ABC Cocina in New York, NY

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You may know ABC Home and Carpet: located near Union Square, buying a pillow in this expensive home furnishing store may cost you a leg. Well, it is on their ground floor that ABC Cocina is located.

This innovative Latin restaurant is another step in the success story if Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the French Chef who gave us Vong, Spice Market or Jean-Georges. 

This restaurant is impressive: high ceiling with lights that seem to be there as an extension of the store, very trendy. 

We went for brunch and it was crowded. So I strongly suggest having a reservation. 

Don't be fooled by the menu items: seasonal, they are definitely familiar, but the Chef adds its own twist to make it his own. The principle is similar to restaurants like Spice Market: it is family style, with a choice of small and large dishes to share, that will come as they are ready. They suggested three dishes per person, not including dessert. We decided to go for four dishes and the dessert, thinking that we could order more if need be. 

Strangely, after we ordered, the waiter asked us if we wanted bread. We said yes, surprised by the question, and wondering if they would charge us for it. 

In the bread basket, was some delicious focaccia that I enjoyed dipped in olive oil, that was a better alternative to the little bottle with an orange liquid in it that was on each table.

It was a homemade habanero pepper sauce...

Our first dish was the Spring peas guacamole:

It was served with a large tortilla and some tortilla chips that were homemade. 

The presentation was beautiful, with all these different green. It was a delicious guacamole, freshly made, and I loved that the added crunch that the peas were adding. 

Then we got the ham & cheese fritters:

There were five of them, small, so I was a bit surprised when the dish came.

Fortunately, they were good: crispy outside, delightfully greasy and gooey as advertise. 

The third dish was the grilled maitake mushroom with goat cheese and Fresno pepper vinaigrette:

This was fantastic: not only presentation wise, but taste wise, the two main components pairing perfectly together, the star being the mushroom that had this nice charred taste. 

Then was the charred octopus, served with market potatoes and a grilled ramp vinaigrette:

I love octopus and my craving was definitely satisfied: tender, it also had a nice char taste. I did not really care at that point about the potatoes. 

The last dish was our dessert: the churros with an apricot cajeta (Mexican thickened syrup). Normally, it is a pineapple cajeta, but I guess they were out of it. No big deal: these churros were divine.

Freshly made, they had a nice crunch and an addictive taste that make them one of my favorite guilty pleasures...

My drink of choice for this brunch? Espresso!

The brunch at ABC Cocina was fantastic. Yes it is on the pricey side, but it is definitely worth it and I can't wait to go back and try some other mouth watering dishes. 

Enjoy (I did)!

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Laut in New York, NY

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I kind of like the busyness of Union Square, its farmers' market, chess players, as well as other  (sometimes weird) entertainments that one can witness when going there. Food wise, there are quit e few options, cheap or not that are worth a try. As we were looking for a restaurant reservation on Opentable, we found out Laut, the first Malaysian restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin Star in the famous 2011 guide (they lost it since).

Laut means Sea in Malay; I admit that I did not know why they picked this name, considering that it is not a seafood restaurant, but learnt that it is because the straits and coastal cities played a crucial role in the region's history, navigating traders and travelers from all over the world. 

In term of cuisine, they serve South East Asian dishes, from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. So I was ready to see what the owner Salil Mehta was proposing in his restaurant.

To start off and to accompany my meal, I ordered a Thai Iced Tea that was perfect. 

Then, we decided to share dishes and order several appetizers, as well as one entrée, having already an idea before going there as to what dessert we would order. 

The first appetizer was the roti canai. 

Roti means bread; It is one of my favorite appetizers in Thai restaurants: I love the greasiness and slight crispiness of the bread, dipped in an awesome curry sauce. Well, for the first time, I did not like it! The sauce was good, but the roti was tasteless. This was so disappointing.

The second appetizer was the satay tofu puffs:

It was served with cucumber and bean sprouts and smothered in peanut sauce. This was really good: the tofu puffs were so light and airy, perfect with this delicious peanut sauce that was a bit sweet.

The third appetizer was Sotong Goreng or marinated crispy fried squid dusted with spices, salt, pepper and chili sauce:

I really liked it: the calamari were crunchy, not rubbery and not greasy that is already a good thing, and I loved the hints of salt and pepper. I just wished there was more of that chili sauce that was a bit spicy, but addictive with the calamari.

For the entree, we chose the glass noodles:

They were prepared with snow peas, carrots, bean sprouts, mushrooms, eggs and scallions. It was overall a very good dish that had lots of veggies in it.

For dessert, we wanted to order the mango coconut sticky rice. Unfortunately, they did not have any mango and proposed dragon fruit: we passed.

Would I go back? Well, I have mixed feelings about Laut: the food was good overall, but did not stand out to the point that I would love to go back or even to make me understand how they got a Michelin Star few years ago. I was definitely expecting more and they did not deliver. I should also mention the noise level that made me want to eat as fast as I could...

Enjoy (...)!

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Bhatti Indian Grill in New York, NY

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Bhatti Indian grill is a restaurant located in Curry Hill (Murray Hill but named Curry Hill because of the multiple Asian restaurants located there), where Chef Gaurav Anand serves Punjabi cuisine (Northern cuisine). Ok, I still have a lot to learn about Indian cuisine, this country being so vast. I went there few times and, each time, I discovered mouth watering dishes that I hope to retrieve when I go to a restaurant in NY. 

So yes, I was excited to go to Bhatti Indian Grill because I knew that they were preparing kebabs on a Bhatti, an open fire where they put lava instead of wood and charcoal for safety reasons, giving to the meat or fish a nice smoky flavor. But that's not it: they also have a tandoori oven.

The decor is fairly modern and I always find that the bricks add some warmth to a place, warmth that was only present thanks to the bricks... I admit that the service did not entirely make us feel welcome and the restaurant seemed a bit uncared for (see below - there was also sauce on the curtains), but the food was delicious. 

When we sat, they brought us some papadam that is like a giant cracker that you eat with different sauces that go from mild to spicy. 

As it was some sort of apéritif, I decided to order a mango lassi that was very good and had a perfect thickness.

Then, when I ordered, I saw that they have a Dal Bhatti: you probably know Dal, this lentil dish that you will find in most if not all Indian restaurants, prepared with either yellow or black lentils. The particularity of this one is that it is simmered overnight. 

I loved it, although I would have liked it without this slight kick it had: it was wonderfully creamy, thanks to the cream, butter and cooking process. Bon sang, I hate watery Dal!

I also decided to try the kebabs. So I ordered their sampler. 

I love when restaurant propose samplers. At Bhatti Indian grill, they propose a meat kebab or veggie kebab sampler, in full or half size. I chose the meat sampler that had only chicken and they were not very forthcoming in telling me what was there...So, if I remember, there was Tandoori Murgh (Boneless chicken marinated in yogurt, ginger, garlic & spices, grilled), Murgh Malai kebab (grilled cubes of chicken in a mildly spiced creamy marinade infused with green cardamom and nutmeg) and Haryali Chooza (chicken marinated in a mix of mint, cilantro, green fenugreek, green chilies and hung curd). It was very good, each piece of chicken having a delicious char taste and being perfectly cooked, being still moist. I just wish that they proposed different meats, such as lamb for instance.

We could not leave without trying my favorite Indian dessert: Gulab Jamun:

These were delicious, as expected.

Although the service was disappointing and spoiled a bit the experience, I really liked the food at Bhatti Indian Grill. They just need to fix a couple of kinks to make it one of the top in the area.

Enjoy (I did)!

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Havana Alma De Cuba in New York, NY

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Cuban food has its charm, but not at Havana Alma de Cuba! We went there on a Saturday night and it has been a while I have been disappointed by a restaurant. I am not talking about one dish that I did not like, but several. So sad. It started well: we passed in front of this restaurant several times and it seemed to be busy.

The decor is very nice, modern with some paintings representing Havana: the old cars, La bodeguita del Medio, the famous club where Hemingway or Gabriel Garcia Marquez use to go (you can enjoy this club in many countries now; in the US, it is located in Palo Alto).

We just wanted to share some plates and picked few dishes from the menu that features Cuban, Latin and Spanish specialties. The first dish was the beef empanadas:

It was served with cachucha (small pepper) salsa. The empanadas were good, the filling being moist and very tasty and the shell delightfully crispy. I just wished there was more salsa with it.

The second appetizer was the maduros:

They were just ok, missing some crispiness.

Then, I got myself the calamares Tamarindo or fried calamari with cherry tomatoes, sweet plantains and tamarind sauce. 

I guess this is where it started to go down...The sauce was way too sweet and I could not eat it. Jodi was surprised because it is the first time I do not finish fried calamari. It is too bad because they were not rubbery and seemed crispy (they were drenched in this sweet sauce).

I thought it get be better with the Albondigas, meatballs with manchego cheese and tomato and oyster fricassee.

Que nenni: it was terrible. The meatballs had a weird taste and I did not like the texture.

But the worse was the montadito de chorizo:

It was Spanish chorizo that is sautéed with jalapeño and caramelized onions, served on a toasted baguette. When it came, there was like a smell that did not make it appetizing. In fact, even the presentation was not appetizing too. Well, I did not like it, the chorizo being lost in the sauce that did not taste good for me.

We were so disappointed that we did not even try desserts there. Havana Alma de Cuba was disappointing: the food was subpar and somewhat expensive compared to alternative like La Caridad in New York or La Isla in Hoboken. Would I go back? Hell no!

Enjoy (the post)!



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