Several E2 noders will gather to meet in New York City at The Not-Really Semi-Annual New York Everything Gathering™ on Saturday, July 1st at 3 p.m. yossarian has generously offered to host the gathering and he and ideath have asked me to provide a menu that they will prepare.

The considerations are these:

  • at this point six participants are expected
  • yossarian feels that six dishes will be adequate
  • in order to be able to participate at the gathering itself, yos would like to prepare most of the dishes the preceeding evening and a few on the day itself
  • yos has only four burners and an oven and a small kitchen
  • several of the participants are vegetarian
  • none are vegan
  • ingredients will be easy to find in New York
  • this should be be inexpensive
  • I assume that service will be buffet style rather than at table
  • this will be in the summer and New York is infamously hot at that time
  • ideath likes mangoes

Therefore:

  • as everyone can eat a vegetarian meal, most of the dishes will be meatless
  • there will be one meat course
  • all of the dishes must be able to work together well.
  • I propose the following two menus, each with seven rather than six items:

    The first menu will be more difficult and time consuming, but still very doable. The steak can be prepared the evening or morning before the gathering and can be refrigerated and brought out in time for it to come up to room temperature. The tofu dish is best served hot and so can be prepared the evening before and then reheated or made at the gathering. The Raddichio Coleslaw can be made the evening before. The wild mushroom sauce can be made the evening before, the gnocchi cooked at the gathering, the sauce reheated. The Chilled Cucumber and Mint Soup can be prepared the evening before and served chilled (fortuitously, the word chilled is in the title). The Mango and Avocado Salsa is best freshly made. The Garlic Crostini is best freshly made.

    The second menu is incredibly simple. Again the steak can be prepared the evening or morning before as can the sesame tofu. The dashi for the miso shiru can be the day before. All of the ingredients can be prepared for the other dishes the day before. The salad that morning or afternoon and dressed later. The soba, the portobello sashimi, finishing the miso shiru will all take only moments. As will the cucumber saké cups.

    This is a node that will no doubt change over the next few days as yossarian, ideath and I discuss what they want to do/can do/would like to eat. Perhaps changes will be noted at the bottom of the writeup.

    Participants at the gathering are welcome to /msg me with comments or questions.

    Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.