{"id":365,"date":"2011-05-15T18:20:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T22:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/?p=365"},"modified":"2011-05-25T18:57:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T22:57:05","slug":"new-york-minutes-136","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2011\/05\/new-york-minutes-136\/","title":{"rendered":"New York minutes\/Mid-May 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

The straight-ahead good: The Dutch<\/a> in the old Cub Room in SoHo, where we ventured after being told reservations were only available at 5:30 or after 10:15 on a Monday night and where we were able to walk right in, sit right down and revel in too much food, all as satisfying as it\u2019s been buzzed about online. The oyster \u201csliders\u201d are just called \u201clittle sandwiches\u201d on the menu, and ours was outstanding, with distinctive oyster flavor despite heavy saucing partly thanks to perfect frying (crisp exterior, interior with almost a poached consistency). \u201cWhite boy Asian ribs,\u201d with sweet-spicy sauce and tender meat, seemed A-level to me, but my consort compared them with the ones he\u2019d had at Oklahoma Joe\u2019s in KCMO recently and rated them a rung down the BBQ ladder. But the eggplant dip with crisp chips proved to be the knockout bar snack, like a beautifully balanced smoky-creamy baba ghanoush. I took half my rib home for The Cat and tried to resist too much dip, but I still could only make it halfway through a superb duck breast, crusted with pecans, laid over dirty rice with gizzards and andouille and topped with the vegetable I loathe most, which turned out to be a brilliant finishing touch\u00a0 — sliced lengthwise almost paper-thin, so there were no nasty strings, only fresh green flavor. Bob\u2019s super-succulent lamb neck came in the best mole I have ever tasted, with no weird fruity flavor, just chile-nut intensity; red rice and chayote cut the heat and richness. We left with enough of both entrees for lunch the next day. The waitress was also amazing, efficient, attentive and patient enough to answer endless questions. And we snared one of the cheapest bottles on the list, a fine Italian white for $30, poured with no condescension (old rule ratified yet again: the cheapest bottle on a smart list will always be a find). WIGB? Absolutely — beyond the food, the setting and buzz make it worth a trip. And before the tip, the tab was only $113. Extra points for real matches, too. 131 Sullivan Street at Prince, 212 677 6200.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good with an asterisk: Vinegar Hill House<\/a> after the lame NY Photo Fest in Dumbo, where at least some of us in a party of five felt a little ridiculous to be waiting in line for a table 20 minutes before the place opened but where the cooking was rivaled only by the service and the place itself, like a discovery in some other city far, far away. Luckily, we were the third group in the door and got a nice table tucked in an alcove where we could actually hear ourselves talk (if also overhear the sad couple at the next table, an old bitch and her resigned husband with pathetic dyed hair). We should have ordered two of the clam pie to share, because it turned out to be not an easily divvied flatbread but a real little pie with an almost liquid center. One bite apiece was a mouthful, though: serious clams with lardons and potatoes in a perfect crust, with a parsley-red onion salad to cut the richness. One order of the charred pork belly on masa flatbread with watercress, sour cream and pumpkinseeds was also enough because of the big flavors, and because the main courses were so substantial, at least in the meat division: huge Red Wattle pork chop with Cheddar grits; braised lamb neck with freekeh and pomegranate yogurt; tilefish with green garbanzos, spring onions, black olives and marjoram, and a special of boned whole trout crusted in cumin and walnuts with baby spinach on the side. Everything was beautifully cooked, especially the tilefish; the trout, unfortunately, could not surmount the fact that it was what it ate — it tasted bland and mealy to me. Everyone was wowed by the salted caramel pudding (butterscotch is a turnoff; caramel a seduction), to the point that the chocolate Guinness cake seemed most impressive as a visual pun, with the white frosting looking like the head on a glass of dark stout. Four of split a bottle of arneis for $38, two of us a little tumbler of Quincy and one indulged in a big glass of Rioja and we got away for $55 a head. WIGB? Probably not, and not because of the silly line to get in. *Just when I was near the end of my tilefish in its wonderful sauce, my fork snared a hair and I gagged. Then I had to wait for the bathroom with a view of the kitchen and saw a smiling chef with a long beard and nearly puked. Bugs don\u2019t gross me out that badly. Everyone else, however, voted yes on a return visit even after I confessed on the train home. 72 Hudson Avenue, Brooklyn, 718 522 1018.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The straight-ahead good: The Dutch in the old Cub Room in SoHo, where we ventured after being told reservations were only available at 5:30 or after 10:15 on a Monday night and where we were able to walk right in, sit right down and revel in too much food, all as satisfying as it\u2019s been… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-soho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}