December 30, 2010
In Search of History on a Plate By SAM SIFTON
History buffs and first-time visitors had questions this week. Send me your own dining queries via dinejournal@nytimes.com or Twitter.com/samsifton.
Q. My partner and I are students of history, particularly New York City during the World War II years. I’m a native New Yorker, so I actually got to eat at the last Automat in the city on 42nd Street and Third Avenue before it closed. I would love to take my partner to eat at a place that hasn’t changed much, in both atmosphere and cuisine, since the 1940s. Any places you recommend around the city that would satisfy our curiosity?
A. Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, on Fifth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets, ought to fit the bill nicely. It’s been in business since the late 1920s and has in its service, atmosphere and sandwiches something of what I imagine you’re looking for: history on a plate. Egg salad with bacon on rye, with a fountain Coke, and you’ll find yourself slipping back through the years.
When this question was posted on the Diner’s Journal blog of The New York Times, readers chimed in with their suggestions:
My father’s first meal in the U.S. when the war ended was at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal. I understand they had a fire sometime since, but they rebuilt it exactly as it was. I had the great fortune of eating there with him two decades ago, and he said it looked exactly the same. After my father died, my mother would visit my sister in New York at Thanksgiving, and I would come up from Philly that Friday for a lunch there in his honor. After my mother died, my sister and I continued the tradition. — JANA, Philadelphia
Sam, the must-have Eisenberg’s item is a chocolate egg cream. You are missing out if you haven’t tried it. — BodegaVendetta, New York
Why not have breakfast or lunch at Barney Greengrass? It’s been there forever (as have the Formica counters). and it is a real piece of New York history. Plus, the smoked fish is excellent. — rts, New York
Q. My 16-year-old niece and a school friend, both from London, will be staying with me in Greenwich Village over a weekend in February. Both are low key, sporty and fairly unhip. Where would you suggest that I take them for a Saturday evening meal? Thank you very much for your ideas.
A. Take them to Mary’s Fish Camp and introduce them to America. Or go to Otto for fancy pizza. (You could go to Arturo’s for old-school, not-fancy pizza, instead: deeply unhip.) Maybe Bianca on Bleecker Street? And cute little Jean Claude on Sullivan Street for Saturday night.
Q. What Italian restaurant would you recommend in the city for a family of 10 for dinner? We have eaten at Alto, Convivio, Al di Là, Il Mulino, Del Posto, Pó, Lupa and Babbo. Price is not an issue.
A. That’s a good position in which to find yourself! Make a reservation at Scarpetta and see how you do. Scott Conant’s the chef, a pasta wizard out of Waterbury, Conn., who cooked at Alto and L’Impero before he had a falling out with Chris Cannon, an owner of those restaurants, who then hired the chef Michael White for both properties, made one of them Convivio and, with Mr. White, opened Marea, which you should also totally try except that, well, it’s a long story spooling itself out right now in lawyers’ offices at around $700 an hour. Go to Scarpetta. Black tagliolini with lobster and minted bread crumbs!
Q. I’m coming to New York for the first time from Australia for a week at the end of January. While I can’t wait to try out some of the food experiences I’ve been reading about all these years, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by choice. Can you suggest some quintessential dining experiences for a first-timer? Despite the great state of the Aussie dollar at the moment, and because I’ll be traveling alone, I’ll probably steer clear of the high-end restaurants this time. I’m looking to spend no more than $60 a meal at the top end for dinner and will be staying in the East Village. I’m up for just about anything.
A. First time in the big town, eh? You could never leave the East Village and do well by Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar and Momofuku Ssam Bar. You should certainly have a lunch at Katz’s. Perhaps you should spend one evening tucked into a meal (and the crowd) at the Spotted Pig. Up in Midtown I like the idea of a newcomer experiencing the scene at P. J. Clarke’s. And here is one thing you should do, for sure: walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in the afternoon wearing something decent under your coat, so that you can have an early drink at the River Café before walking back to have dinner in Chinatown, at Oriental Garden.
Old Favorites and New Discoveries
ARTURO’S 106 West Houston Street, at Thompson Street, West Village; .
BARNEY GREENGRASS 541 Amsterdam Avenue, at 86th Street; (212) 724-4707, barneygreengrass.com.
BIANCA 5 Bleecker Street, between Bowery and Elizabeth Streets, Greenwich Village; (212) 260-4666, biancanyc.com.
EISENBERG’S SANDWICH SHOP 174 Fifth Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets, Flatiron district; (212) 675-5096.
JACK’S LUXURY OYSTER BAR 101 Second Avenue, at Sixth Street, East Village; (212) 979-1012.
JEAN CLAUDE 137 Sullivan Street, between Prince and West Houston Streets, SoHo; (212) 475-9232.
KATZ’S DELICATESSEN 205 East Houston Street, between Ludlow and Orchard Streets, Lower East Side; (212) 254-2246, katzdeli.com.
MAREA 240 Central Park South; (212) 582-5100, marea-nyc.com.
MARY’S FISH CAMP 64 Charles Street, at West Fourth Street, West Village; (646) 486-2185, marysfishcamp.com.
MOMOFUKU SSAM BAR 207 Second Avenue, at 13th Street, East Village; (212) 777-7773, momofuku.com/ssam-bar.
ORIENTAL GARDEN 14 Elizabeth Street, between Bayard and Canal Streets, Chinatown; (212) 619-0085, orientalgardenny.com.
OTTO One Fifth Avenue, between East Eighth Street and Washington Mews, Greenwich Village; (212) 995-9559, ottopizzeria.com.
OYSTER BAR Grand Central Terminal (lower level); (212) 490-6650, oysterbarny.com.
P. J. CLARKE’S 915 Third Avenue, at 55th Street, Manhattan; (212) 317-1616, pjclarkes.com.
RIVER CAFE 1 Water Street, at the East River, Dumbo, Brooklyn; (718) 522-5200, rivercafe.com.
SCARPETTA 355 West 14th Street, meatpacking district; (212) 691-0555, scottconant.com/restaurants/scarpetta/new-york.
SPOTTED PIG 314 West 11th Street, West Village; (212) 620-0393, thespottedpig.com.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 31, 2010
An earlier version of this article misidentified Grand Central Terminal.
Showing posts with label Sam Sifton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sam Sifton. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Dishes That Earned Their Stars By SAM SIFTON and Recipe: Guacamole Roasted Grapefruite
December 28, 2010
Dishes That Earned Their Stars By SAM SIFTON
I MADE a list of the 15 best things I ate in New York City in the past year of reviewing restaurants for The New York Times. It is an accounting that comprises restaurant dishes of uncommon excellence and flavor. Together they underscore New York’s place as one of the planet’s best cities in which to dine out.
And we’ll get to them soon enough.
But these dishes make up just one part of a year’s meals taken at the professional table, one sleeve in the accordion folder marked “2010 Delicious.” Add meals I ate out of town on assignment or off the clock or on the way to the clock, and the catalog swells. There is, for example, the sandwich of deep-fried oysters and house-made bacon I had this year at Cochon in New Orleans, served on white Pullman bread with a chili-spiked mayonnaise. And the black vinegar spare ribs with pine nuts served at Shanghai River in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Hoarsely I sing to the poached egg, potato mousseline and chorizo crumble I inhaled at LudoBites 5.0, in downtown Los Angeles. Also to the rabbit parfait with rabbit rillettes and a cinnamon-scented rabbit consommé at Alinea in Chicago (whoa, now!).
Closer to home, there were the Shanghai-style dumplings from Chui Hong Yuan in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, and lunchtime salads from Yemen Café near Brooklyn Heights, and midafternoon pickled veal tongue at M. Wells in Long Island City, Queens, and, always, plates of oxtail gravy over rice and peas from the Golden Krust on Eighth Avenue in Midtown.
For breakfast, there was the grapefruit at Pulino’s in SoHo, not really a dish so much as a magic trick, the fruit covered with muscovado sugar and mint, then cooked into caramel. (A recipe for it and a few other dishes appear here.)
There is the fist of bluefin I got this summer from the fishing guide Brendan McCarthy, who killed a tuna off Cape Cod after a long slog east from Montauk in the wind. I ate part of it raw, with soy sauce, and cooked the rest for the children, who ate it as if it were cake.
And I want to remember forever the martini I drank at the Carlyle before hearing John Pizzarelli and his wife, Jessica Molaskey, sing, with Mr. Pizzarelli’s father, Bucky, in the audience. (I waved to him before the show. “Who’s playing tonight?” he asked, and laughed.)
Also: the barbecue chicken I got from a guy cooking out of a trailer in the parking lot of a Tractor Supply Company in rural Delaware. And a plate of topneck clams from Randazzo’s in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. And the fish tacos I crushed on the sidewalk in front of Juanita’s Taco Shop in Encinitas, Calif. Them, too.
But the following list, which is presented in no particular order, reflects my professional experience over the course of 12 months dining out specifically in New York City restaurants, hoping each night to be surprised, yearning to be delighted, always hungry for the next great bite.
CODFISH FRITTERS WITH LAMB-SAUSAGE RAGÙ AT RECETTE Jesse Schenker, the extravagantly tattooed chef and owner of this estimable West Village restaurant, makes a classic salt-cod bacalao, then deep-fries small balls of it. Paired with a fiery little lamb Bolognese with hints of smoked paprika and vinegar, and served beneath a drizzle of curried mayonnaise, it is an immensely flavorful introduction to his studied, intricate and soulful cooking. 328 West 12th Street (Greenwich Street), Greenwich Village; , recettenyc.com.
‘SIMPLY COOKED’ SCALLOPS AT THE MARK RESTAURANT BY JEAN-GEORGES Four scallops the color of gold, adorned only with salt and pepper, sitting on a white plate in the manner of a gift. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who opened this restaurant in the Mark Hotel this year with Pierre Schutz in the kitchen, pairs the shellfish with a small bowl of sauce: a pink-hued, sriracha-enhanced mixture of egg yolks, grapeseed oil, kombu seaweed water and orange and lime juice. Mayonnaise for the celestial set. 25 East 77th Street, Upper East Side; (212) 606-3030, themarkrestaurantnyc.com.
BURGUNDY SNAILS AT MÁ PÊCHE These tender little nuggets, garlicky and sweet, are as pure an example of old-school French cooking as you’re ever likely to find at a David Chang restaurant, outside of the way the cooks bathe fish in hot butter at Momofuku Ko. Tien Ho, Má Pêche’s chef, combines the snails with a fat pork sausage in a sticky, almost unctuous sauce, suitable for mopping and mopping and mopping up with a crisp piece of baguette. 15 West 56th Street, Midtown; (212) 757-5878, momofuku.com/ma-peche/.
WHOLE WHEAT TONARELLI WITH SPICY CICERCHIE, ROSEMARY AND SHAVED BONITO AT DEL POSTO It sounds like hippie spaghetti with chickpeas, I know. But Mark Ladner, whose brilliance in the kitchen helped elevate Del Posto into the thin air of four-star restaurants this year, takes a rich, toothsome pasta and combines it with the earthy flavor of chickpeas and the piney scent of rosemary to create something that evokes nothing so much as a coastal forest. As the bonito flakes wilt and shrivel in the heat of the finished dish, they release a briny pungency into the air, completing the mental image. It’s crazy: this was just supposed to be dinner. 85 10th Avenue (16th Street); (212) 497-8090, delposto.com.
SMOKED CRAB LAKSA AT FATTY ’CUE A funky smokiness runs along like a bass line in this luscious bowl of soft, thick lai fun noodles, with a melody made up of cold-smoked lump crab meat, tiny anchovies, maitake and shiitake mushrooms, grated daikon, brown-rice vinegar, unrefined palm syrup and fiery chili heat, addictive as Marlboros. 91 South Sixth Street (Bedford Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 599-3090, fattycue.com.
BLACK SEA BASS WITH CHILIES, HERBS, RED BLISS POTATOES AND SPINACH AT ABC KITCHEN Spa food doesn’t come much better than this herb- and jalapeño-scented roast fish served at the second restaurant Mr. Vongerichten opened in Manhattan this year, with Dan Kluger in the kitchen. Soft potatoes accompany the plate, with wilted spinach hit up with sweet lemon confit. Oh, man. 35 East 18th Street, ground floor of ABC Carpet & Home; (212) 475-5829, abckitchennyc.com.
GARGANELLI WITH CREAM, TRUFFLE BUTTER AND PROSCIUTTO AT OSTERIA MORINI These beautifully shaped and cooked quills of pasta swim in heavy cream and truffle-scented butter, alongside wisps of smooth, salty prosciutto. The food of Emilia-Romagna is the point of this pretty new restaurant from Michael White, and if it’s richer and silkier than the genuine article, that is all to the good: Intensity is at the center of his Italian love affair. 218 Lafayette Street (Spring Street), SoHo; (212) 965-8777, osteriamorini.com.
GUACAMOLE FRUTAS AT TOLOACHE It is one of the great treats of the theater district, up there with bumping into Laura Benanti in front of Joe Allen: the chunky guacamole with apple, pear and jalapeño that the chef Julian Medina serves at his marvelous little Mexican joint on 50th Street. Just add margaritas. 251 West 50th Street, Clinton; (212) 581-1818, toloachenyc.com.
CHILI LOBSTER AT MARC FORGIONE An upscale take on the classic Singaporean dish of chili crab, Marc Forgione’s appetizer (at his rustic and comfortable TriBeCa restaurant) offers cull lobster in a fiery sea of butter and sriracha, ginger, soy and lobster stock, with a faint note of lime acidity on top. Big hunks of Texas toast come along with, in place of steamed buns. 134 Reade Street (Hudson Street), TriBeCa; (212) 941-9401, marcforgione.com.
DEVIL’S CHICKEN AT TORRISI ITALIAN SPECIALTIES There is a new menu virtually every night at the tiny restaurant that Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone run out of their Little Italy storefront (at which, at lunchtime, you can reliably find the city’s best turkey sandwich). Dozens of dishes have graced them. But the devil’s chicken, a smoky-hot version of the classic pollo alla diavola, with crackling skin and a swab of tangy local yogurt, remains a highlight. 250 Mulberry Street (Prince Street), Little Italy; (212) 965-0955, piginahat.com.
BUTTER-POACHED OYSTERS WITH CELERY ROOT AT COLICCHIO & SONS In a restaurant that offers both the casual ease of its tap room and the more formalized experience of a tasting menu in its main dining room, these sweet little fatties from the à la carte menu were a brilliant demilitarized zone, with celery root that had been cooked and cut into a vegetable rendition of tagliatelle pasta, and a large smack of American caviar on top for seasoning and texture. 85 10th Avenue (15th Street), Chelsea; (212) 400-6699, colicchioandsons.com.
ARROZ CON PATO AT NUELA Giant, shareable dishes are the chef Adam Schop’s great strength at this nightclubby Latinate restaurant. And nowhere is his skill more apparent than with this big duck paella, served with foie gras, duck confit, seared breast, a pile of gizzards and a massive fried duck egg on a plate the size of a manhole cover: grandiose peasant food in a nightclub restaurant in the greatest city on earth. 43 West 24th Street, Flatiron district; (212) 929-1200, nuelany.com.
HETE BLIKSEM AT VANDAAG Phillip Kirschen-Clark, the chef at this spare and elegant Netherlandish restaurant, brings a firm understanding of the intersection between sweet and savory to this side dish to lunchtime sandwiches and evening hen. “Hot lightning” is how the words translate from the Dutch: little fried fingerling potatoes combined with smoked bacon and a tiny dice of tart apples, all of it glossed in stroop, a velvety syrup made of sugar, butter, cream and molasses, then flavored with juniper, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon. 103 Second Avenue (Sixth Street), East Village; (212) 253-0470, vandaagnyc.com.
CAVATELLI CON VONGOLE AT LINCOLN Opinions abound about whether there should be a $20 million new restaurant on the Lincoln Center campus and, if so, what it should be like and whom it should serve and what they should pay. While you’re discussing that, eat the chef Jonathan Benno’s cavatelli with razor clams, a warm bowl of beautifully prepared pasta the same size as the perfectly cooked clams, with sweet peppers to match and lemon thyme and butter for flavor. The dish leaves people moving their arms as if they were Alan Gilbert at the Philharmonic, calling in the bassoons. Lincoln Center, 142 West 65th Street, Upper West Side; (212) 359-6500, lincolnristorante.com.
SFERA DI CAPRINO, CELERY AND FIG AGRODOLCE AND CELERY SORBET AT DEL POSTO Brooks Headley, the pastry chef at Del Posto, has the appearance of a rock drummer who just fell off the couch. (Until he started cooking, in fact, that was his job.) But he makes dessert like a beautiful demon, and his little goat-cheesecake spheres, rolled in salted bread crumbs made slick with olive oil, with a sweet-and-sour mixture of celery and figs, and a football of celery sorbet, were hands-down the best dessert I ate this year. Check, please! 85 10th Avenue (16th Street); (212) 497-8090; delposto.com.
December 28, 2010
Guacamole de Frutas
Adapted from Julian Medina, Toloache, Manhattan
Time: 10 minutes
1 tablespoon finely diced sweet onion, like Vidalia
1 teaspoon finely diced seeded jalapeño pepper
1 teaspoon lime juice
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely diced peeled Granny Smith apple
2 tablespoons finely diced peeled Asian pear
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 teaspoon thinly sliced basil, preferably Thai
2 ripe Haas avocados
1 tablespoon fresh pomegranate seeds.
1. In a nonreactive mixing bowl, combine onion, jalapeño, lime juice and a pinch salt. Mix well, and add the apple, pear, cranberries and basil. Mix again.
2. Cut the avocados in half, scoop out the pulp and mash it with the ingredients in the bowl. Adjust salt to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with pomegranate seeds. If desired, serve with warm corn tortillas or chips.
Yield: About 1 1/2 cups (4 servings).
Roasted Grapefruit
Adapted from Nate Appleman, Pulino’s Bar & Pizzeria, Manhattan
Time: 15 minutes
1 grapefruit
1/3 cup muscovado sugar
2 teaspoons finely chopped mint.
1. Cut the grapefruit in half and thoroughly loosen all sections with a knife. Dry the cut surface with a paper towel.
2. Put the sugar in a 10-inch heavy skillet and place over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar melts and darkens slightly, about 2 minutes; do not let it burn. Spread it across the pan (it will not coat evenly) and immediately add the grapefruit halves, cut sides down.
3. Move the grapefruit in the pan to coat the surface. Using tongs or two spoons, transfer to serving dishes, cut sides up. Sprinkle with mint and serve immediately.
Yield: 2 servings.
Dishes That Earned Their Stars By SAM SIFTON
I MADE a list of the 15 best things I ate in New York City in the past year of reviewing restaurants for The New York Times. It is an accounting that comprises restaurant dishes of uncommon excellence and flavor. Together they underscore New York’s place as one of the planet’s best cities in which to dine out.
And we’ll get to them soon enough.
But these dishes make up just one part of a year’s meals taken at the professional table, one sleeve in the accordion folder marked “2010 Delicious.” Add meals I ate out of town on assignment or off the clock or on the way to the clock, and the catalog swells. There is, for example, the sandwich of deep-fried oysters and house-made bacon I had this year at Cochon in New Orleans, served on white Pullman bread with a chili-spiked mayonnaise. And the black vinegar spare ribs with pine nuts served at Shanghai River in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Hoarsely I sing to the poached egg, potato mousseline and chorizo crumble I inhaled at LudoBites 5.0, in downtown Los Angeles. Also to the rabbit parfait with rabbit rillettes and a cinnamon-scented rabbit consommé at Alinea in Chicago (whoa, now!).
Closer to home, there were the Shanghai-style dumplings from Chui Hong Yuan in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, and lunchtime salads from Yemen Café near Brooklyn Heights, and midafternoon pickled veal tongue at M. Wells in Long Island City, Queens, and, always, plates of oxtail gravy over rice and peas from the Golden Krust on Eighth Avenue in Midtown.
For breakfast, there was the grapefruit at Pulino’s in SoHo, not really a dish so much as a magic trick, the fruit covered with muscovado sugar and mint, then cooked into caramel. (A recipe for it and a few other dishes appear here.)
There is the fist of bluefin I got this summer from the fishing guide Brendan McCarthy, who killed a tuna off Cape Cod after a long slog east from Montauk in the wind. I ate part of it raw, with soy sauce, and cooked the rest for the children, who ate it as if it were cake.
And I want to remember forever the martini I drank at the Carlyle before hearing John Pizzarelli and his wife, Jessica Molaskey, sing, with Mr. Pizzarelli’s father, Bucky, in the audience. (I waved to him before the show. “Who’s playing tonight?” he asked, and laughed.)
Also: the barbecue chicken I got from a guy cooking out of a trailer in the parking lot of a Tractor Supply Company in rural Delaware. And a plate of topneck clams from Randazzo’s in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. And the fish tacos I crushed on the sidewalk in front of Juanita’s Taco Shop in Encinitas, Calif. Them, too.
But the following list, which is presented in no particular order, reflects my professional experience over the course of 12 months dining out specifically in New York City restaurants, hoping each night to be surprised, yearning to be delighted, always hungry for the next great bite.
CODFISH FRITTERS WITH LAMB-SAUSAGE RAGÙ AT RECETTE Jesse Schenker, the extravagantly tattooed chef and owner of this estimable West Village restaurant, makes a classic salt-cod bacalao, then deep-fries small balls of it. Paired with a fiery little lamb Bolognese with hints of smoked paprika and vinegar, and served beneath a drizzle of curried mayonnaise, it is an immensely flavorful introduction to his studied, intricate and soulful cooking. 328 West 12th Street (Greenwich Street), Greenwich Village; , recettenyc.com.
‘SIMPLY COOKED’ SCALLOPS AT THE MARK RESTAURANT BY JEAN-GEORGES Four scallops the color of gold, adorned only with salt and pepper, sitting on a white plate in the manner of a gift. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who opened this restaurant in the Mark Hotel this year with Pierre Schutz in the kitchen, pairs the shellfish with a small bowl of sauce: a pink-hued, sriracha-enhanced mixture of egg yolks, grapeseed oil, kombu seaweed water and orange and lime juice. Mayonnaise for the celestial set. 25 East 77th Street, Upper East Side; (212) 606-3030, themarkrestaurantnyc.com.
BURGUNDY SNAILS AT MÁ PÊCHE These tender little nuggets, garlicky and sweet, are as pure an example of old-school French cooking as you’re ever likely to find at a David Chang restaurant, outside of the way the cooks bathe fish in hot butter at Momofuku Ko. Tien Ho, Má Pêche’s chef, combines the snails with a fat pork sausage in a sticky, almost unctuous sauce, suitable for mopping and mopping and mopping up with a crisp piece of baguette. 15 West 56th Street, Midtown; (212) 757-5878, momofuku.com/ma-peche/.
WHOLE WHEAT TONARELLI WITH SPICY CICERCHIE, ROSEMARY AND SHAVED BONITO AT DEL POSTO It sounds like hippie spaghetti with chickpeas, I know. But Mark Ladner, whose brilliance in the kitchen helped elevate Del Posto into the thin air of four-star restaurants this year, takes a rich, toothsome pasta and combines it with the earthy flavor of chickpeas and the piney scent of rosemary to create something that evokes nothing so much as a coastal forest. As the bonito flakes wilt and shrivel in the heat of the finished dish, they release a briny pungency into the air, completing the mental image. It’s crazy: this was just supposed to be dinner. 85 10th Avenue (16th Street); (212) 497-8090, delposto.com.
SMOKED CRAB LAKSA AT FATTY ’CUE A funky smokiness runs along like a bass line in this luscious bowl of soft, thick lai fun noodles, with a melody made up of cold-smoked lump crab meat, tiny anchovies, maitake and shiitake mushrooms, grated daikon, brown-rice vinegar, unrefined palm syrup and fiery chili heat, addictive as Marlboros. 91 South Sixth Street (Bedford Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 599-3090, fattycue.com.
BLACK SEA BASS WITH CHILIES, HERBS, RED BLISS POTATOES AND SPINACH AT ABC KITCHEN Spa food doesn’t come much better than this herb- and jalapeño-scented roast fish served at the second restaurant Mr. Vongerichten opened in Manhattan this year, with Dan Kluger in the kitchen. Soft potatoes accompany the plate, with wilted spinach hit up with sweet lemon confit. Oh, man. 35 East 18th Street, ground floor of ABC Carpet & Home; (212) 475-5829, abckitchennyc.com.
GARGANELLI WITH CREAM, TRUFFLE BUTTER AND PROSCIUTTO AT OSTERIA MORINI These beautifully shaped and cooked quills of pasta swim in heavy cream and truffle-scented butter, alongside wisps of smooth, salty prosciutto. The food of Emilia-Romagna is the point of this pretty new restaurant from Michael White, and if it’s richer and silkier than the genuine article, that is all to the good: Intensity is at the center of his Italian love affair. 218 Lafayette Street (Spring Street), SoHo; (212) 965-8777, osteriamorini.com.
GUACAMOLE FRUTAS AT TOLOACHE It is one of the great treats of the theater district, up there with bumping into Laura Benanti in front of Joe Allen: the chunky guacamole with apple, pear and jalapeño that the chef Julian Medina serves at his marvelous little Mexican joint on 50th Street. Just add margaritas. 251 West 50th Street, Clinton; (212) 581-1818, toloachenyc.com.
CHILI LOBSTER AT MARC FORGIONE An upscale take on the classic Singaporean dish of chili crab, Marc Forgione’s appetizer (at his rustic and comfortable TriBeCa restaurant) offers cull lobster in a fiery sea of butter and sriracha, ginger, soy and lobster stock, with a faint note of lime acidity on top. Big hunks of Texas toast come along with, in place of steamed buns. 134 Reade Street (Hudson Street), TriBeCa; (212) 941-9401, marcforgione.com.
DEVIL’S CHICKEN AT TORRISI ITALIAN SPECIALTIES There is a new menu virtually every night at the tiny restaurant that Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone run out of their Little Italy storefront (at which, at lunchtime, you can reliably find the city’s best turkey sandwich). Dozens of dishes have graced them. But the devil’s chicken, a smoky-hot version of the classic pollo alla diavola, with crackling skin and a swab of tangy local yogurt, remains a highlight. 250 Mulberry Street (Prince Street), Little Italy; (212) 965-0955, piginahat.com.
BUTTER-POACHED OYSTERS WITH CELERY ROOT AT COLICCHIO & SONS In a restaurant that offers both the casual ease of its tap room and the more formalized experience of a tasting menu in its main dining room, these sweet little fatties from the à la carte menu were a brilliant demilitarized zone, with celery root that had been cooked and cut into a vegetable rendition of tagliatelle pasta, and a large smack of American caviar on top for seasoning and texture. 85 10th Avenue (15th Street), Chelsea; (212) 400-6699, colicchioandsons.com.
ARROZ CON PATO AT NUELA Giant, shareable dishes are the chef Adam Schop’s great strength at this nightclubby Latinate restaurant. And nowhere is his skill more apparent than with this big duck paella, served with foie gras, duck confit, seared breast, a pile of gizzards and a massive fried duck egg on a plate the size of a manhole cover: grandiose peasant food in a nightclub restaurant in the greatest city on earth. 43 West 24th Street, Flatiron district; (212) 929-1200, nuelany.com.
HETE BLIKSEM AT VANDAAG Phillip Kirschen-Clark, the chef at this spare and elegant Netherlandish restaurant, brings a firm understanding of the intersection between sweet and savory to this side dish to lunchtime sandwiches and evening hen. “Hot lightning” is how the words translate from the Dutch: little fried fingerling potatoes combined with smoked bacon and a tiny dice of tart apples, all of it glossed in stroop, a velvety syrup made of sugar, butter, cream and molasses, then flavored with juniper, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon. 103 Second Avenue (Sixth Street), East Village; (212) 253-0470, vandaagnyc.com.
CAVATELLI CON VONGOLE AT LINCOLN Opinions abound about whether there should be a $20 million new restaurant on the Lincoln Center campus and, if so, what it should be like and whom it should serve and what they should pay. While you’re discussing that, eat the chef Jonathan Benno’s cavatelli with razor clams, a warm bowl of beautifully prepared pasta the same size as the perfectly cooked clams, with sweet peppers to match and lemon thyme and butter for flavor. The dish leaves people moving their arms as if they were Alan Gilbert at the Philharmonic, calling in the bassoons. Lincoln Center, 142 West 65th Street, Upper West Side; (212) 359-6500, lincolnristorante.com.
SFERA DI CAPRINO, CELERY AND FIG AGRODOLCE AND CELERY SORBET AT DEL POSTO Brooks Headley, the pastry chef at Del Posto, has the appearance of a rock drummer who just fell off the couch. (Until he started cooking, in fact, that was his job.) But he makes dessert like a beautiful demon, and his little goat-cheesecake spheres, rolled in salted bread crumbs made slick with olive oil, with a sweet-and-sour mixture of celery and figs, and a football of celery sorbet, were hands-down the best dessert I ate this year. Check, please! 85 10th Avenue (16th Street); (212) 497-8090; delposto.com.
December 28, 2010
Guacamole de Frutas
Adapted from Julian Medina, Toloache, Manhattan
Time: 10 minutes
1 tablespoon finely diced sweet onion, like Vidalia
1 teaspoon finely diced seeded jalapeño pepper
1 teaspoon lime juice
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely diced peeled Granny Smith apple
2 tablespoons finely diced peeled Asian pear
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 teaspoon thinly sliced basil, preferably Thai
2 ripe Haas avocados
1 tablespoon fresh pomegranate seeds.
1. In a nonreactive mixing bowl, combine onion, jalapeño, lime juice and a pinch salt. Mix well, and add the apple, pear, cranberries and basil. Mix again.
2. Cut the avocados in half, scoop out the pulp and mash it with the ingredients in the bowl. Adjust salt to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with pomegranate seeds. If desired, serve with warm corn tortillas or chips.
Yield: About 1 1/2 cups (4 servings).
Roasted Grapefruit
Adapted from Nate Appleman, Pulino’s Bar & Pizzeria, Manhattan
Time: 15 minutes
1 grapefruit
1/3 cup muscovado sugar
2 teaspoons finely chopped mint.
1. Cut the grapefruit in half and thoroughly loosen all sections with a knife. Dry the cut surface with a paper towel.
2. Put the sugar in a 10-inch heavy skillet and place over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar melts and darkens slightly, about 2 minutes; do not let it burn. Spread it across the pan (it will not coat evenly) and immediately add the grapefruit halves, cut sides down.
3. Move the grapefruit in the pan to coat the surface. Using tongs or two spoons, transfer to serving dishes, cut sides up. Sprinkle with mint and serve immediately.
Yield: 2 servings.
A Critic’s Choice of Restaurant Newcomers By SAM SIFTON
December 28, 2010
A Critic’s Choice of Restaurant Newcomers By SAM SIFTON
FOLLOWING is a list of my favorite new restaurants among those that I reviewed in 2010. They are presented in alphabetical order. But Torrisi was awesome.
ABC KITCHEN Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened a greenish, market-driven restaurant on the ground floor of ABC Carpet & Home. And it turned out to be great! 35 East 18th Street; , abckitchennyc.com.
THE BRESLIN The evolution of the gastropub, and the chef April Bloomfield’s triumph of fat, flavor and defiant British cooking. 16 West 29th Street (Broadway); (212) 679-1939, thebreslin.com.
CASA LEVER An elegant Italian restaurant well suited to adults, set within the beauty of Lever House, beneath copious Warhols. 390 Park Avenue (53rd Street), Midtown; (212) 888-2700, casalever.com.
COLICCHIO & SONS The taproom is best for beer and sandwiches. But if you can take advantage of Tom Colicchio cooking a tasting menu in the main dining room? That’s aces. 85 10th Avenue (15th Street), Chelsea; (212) 400-6699, colicchioandsons.com.
FATTY ’CUE American barbecue technique is married to the flavors of Southeast Asia. The congregation cheers. 91 South Sixth Street (Bedford Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 599-3090, fattycue.com.
KIN SHOP A Thai-inspired restaurant from Harold Dieterle, calm and adult, the sort of place everyone wishes to have in the neighborhood. 469 Sixth Avenue (West 11th Street), Greenwich Village; (212) 675-4295, kinshopnyc.com.
MAIALINO Danny Meyer’s Romanish trattoria in the Gramercy Park Hotel, with excellent pig cooking from the chef Nick Anderer. 2 Lexington Avenue (21st Street), Gramercy Park; (212) 777-2410, maialinonyc.com.
OSTERIA MORINI A church of Emilia-Romagna, consecrated in butter and cream, worth visiting once at least. 218 Lafayette Street (Spring Street), SoHo; (212) 965-8777, osteriamorini.com.
RECETTE A casual West Village dining room belies Jesse Schenker’s immense culinary ambition. 328 West 12th Street (Greenwich Street), Greenwich Village; (212) 414-3000, recettenyc.com.
TORRISI ITALIAN SPECIALTIES Italian-American food best understood as a first album from a duo — Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone — who should properly end up as big, big stars. 250 Mulberry Street (Prince Street), Little Italy; (212) 965-0955, piginahat.com.
A Critic’s Choice of Restaurant Newcomers By SAM SIFTON
FOLLOWING is a list of my favorite new restaurants among those that I reviewed in 2010. They are presented in alphabetical order. But Torrisi was awesome.
ABC KITCHEN Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened a greenish, market-driven restaurant on the ground floor of ABC Carpet & Home. And it turned out to be great! 35 East 18th Street; , abckitchennyc.com.
THE BRESLIN The evolution of the gastropub, and the chef April Bloomfield’s triumph of fat, flavor and defiant British cooking. 16 West 29th Street (Broadway); (212) 679-1939, thebreslin.com.
CASA LEVER An elegant Italian restaurant well suited to adults, set within the beauty of Lever House, beneath copious Warhols. 390 Park Avenue (53rd Street), Midtown; (212) 888-2700, casalever.com.
COLICCHIO & SONS The taproom is best for beer and sandwiches. But if you can take advantage of Tom Colicchio cooking a tasting menu in the main dining room? That’s aces. 85 10th Avenue (15th Street), Chelsea; (212) 400-6699, colicchioandsons.com.
FATTY ’CUE American barbecue technique is married to the flavors of Southeast Asia. The congregation cheers. 91 South Sixth Street (Bedford Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 599-3090, fattycue.com.
KIN SHOP A Thai-inspired restaurant from Harold Dieterle, calm and adult, the sort of place everyone wishes to have in the neighborhood. 469 Sixth Avenue (West 11th Street), Greenwich Village; (212) 675-4295, kinshopnyc.com.
MAIALINO Danny Meyer’s Romanish trattoria in the Gramercy Park Hotel, with excellent pig cooking from the chef Nick Anderer. 2 Lexington Avenue (21st Street), Gramercy Park; (212) 777-2410, maialinonyc.com.
OSTERIA MORINI A church of Emilia-Romagna, consecrated in butter and cream, worth visiting once at least. 218 Lafayette Street (Spring Street), SoHo; (212) 965-8777, osteriamorini.com.
RECETTE A casual West Village dining room belies Jesse Schenker’s immense culinary ambition. 328 West 12th Street (Greenwich Street), Greenwich Village; (212) 414-3000, recettenyc.com.
TORRISI ITALIAN SPECIALTIES Italian-American food best understood as a first album from a duo — Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone — who should properly end up as big, big stars. 250 Mulberry Street (Prince Street), Little Italy; (212) 965-0955, piginahat.com.
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