[Pigging by Wilfrid: February 28, 2012]
Believe what you're reading about Alex Stupak's second venture into modern Mexican cuisine. NYC Foodie @joshbeckerman tweeted: "UNBELIEVABLE! Best restaurant 2012! WOW!" And he may well be right.
It's a step up, certainly, in terms of what's on the plate, than Stupak's first, wildly popular Mexican venture Empellón Taqueria.
The room at Counter, the vegetarian veteran it has replaced on First Avenue, was always sympathetic. The long curve of the bar is repeated in the curves of the dropped ceiling. The ambience is cosy - romantic even - but well-directed lighting allows visibility to your food. The tables in the rear are pleasantly secluded from East Village street life. The Stupak team has changed the tchotchkes, but not the feel of the space: a wise decision. And while there's music, conversation is comfortably possible.
Peeky Toe Crab with Parsnip Juice, Crab Flan
and Smoked Cashew Salsa
The menu, if curiously arranged, is much more inviting than the Taqueria. No tacos, for one thing. I like tacos, but they do not a dinner make. There are, nevertheless, several dishes which come with tortillas - as well as dishes for the table, dishes with corn, seafood dishes, and small plates - which actually turn out, more or less, to be the entrées. It's all pretty random, and your server might tell you two or three dishes per person are sufficient. Which is wrong if you're hungry.
But we must forgive almost anything for food this fabulous. The peekytoe crab announces the kitchen's ambitions and should become a signature. It states, quite positively, that this is going to be Mexican food as you never knew it. As soon as you see it, you forget tacos exist. Good enough crab in juicy chunks, laid over a sort of crab chawan mushi (that's the flan), trapped in a cloud of parsnip foam dotted with green chilis.
And as the kicker, the smoked cashew salsa. I actually couldn't see the salsa (is it in the photo?), but when you find it, you know it. A blast on an earthy, smoky, nutty trumpet. I was ready to hand out stars.
The cocktails, which lean heavily towards tequila and mescal as base alcohols, make a good match for the smoky-spicy profile of some of the dishes. I drank a Plaza de Alacrán (scorpion place?), which began with Scorpion Reposado mezcal, ended with some kind of espresso essence, and included several other ingredients along the way. It resembled, to my surprise, a smoky, coffee-scented Manhattan. These are serious drinks.
If the crab represented Stupak's vaunted modernism, I thought it only fair to test him on street-food territory. The one avowedly authentic dish on the menu, according to my server, is the tamal colado, a Yucatán-style tamale featuring shredded chicken lightly colored with achiote paste.
The corn-dough concealed inside the leaf wrapper was shaped with a modern kitchen's obsessive precision, but otherwise this was a real street snack. Moist, mildly spiced chicken, falling apart at the touch of a fork. A terrifically ferocious, sour salsa was, thankfully, served on the side.
Next up, and hiding its light beneath a tangle of leaves, a gordita. These "little fatties" are corn cakes, and they usually come stuffed with cheese, chicken or ground beef. They are not-too-distant cousins of arepas. The Cocina gordita, can also claim a family relationship with the classic uovo in raviolo created by Odette Fada at San Domenico. Far-fetched?
Watch that big yellow yolk explode across your plate as you break the masa shell open. A visual delight, and a gustatory one too as the egg wrestles with the crumbled chorizo and pieces of sweet potato - smoked again, I think.
If the crab was the hit of the night, the sweetbreads weren't far behind. A dirty dish of them, lamb rather than the more common veal, nicely crisped and paired with thick chunks of house-made longaniza, darker and richer than any store-bought longaniza, almost the color and texture of morcilla. I thought parsnip was with us again, but it was actually the similar parsley root; thin slices of radish too.
The grubby plate effect was attributable to a salsa papanteca, a sweetish sauce featuring pumpkin seeds, chilis and piloncillo - unrefined cane sugar. Scraping it up with pieces of sweetbread brought the dish together.
At this point, I was gifted a refreshing palate cleanser, and you can shoot me - not for the first time - for failing to pay attention to the description. I was also comped a glass of tempranillo, if anyone's counting.
My chosen dessert was right up my street. I don't have the sweetest tooth, and I do like plantains.
The mashed plantains were bathed in cream, drizzled with cajeta - a sort of liquid dulce de leche made from caramelised milk - and partnered by a plantain ice cream.
Service is still finding its feet - the restaurant had been open two weeks when I visited. It's sweet, friendly and attentive, but there is the occasional mis-step (the kitchen tried to send out all my dishes at once; an oversight readily corrected).
What really impresses is the way the plate after plate was confidently nailed. Stupak has a marvelous restaurant on his hands - and unlike Masten Lake, which closed immediately after I raved about it last week, a restaurant with a splendid future. I've heard suggestions that the prices are steep. Teens to twenties for the more substantial dishes seemed fair to me - after all, this is much more like eating dinner at WD-50 than at a taqueria in Jackson Heights: and $9 for that glorious gordita is a steal.
Website this way.
I actually went back the next night to try other dishes on the menu- my goal is to try all of them. Although not as mind-blowing as night 1, the flavors were great and unique to NYC, and it's a stellar joint. I was not gifted with a palate cleanser either night, and am now upset about that tho?! WTF?! Have a magical week!
Cheers!
NYC FOODIE, THE FOODIE MAGICIAN
www.nycfoodie.com
Posted by: NYC FOODIE | February 29, 2012 at 07:55 PM