Prune and DBGB: an epic dinner

The globe-trotting bastard consultant and I have been talking about hitting up Prune to try their famed organ meat dishes for ages. No he's not really a bastard, but I hate seeing all of his Facebook postings of various culinary adventures across this fine land and across the pond as well. Hate seeing and can't stop looking.

Since DBGB opened up nearby, we decided to roll that in as well. Thursday night, reservations at Prune at 8:00pm, reservations at DBGB at 9:45pm. All the makings for pure gustatory nirvana.

We started out with a huge lobe of sweetbreads at Prune, deep fried and sitting in a lemon-caper sauce that broke and highlighted the creaminess of the sweetbread. My friend found it too light, but I enjoyed the almost airy texture.


Grilled marinated veal heart with mint-yogurt dressing was also a winner. The sliced heart was tender and delicious, and people it's a dying shame you don't at least expose yourself to beef heart and tongue. I promise you they are both very safe and delicious.

The roasted bone marrow with the side of parsley salad reminded both of us of St. John's preparation in London, except at Prune, they add sliced cornichons to their salad. It was the highlight in an array of strong, well-executed dishes. Topped with a sprinkling of sea salt, the glistening marrow is pure fat-loving ecstasy.

To break up the rich meat dishes, we ordered a side of fresh peas, chanterelles and ricotta. A lovely addition, where each ingredient was able to shine in its own right.

We had time for dessert and went with a huge scoop of ricotta ice cream and salted-caramel croutons. There wasn't a distinct flavor to the ice cream beyond an overarching sense of pure milk, but the cold dessert mingled beautifully with the slightly bitter caramel. The salted croutons could have used more salt and were so inundated in the sauce that it was a tad overwhelming.

All-in-all, Prune kitchen made a very impressive showing.

We had polished off a bottle of red at Prune while enjoying our delicious fare, so were in a right amiable mood but the time we walked through the glass doors of DBGB.

First up, Tablier de Sapeur, including a Lyonnaise-style tripe I had not had before. crispy fried squares of tripe. In the lettuce cup was a more familiar preparation of sliced tripe in a slightly piquant tomato dressing. The fried tripe was fantastic. The multitude of ridges in the cow stomach turned into a thin crispy shell with the application of blistering oil, encasing the pure unadulterated taste of tripe.

The main revelation of the night was Boulud's Pied de Cochon Pané. We had expected a standard preparation not dissimilar to Au Pied de Cochon in Paris, where the pig's feet are just fried whole. We're not huge fans of Au Pied de Cochon's pig's feet, but we just didn't realize life could be better -- and how much better.

Daniel appears to have instructed his chefs to cook the foot whole first, my guess is that it was cooked in a seasoned broth, but I really have no idea. Then most of the main bones are removed from the foot, the whole thing is rolled up, rolled in what appears to have been a seasoned cornmeal flour and deep fried.

At first we were shocked to see what appeared to be a long fried log, and even after we cut in I didn't fully realize what awaited me. I took a bite from what turned out to be the back end of the foot, whereas my friend cut a slice from the front. The back end has more of the meat, and it was fantastic. But then I saw a change of expression on my companion's face, pure silence (which is rare), and he leaned to rest his shoulder on the edge of the table and just chewed with a ridiculous look of pure bliss on his face.

If you are the sort of chap who likes things like pig's feet, DBGB's rendition is absolutely $@!*-ing amazing. When you get a bite with a hearty amount of the thick dense gelatinous part of the foot, which is what my friend got, you get to experience a taste that is beyond good. Go, run, try it my friend.

The food gods must have been smiling on us that night because we got to alternate bites of the pig's feet with another show-stopper: DBGB's Boudin Basque on a bed or scallion mashed potatoes. Nestled in the spicy, iron-rich boudin noir were cubes of meltingly tender meat from the pig's head. The scallion mashed potatoes were perfectly smooth without a hint of gumminess. Someone figured out how to get the potatoes to the smoothest consistency possible without breaking up anymore starchy cells than necessary. It was a bloody perfect dish I tell you.

And on any other day, if the Toulouse sausage didn't have to compete with the Boudin Basque and pied de cochon, it would have received far more adoration that we gave it last night. The cassoulet beans were perfectly cooked. The skins were barely noticeable, allowing us to enjoy the richly seasoned, creamy beans, which were topped by a thin topping of crispy bread crumbs. The sausage was stuffed with pork, duck gizzard, and garlic and had an extremely fatty and strong flavor of offal, depending on which bite of sausage you got.

By now we were finishing up our second bottle of red for the night and we moved on to close with dessert.

We chose the Gâteau Russe with pistachio mousse and rasberry. It was lovely. It was all lovely. A wonderful night.

Prune, 54 E. 1st St. (nr. First Ave.), New York, 212-677-6221

DBGB, 299 Bowery (at Houston), New York, 212, 933-5303