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FORK PLAY: January 10, 2008
Insieme Revisited. Falling for Wine Bars. More Predictions. Vintage Kitchen Gadgets for Sale.
Dear Friends and Family,
Stupid waiter-speak makes my teeth grind. "Are you still working in that?" Or worse: "Are you still picking on that?" I heard a new one last night. I pray it does not become a mantra. "Are you still noshing?" This at Solera, the Spanish restaurant. Noshing? I was right when I wrote that living in New York makes everyone a little Jewish.
Are you planning a retreat to Miami? You'll want to carry our Insatiable Reporter's Hot dining tips with you. This week's gossip is all about what will happen to Tavern-on-the-Green when its lease expires. Check out Short Order.
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Finding New Pleasure at Insieme - and Some Flaws
Just thinking about returning to Insieme (777 Seventh Avenue at 51st) with friends who'd never been made me happy -- I had a little delighted anticipation riff playing in a corner of
my brain all day. I could practically taste the dishes I'd loved in two early visits. And the evening began on a pleasant déjà vu, starting from the focused welcome, the roomy table, partner Paul Grieco's intuitive sommelier advice and the little dish of amusements - ah, that exquisite radish crunch releasing its tiny spurt of anchovy'd olive oil. I hope they never retire it.
"I'm glad to see this is a restaurant that doesn't do weird food," first-time Eleanor observes, scanning the left side of the menu, Insieme's "traditional" choices.
"You'll be fine as long as you don't wander to the other side of the menu," I tell her. "See where it says 'Contemporary Menu?'"
Restaurants that can cover the cost are making the most of the Nantucket bay scallop season - I borrow mine from the tasting menu - no problem, the waiter assures. Firm, barely cooked nubbins lightly caramelized with squash soup, smoked bacon and pickled pumpkin. Eleanor's grilled prawns on a skewer are remarkable creatures, jumbo-size, heads on, delicately just-cooked.
Midway through dinner, gifts arrive from chef-partner Marco Canora (don't believe anyone who says it doesn't matter if the house knows a critic has landed). No one in our food-centric foursome is offended by the unexpected pasta tasting: a tight swirl of the Road Food Warrior's favorite spaghetti amatriciani. And the best pasta e fagiole I ever had -- beans cooked, but not too, the fresh-made short macaroni-like semolina tubes sensuously firm. After that pleasant interruption I can barely do justice to the misto of boiled meats and vegetables with its vivid trio of classic condiments: green sauce, horseradish cream and chopped mustard-touched fruit. (See photo) A gathering of lamb parts -- chop, saddle, sausage and breast with Brussel sprouts - is impressive too.
But the lasagna I'd loved before is a faded swamp tonight and the linguine with vongole delivered in its modish covered bowl is not just overcooked, it's underseasoned and strangely bland too. And the cauliflower is near disintegration, although you might say, that's traditional for Italy.
We decide one dessert is imperative. Eleanor spots the word: butterscotch, not noticing that her choice is in the "Contemporary" column. Clearly, she finds caramelized quince with sweet potato butterscotch a serious betrayal of butterscotch trust. I'm not counting that as a flaw since we were warned. But I find that restaurants I loved in the first flush of passionate dedication sometimes lose touch with the details after the rave reviews come in. This might be so at Insieme. I am sure Canova is not doing pasta himself. But he needs to grab a noodle or two and taste often to be sure it still has the oomph he designed. See orginal review.
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Falling in Love with Wine Bars
I would not have thought of myself as a wine bar type. Sitting atop a tall stool and ordering a dab of this or a saucer of that, chatting with strangers three inches away, straining to say something intimate beneath the din. I love a little decorum and appreciate comfort where feet and knees don't go numb and the banquette has the right pitch and you can see what you're eating without a headlamp. But I have fallen in love with two wine bars in the past month. I keep wanting to go back to Bocca di Bacco and it wouldn't be difficult getting the Road Food Warrior to agree if they changed the menu more -- though we were in heaven with the daily specials on our second visit. And consulting partner Roberto Passon himself was barking commands in the kitchen.
Solex on the lower east side is my latest crush. No denying  Christophe Chatron-Michaud's agreeable smile and accent put me in the mood to feel flirty. And the luscious bread and pastry-wrapped savories by one-time Jean Georges pastry chef Eric Hubert, everything I would prefer not to eat, are exactly what I'm craving since that first visit. Garlicky snails with cream in flaky little cups. The big sausage in puff pastry we shared. The buttery croque madame with two quail eggs. The warm strawberry pie with crème anglaise. It's a $40 round trip commute for me by taxi but I'm plotting a return. Click on BITE to learn more. You'll also read why the etiquette of sushi makes the sushi bar a perfect playing field for seduction.
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New Challenges in Dining for 2008
If you haven't read my predictions of what to expect in restaurant dining in 2008 you don't know that restaurants with dead-of-night-in-the-woods lighting and menus with miniscule lime-green type will be required by law to supply headlamps to all senior citizens.
Do you find molecular food annoying? Better prepare for the newest rage, Conceptual Dining. The pleasure derived from the dish is found in its description alone. The dish, in fact, does not exist. A small fee will be charged.
Just as you get used to small plates, they will give way to no plates, a trend for even healthier portion control. All food will be served on oak leaves, in clam shells or onto your outstretched palm. Astound your foodie friends by being in the know.
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Ye Olde Kitchen Gadgets
After I sold the little church outside Woodstock where my then husband, the Kultur Maven and I spent weekends, I stashed all my treasures in storage. Now going through the cartons, I'm finding fabulous grocery tins, vintage kitchen equipment, hand-made copper pots and nutmeg graters, old paintings and molds, items the incurable collector in me could not resist. There's a Lockley and Howland wrought-iron apple peeler dated December 16, 1856. The nutmeg grater I always use because it doesn't abrade your knuckles, dated December 26, 1877. There just isn't room for it all. Email me if you'd like to see what's here for sale.
Photographs by Steven Richter cannot be reproduced without permission.
Gael Greene copyright pending 2008
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