky and rich and even the little slivers of pepper on the bottom of the plate were pickled, sweet and crunchy which gave a great contrast to the rich sauce on the fish.
This is the Duck Duck Duck which I thought was yuck yuck yuck. Louis and I both love duck but after eating just some of it we both agreed it just didn't work. At all.
The Roasted duck was ok, but not stellar, the sandwich on a housemade croissant with foie gras butter fell apart when we tried to eat it and the duck egg was just oddly on the side by itself. The two sauces were I think red miso sauce and black bean sauce but, if blindfolded, I would have sworn they were the same. Overall, a fail in my opinion. Do yourself a favor if you go and just go with the Cod!
I adore Brussels sprouts and was very happy when I got to dig into these! They were flash fried till the outer leaves were deliciously crispy and then tossed in a sauce I could have taken shots of, Chinese sausage and cranberries. Yum yum!
I was really happy to go and try Morimoto even though we didn't love a few of the dishes. The ones that shined were good enough to go back for!
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