be careful what you wish for

Remember how the grown-ups around you were always warning you of the dangers of spoiling your appetite? Don't eat this, don't eat that, you'll ruin your dinner! We're about to eat, you don't need that now! Good Lord, who knew eating was so dangerous? That we constantly have to watch what we ate before we ate? If I want to have a snack before dinner, well then I very well will, I thought. Too bad I didn't know the word amuse bouche when I was nine years old. I would've flung it around like shiny Michelin stars.

Turns out, my indignant attitude about pre-eating before eating isn't always best. Because the other night, at Cookshop, I ate too much before, um...eating.


First, it began with the bread basket. No surprise there. It ALWAYS begins with the bread basket; that's my "dark and stormy night." But look at this bounteous bounty! Who could resist that? And there was some heavenly herbed butter. Except it was whipped creme fraiche and addictive.


From there, we moved on to pizza. As an appetizer. And this was so ridiculously good: DiPalo's mozzarella, guanciale, thyme, chili flakes and grana padano. Irresistible. Really, we just graduated from the bread basket to more doughy goodness. A+


Then we asked the waiter to bring the side of spiced fries and mayonnaise as our appetizer as well. I love how it already comes with mayo! No special request necessary.


And just to throw in a little something here and there, a snack of fried hominy. Just a snack, you know, to snack on while we're waiting for more food. After noshing and grazing our way lazily through all this, I realized I was full. Full! Oh dear. And my main course hasn't reared its main coursey head.


Ro's main dish of the heritage breed baby chicken with a lemon and thyme pan sauce came with...another dish. This doesn't bode well. It was a cardune (artichoke stalk) gratin. And it was big. It was cheesy. It was a hot scrumptious mouthful.


I was a little nervous for my main course, because it sounded like...two main courses. Courtesy of the word "duo" in the title. Hudson Valley Rabbit Duo: grilled leg and house-made sausage served with farro with English peas and fried parsley. Excellent! I actually managed to eat up all of the grilled leg, which was succulent and wonderfully flavored (sort of Indian-inspired to me), but I wasn't so crazy about the sausage. And thank goodness for that because my jeans reached another dimension.


Lauren goes and orders two dishes. Okay, albeit they were soup and salad. But they were large plates. Chilled potato-sorrell soup, creme fraiche and Grinnel caviar. Lovely.


Bibb lettuce, buttermilk green goddess dressing, blue cheese, bacon and chives. Gotta love a green goddess.

And there was no room for dessert, needless to say. When you start with fries and pizza and end with the salad, well...I guess I should've listened.