Tasting the Nation

On Monday, I attended my very first event with SUSHISAMBA. I was pleasantly surprised to find out I'll be able to attend a few foodie events with the Marketing/PR team, and in my ongoing theme of Cultured Youth, this event fit the bill! Taste of the Nation is run by Share our Strength, an organization that raises money to end childhood hunger. Some of the best restaurants around participate and offer guests tastings of their signature dishes. SUSHISAMBA's dish was King fish crudo with heirloom tomatoes, white grapes, red shiso and yuzu juice - try saying that 5 times fast! We arrived at The Grand Hyatt hotel around 6 and started setting up our table in one of the Grand Hyatt's grand ballrooms. As soon as people started coming in, we got to work replenishing plates and explaining what the dish was.



The chefs were set up behind us preparing the food, but since we were interacting with the guests, on more than once occasion we heard "you girls are the best looking sushi chefs around!" We politely smiled and grabbed more chopsticks. I guess there's a market for blond sushi chefs! The best part of the night for me, however, was getting a chance to do some tasting of my own. Curiosity got the best of me and the first dish I tried was Marseille's yellow tail and mushrooms in a bone marrow sauce. Yup, bone marrow. It was my first and probably last time trying that! I'd like to know how one came across the notion that the jelly-like marrow inside a bone could taste good? It was surprisingly sweet, but definitely not my cup of tea. One of my favorite dishes was a quesadilla with mushrooms and ramp (a very popular veggie I discovered) from Centrico. The very charming Chef Aaron Sanchez was there rounding up the crowd at his station, and posing for a picture or 2 with some fans. The spicy pulled-pork corncakes from Yerba Buena were delicious, and made even better with the avocado puree served with it. Two of the most interesting things I ate were noodles served in a Chinese take-out container with a Greek yogurt sauce from Ilili and a veggie salad with croutons and a poached egg on top from Rouge Tomate. The poached egg salad was really tasty, the refreshing salad and the warm egg was an interesting mix. I wasn't a fan of the noodles, they were a little soggy, but the packaging concept was original. Unfortunately, I have no self restraint and kept on eating and trying everything I could from dumplings to chicken meatballs ... there was no other way! While we ate till we thought we couldn't eat anymore, we realized there was a whole other room filled with ... desert. We took a quick reprieve at our table and set out the remainder of the king fish. Then, it was time. We entered the desert room and it was everything I expected, blueberry crumb, Italian panna cotta, tiramisu and cupcakes galore. The creme de la creme of dessert, however, was Grammercy Park Hotel's Monkey Cake. It reminded me of a warm, gooey cinnabon. Simply perfect. Next to Grammmercy Park Hotel was coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters of Brooklyn, good solid coffee and great vintage NY post card marketing material. By the end of the night, I was stuffed to the gills. Getting unleashed in a place like this is dream come true to someone who loves food like me. And while I probably won't be able to buy a $400 ticket on my own, I will gladly work the event so I can sample the goodies.