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I don't know how many other people have noticed, but the majority of restaurant offerings for New Year's Eve dinner are terrible this year.  I'm not sure if this is a local phenomenon or not, but I'm really getting worried about where I'll be at the end of the month.  In my opinion, dinner on December 31st is the single most important meal of the year.

Thanksgiving is a close second, but that day's focus is togetherness, and appreciation--moreso than gorging.  If you don't think so, then you're doing it wrong.  Even a birthday meal doesn't compete, since they're often about accommodating guests over yourself, and most of us have to work the next day.

New Years Eve is the embodiment of the saying, "Drink and be merry for tomorrow we die."  It's actually much more serious than that, given dieting is worse than death.  But from a symbolic standpoint, it's the last day before we reinvent ourselves, and push ourselves, to be better people.  Whether our new journeys last one week or one month, they're terrible to consider leading up to the start of them.  Anticipation is always worse than the needle itself.

On New Year's Eve, I want to go out with the summation of all the bad things I did during the year.  For me, my '09 vice was food.  A few months, I ate a couple LCD TV's worth of food.  That's really hard to do when you travel on an expense account 16 days of the month.  

Honestly--it's really easy to do.  In Chicago.  And probably New York City.

In my criticism's of planned menus thus far, I was asked, "What makes a good/bad NYE menu?"  Not an easy question to answer, or at least for the general public.  To be completely selfish, I want pure decadence, and a lot of it.  I want to spend my holiday bonus not on gifts, but this one meal.  So far, the restaurant winning my New Year's attendance is one sixtyblue.  Think truffles, stone crab, foie gras and Wagyu beef.

From RIA: The meal begins with housemade saffron linguine with aged pecorino and shaved white Alba truffles.  Second course is chilled fresh Florida stone crab with hearts of palm and fresh wasabi.  Next is seared Sonoma foie gras with caramelized pineapple and buttermilk sorbet. Butter-poached Wagyu beef rib-eye is the final savory course, served with grilled matsutake mushrooms and roasted salsify.  Dessert is a bittersweet chocolate terrine with Cava sabayon and gingerbread.

Damn. 

Other than wonderful company, and the champagne toast being a given, the single most important part of the meal is a single great main attraction.  One course that causes all conversation to cease, jaws to drop, and invoke severe dilation.  Something that will make the organizer of the party look awesome.  Just don't skimp out--we'll all need a strong foundation from this meal to last the night.

I really dislike advertised bargains as they all end in disappointment.  This is the time to market excellence and quality, not low price point.  Since the majority rules, the real question is--what do YOU want for New Year's Ever this year?  Please discuss.

Update on Friday, December 11, 2009 at 9:51AM by Stash

We have another contender!  Check out Sprout's newly released NYE menu-

Comments

[SippitySup]

I could have written this post word for word! As for me, I am unsure how good the food will be or even if we'll eat in a restaurant/ But I will be in the mountains of Panama near the Costa Rican border! So memories and symbols will be made aplenty. GREG