Return of Bistrouge and Milk Bar 03-28-2009

Location: 432 E 13th St
Time: 7:30pm
People: JB, JCor, PTra, RB and myself

Feelings: RB's family visited us from Long Island, so we decided to take them to our favorite Pan-European bistro, Bistrouge in East Village. We started off with their three rustic appetizers: zucchini pancakes, grilled asparagus, and vodka cured Alaskan salmon. As we sipped our drinks and chatted about what each was up to, we shared our love for the asparagus. It was quite flavorful and refined, and I, the ovo-pescetarian who never tasted beef in my life, somehow thought these fiberous asparagus must be what beef steak tastes like. (Of course, RB clarified to me that this tastes nothing like meat.)

RB and I ordered our favorite, mussels and frites, and we enjoyed their fearsomely rich flavors. I felt the mussels were smaller and came with less soup than the last time, so it was a bit disappointing, but the dense flavor was still delicious and enjoyable. Then I found out why I had less soup than usual: while the waiter was serving, he dripped quite a lot of mussel juice down JB's jacket. This was very unpleasant since the waiter did not even notice what had happened. To make matters worse, JB does not care for seafood or the smell of it, and she was stuck with a rather unpleasant and fishy mussel juice flavored coat for the rest of her night.

Post Mussels Dessert: Momofuku Milk Bar, 207 2nd Ave

While trying to conceal the memory of the greatest mussel juice incident of 2009, we walked a block to Momofuku Milk Bar. It was packed as if we were actually at a bar that serves beer, not cereal milk. Yes, PTra actually enjoyed their famous cereal milk while we attacked a dozen cookies. JCor and I enjoyed fluffy and moist corn cookies while PTra, RB and JB preferred rich and dense peanut butter cookies and compost cookies.

Needless to say, RB and I woke up with cookie hangovers next morning.

EDIT (4-8-2009): What a nice surprise! The owner of Bistrouge contacted me after reading my post. They sent me quite a generous email, offering the dry cleaning bill and drinks on the house. Although JB did not need dry cleaning for her jacket, I appreciate such thorough and warm customer service, which is hard to find nowadays in NYC. Bistrouge remains to be one of my favorite restaurants, even more than ever, and I hope to visit them soon.