Merkato 55 redux

[Fat Guy]

Merkato 55 was one of this past year's major openings, in large part because of the association of Marcus Samuelsson's name with the project (discussion of that incarnation of the restaurant here). A couple of months ago, Samuelsson ceased his involvement with Merkato 55 and Angelo Sosa came on as consulting chef.

This all came as a complete surprise to me, but Sosa and I are friends on Facebook and one day he invited me in for free dinner. I greatly enjoyed Sosa's cooking at Loft during his brief tenure there (Sosa has also been at Jean Georges, Spice Market, Buddakan, Yumcha and others), so I was happy to accept the invitation.

I never made it in to Merkato 55 1.0 so I don't have any basis for comparison. And Sosa was supervising our meal so whatever we had the other night was the best the Merkato 55 2.0 kitchen had to offer, chosen by the chef and error-free. That being said, the food I sampled was absolutely first rate.

Sosa is not African (I think he told me he's part Italian, part Dominican) or particularly versed in anything African (he has mostly worked with Asian and Middle Eastern flavors) but he's quite comfortable with and skilled at working in the idiom of spice. The spice trade being global in nature, Sosa has been able to engineer a menu that evokes some African flavors but is international and contemporary in style.

Sosa is manifestly not trying to reproduce traditional African recipes. He's trying to do something that will work for a variety of palates. On the topic about Merkato 55 1.0 there was a lot of talk about the influence the restaurant's Meatpacking location would inevitably have. I think we're seeing some of that play out now.

We started with a couple of unremarkable cocktails (Sosa told me he has implemented his food menu but has not involved himself in the cocktail program yet) and an excellent "kidogo" assortment. This is available in three sizes -- what you see here is the small, priced at $20 -- and it comes with hummus, marinated olives, baba ganoush, cucumber salad, apricot blatjang (a chutney of sorts) and house-made pita and spiced cornbread.

Two of us then proceeded to taste our way through a lot of the menu (though not all of it), one dish at a time with share plates, until we almost exploded. We also had some sparkling wine and an enjoyable South African white the details of which I don't remember.

"Grilled shrimp piri piri, shaved coconut, ginger salad" -- two large prawns with a robust spice rub.

I thought the dominant flavor in the "ginger salad" was red onion, but throughout the menu I noticed that key components of dishes were ignored in favor of brevity. I'm not sure that's such a great idea.

"Spiced yellowfin tuna kitfo"

This is a good example of a dish that I'd never order based on its description but that I thought was amazingly good and would be tempted to order based on a full description. Excellent-quality tuna tartare comes on a bed of avocado, and you see that smear of brown stuff on the plate? That, and the same-colored sauce drizzled on the tartare, is chocolate. It's a great combination: tuna, avocado and chocolate. Who would have thought, after all these years, that someone could improve tuna tartare?

"Kitfo beef tartar, spiced butter, crisp lavash" with a side of spiced Merkato fries

The dish is described as "tartar" but it's actually cooked. Rare, but cooked. This is apparently the way they roll with beef tartare somewhere in Africa. Then again we've given up on the menu descriptions by this time. Very good fries.

"Bulgar tabouleh, citrus-mint dressing"

If like me you grew up in the 70s and were subjected to leaden tabouleh from the health-food store, you probably -- like me -- run screaming from tabouleh whenever you encounter it. But if there is an argument for tabouleh, this is it. The bulgur is unobtrusive and just contributes a little texture to what is an amazing, minty salad. What makes the dish, though (big surprise: not mentioned on the menu), are the little puffed pita croutons that taste a little like a more delicate version of Stacy's Pita Chips.

Then on to entree items:

"Wild striped bass, coconut, cilantro, green apple salad"

That dish description seems like it might be fairly complete, but guess what? The best component of this dish also isn't mentioned on the menu: the banana puree you see peeking out under the piece of fish.

"Ceebu jen pink tile fish, mussels" -- comes with a side of very good, buttery rice.

"Spiced hanger steak, pickled mushrooms, tamarind ketchup" -- a slam dunk

"Chicken doro wat, injera, candied ginger yogurt"

This was probably my favorite dish of the entree progression. I took little pieces of the falling-off-the-bone chicken and pinched them between bits of injera, then dipped in a little of the yogurt sauce. The injera was the best I've had (not that I've been to Ethiopia or anything) and the ginger yogurt (served on the side, not pictured) provides an ideal cooling counterpoint.

And I believe this is every available dessert other than the ice-cream sampler:

In the center is shaved coconut ice in tamarind broth with caramel sauce poured at the table and crunchy bits of roasted corn. Then starting up and to the left of that and going counter-clockwise there's the Amarula "ice-cream sandwich," the peanut butter chocolate "Congo bar," the vanilla cornmeal cake with apricot jam, the lime chiffon with olive oil and the the molten chocolate chai cake. All strong desserts. The Merkato pastry kitchen is very accomplished. My favorite was the use of Amarula (an African liqueur a little like Bailey's) in an ice cream. The name "Congo bar" is a bit much.

The space is huge. There are three levels. We were there early on a Tuesday and it was quite empty, just starting to attract business when we left a little before 9pm. There's also outdoor seating (we sat outdoors). I think it's going to be a big challenge filling all those seats but we'll see.

[LPShanet]

When did Sosa take over? I'm trying to figure out if I ate there when he was in charge or prior. Either way, I found the food better than average, and had a number of the dishes you depicted.

[Fat Guy]

Google led to Grub Street which said 7 August 2008 was Sosa's first day.