The way to my heart is through my stomach - figuratively, metaphorically, and literally.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Marea - Manhattan, NY

Marea
240 Central Park S.
Manhattan, NY 10019
www.marea-nyc.com
212-582-5100

Marea has all the makings of a trendy restaurant, and doesn't slaughter the portion size that drastically in becoming trendy.  Yes, quantity is not necessary in experiencing proper taste, but sometimes, I want to experience that taste a few times, especially in what happens to the taste as my tongue gets accustomed to the flavor.  One thing I've noticed, however, is that trendy has more and more doubled in definition to the word snobby.  Like the wealth class division, the foodie trendy class division has been as nose turn uppish as it has ever been.  If you don't understand the culture, you have to ask and be treated as a foodie child, hand held.

I consider Marea a blending of Italian and seafood, with a Japanese twist.  Having a rather purist background, I wanted to separate the two and experience the flavors separately, making it two separate experiences, rather than blending the tastes in fusion.

For $185 worth of food, and approximately $100 for roughly 2 rounds of drinks, four people were reasonably filled for people who were expecting calories.  For what I was expecting, not bad, but I also held back.The sashimi here is delicious, and I could definitely do some serious damage here. Each four pieces sashimi plate, priced at $12 to $20, was every bit delicious and tastegasmiccally savory.  Given a chance, I would have grabbed each one of them.  I grabbed the pappagallo (parrotfish) and Panna.

The meals consisted of the swordfish, cuttlefish, cheese pasta, clam risotto.  Naturally, being me, I stole food from each dish to try it.  Growing up in NOLA, my tongue is still used to a lot more flavor and zest in each layer than most other cuisine areas.  However, I've noticed that mild flavors are only used because bold statements can quickly overwhelm more subtle flavors.  Multilayer tastes and flavors should complement each other in their boldness - not complement each other in it's closeness in taste, in some of these cases, blandness.

I paired my cuttlefish with occhi 68, 2009.  A rather more bland than expected, but it came with recommendation for the cuttlefish.

Now, mind you, the food was good.  It was perfectly made, and tasteful, and for the menu item, it was fantastic.  I just expect more zing, more pow, more bam, to quote Emeril, even though I don't like his ways.  Trendy fusion is not about following the standard.  It's about amazing your clientelle.  It's about generating fans with your art that you can call your own, not providing the customer what he expects.  It's about wow factor.

Side note to self, eat more caviar.  Caviar has zing factor, all by itself.

The more and more I go out to eat, and boy, have I gone out to eat, I've noticed that the company you're with is incredibly relevant.  The sights, the sounds, the smells, the atmosphere of the restaurant is incredibly valuable.  I think I finally made a hard distinction this time around due to the different characters with me.  As I was enjoying my meal, beyond the flavors shifting on my palate, I noticed that my heart felt and showed who I was talking to shifted my palate.  Neither good nor bad.  Just interesting observation.

The bill shock chocolates, as I call them, are fantastic, and the ladies left with chocolate gifts that they promptly gifted away again outside the restaurant.   Must have been all those rich butter laden dishes creating tastegasmic guilt trips.

Marea on Urbanspoon

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