Landmarc Mussels and Beer Tasting

B and I attended an exclusive Circle of Taste event at Landmarc in Columbus Circle on Thursday evening. I had won the tickets from Wined & Dined via Twitter (it pays to follow them in many ways). "Taste a Holiday by the Sea," hosted by Chef Marc Murphy, served five different possible mussel preparations and your choice of dark or light Belgian beer. Not only did B and I have a great time (essentially counting this as part two of his birthday celebration), but we also left with a sweet goodie bag.

The preparations included: shallots, parsley & white wine, pesto & cherry tomato, provencal, dijonnaise, chorizo & onion. Between the two of us, we tried the white wine, pesto, and chorizo styles. There were also trays of frites on the table for group sharing. I had one and a half glasses of the light Belgian beer. B drank a glass of each type, along with my leftovers.

First, we both tried the shallots, parsley & white wine mussels. Each generously-sized portion came in a small cast iron pot. The mussels themselves were fairly small, but plump. I enjoyed chewing down on each piece and experiencing their initial toughness giving away to soft meat. The flavor of the sauce exposed a hint of the parsley and was very savory. In fact, I think my favorite part was actually dipping soaking pieces of bread into the sauce and devouring it in one bite. B almost wanted to drink it like a soup.

Next, we decided to select two other different varieties of mussels. I requested the chorizo & onion and B ordered the pesto & cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes that topped the mussels and were juicy, sweet and sour. While the tomato and pesto were great, they were separated a bit too far by layers of mussel for them both to be enjoyed together. Once I reached the point where I could savor the pesto sauce, the tomatoes were all gone.

On the other hand, the chorizo and onion was intimately mixed together and piled on top of the mussels.  The chorizo had a very pleasant spicy kick to it; I thought that it almost stole the show from the mussels! The light beer went pretty well with all three types, but I think I enjoyed it the most with the cherry tomatoes and chorizo.

Sitting next to us were two lawyers, one who was a Circle of Taste veteran. While they probably joined this program legitimately several weeks/months ago, I only had signed up after @wineanddined made the suggestion. Let me just say this: if you're a foodie and in New York, you should sign up for this free membership. You're able to enter different lotteries for unique food experiences at any of the restaurants in the Times Warner Center. For example, Bouchon Bakery is holding a wine and chocolate tasting on December 10th that you can enter for right now!

To be honest, I was expecting a little more education about the food. Especially at a tasting, I would have enjoyed learning about what I was eating and why. I was also looking forward to meeting Marc Murphy since the invite said that he was hosting the event. However, we did get a friendly hello from his sous chef. While the service was very friendly and attentive, the coordination of getting the food and drinks out to everyone was a bit off. It might be the due to the quantity of made-to-order mussel variations that needed to be executed. The sheer length of the 18-person table just magnified the timing hiccups. It may have worked better with two smaller tables of 9.

Overall, the tasting was a very enjoyable event and I'd like to thank Wine and Dined, Candice and Chuck from MWW, and everyone at Landmarc!

More photos can be found here.