As i may have mentioned [300times] previously, Saturday night Bear and i went to “SWEET” at the NYC wine and food festival. What’s SWEET? Imagine a cool downtown party space filled with more desserts than you could possibly eat (featuring many of “the best” restaurants in town) all the champagne/fruity vodka-y concoctions/scotch you can drink, with plenty of space to sit/rest/people watch/listen to Sam Ronson at the turntables between culinary fill-ups…

from the festival website:
“the greatest collection of sweets ever found in one location: frosted layer cakes with filling flavors you’ll love; dark chocolates infused with exotic spices that will ruin you for everyday candy bars; cookies crafted from the finest ingredients and resembling works of art; ice-cream so rich and creamy you will dream about it for days. For one blissful evening, New York’s finest confectioners and cheese artisans will join forces in an amazing display of sugar and dairy. Hosted by the king of over-the-top desserts – industrial-strength cake-maker Duff Goldman. –this party will also feature the world’s most perfect accompaniment to sweet, rich, ooey-gooey dessert: Champagne and specialty cocktails from Absolut Vodka. Other fine wines and spirits will round out the beverage list, making this all so much better than your usual midnight trip to the cookie jar.”

tickets to this little shindig were $175 each (seriously? in this economy people are paying $175 for chocolate?  don’t tell suze ormond….), but my Bear, being the crafty and determined fellow that he is, won our tickets in an internet contest.  just in time for our anniversary, and with free babysitting courtesy of Marie-Ph., we got dressed up and hit the town.  we started the evening with a carriage ride through Central Park, which we’d never done before and i knew would make a nice addition to my ongoing “new yorky things i’ve always meant to do” list.  it was a clear balmy evening, and the ride was just so perfectly peaceful and cuddly and lovey-dovey. as you can see above, our carriage driver wasn’t so great at getting pictures in the dark night (i even put the flash on for him….but, well….what’re you gonna do?).

then again, i wasn’t doing such a great job getting the camera to focus, either:

[obviously, i'm really testing my own resolution to "embrace and post imperfect pictures" here.]

out of the 40 or so dessert tables, i think i only made it through about 8….but it was all good. really, really good. there were lots of concord grape things, and lots of chocolate, and the thing that sounded the most unappetizing to me (Warm Brioche, Maple Syrup, Smoked Crème Anglaise) was actually melt-in-your-mouth amazing. my favorite, though, and the place i’m putting on my “must make repeat visits” list, were the macarons from MAD MAC.  (You know how, in the past, i took all our visitors out for perfect nyc cupcakes? well y’all, it’s time to come back and visit; this year we’re having fresh madeleines and macarons.  i loved them so much, if we ever have a boy, i think his name will be Florian…)

Oh.  And if you’re just dying for more out-of-focus (because i refuse to use the flash), straight-out-of-camera people-and-food-watching pictures, here you go:

[yeah, for christmas/birthday/anniversary i'm asking for a wide angle lens that works well in low light.  and some new dancing shoes. and a plane ticket. ...don't tell suze ormond.]