Eleven Memorable Dishes, and Not Even a Full Year By SAM SIFTON

December 30, 2009
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Eleven Memorable Dishes, and Not Even a Full Year By SAM SIFTON

THE best dishes of the year? We'll get to the roasted unicorn in dwarf-fairy reduction sauce soon enough. But perspective is everything. For much of 2009 I was not the restaurant critic of The New York Times. I was the newspaper's culture editor, with little access to the sort of food that ordinarily appears in articles like this one.

Many of my meals were taken at my desk, between phone calls or sometimes during them, sometimes three times a day. Others were taken on weekends, the children in tow, rushing from beach to grocery store to birthday party or back. Still more were eaten at the bars of Times Square gin mills well after the newspaper's nightly deadlines, as colleagues railed into the dark against the perfidy of whoever had stood in the way of our getting to the place earlier.

Of course, I did not go hungry before stepping into the big brogans of Frank Bruni, my brilliant and tireless predecessor, who left his post at the end of August. As a civilian with a deep interest in the city's restaurant culture, I was able to sneak in some truly memorable dishes this year: among them, a perfect agnolotti del plin at Del Posto; a tiny piece of French toast at Momofuku Ko; a crisp and juicy truffle-stuffed chicken thigh with Medjool dates, carrot mousseline and tatsoi at Per Se.

As an amateur, I would also rate the suckling-pig tacos that Jimmy Bradley served as a Monday night special at the Red Cat in Chelsea as among the best things I ate in 2009. I also loved the spicy chicken shwarma served at the new, expanded Pick-a-Pita on Eighth Avenue near the newsroom, and the Korean tacos from the Kogi truck in Los Angeles.

But the following list, presented in no particular order, reflects my recent experience as a professional eater. It is the accounting of a fellow feeding with critical intent, who has read back over some months of notes to determine what, of all the new dishes in all the new restaurants in New York City, really were his favorites. (Since The Times does not review new restaurants until a decent interval has passed, the list includes a few dishes from places that opened at the end of 2008.)

In such cases where it seemed appropriate, I reached out to the creators and asked for a recipe. Even made by an amateur with a grim kitchen in Somewheresville, they can approximate the quality experienced here in the big town, under sparkling lights.

THE SMOKED HADDOCK TART AT LE CAPRICE It is early days yet over at Le Caprice, the new American outpost of London's club-like Piccadilly snob-shop, but Michael Hartnell, the chef, has at least one good card to play: this marvelous appetizer. With smoked haddock still a relative rarity in the United States, its smoky sweetness is a small taste of British sophistication, especially against the melting gold of the two tiny poached quail eggs he places above the pastry. Eaten at the bar, after the application of a Hendrick's martini, this dish can leave even the rubiest of American rubes feeling Bondlike and well fed. In the Pierre Hotel, 795 Fifth Avenue (61st Street), Upper East Side, (212) 940-8195.

THE FUSILLI WITH RED-WINE BRAISED OCTOPUS AND BONE MARROW AT MAREA This is surf and turf from Crazytown, Italy, near the American border. Michael White, the hugely talented pasta maven behind Chris Cannon's excellent new restaurant in the space that used to be San Domenico, cooks a mirepoix in a heavy pot, then adds baby octopus, Sangiovese and tomato purée. This simmers away for an hour, until the little fellows are fork tender and the sauce gone almost thick with flavor. The result is introduced to a serious amount of seared bone marrow and some twirls of house-made fusilli. The marrow emulsifies and acts as butter does in a sauce — if butter were 10 times richer than it already is. The combination is a loving marriage between separate species. 240 Central Park South (Broadway), Columbus Circle, (212) 582-5100.

THE POMMES ALIGOT AT MINETTA TAVERN A side dish, particularly well suited to the restaurant's excellent roast chicken, the pommes aligot at Keith McNally's glittery remake of this Greenwich Village landmark are a marvel of silky excellence. (They more than make up for the restaurant's one notable misstep: a partly open kitchen that clashes with both the aesthetic of the room and the heretofore modest demeanor of the men who run it, Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson.) Yukon Gold potatoes are whipped smooth with garlic, enormous amounts of butter and cheddar curds until they begin to turn to ribbons — a potato dish that is literally elastic. It tastes of Alpine clouds. 113 Macdougal Street (Minetta Lane), Greenwich Village, (212) 475-3850.

THE DUCK MEATLOAF AT BUTTERMILK CHANNEL Buttermilk Channel roared onto the Brooklyn dining scene late last year with family-friendly service, an excellent wine list and a great deal of comforting food. Popovers and fried chicken don't make year-end roundups, though. Rich, raisin-studded, thyme-infused duck meatloaf does. Doug Crowell, the restaurant's owner, is pairing the meat with puréed parsnips zipped on orange and star anise. You could do that at home, too, or try it alongside the pommes aligot. 524 Court Street (Huntington Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, (718) 852-8490.

THE BOUDIN BASQUE AT DBGB KITCHEN AND BAR This disk of spicy blood sausage with bits of head meat for textural contrast is served above a small pool of scallion-brightened, cream-thickened mashed potatoes. It is the standout sausage among many at Daniel Boulud's audacious new restaurant on the lower Bowery, just a few steps down from the birthplace of punk rock. Through a spokeswoman, Georgette Farkas, Mr. Boulud declined to offer a recipe for the home cook. It's too easy for it all to go terribly wrong, Ms. Farkas said. Not at the restaurant, though! 299 Bowery (Houston Street), East Village, (212) 933-5300.

THE MEATBALL PIZZA AT CO. Jim Lahey's much debated Chelsea pizzeria is devoted almost to a fault to the excellence of its dough, as Frank Bruni sagely pointed out in his one-star review of the restaurant in the spring. But in recent months, Mr. Lahey's been dialing in his toppings and the use of his insanely hot oven; he's now putting out pies that are good enough to do justice to his dough and to rival the city's best pizzas. The veal meatball version, with buffalo mozzarella, tomato, caramelized onions, gaeta olives, aged pecorino and oregano, is my favorite. 230 Ninth Avenue (24th Street), Chelsea, (212) 243-1105.

THE PRIME MANHATTAN AT PRIME MEATS There are a lot of people here who appear to have dressed for a Vancouver trapping expedition, attended a gallery show in Bushwick, and then had the idea to mush over to Carroll Gardens for absinthe. But this restaurant from the brilliant team behind the Frankies empire, while not even yet completely open, has wonderful food and a truly inspired drinks menu arranged by Damon Boelte. His Manhattan, built out of 100-proof Rittenhouse rye, Dolin sweet vermouth and bitters made at the restaurant out of buddha's hand, a lemony citrus fruit, is a glass of refinement afforded only artists and dreamers: a direct portal into an imaginary 19th-century New York City. 465 Court Street (Luquer Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, (718) 254-0327.

THE OYSTER PAN ROAST AT THE JOHN DORY Here's a wild card. This restaurant opened in December 2008, and closed in August. But April Bloomfield, the chef and an owner, and Ken Friedman, another owner, now have The Breslin to their name, and are making noises about reopening the John Dory in another space. So there's some chance we'll see this marvelous dish — a murderously rich pan roast topped with toast slathered in uni butter — again. Here's hoping: it made my winter last year. This year, you can cook it at home.

THE FRIED CURRIED PINK SNAPPER AT OCEANA Served upright, as if it had been caught swimming through hot oil and flash-fried into statuary, this amazing dish is among the most flavorful you can get at the new and massive version of stately old Oceana, now in the McGraw-Hill Building on West 49th Street. Served with lotus coins and strips of cucumber, with cilantro strewn here and there above its fantastic Indian-inflected sauce, it is a superb meal for two, accompanied by some spicy Napa cabbage. 1221 Avenue of the Americas (entrance on 49th Street), Midtown, (212) 759-5941.

THE CLASSIC BANH MI AT BAOGUETTE You can take subways, buses and trains to taste and debate the best banh mi in town. For the best I had in a new restaurant, though, look no farther than lower Lexington Avenue, where Michael Huynh opened Baoguette last December. His classic version, with house-made pâté, terrine and pork belly on a baguette from Tom Cat Bakery, with pickled daikon, cilantro and jalapeño, dabbed with their own mayo and squirted with fish sauce and Sriracha, is delicious and, at $5, among the best quality-to-cost ratios available in the city. 61 Lexington Avenue (between 25th and 26th Streets), Murray Hill, (212) 532-1133

THE MAPLE BUDINO AT LOCANDA VERDE Karen DeMasco is the wildly gifted pastry chef at Locanda Verde, which the chef Andrew Carmellini opened in the Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa with a team of partners in the late spring. She brought a beautiful simplicity to the dessert menu at Tom Colicchio's Craft, where her impact was big enough that, more than a year after she left, she is still prominently featured on that restaurant's Web site. At Locanda Verde, she brings deep flavor and mischievous intensity to a dessert menu that sees its heights in a dark maple budino with candied pecans and cranberry sorbetto. Make it at home and serve it to friends exactly as if you were serving overstrong cocktails or recreational drugs. Taxonomically speaking, they are all of a piece. The Greenwich Hotel, 377 Greenwich Street (North Moore Street), TriBeCa, (212) 925-3797.
Critic’s Notebook - Selecting the Year’s Top 11 New Dishes - Review - NYTimes.com (30 December 2009)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/dining/reviews/30year.html?pagewanted=print
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