ABC Cocina

ABC Cocina is a restaurant opened by the parent company ABC Carpet and Home and located next door to their Manhattan store in the Flatiron district (not to be confused with ABC Kitchen).

It's not too often that furniture stores open restaurants (I don't think Ikea and the Ikea food court counts...) but when you step inside ABC Cocina it sort-of all makes sense. The decor is -for lack of a better (and less corny) word - beautiful. The light fixtures include little glass globes that dangle from the ceiling and the back of the restaurant is separated from ABC Carpet and Home by large ornate French doors.

As for the food, it is a Jean-Georges collaboration, but unlike ABC Kitchen (his other collaboration with ABC Carpet and Home) and unlike most of his other restaurants, the theme of the food is Spanish/Latin.



The menu is tapas-style:

To start, Daniella and I ordered the guacamole with sungold tomato salsa and warm crunchy tortillas. The salsa also had some red grapefruit in it. Based on appearance I expected it to be sweeter in flavor than it actually was.

Next we had the  raw shaved fluke with green chili dressing and crunchy rice and herbs (one of my favorite things that we ordered):

We also ordered the sautéed mushroom tacos with mole, kale and lime:

 And baby calamari stuffed with chorizo, celery root, chickpeas, and basil:

Last but definitely not least was the crunchy Mexican spiced French toast and roasted apples. This was one of the best French toast dishes EVER. Crispy on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. Yum yum!

Before we started eating, Daniella and I had plans to stop by the Union Square Farmer's Market (just a few blocks away) for apple cider donuts for dessert, but by the time brunch was over we were too stuffed. There's always next time...


We did however stop by the Union Square Holiday Market, where we found some new hats! Well... not entirely... since despite my aggressive peer-pressuring Daniella didn't decide to buy this one 

As for ABC Cocina - I will definitely be back for another serving of that French toast! Probably soon :D


Rating: 8/10

ABC Cocina
38 E. 19th St
New York, NY 10003

Tasca

Last night Ameeka and I were in the mood for tapas, so after some Yelp research, we found ourselves at a restaurant in the Brighton area called Tasca.

We both hadn't had tapas in a while, so we had to ask the waiter about portion sizes and the appropriate number of dishes to order. He suggested three tapas each, and a shared "entree." Both Ameeka and I were pretty hungry, so that sounded reasonable to us, but in retrospect I could probably have done with a bit less.

(Upon arrival home after dinner, I felt like my stomach was about to explode, and I'm pretty sure my middle looked like I was carrying a 3rd trimester food-baby)

For our tapas, we ordered the following:

Salchicha de cordero: Savory grilled lamb sausage over Israeli couscous with roasted vegetables and mint oil (mine)

Salmón ahumado: Smoked salmon served on a potato pancake with red onion, capers and dill crème fraîche (mine)

The potato "pancake" part of this dish was not what I expected. Rather than being similar to the other potato pancakes that I've had - which were all quite similar to real pancakes in preparation -  this "pancake" was made of shredded and crispy-fried potatoes that were jumbled together in a very dry and crunchy mixture:

Patatas bravas: Fried cubed potatoes in a piquant tomato sauce and garlic aioli (Ameeka's) - this dish was basically home-fries, but with fancier sauces

Setas Ronan: Roasted portabella mushrooms with shaved manchego, capers, red onion in a sherry
vinaigrette with roasted red pepper toasts (Ameeka's)

The sauce in this dish was reportedly very good, although the mushrooms themselves were only "ok"

Empanadillas de queso de cabra: Herbed goat cheese empanadas served on a roasted red pepper relish (Ameeka's)

Confít de pato: Fall off the bone succulent roasted duck leg served over braised red cabbage and apples (mine)

[As you can probably tell, I like eating animals, and Ameeka likes eating plants]


Our shared "entree" was the Berenjenas Rellenas: Baked crispy eggplant stuffed with oven dried tomato and Manchego cheese served in a fresh tomato and basil sauce 

Although our stomachs were nearing maximum capacity at this point, I saw bread pudding on the dessert menu and had to order some:

Bread Pudding: Moscatel sherry and raisin bread pudding served in a warm caramel sauce

Unfortunately this bread pudding had a consistency similar to... it's hard to describe, but I suppose the closest thing I can think of is mochi (?). I'm an Asian who actually is NOT a fan of mochi, so there was only so much of this bread pudding that I could tolerate. The rest got abandoned.

Of note, as I relayed to Ameeka during our meal: a handful of people die in Japan every year during the New Years celebrations by choking on mochi. It's not only a food item with an icky texture, but it's dangerous too!

Ameeka opted for the warm chocolate pudding:
 

Overall rating: 6.5/10


Tasca
1612 Commonwealth Ave
Brighton, MA 02135