The Hotel

UPDATED AND PICTURES ARE NOW ADDED

Note: Pictures to come.

I arrived in NYC last night after a day of travel hell. However, I made it just fine and was reimbursed for my travel expenses that I incurred on my way to the hotel from the airport - plus a nice bonus! NYCSD has been working all day so I got some time to go out and play... after being out all night until 7am. I had a vegan caesar salad at Sacred Chow with a mimosa. Other than that, I've been laying around all day waiting to get together with one of my good friends up here before I go to Megu for a lovely dinner! Sake! Sake! Sake! Did I mention, sake?!?!

I'll make sure to edit this post when I get in tonight... I'm not quite sure how long I'll be out. But I do know that I am exhausted. Shopping tomorrow!

Sebastian

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The Night Begins

After a issue with the subway, I arrived to dinner exactly fifty minutes late. NYCSD had allowed everyone that had reservations to skip in front of us until my arrival. When I arrived I was given the most terrible look I have ever been given - a look of disappointment. I sat down at the bar and was asked to order a drink. I ordered the Jade Candy cocktail - if you go to Megu, do not order this. Instead, order the Blessing Cocktail. I tried some of NYCSD's and it was the best cocktail I have ever enjoyed. Don't get me wrong, the Jade Candy was nice... but it just wasn't something I would order again.

We then left Hell and went to Heaven. Megu is designed in such a way that when you enter you're taken through Hell, Purgatory and then you finally arrive in Heaven. The bar is designed to be hell with Japanese punk-techno music. It's beautiful, two walls are rolls of kimono fabric encased in glass. It's beautiful. You then enter Purgatory, which isn't anything special, instead you look into the dining room through a charcoal coloured glass and see Heaven. However, in Purgatory you once enjoyed your appetizers. Now, this is not the case. You're then led down stairs to Heaven and finally enjoy your appetizers and meal.

I allowed Alex to order for me - the menu was rather complex and offered so many different items. I started off with a five sashimi sampler. I didn't take pictures of my food or at all because I would have felt terribly tacky. However, my food arrived in a square serving dish that was illuminated just like this on a bed of ice. The sashimi was carefully arranged on a palm leaf which was further decorated with two carrot florets and some other pretties. The fish here is flown in every day, fresh from Japan! They only order from the best fisheries as well, of course.

The sashimi was then followed by kobe beef skewed on bamboo. This again, is not a picture I took - which would explain the ugly hands holding the meal. My meal however arrived in the same way, the order in which they were arranged was different though. From left to right I had a wonderful "gempei" miso kobe beef skewer (this is the second from the left in the picture). I enjoyed it so much that I ate all of it before moving onto the rest. Which was a terrible mistake, I wish I had saved it for last. I then ate different pieces as I moved along throughout this course. The next one I tasted was the black sesame (the first one on the left) This tasted very much like a flower. It was such a pretty taste. The third was the soy garlic (the last one from the left) Which tied as my first place skewer. The gempei miso and soy garlic were by far the best. The last was soy&wasabi. This was my least favourite. The wasabi is spicy but also has a sweetness to it. I enjoyed the wasabi a lot. This is because it's freshly prepared by grating real wasabi on actual shark skin. I didn't enjoy this skewer much because the flavour was so intense until you chewed it all together and then you start to enjoy it. I don't enjoy working so much to enjoy my food.

Megu is known for their grean tea crepes. It's about 25 crepes all stacked on top of each other carefully. I ordered the sweet five dessert platter for myself at NYCSD's behest. I was treated to several desserts on one plate. This included: green tea crepes, vanilla sorbet? (I don't know how to explain this.. but it was like frozen vanilla milk - not as creamy as ice cream), mango sorbet, mango coconut something, chocolate and bitter orange something, chocolate truffles and creme puffs! The creme puffs, chocolate truffles (they literally evaporated in my mouth), vanilla sorbet,  mango sorbet were my favourites. The green tea crepes had too strong of a taste. The dessert sample is also a great value. You get standard sized desserts for a little bit more than what one single dessert would cost you.

We also enjoyed a fine bottle of Sake during our meal. It was beautiful. It had an initial licorice taste which then faded away into florals. It tasted like a beautiful memory. I don't recall the name. But I would definitely have it again.

Dinner total: Over $700.00 - which is normal when he takes me out to eat.

We ended dinner, enjoyed a cigarette and walked around for a while. If you read my most current post, you'll find out exactly what happened next.

Sebastian