Chelsea + Meatpacking District – Writing With My Mouth Full

Klee Brasserie

200 Ninth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets
212/633.8033â€Ž
$104 each for a group of 11, with several bottles of wine
♥ ♥

From Klee’s Web site, I imagined a Meatpacking District type of place where we would be screaming at each other so that we can have a conversation. It’s probably the first restaurant Web site I’ve seen where the creator is in touch with what New Yorkers are looking for these days: a blog from the chef, updated food photographs and, oh my god, a Facebook group. I expected the restaurant to be as loud as the site. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in: Klee is a lot smaller than what I originally thought and it’s actually cozy even with eleven girls sharing a long table.

My friends had arranged for a group dinner to celebrate anotherâ€™s last days of singledom. A pre-fixe dinner for $55 per person was arranged which included a choice of appetizer and a main course; mignardises were served as desserts selection. We ordered several bottles of wine to share and still, our bill only came out to $100 each.

There was chilled pea soup poured into a bowl of squid tentacles. They didn’t seem to go together, but it worked and the presentation was pretty. I opted for the beets with blue cheese. Three of them came on a rectangular plate: one gold, one red and another pink. I thought the romaine lettuce worked well with the sharp blue cheese even though the pumpernickle “soil” didn’t make a difference except to make the plate look like a mini-garden. My mahi-mahi was a bit on the bland side–such is the nature of the fish–but it came with an interesting broccoli rabe purée and a crispy potato. The grilled chicken won me over with a crumble of chicken-peanut sausage and a faint taste of corn and lemon together. It’s from Murray’s and it would have been naturally sweet anyway without all the accoutrements.

Klee was very generous with the dessert selection, a good move on their part knowing that eleven girls were eating during a bachelorette party. The sommelier was very helpful with the wine: I ended up selecting a Hungarian rosé to start and continued on with two bottles of Burgundy. The service was swift since our party took half of the restaurant space; they just wanted us to keep moving. We still closed the restaurant but I think they couldn’t complain after our hefty group bill in the end. I was equally content.

Txikito

240 Ninth Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets
212/242.4730
$230 for four, with a bottle of wine, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I will always be impressed when someone can make something out of almost nothing. When that something is different than usual, I’m even more in awe of the skill that comes with that thought in the first place. At Txikito, there are some skillful people in the kitchen. Take my silverfish salad. Silverfish is easy to find in Chinatown; and cheap, too. At Txikito, they toss them in a light batter, fry to make them crunchy and serve them atop a bowl of wild arugula leaves. Then there are the leeks; poached and then drizzled in vinaigrette and sprinkled with chopped boiled egg. The dish is similar to one of Blue Ribbon’s signature dishes and it worked just fine on our table full of pork. My ultimate favorite “cheap” dish was the beef tongue, made crispy and served with mustard and cornichons. I relished the fact that the other two people at our table ate them–and liked them–because they had no idea what they were eating.

And then there are the dishes that take a lot of preparation and warrant the price on the menu. I’ve eaten octopus carpaccio a few times before, but the Txikito version is one of the best ones. Perhaps tenderized by slapping each piece against a chopping board (a la Jewel Bako) and then drizzled with oil, lemon juice, marjoram and some chili, it was tender and crunchy at the same time: a texture that might be weird to some, but really good to me. The suckling pig special was the most expensive on our bill at $30, but it was succulent and tasty; the meat melting off the bones and all the fat dripping down the crispy skin–pure heaven.

The blistered serrano peppers were hotter in the end than I would have liked; the Catalan version I savored in Barcelona was much sweeter. The crab meat gratin was tasty but unexciting. The blood sausage was wrapped in crispy egg-roll skin; it killed me to pay $8 for them. The small sandwiches of unsmoked bacon seemed out of place with the dinner items, but I liked the finger-food presentation.

Our waitress was very patient and brought out everything in perfect timing and order. One of us never experienced Spanish pintxos before, so I watched the waitress patiently explain the food choices to him. We selected a lot of meat, but she made sure the seafood and vegetables came in between. On a busy Saturday night, they let us stay until 11:30pm even though we were one of the last tables around. As we exited the restaurant, our inexperienced friend said, That has got to be one of the best dinners I’ve had in a long time. Txikito is good for that, but also excellent for someone like me.

El Quinto Pino

401 West 24th Street off Ninth Avenue
212/206.6900
$83 for two, with a lot of drinks, with tip
â™¥ â™¥

Bar Jamon was the last loud and crowded bar I fell in-love with here in New York City. That was more than five years ago. I’ve been to many good bars since then, but only El Quinto Pino has reminded me that all I need is good wine with some good company to make me completely content and happy. Add a small selection of good tapas in the mix and you’d have to push me out the door to get me home.

The anchovies in olive oil and the warm chickpeas with spinach reminded me of eating in the boqueria in Barcelona. Simple dishes like them don’t need big introductions. I liked the braised pork sandwich better than the breaded cod, but the pig’s ears salad, cold and crunchy, was the one that stood out. The deep-fried pork belly cracklings are dangerously addictive. The uni panini might just be the perfect tiny sandwich, spiked with a little horseradish to surprise your palate.

There are no tables at El Quinto Pino and you’d be lucky to get a spot at the bar before 11pm. People are in a very good mood, though, and the vibe is infectious. Matt, the bartender, always makes me feel special, calling me by name as soon as I situate myself at the bar. I’ve witnessed girls and boys alike giggle when he comes up to them. Once, I sat next to an annoying customer who complained about eating sardines when he expected anchovies, and the manager appeased him with a free dish and a glass of wine. My last three visits have been accompanied by several glasses of Cantabria 2003, and even when it’s most crowded, I’ve never had to wait for my glass to be refilled. At El Quinto Pino, I can have another, and then another.

Update: I know have a case of the Cantabria wine from El Quinto Pino’s wine store, Tinto Fino.

El Idolo

Corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue
no phone number
$10 for four tacos and a drink
â™¥

We had been drinking for several hours when the El Idolo truck caught my eye on the corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue. I convinced my tired and drunk friends to cross the street and eat one last meal before heading home. We ordered the chorizo, the el pastor and the chimichuria. I couldn’t really tell the difference between the el pastor and the chimichuria, but the chorizo tacos were deliciously salty. The green hot sauce I poured all over them added a nice spicy kick. A cup of cold horchata, a Mexican rice milk drink flavored with cinnamon, almonds and vanilla also hit the spot.

After spending a few dollars more than I can afford on drinks, the $2 tacos were bounty sent from Mexican heaven.

Hill Country BBQ

30 West 26th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway
212/255.4544
$75 for two people, with two drinks, with a small tip
â™¥

Updated, 2007: Added a photo of the salty beef ribs

It was the perfect day for barbeque. We spent the better part of our Sunday sitting on a blanket under the trees in Central Park with our paper and a couple of fresh peaches. I just had barbeque pork ribs the day before, bought from one of those metal drum-turned-grills uptown but my appetite was unsatiated.

After a few drinks at Red Cat, we walked over to Sixth Avenue to the new Hill Country BBQ restaurant. The smell of smoked meat hit us as soon as we stepped foot in the warehouse space. Because New York City can’t have open pits in its restaurants, Hill Country makes up for the decor: wooden tables, concrete floors and corded wooden logs in the back next to barbeque trophies. The finishing pits are behind the counter, though, and my mouth watered every time they opened it. The maitre d’ gave us our meal tickets and explained the Texas way of eating: go up to the counter and pick what and how much you want to eat. Each meal ticket was marked by the staff. Our order was tallied at the end of our visit. Lose that meal ticket and you’ll be charged $50.

I ordered half a pound of the moist brisket and half a pound of the beef shoulder. At $18 a pound, the shoulder was the most expensive item on the menu when we visited. It was lean and juicy. Two out of my four companions liked it over everything else. Hill Country doesn’t kid about how moist their brisket is. My share was almost all fat. They were also so salty that I didn’t finish them. Beef ribs were disappointingly unavailable, so we settled for the pork ribs instead. They were smoked longer which made them drier, but they fell off the bone easier. The sausage, from the famous Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas, was tasty with a spicy kick to it.

You can keep your bill at a minimum if you order by piece instead of by weight. One person in our party ordered two kinds of meat and both totaled $6 and change. The sides are the guaranteed culprits. They come in different sizes with the smallest starting at $4. Among my favorites were the red cabbage slaw and the potato salad. The black-eyed peas, or Texas “caviar”, were undercooked and undersalted, but they ended up being a good side for my oversalted brisket. I loved the cold potato salad, as well as the green bean casserole. The sweet potato and the mac and cheese earned similar raves.

There were several beer choices, from a Spaten to the ubiquitous Pabst, but I stuck with a good ol’ Coke bottle and ice cold water with lemons. Because I didn’t finish my brisket, I had room for dessert. The banana pudding wasn’t as good as Buttercup’s or Magnolia’s but it was still a good choice to end our meal. We scored a free slice of the interesting ancho chili with dried cherries brownie and a cup of Texas’ own Blue Bell vanilla ice cream from the cheery young man at the pies and pudding counter.

I didn’t tip too much because there wasn’t any table service except to bring us water. Now I realize that I should have. I’ll be back, though, to try the beef ribs and the game hen stuffed with a beer can. I’ll make sure to tip extra, order by piece and skip the salty brisket at my next visit. And oh, bring my camera.