New York Restos, Spring, 2013: La Mar, 11 Madison Park, Marea, Aamann's, Fette Sau, Soto.

La Mar

La Mar is a Peruvian cebicheria, a celebration of seafood, artfully crafted into a citrus, spicy, refreshing cuisine.

Long Island fluke, Peruvian corn, habanero peppers, scallions, creamy aji amarillo leche di tigre (see explanation further down).

Pulpo parillo. Grilled day boat octopus in anticucho (aji panco smokey fruity spiced red wine and vinegar) with boiled potato, fresh cheese, fava beans, yellow and chili peppers.

Fluke, blue shrimp, octopus, calamari, red onion, chocio an cancha (toasted sweet corn kernels) in a rocoto (tree chili) leche de tigre ( tiger's milk, a citrus based marinade for curing fish and shell fish for ceviche, made from the juices of the fish or shellfish, lime juice, onions, salt, pepper and chilis).

Anticucho, skewered grilled beef heart with choclo and huacatay sauce (peruvian black mint) with fried potatoes and corn.

Equadorian blue shrimp, sweet spiced aioli, toasted organic kiwicha (amaranth grain), mango and mixed greens.

Guava, passionfruit mousse, hazelnut ice cream and chilled quinoa pudding.

Tartita de maracuya, maracuya cream, passion fruit gelee, maracuya and strawberry compote served with cookie crumbs in a martini glass (no photo)

Passion fruit, mango and tamarind sorbets.

11 Madison Park

Eleven Madison Park is considered one of the best restaurant experiences in New York. There is only a tasting menu; no a la carte menu.

We began with "cheddar", savory black and white cookies with a cheese filling accompanied by apple (no photo).

Duxbury oyster with wood sorrel, buckwheat and frozen mignonette sauce.

Jonah crab salad with finger lime, cucumber and avocado.

Sea urchin custard with thinly sliced scallop, chervil and julienned apple and celery.

Surf clam with morcilla sausage and celery root; clambake with whelk (topped with chopped radicchio and couscous; "Parker House" rolls and clam chowder. Our 2005 Chablis, in the photo, was the wine for this course.

Crumbled foie gras terrine with bitter greens, pear, anchovy and black anchovy brioche.

The house made bread and two butters (one made with rendered duck fat), accompanied by Amagansett sea salt, were so good, they had a well deserved place, as a "course".

The carrot was prepared at the table (see above), for the dish presented above in the lower photo: carrot "tartare" with rye bread and condiments, including: carrot vinaigrette, mustard seed oil, green apple mustard, sunflower seeds, pickled quail yolk, chives and chive flowers, pickled mustard seeds, horseradish, pickled granny smith apples and sea salt.

Lobster poached in myer lemon butter with rutabaga, sliced black pear and lovage.

Roasted parsnip with banana and bacon and bacon vinaigrette.

Medium rare duck roasted with tartivo and marcona almond with braised duck leg, foie gras and potato and honey sauce..

A picnic basket of "greensward" with pretzel, cow's milk cheese, butternut squash mustard and grapes.

Unwrapping the basket.

The "picnic" accompanied by a small bottle of very good beer.

Malted milk seltzer, maple syrup, maple cream, maple short bread, maple ice cream, milk snow and shaved ice. (NO PHOTO).

Earl grey ice cream and a chocolate wafer.

Dark chocolate covered pretzel.

Marea

Scampi crudo with terrific, crispy deep fried heads.

Panzerotti filled with smoked eggplant accompanied by ricotta mixed and topped with bottarga.

Sliced, perfectly cooked, tender octopus topped with chilli oil, lemon and parsley. 

Shisito peppers and sea salt.

Casconcelli baccala ravioli with black trumpet mushrooms, baby leeks and black truffle juice, all topped with sliced black truffles. A great dish of wonderful flavours and perfectly cooked pasta.

Brodetto di pesce, an Adriatic seafood soup, with clams, langostino, prawns, scallops and bass., all perfectly cooked in a very flavourful soup.

On the left, garbanzo beans with leeks and saffron; on the right, fingerling potatoes with rosemary.

Torta di olio. Ligurian oil cake with roasted pineapple and green apple  accompanied by olive oil gelato.

Aamann's

This resto is the place in NY to enjoy smorrebrod.

Herring in mustard tarragon cream sauce with radish, sprinkled with crispy crumblings of toasted rye bread. Good ingredients nicely composed but the herring, although good for what it was, was the conventional "overcooked" marinated herring rather than the fresh herring I have come to frequently expect when in Denmark, Norway or Sweden.

On the right, chicken salad with mushrooms, celeriac and roasted garlic on crispy toasted rye bread. The salad was more chopped chicken than anything else.
On the left, beef tartar with egg emulsion, fresh tarragon, cornichons and capers all topped with crispy fried shallot rings and crispy potato slices. This was a very good beef tartar sandwich worth a return visit.

Fette Sau, Brooklyn

This was certainly one of the best BBQ experiences I have enjoyed anywhere. Perfectly cooked, juicy, smokey sliced brisket; wonderful tamshire pork ribs, perfectly cooked (not fall off the bone sloppy) with great burnt bark crust; sausage was ok but did not wow; baked beans with delicious burnt ends; beef ribs, again, perfectly cooked with an amazing, flavourful, burnt bark crust. There is broccoli on the tray......I had to have my greens!

Fette Sau is a must, when in NY, for any BBQ lover! It is ranked among the top 20 BBQ places in the USA.

Soto

Soto is a very good Japanese experience, worthy, but not at the very top of the Japanese experience spectrum. It is a Japanese resto worth a return visit.

Chopped raw botan sweet shrimp with fresh ginger, topped with uni all in a chilled shiitake dashi broth. A sublime dish of very fresh tasting elements.

Sliced live sea clam marinated in truffle ginger soy sauce with fresh ginger shoots.

Sea urchin with shiso, squid and white kelp topped with julienned nori.

Ika konowata: thinly sliced yari-ika (spear squid) sashimi with fermented sea cucumber intestine, raw quail egg and nori.

Lobster sashimi with ginger truffle soy sauce, served with yuzu-kimizu sauce and topped with caviar.

Crisp skin, live, early season soft shelled crab, wonderfully fresh flavour, accompanied by ponzu sauce.

Black soy milk skin filled with fresh uni, accompanied by a shiitake broth.

Anago (sea eel) broiled under a puree of sea urchin and shiitake mushroom. this dish sounded interesting but, in my opinion, missed in execution. The flavours were muddled.

Thinly sliced surf clam marinated in sweet miso mustard sauce with myoga ginger shoots and sesame seeds

Scottish farmed salmon, lightly torched on one side and chutoro tuna sushi.

Live Maine scallop and red clam sushi.

Earl grey tea, red bean, mango, strawberry and vanilla mochi, a refreshing finish.

New York Restos, Spring 2012: Tertulia, Old Homestead, Del Posto, North End Grill, Cafe Sabarsky, Ai Fiori, Il Buca Alimentaria and Vineria

Ahhhh!! New York in the spring!

Tertulia

A very casual, Spanish influenced, pub-like resto, with comfortable bar seats (where I chose to eat). Recently awarded 2** by the NY Times. Also, Chef Seamus Mullin just received Time Out  Magazine, New York award, New York Chef of the Year for 2102.

Pan con tomate. This is a daily favourite of mine (when good). When I am in northern Spain I enjoy toasted bread rubbed with tomato. Here you can enjoy wonderful bread with an exceptional crust, rubbed with very good, rich tasting fresh tomato. A simple dish, here, done so well, but often not so well by many restos that make it. The pan con tomate was accompanied by tortilla, a traditional Spanish rendition of egg, potato, onion and olive oil. The texture of the tortilla was too dense and was lacking in flavour compared to my gold standard experiences in Spain.

“Cojonudo revisited”. Two bites of smoked pig cheek, quail egg and roast pepper, a rich, earthy taste.

Fried shisito peppers with "lots of sea salt". And although the peppers had a perfect texture and were roasted properly, I felt they were too salty. 

Salt cod brandade, baked egg, roasted peppers. A good solid comfort food dish, with their usual great toast. Just not enough to wow.

Crispy potatoes, pimenton de la vera, garlic all I oli. Addictively crispy, crunchy potatoes dusted with the punchy taste of the pimenton and drizzled all over with wonderful garlicky all I oli, that balances the spice of the pimenton . The potatoes are first boiled, then fried at low temp then fried a second time at a higher temp. This was a great dish and should not be missed 

Sun chokes (Jerusalem artichokes) are smoked and fried. The smokey aspect enhances the flavour of the chokes. A good dish.

Calasparra rice, snails, wild mushrooms, celery, fennel, draped with thin slices of Iberico ham. A promising dish that did not quite meet my expectations. The rice had the right texture but there was no wow with all of the flavours. 

Smoked and slow roasted young chicken accompanied by polenta with hens egg and braised winter greens. The chicken was moist and flavourful. The highly reduced stock was an exceptional, rich tasting, thick rendition. The polenta was a rich, eggy tasting accompanyment. But, where were the greens?

The accompanying dish, polenta with a poached egg. The egg was chopped up and mixed into the polenta in front of you by the waiter.

Myer lemon cake and lemon ice cream with thyme, and lemon zest powder. The cake had a very nice lemony flavour as did the icing and ice cream. However, the texture of the cake was a bit too dry.

The Old Homestead Restaurant

The Old Homestead resto, in the Meat Packing district, is a place that people typically go for steak. It is one of the oldest restaurants in New York. I went there for their lunch special, the Diamond Special (NB-not listed on the regular menu): 3 slider style burgers, requested med rare to rare; one wagyu with kobe bacon, truffle, caramelized onion sauce, one made of prime filet mignon with a horseradish sauceand one made of prime sirloin with cheese on top which I specially ordered without the cheese (as I do not like the combo of cheese and meat, as most of you may know). The burgers were presented with "tater tots", crispy chunks of mashed potato that were pretty good. All burgers arrived with the correct amount of doneness. 

My faves in order of preference, the hand chopped filet, the prime sirloin and then the wagyu burger. I ran this taste test again with a good friend with a good palate, and this time, the tasting was "blind". The results for my friend were the same as mine.

The wagyu. Notice the nature of the texture in the middle:

The prime filet:

The sirloin:

Creamed spinach arrived perfectly cooked and perfectly prepared (no photo).

Del Posto

Yes, another Mario Battali outpost. But, chef Mario does a rather outstanding job with every resto he has opened. He has a very good staff and a very good business partner. Del Posto is his high end opus.

Overall, the experience at Del Posto made for quite a memorable evening. I rarely speak about service because one can not eat it, but this experience, for me, was noteworthy. Service was highly knowledgeable, professional and sensitively attentive. Perhaps the best service overall that I have enjoyed since Le Gavroche in London in the days when it was just awarded 3*.

Chick peas, black truffles. Intense black truffle flavour in crispy shell. Soup broth made with "120" hens, spinach, polenta. Very rich, highly reduced chicken broth. Sweet pea, baccala and mascarpone in a rice-like arancini, but better. Nice flavours. Rice is perfectly cooked, served warm.

Vitello tonnato with olive crostone, caper shoots, parsley stems and finger lime cells.

Beef and black truffle carpaccio with jersalem artichoke puree, sage grissini (with beef fat and sage) and sunflowers.

Spaghetti with dungeness crab, sliced jalapeno and minced scallion with toasted bread crumbs.

Scungilli (a marine snail) due, with black garlic, black pepper, lemon and parsley stems.

Orcchiette with lamb neck ragu, orange carrots (pre-cooked with tangerine agrumato), rye crumbs and toasted sage. This is a dish that was a good as the menu description sounded. The sweetness of the carrots added a special flavour dimension to this dish.

Burnt beef with potato torta. The beef, cooked to the proper doneness I rated 6\3\5 (out of 10 for taste, texture and juicyness). Not a great steak experience.

A side of Calabrian, spicy tongue stew. If you like beef tongue, you would very much enjoy this dish.

Chocolate ricotta tortino, toasted Sicilian pistachios and olive oil gelato. I loved how the flavours worked in this dish. The olive oil gelato combined well with the chocolate and pistachio, lengthening the finish of these complementary flavours.

Chocolate tree, made of different types of chocolate. This was an amazing chocolate lover's delight!

La grattuggia, bomboloni, polenta crostata, with rhubarb, candied grapefruit, spicy hazelnuts.

North End Grill

Chef floyd Cardoz, former chef at Danny Meyer's Tabla, now closed, is the resident kitchen leader.

Cod throats meuniere, brown butter sauce and Australian finger lime. Cod throats are the main ingredient in a renown Basque dish favourite of mine, where they are poached in olive oil with garlic. This version, although very pleasant, does not show the cod flavour and texture in it's prime.

Soft scrambled eggs with hen of the woods mushrooms on grilled bread. A great breakfast or brunch treat perfectly done. A nice app too.

Hashed brussel sprouts with lentils. The texture and flavour of this salad was a very good accompaniment to the dishes that we enjoyed.

Thrice fried, spiced fries. Really tasty, crunchy fries.

Marrow bones with trout roe accompanied by trotter on toast and cress. i just love marrow bones. The trotter on grilled country bread was a lovely, stick to the ribs rendition.

Brown butter cheese cake with pear confit and buttermilk sherbet. A very good cheese cake and much enhanced by the pear confit and sherbet. 

Chocolate pecan layer cake with pecan choc chip ice cream. Just a chocolate lovers delight.

Cafe Sabarsky

With all of my indulgences over the past 2 weeks, in Italy and NY, and considering my parallel and gradual weight gains, I avoided one of the great reasons for just eating here: the sweets. Cakes and tarts here are of Vienna quality at its best: sacher torte, klimttorte, rehrucken, etc.

But the Cafe has savouries as well, also quite reminiscent of Vienna.

Wiesswurst, bavarian sausage with Handelmaier's mustard (the dark spot), a mildly sweet, grainy, wine flavoured mustard. A little sparse on the plate, but tasted good.

Roasted pork sausage with riesling sauerkraut, roasted potatoes and Dijon mustard.

Ai Fiori

This Restaurant is one of the very few in New York offering a very sophistcated take on Italian cuisine. The highly regarded chef is Michael White.

Garlic soup with ricotta gnudi and brioche. A rich, very creamy soup redolent of the sweetness of slow roasted garlic.

Raw razor clams, chorizo, fennel, lemon. The slighly smoky flavour from the chorizo, was a lovely counterpoint for the briny razor clams and the fennel.

Ligurian crustacean ragu, with sepia pasta, scallops, spiced mollica (bread crumbs). Pasta with a perfectly delicate, springy texture combined with the subtle briny flavours and crispy crumb contrast of the mollica, made this dish sing.

Pansotti. Braised escargot with garlic cream, a parsley veal jus and celery root puree. The pasta purses were topped with thin parmesan crisps.

Agnolotti braised veal parcels with caramelized onions, ramp pesto, pine nuts and a touch of roasted garlic, made for a seductive range of complex flavours.

Bouillabaise. Saffron broth, langostine, scallops bouchet and mussels, with rouillle. The broth was perfectly flavoured although slightly less thick rendition of my gold standard memories of the best bouillabaisse. I would have liked some extra rouille on the side for the crispy toasts provided. Surprisingly, the langostine was overcooked.

Hen of the woods mushrooms with green garlic ricotta salata and pecorino shavings.

Pommes dauphines. Crispy crusted potato fritters with rosemary aioli. The aioli flavoured with rosemary was a very good match with the mashed potato fritters.

Budino di limone. Hazelnut praline with toasted meringue and espresso gelee, cinnamon gelee and a center of lemon curd and fior di latte ice cream on top. This dessert, although "ok", was less than hoped for from the description and just did not sing.

Tartaletta. Dark chocolate tart with jellied grapefruit cubes, hazelnuts, anise and hazelnut gelatto. My fave dessert.

Il Buca Alimentaria et Vineria

This resto just won Time Out NY magazine's Food and Drink "Instant Classic Award".

Bread baked on premises with organic whole grains and long fermentation. The breads are wonderful here: crisp thin crusts with fluffy, light interiors of great flavour and texture. Unfortunately, they are accompanied by a small dish of very modest olive oil.

Grilled (house made) sausage, umbrian lentils, pickled cippolini onions and sage. Perfect textured, subtly coarse and beautifully flavoured sausage, with highly aromatic coriander and fennel and a bit of a bite from pepper. 

Roasted lamb ribs, romesco sauce and smoked salt. Slow cooked, fall off the bone, tender, succulent ribs were grilled on one surface to a slightly crispy finish on that one side.

House made ravioli, ricotta, nettles, a bit of spinach, hazelnuts and parmesan, all dressed with a drizzle of balsamic. (House filled pasta). Perfectly delicate pasta purses. Hazelnuts, ricotta and parmesan are a wonderful marriage of flavours and textures.

Porchetta alla romana, shaved fennel, blood orange, mustard greens, crackling, fennel pollen, oregano and garlic. Very tender, juicy pork, the pork flavour wonderfully enhanced by the acidity of the blood orange and sweet fennel. More sophisticated than rustic and I might have preferred rustic.

Organic umbrian beans, chicken stock, soffrito, a thin strip of lardo on top. This flavours and textures of this bean dish were exemplary. 

Meyer lemon and salted caramel gelati and granny smith apple sorbet. Burnt caramel good underlying flavour and creamy texture but much too salty. The apple flavoured sorbeto was pleasant with just enough apple flavour obvious. The meyer lemon gelato was just a perfect lemony, creamy delight.