Shiny Berries, Shiny Life

As predicted, my days have been filled with farewell lunches and dinners and breakfasts, which is great because I can kill two birds with one stone- see a friend and try a new restaurant! I know how to work it!

No, really I do, because I take control. I do serious research and I make sure that we aren't going to waste our time and money on a so-so restaurant. We are in New York City, for crying out loud! If we are going to gorge, we are going to gorge on the best (ahem.. the best within our price range)!

ANYWAYS, because I have loads of free time when I am not eating or researching restaurants, last week I was able to participate in a focus group where I talked about photos for 90 minutes in exchange for a generous sum of money. Woot! Woot! I tucked that money away for... oh, take a wild guess why don't you?! FOOD! I wanted to treat Shawn and myself to a fancy feast to celebrate "the news".

Last night we finally went on our official celebratory dinner. I picked out our restaurant months ago. Flex Mussles. Go ahead and visit the site so you can check out all of the amazing options we had. And then be jealous.

So. I will begin with where we began. Oysters.

I have NEVER had an oyster before. Part of the reason for that is this crazy phobia I have- that upon eating an oyster I will die a swift and terrifying death of asphyxiation. It's totally irrational, I am not allergic to any shellfish (or... anything at all... that I know of), but that's part of the definition of a phobia; the knowledge that the fear is totally irrational. SO. I faced my fear and I ate an oyster. It wasn't bad, but I only ate one, because while Shawn ate the rest of them I needed to focus my attention on controlling my breathing so that I wouldn't go into full blown panic mode. But I did it! I ate an oyster! And that's enough of an accomplishment that I think I could end this post right here.

But I won't. Because we kept eating, and you need to know about it. (Don't worry, it's mostly pictures from here on out.)

We ordered two different kind of mussels and FRIES. This place is known for having some of the best fries in Manhattan. I was really looking forward to them, and they were good, but the mussels were far more memorable.

Shawn chose the San Daniele- prosciutto, caramelized onions, white wine and garlic.

I chose the Parma (cheesy goodness!!)- parmigiano cream, meyer lemon, scallions, toasted garlic and shallots.

Now for the desserts... DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

Shawn's selection: Frozen Key Lime Pie with honey graham cake, whipped white chocolate and fresh blueberries. You guys, those fresh blueberries were rolled in edible glitter! I don't think you can tell from the photo, but it was the most magical looking dessert I have ever seen!

My selection: Four Flex Donuts with my personally selected fillings: chocolate, salted caramel, blueberry and meyer lemon... and a vanilla bean dipping sauce.