Picking your favorite appetizer at Tertulia is kinda like picking your favorite kid. How to choose from the outrageously crispy, smoky, sweet Brussels sprouts tossed with bits of pork belly and garlic; the Tosta Seta, grilled bread slabs with marinated mushrooms, smoked ricotta and toasted pinenuts; the crispy potatoes dusted with Spanish smoked paprika and served with garlicky aioli; the blistered shishito peppers in a blizzard of coarse salt; and the crunchy orbs of Jerusalem artichoke, spritzed with citrus and yogurt, that go by the name Tupinamburas?
It’s impossible. That’s why each distinctive and delicious tapas at this hip, happening New York City bistro makes this list. (Photo of Tosta Seta by Foodspotting.)
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A lot of sins are committed every day in the name of the all-American crabcake. But I found two sensational takes on the precious patty in 2012.
At Bouchon in Santa Barbara, the elegant cakes were prepared with lots of first-rate Dungeness crab -- moist, flaky and flavorful -- and little else to steal its thunder. The “garnish” on the plate included fennel puree; a tiny salad of micro-greens, celery and fennel; grapefruit-spritzed aioli; and a silky avocado from Sommer Farms. I managed to get a bit of each component with every heavenly bite.
At Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, D.C.’s Park Hyatt Hotel, the Jumbo Lump Crabcakes (above, in a photo from Flickr) that I enjoyed last fall cited their pedigree (from Bayou La Batra, AL) on the menu, along with their accessories: Frisée and Fennel, Coral Aioli. But I didn’t need any scorecard to tell me these cakes were the best of the best. Large chunks of juicy, sweet crab gently gathered into a handsome disc and sautéed ‘til the edges were crackly. The cool frisée further tickled the palate. The coral aioli was like a voluptuous splash of lobster bisque.
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Nobody does the popular “shared plates” gig better than Jamonera in Philadelphia. From my first sip of an Alhambra cocktail (Bombay gin, grapefruit puree, rosemary and ginger) and first nibble of Papa Frita, I knew I was in love.
Jamonera’s potato chunks are crispy skinned, fluffy inside. Sprinkled with coarse salt and drizzled with a bracing, wood-smoked garlic aioli, they deliver a rapid-fire volley of flavors and textures. The shiny house-made sherry vinegar hot sauce made the fab fries taste even better. (The photo is from metro.us, a Philly blog with great restaurant recommendations.)
Later in the tapas parade we ordered eggplant fries, also known as Berenjenas and dipped the crisp batons, miraculously creamy within, into a spunky smoked salmorejo sauce (tomatoes, bread, olive oil and garlic), then captured the little shreds of zamorano cheese (similar to Manchego) and squiggles of truffled honey. At that point we decided that it’s been way too long since our last visit to Spain.
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When I got together with eight discriminating colleagues – critics for Dallas Morning News and Washington Post among them – for dinner at Washington, D.C.’s The Oval Room, we managed to gobble and schmooze our way through almost every appetizer on the extensive and exciting menu.
So delicious was the special Truffle Pasta with Shaved Summer Truffle and Toasted Hazelnut that it killed me to take just a small portion and pass it along. Though pale in appearance, the flavors – warm, earthy, sweet and toasty – were emphatic and lingering.
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