A truly inspired meal at Marea and dining with (ok, just next to) Meryl Streep

This is the tale of a meal I had last week which completely bowled me over in terms of surprise, sheer decadence and far exceeded my expectations.  I was lured to Marea, Michael White's (Alto, Convivio) latest restaurant endeavor by reviews of the intriguing fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow and by rave reviews from a friend about the food at Convivio. I have no words to convey how glad I am that we stopped by Marea before a Fall for Dance performance - this is definitely on my list of top 3 dining experiences since I became obsessed with food.  There's usually a magic formula to a great meal - good company, an interesting/daring menu selection, ordering the right dishes, perfect execution and a relaxed ambiance + good service.  My meal at Marea had all these attributes in spades and I don't think we hit a bad note all evening.

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The Decor: (8.5/10)

Image courtesy of Eater.com

Comfortable, expensive looking with a surprisingly casual ambiance for it's location on Central Park South.  The noise level was just about perfect with enough of a hum and buzz for there to be good energy throughout the room and seats quickly filled up.  There were tons of waitstaff in the dining room but they were incredibly gracious and attentive without being intrusive and anticipated our every need - truly great service is a great perk of dining here.

We were seated near the windows and at the beginning of our meal, we were treated to the sight of Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski and costume designer extraordinaire Ann Roth pulling up chairs in the table right behind us.  Meryl is astonishingly elegant and beautiful in real life - I'm not really one to get excited about celebrity sightings but this one was definitely special.

The lovely Meryl Streep

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The Food: (9.5/10)

Amuse-bouche (salmon, some sort of melon consomme)

Fresh, fresh, fresh salmon and a beautifully fragrant melon consomme

 

Ricci (sea urchin, lardo, sea salt crostini), $14

The height of decadence - sea urchin is enough of a treat with its myriad of flavors and the spirit of the sea but the lardo slightly melted over the top enveloped the sea urchin and completely changed the texture of it.  The combo of the crisp, olive-oil soaked bread, the bright and creamy sea urchin and the sinful lardo basically exploded all over my tongue and lingered in the best way possible.  A must try.

 Uovo (slow poached egg, monkfish cheeks, mushroom ragu, garlic chips), $18

 A relatively uncomplicated dish but beautifully prepared - the crisp garlic chips and creaminess of the poached egg made this dish perfect for me.

 Fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow, $25

Incredibly bright with ripe tomato flavor, shining with the essence of bone marrow and accompanied by a healthy sprinkling of baby octopus throughout.  Michael White is renowned for his pastas and apparently, the restaurant has a whole separate section where all the pastas are made fresh daily. It's easy to see why he's considered such a master - the depth of flavor in his pasta dishes is truly remarkable and the flavor combinations are novel and extremely pleasing to the palate. An explanation on how this dish is painstakingly constructed can be found here. 

Garganelli with sausage ragu and parmigiano, $25

I've ordered this dish in too many restaurants to count and made a version of this dish at home and NEVER has it ever tasted this way.  This is comfort food at its best - rustic, hearty sausage ragu, just enough tomato flavor to coat and chewy, delicate garganelli with a healthy sprinkling of parmigiano. 

Dark chocolate cake, nougat gelato, black cherry compote, $14

A grown-up versino of an ice cream sandwich - very strong almond/cherry flavors throughout the gelato and the chocolate cake was deliciously dark and had just the right hint of bitter.  The nougat gelato was really wonderfully done - perfect creamy texture but just a tad too sweet for me.

  

Olive focaccia,  Tray of chocolates (peanut butter, passion fruit-white chocolate, salted caramel and one that I don't remember)

I just had to show the olive focaccia because I think the olive peeking out is really cute.  By the time they brought out the chocolates, we were stuffed beyond belief and then as we turned to leave the restaurant, they stuffed a ribbon-tied crumb cake into our hands as a farewell gift from the chef.

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Summary and More info:

All in all, a truly inspired meal and I'd jump at the opportunity to visit again soon.  We spent about $60 each on dinner which I think is completely reasonable for the quality of the food and pasta portions are definitely enough for 2 to share.  As a great wallet-friendlier alternative to dinner, Marea also has a fantastic lunch deal - $34 for 2 courses. 

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A Preview of the Third Annual Food Film Festival

I'm a bit cursed, I believe.  For the last 2 years, I've been out of town for the food film festival at Water Taxi Beach and alas, this year was to be no exception.  I did manage to get a sneak peek of the festival though - thanks to @Baconista for the invite to a very cool press screening of all the goodies to be shown (and eaten) at the festival this year. 

The location:

The event was held at the gorgeous new-ish Astor Center - I really need to take some of the very interesting classes they offer here.

The Itinerary:

The Food (and Films!)

The founders of the film festival really tried to impart the message that we eat as much with our eyes as we do with our mouths and the entire festival revolves around this theme of watching a bunch of food films vicariously and then getting to actually experience the food being paraded before your eyes.  I think this is a terrific way of getting people more engaged with the whole dining and food production process and it looks like there are some really great films on the roster.  And now, on to the food!

 

The famous Motz burger: loosely packed, extremely freshly ground beef, the super secret "schnack sauce" (chipotle mayo with a bunch of other undisclosed ingredients) on a buttered, toasted bun;Film accompaniment: Hamburger America

This is the burger sank a thousand ships... er, rather, that won Burger Battle of the Boroughs last year.  The texture of this thing was unreal - since the meat is so loosely packed, there are all sorts of lovely caramalized bits that you get hit with when you bite in and the chipotle mayo is the perfect crowning touch.  You can find piles of these burgers at Water Taxi beach (both the LIC location as well as the soon to be opened South Street Seaport location) on the weekends.

Mushroom Agnolotti from Buitoni; related film: Know your Mushrooms

Since Buitoni is a big sponser of the festival, they served these mushroom agnolotti as our second course and I have to say, these were actually surprisingly good.  I'd have throw a brown butter-sage sauce over this but the dough had a nice resiliency and the mushroom filling was savoury and delicious.

Pine Barren Cooler (Local cranberry, fresh lemon, pomegranate sugar-in-the-raw syrup, soda); related Film: New Jersey's Red October

A lightly sweet, slightly tart refreshing cocktail to wash down the decidedly un-light meal

Bacon Chocolate Chip cookie with bacon from pitmaster Scott Smith from R.U.B.; related film: Mutton: The Movie

Wow.  Bacon and chocolate has been done before but to suspend them both in a dense cookie dough is nefarious.  And absolutely delicious.

More Details:

The film festival runs from June 13th - 19th at Water Taxi Beach (LIC and South Street Seaport) and the Astor Center.

A trailer for the festival:

2009 NYC Food Film Festival Trailer from George Motz on Vimeo.

Official site: http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com

Lunch street-cart style with David Chang

It's 70 degrees and brilliantly sunny here in NY and I just got back from a lunch thrown street-cart style by David Chang.  Life doesn't get all that much better than that.  I'm a big fan of David Chang's entire empire (note my very enthusiastic review of Ssam bar from a while back, Noodle bar, Milk bar and the soon-to-come Momo bar or whatever they're calling it) so I was really looking forward to seeing how he pulled off a hectic street-car style lunch. The entire shindig was sponsored by NBC New York and 160 lucky guests won pairs of tickets to the feast.

The scene:

A parking lot at the corner of Houston and Lafayette.

David Chang overseeing his newest territory to be conquered

 Happy diners!

The cooking stations and the magical soft-serve machine

The Goodies:

"Dealer's choice" - a random assortment of goodies put together by the chefs: Grilled lobster with bits of scallion and bacon, a poached egg and grits, a pork belly bun and pickled veggies.

The lobster was really rich and well-spiced and nicely complemented by the creamy grits and pickled vegetables.

"Pork choice": Crispy rice fries, pork belly bun, sweet/spicy red chili pepper rice cakes

I always love the pork belly buns and the rice fries were also extremely good - I could probably eat a pack of these easily if they were packaged.  I'm not a big fan of the sweet/spicy red chili pepper sauce they used so didn't find this dish all that great.

Donut soft-serve ice cream with cinnamon sugar topping

Tastes EXACTLY like a donut and not overly sweet at all with a really great, silky texture

I had a great time at the event and can't wait to check out the new bar at Ssam bar next week!  :)

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A lovely feast @ Damon Frugal Friday (now every day but tuesday!)

Damon Frugal Fridays (New American, Tom Collichio)

Tom Collichio's brainchild in the midst of a terrible recession - a wallet-friendly, interesting menu of New American dishes to be helmed by his head chef, Damon Wise every day of the week except for tuesdays (when he has his Tom: Tuesday Dinner).

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The Decor: (9/10)

The ambiance of a restaurant really counts for a lot with me when it comes to having a great dining experience.  Damon Frugal Fridays is held in a space 2 doors down from Craft where private events are usually held and is absolutely beautiful.  The exposed brick walls, interesting wine racks covering a whole wall of the restaurant, open kitchen layout and spacious candle-lit tables immediately made me feel comfortable and heightened my anticipation of the meal itself.

Shot of interior courtesy of nbcnewyork.com

(I've been terrible at getting good restaurant interior shots so I'm leaving this one to the pros :) )

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The Food: (8/10)

My frequent fooding companion, Connie, and I ordered up a lovely Smörgåsbord of dishes from the eclectic menu.

  

19th Street Headache (Aperol and Prosecco, $4); Sneaky Ninja (Gin, Tea, Fresh Lemon, $7)

We ordered up a round of very inexpensive cocktails to kick off the evening.  Mine (the 19th street headache) tasted like a light beer in a good way.  The bubbliness and sweetness of the prosecco complemented by the bitterness of the aperol made this cocktail very refreshing and easy to drink.  Connie's cocktail (the sneaky ninja) tasted like a really delicious lemonade and didn't have much of a bite from the gin.

 

Soft mozzarella and spicy tomato jam, $5

Loved the spicy tomato jam mixed with the contrast of the buttery soft mozzarella.  I think a sprinkle of sea salt on this dish would have made it better.

Guinea hen leg rillettes in a jar, $7

Hands-down my favorite dish of the night.  The rillettes of guinea hen leg (cubed, chopped meat salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until tender enough to shred and then cooled with enough fat to form a paste) was incredibly flavorful and rich and we couldn't get enough of spreading this on crispy toast points. 

Crispy chicken wings and cabrales cheese, $5

Definitely not a winner - the cabrales was a cold, liquidy layer at the bottom of the bowl and overpowered the entire dish.  The fried, boneless chicken wings were also a bit overcooked and rubbery.

Salt-baked bone marrow and stew of mushrooms and tail, $9

Very rich and indulgent and a good comfort food dish.  I would have loved to have had some bread to spread the bone marrow on instead of eating it purely with the mushroom and tail stew.

 

Pheasant confit spring roll and sweet and sour chestnuts, $7

Just an average dish - I couldn't really taste the pheasant as it was overpowered by the sweet and sour chestnut sauce .

Smoked beef tartare and paprika flatbread, $5

Even though I'm not a big fan of beef tartare (mostly because of the texture of raw beef), I really liked this dish.  The beef was really smokey and paired really well with the paprika flatbread and was layered with all sorts of interesting flavors.

Apple berliner, vanilla custard and hot caramel, $5

Awesome - fried apple fritters, a streak of vanilla custard and a nice tub of hot caramel - what more could you ask for?

Trio of ice cream sandwiches, $5

Another favorite - the cookie layers in these sandwiches were perfect - flakey, buttery and not too sweet.  We had a trio of ice cream sandwiches - peanut butter, cappuccino (with a dash of cinnamon) and my favorite, dark chocolate.

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Summary and More info:

Overall, I had a great time at Damon Frugal Friday and would recommend this restaurant as a great date spot (an easy way of seeing what your date's food tendencies might be) or for easy nights out with friends.  Though the menu is a bit uneven, the prices can't be beat and there are some real winners in the mix.  I can't wait to go back to try out the rest of the menu!

Address: 47 East 19th Street (between Broaway and Park)

Link: The full menu