A recent visit to New York City brought us plenty of its usual pleasures, primarily going to theater and restaurants, strolling and visiting with old friends. Shopping can be a close fifth. While the weather was too nasty for a great deal of our usual Manhattan walking, we’re happy to tell you about the food, and we searched out some new and different places, skipping some of our favorites (they’ll still be around for the next trip). As for the theater, you can find Joe’s reviews here.
Our most exciting meal was at Fatty Crab, an idiosyncratic little place in the Meatpacking District, just south of Chelsea on the west side. It doesn’t take reservations for parties of fewer than six, but that has not but that hasn’t kept it from being one of the town’s hot tables. It must be the food, because it certainly isn’t the decor in the dark, tin-ceilinged little room, small enough so that a party getting a reservation would take up a third of the seats. It’s the chow, which comes out of the kitchen as soon as it’s ready, forcing diners to eat whatever course is put before them, no matter what. On the bright side, Asian cuisine can usually be eaten in almost any order. Dishes are made and served for sharing, but portions are not immense. Nevertheless the food is spicy and in some cases rich, so it satisfies without stuffing.
The quirkiest dish was fatty tea sandwiches, listed as a snack. Three crusts-off sandwiches come with slices of pork belly and a chili mayonnaise, smooth and tantalizing. Sound weird? Tastes great, though. We’re not sure how the sandwiches would work with tea, but there’s beer and a decent-enough wine list from which we took a rose, a shade off bone-dry but just right with the spicy meal.
Next came a salad of watermelon pickle and crispy pork. This is not pickled watermelon rind, but good-quality watermelon flesh (in February!) that’s been briefly pickled but remains crunchy. It was tossed with shreds of green onion and cubes of wonderfully crispy deep-fried pork. The dressing contained some lemon grass, and the overall effect was absolutely stunning. Days later, we still find ourselves talking about it.
Chili crab is perhaps the best-known dish from this part of Asia. We ate it in Singapore, 
and we’re not sure if Fatty Crab’s is better or if we were just dazed from jet lag on our previous outing. The dish here is a whole Dungeness crab, cut in half, and sauced with the fiery-sweet red sauce that’s traditional. It’s very messy to eat, of course, but absolutely wonderful, the crab not overcooked and the sauce a wonderful complement, not so hot that flames shoot out from the diners’ ears and overwhelm the crab, as too often happens. Some toast comes with it, the better to sop up the rest of the tasty sauce. We also tried some skate, grilled and topped with crispy bits of fried garlic, shallot and lemongrass. It was good, but not as good as the crab.
Fatty Crab’s idiosyncracies extend to not possessing a dessert menu. In fact, dessert is a small square of mochi, the Japanese sweet that’s a combination of fudge and gelatin. It’s just plunked down on the table in front of the diner, and it’s complimentary. Just another example of Fatty Crab doing things its own way, which includes staying open until 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, in case you’ve been out clubbing.
Fatty Crab
643 Hudson St., New York
212-352-3592
Lunch and Dinner daily
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: Poor
Smoking: No (all New York City restaurants are non-smoking)
Entrees: $12-$32
When people ask us for places to eat in New York, one of the most frequent queries is for pre- or post-theater dining. Some suggestions from this trip?
In the Theater district, we were more than happy with Tintol , tucked behind an unobtrusive, almost-hidden doorway on 46th street less than a half-block east of Seventh avenue. It’s a tapas and wine bar, so it’s easy to eat and drink as much or little as you like, and the options are great fun. It considers itself Portuguese, rather than Spanish, but the dishes are very similar, such as the potato omelet called tortilla, grilled fish, Serrano ham and the like. Garlic is added with a generous hand. Delicious clams steamed with garlic and cilantro come in a casserole, as does a rich, tasty stew with goat and red wine. If you like lamb, you’ll like goat. Marinated anchovies and grilled sardines reminded us of Barcelona, and so did a splendid version of papas bravas, fried potatoes with a garlicky sauce, so good and deeply potato-tasting that the sauce was superfluous. Only the ovos verdes, fried deviled eggs, failed to inspire. Portugese desserts are famously rich, and a sampler platter giving wee bites of three of them, was a fine finale. The most interesting of the three was billed as "chocolate salami," and involved slices of dark chocolate, about the same size as salami slices, with nuts standing in for the pieces of fat in a salami. Excellent, as were a warm custard tart, similar to those in Chinese restaurants but richer and with a flakier crust, and some flan, like Spanish or Mexican, but different and tasty.
Tintol has closed, as of October 2007 and the space will be turned into a kosher restaurant. The owner reports he will re-open Tintol at another, currently unannounced, location.
Tintol
155 W. 46th St., New York
212-354-3838
Lunch and Dinner daily
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: No
Tapas: $4-$15
Theater in the East Village continues to expand and to attract more visitors to its off-Broadway stages. Whether dining before or after, or even for breakfast, we’ve always enjoyed a visit to Veselka, a Ukranian diner, which produces many Polish and Eastern European dishes as well. The name, by the way, means "rainbow" in Ukrainian. Now in its 54th year, and open 24 hours, it’s quite inexpensive, always busy, noisy with sounds of political statement and rebuttal
and full of neighborhood types who’ve discovered filling, home-style cooking at reasonable prices. And this neighborhood makes for great people-watching.
People-listening, too. Tables are thisclosetogether, creating difficult but obviously solveable access for both diners and the swift, smiling servers.
Mushroom barley soup? Stuffed cabbage, with or without meat? Turkey sandwiches with fresh-squeezed carrot juice? It’s all here, along with food traditionally associated with New York like egg creams, lime rickeys, and potato pancakes. Those who’ve fallen in love with high-end restaurants’ beet salads should try Veselka’s version, punched up with a little horseradish. Above all, at any meal, don’t miss the blintzes, a thin, freshly-made crepe filled with the creamy farmer-cheese and served, if you’re smart, with fresh raspberry sauce.
Veselka
144 Second Ave., New York (9th street)
212-228-0682
Open 24 hours
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: Fair
Smoking: No
Entrees: $8-$13
There’ll be more to come on New York restaurants within the next few days, so stay tuned….