January 5, 2009 |
BITE: My Journal
An Opium Dream at the Macao Trading Company
Sticky Peking ribs, clams in black bean and Portuguese fried goat cheese to start. Photo: Steven Richter
Hardline nocturnal moths flinging themselves at the latest cocktail bar or lounge will surely already have dipped their wings into Macao Trading Company, offspring of Employees Only, the popular West Village tippling spot. But we’re here joining other non-lounging lizards to check out Chanterelle chef David Waltuck’s consulting vision of what Macao eats.
“Have you been to Macao?” I ask Waltuck over the phone.
“Twenty years ago,” he replies. “But I doubt the food has changed that much.”
I think about our long weekend in Macao in 1997, just before the Portuguese signed it over to China ending a never-quite-official occupation. How there just didn’t seem enough time to do justice to the unique multicultural cuisine evolved from a mix of Cantonese openness to experiment and the easy global imports of Portugal’s sailing ships to this trading settlement. “The first East-West cuisine,” Ken Hom calls it in his forward to Annabel Doling’s Macau on a Plate: A Culinary Journey. The author signed the book for us at lunch in Caçarola on the island’s southern most point, so we could understand what we’d eaten and know what we were going to miss by dashing back to Hong Kong. It did seem like an unfinished mission, forgotten till now.
If you’ve cared about food long enough, you know how Chanterelle emerged in 1979 from Karen and David Waltuck’s passion for France, know how it glowed in still shadowy Soho with telltale signs of Michelin ambition like giant balloon glasses, chewy designer bread, a ramekin of sweet butter and fricassee of seafood in delicate sea urchin cream. I had no idea David Waltuck loves to cook Chinese. Apparently the regulars invited to his annual Chinese New Year’s dinner know, and that is how he came to dream up the menu for Macao Trading.
“It’s a fun place and I wanted to do tasty food that has the feel of Chinese and Portuguese. Loosely translated.” It is. He did. And it is. We’re surprised how tasty.
I’ve never been to Employees Only. They say the bar there is a predictable rerun of the Village. And the rest is theater. I can’t imagine someone spent a million dollars to create this grime and decay. Some of it certainly looks real. The funky flea market finds on the catwalk balcony that hugs the soaring space – just 82 seats at booths and bare wooden tables – satisfies a Ye Old Trading Company allusion. And inevitably, this Macanese portside warehouse hides the bordello lounge below.
A savvy crowd fills the shadowy faux wharf-side trading house. Photo: Steven Richter
Noisy but charming, I think. And then, as the wait for our reserved table stretches toward 45 minutes, not so amusing. With apologies, the host offers drinks to the four of us. And then, at last, what feels like a VIP booth – roomy enough for six. Our new friend Barrat needs a serious Scotch. Gretchen and I are primed for a $14 cocktail: she by her Blood Peach Bellini while waiting, I by my abstinence. My Dr. Funk – Mekhong Thai Rum served tall with Grenadine, ginger beer, fresh fruit and mint – topped with a drizzle of Absinthe – seems sufficiently lethal but too weedy for me.
Gretchen loves her second slurp, the Bashful Maiden – gin with elderflower liqueur and melon. Despite its blush pink innocence it was originally called Lovee Long Time, renamed when customers complained, rumor has it. But the cynics at eater.com think it was because it had been singled out as The Most Ridiculous Cocktail Name in New York on NYBarfly. How do I know all this? Our twentyish companions have scoured the internet before venturing downtown. We are all better citizens and critics because we know these things. How did we survive before Blogpatch?
Long beans, scallop dumplings and the Blushing Maiden are favorites. Photo: Steven Richter
In the current climate – we’re all in this together – plates are meant to share, our waiter informs us, whether it works that way or not. The sticky-rice stuffed squab must go back to the kitchen for a sharp knife to carve it in quarters. Even the easily cracked fried goat cheese round on onions and peppers emerges an unappealing mess despite my careful carving. Yet both are pretty good. A duo of plumpish Portuguese-style mushroom and truffle croquettes means one for each couple to split. Lush and scrumptious. The two diehard clams-with-black-beans fans at the table find tonight’s as good or better than any around. A quartet of delicate scallop and snow pea leaf potstickers are splendid though awfully meager for $13. But Chinese-style Peking ribs, hacked into odd little pieces and intensely sauced, are more shareable.
Sirloin with bleu cheese butter thrills our carnivores. Photo: Steven Richter
It’s not that challenging to navigate the menu – shrimp, mushrooms, meatballs, prawns, whole black bass come in “two flavors,” Portuguese-style and Chinese. African chicken is simply Portuguese; Ants Climbing Trees, a Chinatown familiar. Sirloin painted with blue cheese butter in a salty intense glaze pleases the meat lovers enough to pledge they’ll be back. But no one is all that happy with the feeble broth and utilitarian carrots and snow peas in Macanese vegetable curry. Its marvelous udon noodles deserve better. Once past the surprise of room temperature dry fried long beans with preserved daikon, ginger, black vinegar and hot sesame oil, we agree they’re delicious, the evening a triumph, inciting a need to try more. Both generations agree. And we find appetite for a single dessert: an elegant chocolate almond torte with a puddle of Madeira sabayon, definitely not needing sugary crushed almond brittle.
Macao Trading’s small and savoury scallop dumplings quickly disappear. Photo: Steven Richter
For our companions, the evening is just beginning. They linger behind to wait for friends in the lounge below. I asked Barrat to report: “We really enjoyed it,” he writes. “Upon walking down a dark staircase, the first thing that greeted us was an antique dildo display. I think they are going for a hybrid of an opium den and an Asian whorehouse, but it works, a lot of old wood and nice mellow music. The art in the bathroom was graphic antique Chinese pornography. We sat on a Chinese wedding bed. It was a tight booth that was romantic rather than uncomfortable. The crowd was young but not particularly beautiful, other than Gretchen. What they need is a tougher door policy and some press.” So much for Bashful Maidens.
The Road Food Warrior said he’d love to go back and taste more of Waltuck’s delicious musings. But if they do change the door policy, there’s no way we’ll ever get in again.
311 Church Street between Lispenard and Walker. 212 431 8750. Open 5 to 4 am, seven days a week.
For a vision of Macao and it’s history through food, try to find a copy of Macau on a Plate: A Culinary Journey by Annabel Doling, alas now out-of-print but still popping up on the web. I cannot imagine a better initiation to Macao.
The Bronx is My Salerno
Great pizza is about the flour, the stretching, the tomatoes, the heat. Photo: Steven Richter
It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the weather or the full moon or the economy… I can’t quite chart the craving. But every once in a while I absolutely must have seriously good pizza. And that’s what brought us back to Zero Otto Nove Saturday night. Roberto Paciullo, the Sirio Maccioni of the Bronx, dashing in his navy blue tunic and chef’s pants, rushed over from his more famous upscale ristorante just a few doors away on Crescent Avenue to welcome us back to the pizzeria we first discovered last March with Naples food maven Arthur “Arturo” Schwartz.
I love watching first-timers march through a narrow alleyway and react to the soaring back room with its high arches and streetscape in brilliant perspective recreating a medieval piazza in the historic center of Salerno (Zero Otto Nove being the area code for Salerno). “Escher,” says Tim. “Light in the Piazza,” says Ava. She takes offense when the waiter, notably several notches above the usual moonlighting college student, points out that the marinara pie comes with anchovies.
Painted whimsy whisks us from the Bronx to Salerno. Photo: Steven Richter
“You’re suggesting I might not like like anchovies? Of course I like anchovies,” she fairly bristles. But less than two minutes later – the sign of an authentically hot wood-burning oven – the pizza Diavola arrives – in classic 15-inch Neopolitan-style, already divided in four ($17.95) – lightly singed on the bottom, flavorsome crust bubbled but not raw, crunchy on top and a bit wet from the canned San Marzano tomatoes, not over-cheesed and with slivers of spicy hot soppresata. I’m sure I don’t have to say fresh mozzarella because you get the drift. It’s all that I remembered and longed for. And only after we’d polished that off and chatted like civilized people did the Marinara arrive – more of the requisite tomatoes, oregano, basil, capers, anchovies and olives, just $13.95.
Ava, who blissfully has thrown herself into this carbomania as a two-days-before-South Beach-diet-season-begins escapade, is happy to taste the asparagus risotto Roberto sends over. I could eat more than the nine corkscrews of fusilli con ceci the guys left for me. The pasta might be slightly more al dente but the toss of crispy pancetta, toasted bread crumbs and Pecorino with chickpeas clung to the corkscrews in precisely the correct allotment.
I beg the waiter to put our two glasses of Chianti on the bill. He refuses – a matter of national honor. Roberto sent them. Possibly we could have shared a couple of salads – Arturo sneered when I asked for a salad on our first outing. But I might have enjoyed a rerun of the octopus and the eggplant parmigiana or overindulging with baked fusilli and meatballs. Even given all the carbs, fat and salt, you could say it is an exercise in moderation – I don’t feel I’ve eaten three pizzas more than I meant to. As it is, we leave behind $75 for the four of us, proving you can feast on a taste of Salerno for a pittance.
2357 Arthur Avenue near 186th Street, the Bronx. 718 220 1027. Open Tuesday to Thursday from noon to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday from noon to 11, and Sunday from 1 9 pm.
David Burke’s $20.09 three-course Sunday Supper fills his new Fishtail. Photo: Steven Richter
My computer lit up like payoff time on a slot machine Saturday with lurid shocking pink and turquoise type announcing a Sunday fire sale – a three course dinner for $20.09 at David Burke Townhouse, his brand new Fishtail and the David Burke Fromagerie in Rumson, N.J. Apparently this offer kept tables turning New Year’s Day so he’s extended it to Sundays for the unforeseeable future. Wines will be discounted too. At Burke in the Box at Bloomingdale’s the $24.07 three-course dinner offers anything on the menu, including steamed or baked lobster and filet mignon.
Anticipating a possible January chill, Shelly’s Trattoria Tradizionale will bring back its three-course prix fixe dinner Monday, reduced to $35. The Trattoria continues it $20.09 lunch as well as a $35 three-course businessman’s special.
I hope Zabar’s fans and thrifty visitors to this website will notice our new Zabar’s ad offering a 10 per cent discount on everything. It’s not enough to say Gael sent you. You need to give the code INS 10 at the checkout counter. (Don’t forget to try Zabar’s remarkable new rye bread.)
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Splurges and Citymeals
Twenty-eight years ago, when James Beard and I first became aware that the city’s homebound elderly had no weekend or holiday meals, we turned to food world friends for help. Restaurateurs, chefs, winemakers and spirits mavens continue to be among our most passionate supporters. I often think how pleased Jim would be to see how food professionals have embraced this cause. Now, as the economic meltdown and outright fraud have liquidated almost two million dollars in support we counted on, Citymeals mission is especially vulnerable. Just this month there is promising activity on our behalf.
Fleur de Sel Chef/owner Cyril Renaud has pledged five per cent of all profits from his new, moderately priced homage to Britanny, Bar Breton (254 Fifth Avenue at 28th Street 212 213 4000) to Citymeals-on-Wheels. Starting with breakfast, the spotlight is on savory galettes and sweet crêpes, assorted ciders and later in the day, seafood Breton style.
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| Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges launch new guide. Photo: Steven Richter |
To launch Dining in New York City, a new guide to 40 of the city’s fine restaurants. Daniel Boulud, Chef Marco Moreira of Toqueville and 15 East and photographer/publisher Jan Bartlesman are hosting a benefit for Citymeals-on-Wheels January 21 at a newly-built apartment house at 15 Union Square West. Anthos, Blue Hill, Devi, Per Se, indeed, all the restuarants singled out in Bartelsman’s book will do tasting tables, joined by Michelin three-star chef Jonnie Boer from the Netherlands.
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| Alain Ducasses opens Adour to a Vintage Dinner January 27. Photo: Steve Richter |
Tickets start at $250. For information go to Citymeals.org.
Alain Ducasse, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Charles Palmer with Chef Chris Lee are among 16 star chefs who will stage unique dinners featuring 19th Century foods and recipes in the “Vintage Dinner Series” during the next three months as a feature of “Zagat Presents.” Expect to taste roast saddle of venison poivrade at Chanterelle, the King’s Oyster and Onion soup at Gramercy Tavern and lobster thermidor followed by foie gras stuffed saddle of lamb at Aureole. Prices vary and each chef has chosen a charity, Citymeals among them, to receive a portion of proceeds. For dates and menus go to Zagat.
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