'Tis The Season: Wolfgang Ban Ignites NYC with Austrian Flavor at Midtown's Seasonal

August 9, 2009 9:55 pm

'Tis The Season: Wolfgang Ban Ignites NYC with Austrian Flavor at Midtown's Seasonal

$Behind the Burner: \'Tis The Season: Wolfgang Ban Ignites NYC with Austrian Flavor at Midtown\'s Seasonal$

Attending opening exhibition parties at the MOMA involves very tasty spiced almonds, long lines at the bar (where men do better than women; the bartenders play for their team, not mine) and occasionally some art with viewing. I stood in front of the showcase exhibitions displayed rows and rows of plastic bottles and thought to myself: "They call this art, I call it recycling." I enjoyed my artistic fill for the evening and moved on to an activity I enjoy considerably more—eating. My friend Lisa suggested we go to Seasonal and since I'm always ready to try a new restaurant, I was game. Chef Wolfgang Ban, aka "Wolfgang from the East" as he likes to call himself, wowed us with his Austrian specialties.

We started with Ziegenkäse Salat, which consisted of pumpkin seed crusted goat cheese, mixed greens, salt baked baby beets topped with shallot elderflower dressing. I also tried Schlutzkrapfen, featuring Allgäu mountain cheese ravioli, morals, fava beans and pea sauce. Each cheesy bite melted in my mouth. For our entrees, we tried what is called, Spätzle—a homemade Austrian egg pasta also with fava beans, ramps, and asparagus. I noticed that Wolfang seems to use similar ingredients for almost all his recipes. Beets were in two of our dishes, same with fava beans and ramps kept reappearing. Still, this did not take away from the quality of the delicious food we enjoyed all night long. We also tried some Wiener Schnitzel, a breaded veal cutlet with crescent potato-cucumber salad and homemade lingonberry jam. Wolfgang paired the finest wines that Austria has to offer. Americans often think of dry white wines (often made from the Grüner Veltliner grape) when they think of Austrian wines. Sometimes you even think of Austria's sweet dessert wines made around the Neusiedler. It was a rare pleasure that this talented chef introduced me to an Austrian grape, Gelber Muskateller that I had not even heard of!

You would probably think we were full by the time we finished our entrées—but hey, you thought wrong. After reviewing the delectable dessert menu, we delved into some Erdbeerknödel, sugar coated strawberry dumplings served with rhubarb compote, pumpkin seed and vanilla ice cream. The strawberries were heavenly. My friend Andrea was particularly pleased that we dragged her along for this gourmet fare. She proclaimed she only used to eating "cereal, ice cream, and what she can put in her microwave."

Seasonal
132 W 58th Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues)
New York, NY 10019
212.957.5550

—Divya Gugnani