Saturday Night with Jimi

As often occurs upon a return stateside, our evenings are filled with dinners among friends and, not infrequently, at new restaurants. On this past Saturday evening we had the pleasure of dining with Her Grottiness, a deux. Quelle plaisir. Not that Mr. Sausage is not a wonderful addition to any dinner, but rather that Her Grottiness and I rarely have the opportunity to spend time one-on-one.

Saturday evening changed that and we rushed off early to a new restaurant on West 8th Street, #33. Yep, smack in the middle of ‘Shoe Town.' Later the Personal Historian pointed out that the blocks of 8th Street from 6th Avenue to Broadway are turning into a bit of a restaurant row. He even cited a differentiation between blocks based on price and type of restaurant. Who knew?

Anyway, as if Shoe Town weren’t strange enough, the owners of this place claim that Jimi Hendrix played guitar in the location years ago. Was he hunting for shoes? I guess we’ll never know. And just to add to the confusion, the name of the restaurant is Elettaria, named for a green cardamom seed.... okay!

All the same, the pocket reviews we had seen gave it creed in our book – a chef who had done the rounds and opened good places for big names; cocktails designed by leaders in NYC’s burgeoning downtown cocktail lounge scene; and interior design by some hip firm. We had to try before it was overwhelmed or closed.

Our quickie summation: it won’t close! And there are not that many seats in the dining room, so it may get overwhelmed. We decided that the most intime and interesting method of exploring the menu here would be to eat at the bar. Therefore, no reservation in hand on a Saturday night, we rolled into Elettaria.

It was deserted.

Admittedly, it was only 7pm but don’t those BLT-ers who need to get back to suburbia before too late eat early? We are not sure but are putting our money on the fact that no one can spell the name to find directions or reservations.

And that is too bad because it is worth the effort. One enters Elettaria at the end of a long rectangle; at the opposite end and parallel to the street is a gleaming open kitchen; on the left side of the rectangle runs a bar half the length of the restaurant and only at the end of this bar does the dining room begin. The bar is surrounded by well-padded and comfortable stools. Additionally, but surprisingly, there are hooks under the top of the bar in front of each stool for handbags and/or packages. How civilized!

The bar itself has a rather 50’s/60’s look and 3 large round banquets on the opposite wall only add to that feeling. The ceiling is low and the length of the restaurant is accentuated by the application of wide plank flooring on the ceiling and the floor. The menu is presented with the cocktail and wine list in a small hardbound book, rather like a photo album, and the pages are illustrated with antique botanical drawings.

Interestingly, the cuisine is a fusion of classic Euro/American with Asian spicing, particularly Indian. And while the wine list is practically nonexistent, a throw-away, the cocktails are designed to be drunk with the food and include and complement the unusual spicing. I started with an Opaka Raka, a refreshing gin drink with a citrus mixer made in-house that included cinnamon and spices common in Indian cuisine. Later on we tried a few wines and Her Grottiness did find a Torrontes, a very light white wine from Argentina that pleased her, and we drank a glass or two of an Italian white from Calabria.

This choice pleased us as it was 1) unknown to us, 2) different, and 3) very interesting. To share a bit with you, Dear Reader, the full name of the wine is Efeso Bianco IGT, Calabria, Italy 2004 – Montonico. To dissect that: Efeso Bianco is the type of wine, like Meursault; IGT stands for Indicazione Geografica Tipica and is the geographic control on Italian wine production, like AOC on French wines; Calabria, obviously is from where the wine originates; and Montonico is the cepage or grape.

Online notes at Winebow.com (http://www.winebow.com/wine_basicinfo.asp?ID=719&producer=40) tell us that Montonico is an indigenous grape variety from Calabria that was cultivated for centuries before almost disappearing completely. Librandi, one of the leading producers in the region, is dedicated to recovering these historic grapes, of which Mantonico is one of the most important. The grapes are hand harvested at the end of September from the vineyards located in the Rocca di Neto area. In order to add roundness and softness, malolactic fermentation is completed in both new and used barriques. Efeso is aged for eight months in oak barriques for extra refinement.

Keep your eyes open this summer for 2004 Efeso in your local wine shop; it’s a keeper! The color is very deep golden yellow, much darker than the age would imply. The nose is extremely smoky and pungent like a big Burgundy chardonnay. In the mouth, there is a lot of flavor – honey, ripe green fruits, and a lingering earthiness present in most good southern Italian wines. The oak barrels give structure but what tannins may have resulted from this aging have faded now. We don’t imagine this wine, like many from hot climates, would age long but it is very drinkable at this time.

As for the meal, it was as interesting as that Efeso. We followed the A-Girl school of dining and focused on starters, lots of starters. Beginning with Samosas of curried rabbit with coconut sambar and a tamarind vinaigrette, we were introduced to the East/West fusion happening in the kitchen. The sambar was a quenelle of coconut paste on the side which enhanced the samosa when one dragged through it.

Next up were Sweetbreads with romaine, pineapple and pink peppercorns. Now we and Her Grottiness adore sweetbreads and they are not often found on a menu in NYC. This preparation was excellent – we ate two orders! The sweetbreads had been lightly breaded and sautéed, the pineapple was cut into small cubes and had been pickled in a brine that left it crunchy, a deep pink color and with a sophisticated sweet/sour taste. The pink peppercorns were sprinkled whole over the dish and when bitten were both spicy hot and cool.

Our next choice was determined by the bartender’s description, but before we reveal that we would be amiss if we did not comment on the overly reserved quality of the bartender. From the moment of our arrival until departure at closing (!), he remained not unfriendly, not rude, just too reserved, sadly. When ‘prodded’ he provided information, answered questions but did not engage in small talk.

Nevertheless, when asked about the Crab Meat Resala, he explained that the crab meat and the gnocchi were sautéed in butter.... that made us moan lightly so it arrived next. Crab meat tossed with fried gnocchi, turmeric-onion soubise, basil seeds and fried herbs – the latter was parsley as a garnish, the basil seeds tossed in lightly and a soubise, according to Epicurious.com (http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry/?id=4663) is a rich, velvety sauce made by combining béchamel with pureed cooked onions and sometimes a small amount of cream, or a meat accompaniment of pureed cooked onions and rice. There was no rice here, so we are going with the first definition. The turmeric provided a light yellow color. It was appropriately rich and enjoyable.

Now we were at a loss for a last dish; again poking and prodding the bartender we finally extracted what he described as his favorite and a chef specialty, “a sort of deconstructed sushi”: Kona Kanpachi. Kona is a type of white fish served in small thin slices on the plate with jackfruit (a large Southeastern Asian fruit, soft and with a sweet flavor not unlike pineapple), bean sprouts (not at all like the ones we ate on salads in the 90’s) and smoked peanuts. Individually the parts of this dish were undistinguished but when they arrived in our mouths together there was an explosion of tastes and flavors that had not been experienced that night. A delight and exactly what deconstructed food should be all about.

We say, “Elettaria: find it, get there, eat at the bar, and ‘poke’ the server.” It’s worth the effort.

Enjoy!