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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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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Japanese comfort food @ Sake Bar Hagi (a midtown izakaya)

Izakayas are the japanese equivalent of pubs in the UK mixed with a tapas component - they're comfortable, you can easily catch a sports game or just throw back some drinks (sake, beer and much more) and sample a variety of small, inexpensive dishes with friends.  I really like this style of dining and it's a good thing I live pretty close to Saint Marks with no lack of izakayas to frequent but on this cloudy, often-rainy day, some friends and I decided to head up to Midtown to eat at Sake Bar Hagi (49th and 7th).

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The Decor: (7.5/10)

The Pros:

• Very comfortable, well-spaced out tables
• Good service and an attentive waitstaff
• Feels like a good place to talk loudly, drink and eat with abandon
• Semi-private section for larger parties

The Cons:

• Crowded, there's always a wait of around 30 minutes - an hour, no reservations accepted
• Not many tables
• Location-wise, Midtown West is definitely not one of my favored dining neighborhoods
• I counted at least 4 tv's broadcasting the basketball game of the moment

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The Food: (8.5/10)

• Great value - none of the dishes I saw were priced above $10 and most were in the $5-$6 range
• Very fresh ingredients and simple preparations really spotlighted the star ingredients in each dish
• Most of our dishes were cooked perfectly and seasoned perfectly andsubtly
• A wide selection of dishes

Deep-fried chicken with ponzu citrus sauce and grated daikon ($6.50)

• Deliciously crispy skin, juicy meat and fried well so this wasn't very oily at all
• Sweet, tart and salty balance with the ponzu citrus sauce
• This has always been one of my favorite dishes and it's hard to find it done well

Fried rice with spicy cod roe ($8.50)

• Probably the biggest surprise winner of the night - this dish is incredibly simple, just some spicy cod roe, egg, scallion and shredded nori on top of rice but amazingly flavorful.  This could easily have been bland and boring but the chefs have a deft hand with seasoning and enough restraint not to oversalt so all the flavors in the dish were expertly enhanced and balanced

Soft-shell crab tempura with ponzu citrus sauce ($6.50)

• Beautifully fried, incredibly fresh and really well-priced
• The ponzu citrus sauce really goes with all sorts of fried things really well and it enhanced the flavor of the crab really well in this case

Kobe beef skewer ($4)

• A standard skewer kicked up a notch with pieces of glazed tender pieces of kobe beef
• Nothing too special but good
  

Agedashi tofu: deep-fried tofu with dashi sauce ($5.50)

• Pretty bland and uninteresting - the tofu had a light crispy coating and falls apart as soon as you bite into it but the dashi had no depth

Roasted eggplant ($4)

• INCREDIBLY smokey - I don't think I've ever had a dish with a smokier profile but it was surprisingly good
• A little nub of the eggplant was left on the plate so we surmised that the eggplant was blistered directly over an open flame and then peeled
• The bonito flakes and sweet sauce cut the bitterness of the eggplant quite a bit and made this dish really interesting

Takoyaki: pan-fried octopus balls ($6)

• Takoyaki are incredibly popular in all sorts of street stalls, izakayas and markets in Japan and I always remember them fondly as a festival food
• These unfortunately were way too mushy though the chunks of octopus in each were pretty tender and tasty

Grilled onigiri with soy sauce ($3)

• Grilled rice brushed with a light soy glaze always = deliciousness

Red bean ice cream, mochi, azuki ($3)

•  Good quality red bean ice cream which wasn't overly sweet, azuki beans and paste and some really chewy mochi balls made this the perfect end to a good meal

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Address: 152 West 49th Street, lower level

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A taste of the Bar Room at The Modern

As a prelude to the Arcade Fire concert at the opening of the High Line Festival, Connie, Nicky and I were wandering around the bleakly corporate area of Midtown near Radio City in desperate need of some good food. After much deliberating, we decided to pop into the Bar Room at the Modern to get a sampling of some of their interesting and beautifully presented dishes.

The Decor: (7/10)

Shot of interior courtesy of The Wandering Eater

The interior of the Modern is really quite pretty - clean lines, artfully placed plants and plenty of room around tables.
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The Food: (8.5/10)

Every dish on the menu is a small plate broken out into 3 sections: section I (primarily cold plates), section II (primarily hot plates) and section III (half sized entrees).

Roasted Long Island Duck Breast with peppercorn crusted apples and toasted pistachio-truffle dipping sauce ($16)
Since I'm slightly obsessed with duck, I ordered this dish of course and was so incredibly glad that I had. There's something about the combination of incredibly tender roasted duck and the crunchy tartness of apples that creates a nearly heavenly sensation. The toasted pistachio-truffle dipping sauce was just the icing on the cake and lent the dish a really mellow, earthly flavor.

Slow Poached Farm Egg In a Jar with maine lobster, roasted jerusalem artichokes and sea urchin froth ($17) Wow. There's not much else to say about this dish - you just really need to run out and get a few jars. There's been this craze surrounding egg dishes that I've totally bought into:

At Degustation:

Slowly Poached Egg with jamón serrano, chorizo, smoked cheese and rice cracker crusted asparagus

At Inoteca:

Truffled Egg Toast (photo courtesy of Kathryn)

At WD-50:

Carrot-Coconut "Sunny Side Up"

And the list goes on and on over at NYM's list of the top egg dishes of NYC

But back to the matter at hand:

Beer Braised Pork Belly with sauerkraut and ginger jus ($19)
Ah, pork belly... it's really hard to go wrong with this dish - I'm not a huge fan of sauerkraut but it really worked with the sweetness of the beer braised pork belly. Everything was perfectly cooked and everything on the plate served a purpose.

Roasted Garlic Gnocchi with wild mushroom, sage and crispy sweetbreads ($17)
Really tender, flavorful gnocchi and deliciously crunchy sweetbreads. The sage was also fried which lent a nice texture tot his dish.


Beignets with maple ice cream, caramel and mango marmalade ($10)
Ah, beignets... these were a bit too soft for my taste but the sauces more than made up for it. There's just something so deliciously decadent about swirling caramel around maple ice cream and topping it off with a big chunk of fried dough...
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