Serious Eats New York - newyork.seriouseats.com

Week in Reviews: Best Bites

Posted by Erin Zimmer, December 3, 2008 at 10:00 AM

Motorino's pizza with anchovies, tomato, fior di latter, capers, and olives. Photograph by Robyn Lee

• "Warm ribbons of smoked Kentucky ham" with pickles and fig jam, or the house-cured pastrami with mounds of "candy-pink lamb," or the "Chiclet-size fried pork nuggets" made of deboned pig trotters. Decision-making sounds tough at Char No. 4. [Platt; NYM]
• Momofuku Ssäm Bar's steamed buns with pork belly are baptized "the city’s most perfect finger food." And for bigger groups (six or more), the whole pork butt "is a pigout as fatty and fantastic as any great barbecue joint’s." [Bruni; NYT]
• Motorino's pizza isn't quite “at the level” of Una Pizza Napoletana; it's better. The pie with house-made mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, and basil is gently soupy at the center and crispier closer toward the crust, which is bubbly and soft. Tomatoes are pink "with just a hint of acid" and flakes of pecorino "add stinkiness." [Sutton; Bloomberg]
• You might develop a new respect for breakfast foods after the house-cured "as thick as a wallet" and the cornflake-crusted oysters at Char No. 4. [Byock; New Yorker]
• Though Óbiká Mozzarella Bar only offers three mozzarella options, the white blobs are "buttery and rich," and the smoked option has a "savor like an oak log barely smoldering." [Sietsema; VV]
• At Voce, monkfish should not be described as the “poor man’s lobster," but the reverse. "I don’t believe I’ve ever eaten monkfish with such a creamy texture." [Richman; GQ]
• At BarBao, tender cuttlefish anchors a potent potpourri of "salsa verde" made with Vietnamese mint, shrimp essence, bird eye chili, lime, anchovies, kaffir lime, yuzu, fish sauce, and olive oil. It's a "crackling, East-West interplay of sweetness and spark." [Cuozzo; NYP]
• Celery root and almond panna cotta made with unhomogenized whole milk, topped with lots of peekytoe crab, grapefruit segments, and fresh tarragon at Rouge Tomate. [Restaurant Girl; NYDN]

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