Augieland

Morimoto NYC Omakase Bar: 903 ryorillian stars

I love "Iron Chef," the real, Japanese "Iron Chef." I watch it regularly, I love to impersonate Outa and Dr. Yukio Hattori, and I can tell you how many drinks you should take if the featured ingredient comes down from the rafters as opposed to up from the podium. I have hypothesized with friends what would happen if the choir of angels and Ditka entered kitchen stadium and took on Kenichi, or if there were a special all-star version and Vin Diesel, Mr. T and Chuck Norris took on Sakai, but wait... Sakai is being assisted by a wild jackal and a rabid wolf AND the theme ingredient is Kobe veal, one special calf raised only for the "rebirth special" of the greatest cooking show of all time.

Without fail, the winners of our battles are the Iron Chefs. These guys just kick ass. No one else is more willing to skin live animals on TV and then combine them with foie gras and truffles faster then the Iron Chefs. No one is more humble in both victory and defeat than these noble gladiators of Kitchen Stadium. The best part, of course, is that none of us had ever tasted the food; we know Sakai uses the ring mold and that Morimoto's cuisine is such an amalgam of international styles that to call it fusion would be to somehow trivialize all the inspirations he draws from. But we had never tried the food of these geniuses, all we had to go on was that Mayuko Takat thought a dish was like a haiku on her tongue, or that Kazuko Hosoki thought the chefs did a good job of overcoming the bitter aroma of the river fish.

Then Morimoto opened in Philly and the opportunity at last arose to try an Iron Chef's food. This, coupled with the fact that my friend Mark Addelbran was made Chef de Cuisine at the Philly restaurant, and I had to go. I finally went last summer (about three years after it opened) with Bear and Thursday, and had a 16 course omakase with its paired drinks. It was fantastic. It was the first time I had seen genius in Sushi. I had an amazing intermezzo dish of raspberry and wasabi sorbet. But, more than anything else, Bear declared it the "best meal (he) has had," and Bear eats very well.

So when Mark made me aware that Steven Starr, Chef Moriomoto, and he would be opening a New York restaurant with an eight-seat bar designated omakase, I asked him to promise me I could be there on the first night.

The feel of the room is somewhere between Japanese Minimalist and Tribeca Industrial. There is a white fiberglass ceiling made to look like the sand of a Zen garden and, with the lighting they have used, it looks like it could be made of linen. There are raw columns of poured concrete and blond wood chairs, with a downstairs bar largely comprised of lexan. After being in the room a while you realize that, as stark as it seems, every useable inch is used.

The omakase bar itself is the south side of the sushi bar; there are eight stools that sit flush on the ground that provide a seat back to lean against and a trough to drop your feet into in front of a bar made of simple, blonde wood. There is a full, small-scale version of the kitchen in front of you with burners, grills, fryers, steamers, and an entire sushi station just to handle the action at the omakase bar. Sadly, this set-up makes you stand or at least lean forward, to see over the wooden bar-front in order to see what the chefs are doing, and seeing what the chefs are doing is much of the fun.

Night one: Met a couple of friends at the bar, had about two Morimotinis each, and headed up to the omakase bar for dinner. After removing our shoes, we took our seats and gave ourselves over to Chef Moriomoto, Chef Mikoto (head sushi chef), Chef Omai (head omakase chef) and their team to feed us. The food was fantastic; the highlights were an Intermezzo of yuzu foam that had been flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen at the bar, slices of beef that we cooked ourselves on hot stones, with Morimoto's assistance, and a round of vintage Sake. There was also the wonderful sushi and sashimi accompanied by a 10yr-old soy sauce and a 20yr-old soy sauce especially for the otoro, as well as one California roll ordered as a goof because one of the group kept joking he was going to insist on it (the funny part is we all agreed it was the best example of a California roll we had ever had).

The service was very deft and attentive, only lacking in that it was the first time the place had ever been used and some of the foods were being prepared for the first time, so the best way to get them to the diners at the bar has yet to be figured out. This will obviously settle as they get used to the space and I am interested to see what choices are ultimately made.

   

Night Two: Well, if night one was a "lets explore our new space" night, night two was "hey, lets remind them that it is a mastery of the finest ingredients and creativity that made Morimoto famous" night. You could tell that the chef was still not exactly delighted with the all of the aspects of service, but as a customer of the omakase bar the level was about five steps more efficient and confident than the night before.

The real highlights of the night were a chu toro book made of wood, and a seared otoro so rich it was more like bacon then butter. There was also a soup eaten from a bowl made of paper that did not burn in spite of the flame directly under it keeping the shantung broth hot, and a set of three fritters, one of which was made of foie gras. What could be better then deep-fried foie?

Night Three: Confidence is settling in among the staff. We had the same waiter as night two, Ben, who is up from Philly for the opening. He is great; besides being a skilled waiter with history with Morimoto, he is obviously a fan of the show and the chef. His item descriptions were very enthusiastic and insightful and it ended up feeling as if we had our own Outa doing color, "the vase chef Morimoto is using is crystal by Tiffany."

One of the highlights of this meal was Drunken shrimp, in which live Japanese prawns are put in the aforementioned vase with a bottle of sake that is on the list for something like $300 where they "drink the sake until they go to sleep," and are then steamed. There were also two exceptional dishes involving gastropods -- soup of sake, butter and abalone, and a roasted giant snail with butter and garlic. Awesome having the two in the same meal for comparison sake, one sea, one land, both delicate yet toothsome, both vehicles for aroma, very similar, yet very different. But best of all was a porridge of broken rice with a 12-hour pork belly and black truffle. All food should taste like this, it was rich and comforting and pleasing on many levels.

 

Over the weekend, I popped into Morimoto for some food off the menu in the lounge. We had the rock shrimp, the oysters with uni and foie, an assorted sushi and an assorted sashimi. It was all safe and will please people raised on American sushi, while not flooring purists. It benefits from great fish, real fresh grated wasabi, deeply-flavored home-brewed soy, and rice that is really award-worthy.

Night Four: Fugu made its appearance on this night. The first course was fried fugu with a fugu-infused sake, and the second was a sashimi salad of fugu. There was a pot-au-feu with a wagyu tongue. The same Japanese king crab from night two played a part in this night's menu, except this time served warm out of the steamer, making it even sweeter. Tilefish was grilled and the skin was dressed with sea salt. The tilefish was a perfect expression of umami, had I not seen it prepared I would have sworn it was butter-poached. Dessert tonight was a salted chocolate and caramel dish that was definitely one of the best chocolate dishes I have had, of late.

Night Five: If there was a night that wasn't as great as the rest it was this one. We were late in sitting (totally our fault, there was a toddler and a babysitter involved) but the night never seemed to hit its stride. The food was as creative as ever, comprised of the largest portion of courses depending on subtlety so far. One of my favorite dishes from Morimoto Philly, the scallop carpaccio, appeared in a fugu version, and it was even better than before if that is possible. The realization I will take home from this night it is that fugu, which was in four of the dishes, is about aroma that comes up well after it has been digested (kind of the way you see no reason to eat castelmagno cheese until the warm flavor of milk hits you ten minutes after you have swallowed). I think standing around drinking for two hours may have overrun the subtlety of tonight's food a little. Everyone was in good form but Bruni was in the dining room (is there a more embarrassingly poorly kept secret in town then his identity? I am just a food geek and can easily pick him out of a crowd?) so I think that must have been distracting to the staff, although I can't prove it. Anyway, one out of five being just great instead of amazing is still a good enough record.

Night Six: Maybe because it was the last night of the run, but it was all there this night --toro in the form of prosciutto, hairy crab, uni, fugu, wagyu beef, and a Schezuan lobster. It was all tied together with a sense of purpose that made sense of every step of the process. There was the subtle aromatic quality of fugu paired with chives; there was a soup of chopped daikon with wagyu beef, showing the genius assurance of hearty beef stew as interpreted by Morimoto. This menu was all over the place and built every step of the way, no course out of balance, each successive dish profound compared to its predecessor, but never so strong that you forgot where you had been.

   

Except for the late evening in the lounge, I have not even ordered from the restaurant's menu yet. I simply have walked in as part of a group of eight, sat at the omakase bar and watched while Morimoto and his team took us down a culinary road. The stops along the way were amazing and varied. At times Morimoto's cuisine is a subtle thing, more so than at any other. There are white wines out there that would trample some of these dishes. At other times he is making food that could be described as comfort food, you may not have had wagyu beef in daikon broth growing up, but when you eat it, it feels like home.

A part of me very much wanted to ask for some of my favorite things from along the way before sitting on night 6, maybe the chu toro book from night 2 and the bacon porridge from night 3, or the fugu sashimi from night 4, but looking back I realize the three never would have gone together. A big part of the genius of the omakase bar isn't only the creativity that made every single dish completely different, but tying them all together so that they were even better as a whole. Each night had its own flow and its own logic, and at the end of each night the creativity and continuity came together to make it unique and fantastic. I am glad I didn't let my trepidation or ego get in the way.

A night at Morimoto very much depends on your company. Remember the first time you went to a hibachi joint as a kid and the chef flicked a shrimp-tail on the top of his hat? The joy of interacting with the chefs while they expertly prepared your dishes? Morimoto's omakase bar is the first place I have found that inspires that kind of glee in adult New Yorkers so it helps very much to be in the company of people that are open to this kind of experience and not looking for ways it is not that different from Go Sushi.

Inevitably, comparisons will be made to Nobu and Masa, but neither has the magic of the omakase bar at Morimoto. The reason that the New York Nobu is such an institution and so superior to its London, Miami, and L.A. counterparts is Morimoto's involvement in its beginnings, and now he is doing his own thing, right in front of you. The food is far more nuanced than that of Nobu, so if you do not appreciate delicacy and grace in food this may not be the place for you. If you do love touch and finesse and want a room where reveling in the joys of fine food is encouraged, this is. Masa definitely offers sushi of this quality but lacks the composed dishes and sometimes can feel a little staid for a hedonist in its sense of self and Japanese aesthetic.

If you have a group of bon vivant friends, and want a night to experience the creativity of a true talent, unfettered by trying to please anyone other than you, there is no place like this. The truth is this Iron Chef is as good as you had hoped, and by giving yourself over to his whim you will experience truly thrilling and inventive cuisine, at times you will understand how a bite can “ dance like a haiku.” Go, get seats, make sure you never run out of Morimoto's ginjo sake, and enjoy the hell out of life, that's what it is for.

The Real Food Revival: how to shop for quality, not quantity

Every time I talk about the evils of corn subsidies, feed lots, and farmed fish I feel myself being perceived as some kind of hippy, communist, preacher. I haven’t yet figured out how to address agribusiness and chemical companies’ undermining the health of America in the interest of profits without sounding like a paranoid conspiracy theorist. The idea of GMO’s frustrates me so much I find them hard to discuss, or actually hard to stop discussing.

It is a very confusing time in food in America. While on the one hand we have created a situation where butter and sugar are actually better for the average American than the shortening and corn syrup that are pervasive as the only choices they can make while shopping at Wal-Mart or other such places, on the other we have services like Fresh Direct featuring a locally grown produce section, and Whole Foods is one of the hottest stocks on the market.

I believe there is a difference between real food and its alternatives. Right now it is February in NYC and the organic arugula I tossed into a salad last night leaves so much to be desired when compared to the arugula I buy in the summer at the Union Square Green Market, but both still beat the hell out of the Foxy romaine that is most ubiquitous these days. I have always figured go with the food that tastes best, pay some more for it if you have to, and quality of life will follow. I have just not been good at conveying that message to my friends, family and random people I see in supermarkets buying half cooked, half water, Tyson chicken crud. So now I just give them a copy of The Real Food Revival.

Sherri Brooks Vinton and Ann Clark Espuelas wrote The Real Food Revival claiming not to know a lot about food. I suspect they were being more modest than truthful, but either way they may have been the perfect people for the job. Most people I know claim to want to be consuming better tasting food, however there is an apathy in their approach to procuring it. Most people I talk to believe words like “natural” and “organic” mean actually nothing more than marketing and, as a result, buy what’s cheap and easy, claiming there is too much work involved in finding local and/or organic. The Real Food Revival serves the consumer best as a shopping guide, informing the reader of the current conventions for producing foodstuffs, who is currently producing real food, what words like “natural” and “organic” have to mean by law, and places in your daily life where you can easily make a better choice.

Real food, as defined in the book, is grown naturally and locally and as a result is therefore both more healthful and better tasting. I am a person that sees a valid logic in this claim. Strongly believing in the notion of terroir, it is a natural conclusion for me that food born of the dirt I live closest to, and nurtured with the rain and sunlight that falls in my life, would taste better to me, so maybe they were preaching to the choir when I picked it up, but I see this book as serving a big purpose for anyone who wants to eat better.

The book starts with some very romanticized version of a youth spent nestled in a world of perfect produce with mongers for all foodstuffs stopping by the house to give health reports on the local bovine heard and fish haul and how the turnip buds are setting at the farm this guy somehow had just walked his cart over from. This beautiful world is systematically crushed by the money lust of successful big business that started developing after World War II. Thankfully this does not last long. Really we are living in a world with kiwis, pomegranates and all sorts of things that add to quality of life and are only available as a result of the industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution has also had some real downsides for both food and agriculture, and those of us who want to eat better need to become aware of both what is causing food to be tasteless, and how to find the better versions people living in the richest (both agriculturally, and monetarily) land on earth, should be able to get. Without screaming about resolution by legislation, The Real Food Revival simply tells you how to get what you are looking for.

Sherri Brooks Vinton and Ann Clark Espuelas break each of their chapters down into two sections. In the Industrial Agriculture Snap Shot (IASS) section we learn of the places where the zeal for all things industrial and efficient may have gone a little awry. It is here that things like the decision to stress color and uniformity for features like shipping and stacking which have led to things like perfect, round, light pink, flavorless tomatoes from Florida are discussed. This is where the book runs the risk of getting one-sided and a little preachy, but the authors stay on the safe side of the line (though, like I have said, I am their choir on these topics). I have never had good corn (GMO or otherwise) that wasn’t picked that morning in the late summer. The fact that my wonderful summer corn could be forever lost because pollen from some subsidized corn, genetically modified to grow to be a more expensive fuel substitute for oil in any weather, got carried on the breeze to the farm near me, is something I take very seriously.

But it is in the Reviving Real Food sections where this book seems to do its best work. The authors talk about simple, proactive solutions on many levels -- from buying a basil plant for the window of your house, to just trying to choose snack foods made with real sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup. Alternatives are offered for all of the troubles brought up in the IASS section. Alternatives that are applicable to your life no matter what that may be.

At the end of each chapter is a profile of someone in America offering a good “real” alternative to the bigger-is-better school of foodstuff production. Every one is in a legitimate business with a valid business model that they are successful at. It is here the book won me over. Not a group of weirdoes bucking the system, and not a group of charity cases bitching that there is unfair competition, these are all people that saw a market not being served, started serving it, and have reaped the benefits. The kind of people you would like to believe farmed all of America in its infancy before subsidies, and agribusiness, turned them into wage slaves.

I am a strong believer that the solution to what I see as problems in America is to get people to stop supporting markets that allow things to be bad. Hate bad movies? don’t pay ten dollars for them; want more movies like the ones you are seeing? see them in the theater multiple times. 

As far as food goes, there are things like subsidies to overcome in order to be a free market. In this day of the Internet, though, that is as easy to overcome as popping an email to an elected official whenever you are bored saying, “end subsidies or I won’t vote for you again,” and then simply not voting for them or, better, voting against them. People, even farmers, are now realizing subsidies are ultimately doing more harm than good for everyone, everywhere. I think we can make real headway towards eliminating subsidies. Then, if we aren’t buying they won’t be making, and that really is how America works best.

Maybe this book could only be written by people who “know very little about food.” I think, being regular people who spend a significant amount of their energy procuring ingredients in stores, these authors had the insights to figure the way to real solutions and then explain how easy they can be. This book basically serves as shopping guide for people who want more out of their food dollar, as long they are paying for flavor not pounds.

No whole milk in school? You nincompoops.

New York City schools have decided to stop offering whole milk to students. When will people finally see that bureaucracy and food do not belong together? Without getting insane about the many completely stupid and self-serving half-truths bureaucrats have turned into policy on food, like those regarding mishandling of raw milk and beef preparation.  Things like: cooking the flavor (some say helpful microbes) out of the milk by pasteurizing it, and spraying the freshly butchered carcasses of animals with bleach.  The truth is if people responsible for these decisions had any understanding about food and its benefits, their policies would involve insuring the handlers of our food did so in safe manners, rather than rashly deciding to sterilize the good, the bad, and the flavor out of our food supply.

Taking as a given that those who decide food policies are inept reactionaries who have, without fail, followed trends and made decisions based on simplicity over quality, those of us who care have found ways around their idiocy. But this decision by New York schools is potentially dangerous to children and that is unacceptable.

I will not get involved in the arguments for drinking whole milk they are well made here. Or the fact that raw whole milk, properly handled, is probably the healthiest thing humans can consume (because Ron Schmid does a great job of it in his book and, to be honest, I drink it because it tastes better, not because I believe it has medicinal powers). The dilemma of this recent decision is that it shows a complete miscomprehension of the issues facing America's youth today.

I assume the impetus for this decision is the improvement of health of the children (to be against being fat is an aesthetic choice, there are plenty of people out there who like being large and like others that are large, so for a school board to decide being fatter is bad would be horrible and would border on eugenics.) I think it is safe to assume they have made this new policy believing it will aid in the fight against type two diabetes and coronary issues later in life.

There is good evidence that Americans are getting fatter, and fatter Americans are suffering from ill health as a result of their weight. There is, however, no direct provable relationship between animal fats and ill health. To the contrary, as Americans have cut back on consumption of animal fats, they weigh more and more every year. I will let dieticians argue that as America reacted to the idea that animal fats were bad, the food industry replaced animal fat with vegetable fat and empty sugar calories, and we are now finally realizing things like people who substitute artificial sweeteners and "low-fat" fillers are fatter then those who don't.

I think people who try to stay informed rather than gleaning their health info from TV commercials and the side of a Snackwell's box all agree at this point that two things are responsible for America's fat issue: one being the departments of American government advising an out-of-balance diet that favors grains and carbohydrates, and the other the ubiquitous-ness of high fructose corn syrup in packaged food.

Ok, so the New York school system is basing a very poor decision on old dietary theory that most everyone who actually studies health gave up on about ten years ago, things like this happen all the time. So why am I so up in arms about this one, this time? Because the real problem with America's diet is sugars and, in the interest of saving 20 calories, this new policy keeps low-fat chocolate milk available while removing whole milk. The result is that, in the interest of saving less then 1% of a grown human's suggested diet, children are being trained to prefer artificially sweet food.

The most immediate dietary dilemma facing Americans is the amount of processed sugar in their diets and the New York School system is encouraging sweet over wholesome in the interest of saving twenty calories.

The truth is, if you want healthier kids, encourage them to eat a balanced diet of comprised of the least processed food possible and take them out for a run. Obsessing on fat has made us fat. Obsessing on sugar has created artificial sweeteners that at there best are negligibly carcinogenic at their worst make you dumb. According to the numbers of schools that have enacted these policies milk drinking is down across the board, and no drink can be more important to a developing child then milk. To accept people drinking less because it will take 20 calories out of a developing child's diet only leaves us with brittle children who crave sweet beverages, and that is a horrible education.

Morimoto NYC: Omakase bar night 6, the porn

Night 6 the finish line in style.

toro proscuitto with osetra caviar and shaved udo

scallop with chinese xo, fresh yuba and shaved black winter truffle

fugu sashimi with ponzu and chive

waygu beef mizone nabe when Mrorimoto does comfort food it is a gooood thing

liquid nitrogen frozen pommelos with mango

salt grilled tachiuo served with sudachi and nori paste

Szechaun spiny lobster

braised kimmeda in soy black beans mirin espuma

kegani-meshi rice with seaweed sauce

chu toro buri toro missing picture of uni and neeedle fish

white chocolate espuma with pineapple sauce

tofu cheesecake with shaved chocolate lime zest and candied ginger

Morimoto NYC: Omakase bar night 5, the porn

Night five and no repeats yet I am starting to worry Morimoto's creativity will out last me.

Japanese ceviche sweet tomato caviar and fugu skin

mizugai, tairagai, and awabi, with ponzu the meat is in a cold scented broth of Veuve Cliquote, lime and cucumber, you retrieve the bites with a slotted label and dip them in the ponzu.

Fugu (blowfish) carpaccio the fugu is sliced and put on the plate with truffles, shiso flowers and various other herbs and immediately prior to serving hot olive oil is poured over it.

mongatsuo (pompano) and wagyu beef sashimi served with garlic soy for the pompano and ginger soy for the beef

buri daikon (poached king yellowtail) the collar

sushi: hirame and buri

kinkan ice cream half of a Japanese kumquat is flash frozen in liquid nitrogen, filled with yuzu ice cream, and topped with the unfrozen half of the kinkan

Kuromutsu kasuzuke Morimoto explained this as the greatest of winter fish seared, the pink is a pickled ginger root bud.

Sushi: uni and kohada

Kobe tritip with red miso and dashi foam a cut popular on the west coast, slow cooked with the red miso playing a roll like BBQ sauce

fugu risotto with Parmesan and truffles more a risso with egg added the aroma of the fugu came about 8 minutes after each bite behind that of the cheese and the truffle a very interesting phenomenon

isi ebi (spiny lobster) miso soup this dish is more about the lobster scented miso as apposed to the more American miso flavored lobster, the lobster meat was incidental to this dish.

Saiku sushi with squid and char roe

Hibiscus espuma, rose granite with green tea tuille wasabi also played a roll

Sake marinated fruits

Morimoto NYC: Omakase bar night 4, the porn

Fugu arrived on night 4

Fugu Kiragi with fugu infused Sake. the fugu is "kentucky fried, very light to match the delicate aroma of the fish. Very hot Sake is poured over grilled fugu tail and covered allowing the sake to infuse with its aroma.

Fugu Sashimi in Ponzu with Black Truffle

Taichuo in Dashi Soy Sauce Grilled belt fish

Shima Aji & kin Medai

King Crab Leg waem with wasabi cocktail sauce

Foie Gras and Pork Rind soup

Saba & Tairagi

intermezzo: fFash Frozen Persimmon with  Wasabi-Yuzu Granite

Waygu Beef Tongue with Carrot & Potato pot au feu

Japanese Tile Fish grilled skin with sea salt

needle fish and chu toro

Wagyu Short Rib with Gorgonzola Fondue Breaded Wagyu beef cutlet

Mango sorbet

Salted chocolate and caramel

Back stage at Buddakan

Snuck into Steven Starr's Buddakan yesterday before tonight's big fashion week thing. They were just getting the place in order for a cocktail party but judging by design alone this place is fantastic, fanciful and far east. So far i saw:

The wall on the northern facade of The Chelsea Market

The entrance

A room on the first floor decorated with book spines.

A mural in the next antechamber.

Windows in the west facing wall

The hallways leading from the antechamber to the main chamber

The main chamber

A small hall beyond the main chamber.

What will fill these mysterious rooms? I don't know yet, but letting my imagination run free in this wonderfully fanciful space i come up with: tables, chairs and piles and piles of food. Ill let ya know the end of February.

Ureña: 862 squigzillian stars

There is a progression in the development of a great chef that follows three basic steps. First, you work in the kitchens of other chefs, within the parameters of their culinary decisions, to make sure the restaurant you are responsible for follows their vision.

Second, you open your own place. Your vision, experience, and name are available for the public to sample.  If your audience appreciates your expression, and you have desires beyond owning a well-received restaurant, you move on to step three.

Third, having made a name for yourself and found a talented chef to run your kitchen according to your established standards, you are free to pursue your heart’s desire (maybe opening a new restaurant with a different cuisine, maybe writing a book, maybe starring in a reality show that tanks).

Obviously it is best to be a customer during the second stage, when a chef is still willing to experiment and grow, and is still very much involved in the execution of the dishes that leave his kitchen.

Alex Ureña is a chef who is obviously ready to show the world his food. So ready, in fact, that eleven days after opening, there is still no sign on the front of his new restaurant at 37 E. 28th St (just west of Park Ave. South). In a sea of restaurants that will only open with a proper machine to support them, Ureña seems to have needed to get cooking so badly that the restaurant feels refreshingly honest, with a certain mom and pop charm.

Ureña is in one of those spaces that can only be described as a ground floor, retail, shot-gun shack. Long, narrow and deep, it feels like either a headshop or a drycleaner went out of business and, while wandering down the street, Alex declared, “here is where I will make a go of it.” The room is sparsely decorated; there are copper accents from the bar top to the color of the menus, otherwise it is the low profile whites of old stucco buildings in Spain. The staff wears deep burgundy shirts that match the charge plates, other than these touches, the room feels designed to stay out of the way of the food. 

In New York City these days it is strange to feel a childlike ambition in a restaurant opening. Designers and publicity machines manipulate everything. Ureña seems driven by a precociousness that says, “the food will speak for it self; who cares that the cryovac machine has not yet been delivered, there are other ways to cook than sous vide,” and “the contractors can finish the punch list in the afternoons, at night we will feed our customers and if we do that right, no one will notice that the awning is not up yet.”

The good news for those who care most about food and consider great plates the driving force behind a restaurant’s feel is that Alex is an authentic talent. There is no new ingredient or trendy preparation in his dishes, just confidence, skill, and a unique instinct for pairings and combination of techniques.

The front area of the restaurant is a hammered copper bar that offers a menu of tapas and tapas deserts. When asked if there were any special cocktails, the bartender explained that they had a selection of pretty standard cocktails made more interesting with the addition of fresh fruit-juices and purees. We tasted the blood orange Margarita, which Bubby chose, and the pineapple caipirinha that Wife claimed, leaving me happily sipping a raspberry and coconut martini . Overlooking the very poor branding of these drinks, they were all nicely fruity while remaining cocktails and not getting too sweet.

The wine list is simple and seems to be put together as some form of Gallup poll, to gauge the tastes of their new audience. There are about three sections of white and three of red, broken down into constituent grapes. Each section has about five or six choices with a range of prices and regions. I assume it will be from the choices made by the customers in the first couple months that the direction of the wine list will be chosen. Being in a Spanish place, we chose an Albarino from Riax Baixas by Nora Peitan. Fruity and light, with lemon and melon notes, it was very refreshing. Staying in Spain for our second wine, we chose a Grenache from Navarra by Artazu Artazuri. Light, crisp, acidic and young it was a great, simple table wine. So I guess we cast our votes in the cheap, good, food-friendly, Spanish wines category.

Taking a page from Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh, Alex “establishes his presence with authority,” in the form of a simple amuse bouche composed of black pepper wafers sandwiching cream cheese and a white anchovy filet, on a reduced sherry vinegar and basil oil. The dining room is very intimate and thus it is very easy to be aware that the young lady next to us decided not to even try it, thereby missing the tale of the little snack which seemed to be, either, “I use high quality ingredients,” or “this place is for people with as much conviction as I have.” Either way, my companions and I were delighted.

You have the option of a chef’s tasting menu or ordering a la carte. Usually on a first visit to a restaurant I prefer to let the chef guide us through his fare but the intimacy of the table, added to the fact that each of us wanted to try the same three appetizers as well as three different entrees, encouraged us to order one of each and let the servers place them however they saw fit. We then ate a third of each dish and passed to the right. This worked especially well because there was enough of each component of each dish to allow sharing, not always the case about town these days.

From the first section of the menu we chose:

Mar Y Montaña Serrano ham, shrimp, roasted apples, chorizo sauce. A Terrine of shrimp and apples, stacked and wrapped in the Serrano ham, topped with micro greens. The shrimp brings a raw, protein richness to the salty ham, which is played with by the soft sugars of roasted apples.
Dos Crudos House smoked tuna, shrimp marinated in lemon juice, pearl onions and green olives. The green olives are chopped and rolled into the raw, marinated shrimp meat, which has been pounded flat. This is placed on a slice of smoked tuna and topped with micro greens and capers. This is one of the more unique preparations I have seen since the day someone decided every single restaurant in the world needed a raw fish appetizer. The tuna has the lightest layer of smoke to play with its richness, while the lemons and greenness of the olives taper that of the shrimp.
Texturas de Foie Gras Sautéed foie gras with candied kumquats, foie gras praline with fig balsamic, foie gras yogurt with yellow currants. The seared piece of foie, paired with the preserved kumquats, is not a huge stray from tradition and is as good as any traditional pairing of the richness of foie to a bitter sweetness. The foie gras praline, however is a creamy spread dotted with a fig balsamic reduction and roasted hazelnuts, causing us to dream of sandwiches of this on the black pepper crisp from the amuse in the lunch bags of our halcyon days. The genius of this dish though is the dried currants in the foie yogurt:  the tanginess of the yogurt tempering the richness of the foie, with the currants lending it body and sweetness.

From the mains we chose:

Bogavante Steamed lobster, pickled rhubarb, salsify and vanilla puree. Lobster is at its sweetest in the dead of winter, but pairs very well with the tangy sweetness of summer. The solution of how to bring these two contradictory realities together is to pickle the fruit. The dish seemed even more wonderful considering the strangely temperate 50+ degree weather on this February eve.
Pollo en dos Texturas braised chicken breast, confit thigh, artichoke purée, carmalized leeks, smoked chorizo, foie gras foam. What is it about these strange Spanish chefs and their obsession with texture and foam? Who cares as long as it keeps producing results like this? The confit of thigh with its seared skin was the nicest thing someone has done to a chicken since the free-range movement. The breast was resilient, firm, and moist and became an efficient way to eat the artichoke purée, yet another familiar flavor in a new form.
Pechuga de Pato Seared duck breast, Savoy cabbage, bacon, dry apricots, star anise scented sauce. Hinting at a Moorish influence without going too far East, this duck was perfectly rare, savory and deeply flavored.

For dessert we had:

Selecion de Quesos Ibores, le Peral, Pau, and Roncal served with quince paste and walnuts.  I would have toasted the walnuts, other than that it was a selection of Spanish cheeses that made a good run from mild to pungent.
Desayuno wheat toast cake, Bulgarian feta, maple caramel, Rosemary ice cream Attractive because it obviously wasn’t based on sweetness, this ended up becoming about the rawness of the flavor of rosemary in the ice cream. The cake was chewy, the feta nicely salty and the ice cream added richness and moisture. I was left wondering if it would have been more harmonious had the rosemary been cooked before steeping the milk with it.
Remolacha con Chocolate Beet panna cotta, chocolate sauce, chocolate cookie, orange salt, sour cram ice cream. The chocolate was salty, the salt was orangey, the panna cotta was only as sweet as a beet, and the chocolate sauce was dark. This was an amazingly deeply flavored desert all about natural sweetness without going to the boring sugar place.

It all ended with a plate of petits-fours -- a lime jelly, a sherry vinegar-caramelized almond, and a chocolate with smoked sea salt.

Every industry has confidence and talent within it, but not always in the same place. When a person comes along who possesses both, some notice is usually taken. Alex has put himself on a side street in a quiet part of town and started serving before numbers were even painted on the entrance. Rash and daring maybe, but his culinary voice is based in authentic Spanish tradition and he is teasing out nuance seldom seen these days. The staff is competent and talented and I’m sure one day soon a buzz will follow, but right now it is all about the food, and the food is good. I recommend going sooner rather than later.

Morimoto NYC: Omakase bar night 3, the porn

Night three had the awesome addition of a printed menu of what we had eaten so hopefully this will have less spelling mistakes.

Cauliflower bisque Consume jelly and osetra caviar with a dot of fresh wasabi. Eaten all together it ended up tasting like the greatest vichyssoise ever.

 

sashimi salad sima aji, white vegetables, micro greens, fruit tomato and yuzu The striped jack was filleted and laid flesh-side down on ice. The skin was then cooked with a blow torch. That may have been the only tomato I have ever enjoyed in February.

Awabi Tobanyaki sake, butter yuzu and soy.  The live abalone were shelled and put in the hot stone pot with the other ingredients and covered. By the time we opened the pot again they were finished cooking. The black bit at the top is the liver.

drunken shrimp  "karuma ebi" lobster rillette, Thai fish sauce and cilantro. The "car shrimp" (a size reference) were put, live, in a crystal vase with a bottle of sake where they drank themselves to sleep. The lobster and fish sauce are inside the fried rillette.

macha green tea

Frozen chocolate Anglaise The liquid nitrogen came out to flash-freeze the anglaise bottom, then cols anglaise was piped on top.

Tempura kisu, anago and spring blossom vegetables The eel and whiting were wonderful. The blossom, which I imagine is some kind of thistle, was amazing.

sazae "spring top shelf" garlic butter, soy caramel sauce, and kinome liver. Once you peel the white back, inside is the richest snail meat ever. The chef proudly proclaims it is like escargot, obviously not knowing how much better this is than the canned snails in garlic and butter everyone else is pushing. It had the aroma of sweet butter and garlic with each bite.

Pork kakuni shaved black truffle gabo and congee Everything in the world should taste this good. It is a 12-hour roasted pork belly (bacon) and a crushed rice custard. I would eat this for every meal, and again as my sobering snack when I got home.

Miso soup hisari clams and fresh wakame

Azuki and chestnut beggars purse sake jelly and lemon mousse Apparently the other method of chestnut preparation (as opposed to roasting on an open fire) makes them taste even better. A wonderful richness without being cloying.

kabosu creme brule with earl grey ice cream  I love desserts that are more about flavor than sweetness, and the creme eaten off the dried apple chips was just sweet enough to end the meal without going too far.

Sushi was interspersed through all the courses. There was: otoro, kanpacji, blue fin tuna, tai sekaji miriugai, and uni. The uni and mirugi picture does not exist --when i saw the steak I just ate it right away, sorry. The steak piece did not make sense to everyone, at least two of the people complained it was "gristly." But I guess I was ok with there being some chew to raw steak raised to be almost 60% fat. Hey, different strokes.

I am taking the weekend off to give someone else a chance. I'll report again after monday's dinner.

Morimoto NYC: Omakase bar night 2, the porn

Back at the omakase bar for night 2

The bar

The chefs

Shira Uo Kakiage ice fish tempura

Then the dish for the icefish tempura became our sake cup

Chu Toro Tartar once Chef Morimoto opened the box the right side contained: nori paste, cream cheese, chopped chives, micro shiso, wasabi, avocado, and puffed rice. he then peeled back a green leaf to reveal chopped chu toro and caviar. The stick was used to combine them as you saw fit

Oh Toro seared with 20 yr old soy

Sushi Kinmedai and Maguro golden eye snapper and bluefin tuna

Raw Bar cold spiny lobster, stone crab, and king crab, with Thai soy-chillies, ginger-scallion, wasabi-cocktail, and citrus cevice sauces.

Tako ban Fritters, octopus, foie gras , and lobster fritters with ponzu and lobster sauces

Huso muiko river fish and veggies in scallion broth in paper over a flame

Sushi kohada and awabe shad and abalone

Flash frozen Yuzu ice cream the chef dips the ice
cream foam in liquid nitrogen

Uni Risotto with truffle and nori paste

 

Dry aged waygu beef with sweet onion jus

Sushi Kisu and hokki silver whiting and surf clam

missing image of mango sorbet with yuzu raspberry foam and poppy seed tuille

chocolate pecan brownie with espresso ice cream and amaretto cream

the bathroom just because it is very cool even before 1.8 liters of Morimoto's private label ginjo sake.