New York Ethnic Binge

I've never done a picture-less blog post before, so I apologize for the deficiency. Sean and I went to New York City earlier this month to eat our way through town. We returned to two restaurants from earlier trips because of their yum factor: Becco, by Lidia Bastianich and her son Joe, and Amma, an Indian restaurant in east Midtown.

Friday night was entirely dedicated to Amma; it was our entertainment. We had a lovely corner table front with windows overlooking the street. The interior is mood-lit with peach and neutral colors, which we think complements the food perfectly; neither too spicy or heavy.

After cruising the wine menu, we chose an Indian wine just to be crazy. Grover Vineyards Viognier 2003 from Banagalore was absolutely perfect with the food. (Their write up: crisp, full rounded peach, apricot, passion fruit notes with hints of honey- pretty accurate.) You can see their wine menu, shockingly not crazy overpriced, here. We just like drinking interesting local wines when we can, and this is probably as close to India as we will be in the near future.

Their dinner menu has so many intriguing vegetarian options even in the appetizer section that we just kept choosing small plates and made our own Indian tapas meal. Most of their selections come with two dipping sauces; a mint chutney and a tamarind sauce. Both of these are so delicious with everything.

Starting with appetizers: Goan shrimp was the only disappointment of the evening. Four shrimps on a very thick tangy tomato sauce could have been from anywhere. Not particularly Indian. Trio of samosas were thick pastry wrapped around three fillings; one was pea, one potato and one chicken. All were great with the sauce, but not Sean's favorites. They also brought a little amuse bouche of a potato dumpling for each of us. The trio of stuffed vegetables was excellent, yet mysterious; I could not figure out the stuffing to save my life, mostly from the low lighting. I'm fairly sure it was a vegetable stuffing.

We had the mint, lemon and tomato rices, which were refreshing, if rice can be that. And the naan was outstanding dipped in the yogurt sauce with slices of fried okra on top.

Main courses were shared by both of us, and I think they were both the same things we ordered the first time we came to Amma. My pick was Laukee Ke Kofte, or zucchini dumplings in a tomato sauce. Sean's selection (the clear winner that night) was Dum Aloo, braised potatoes in onion-tomato sauce. I don't know any other specifics for the Dum Aloo other than the menu write up, but it was fantastic. I'd have licked the plate had I not been in public.

I just still can't believe after all that food that the waiter asked us if we had room for dessert. Much to my regret, I couldn't find any room for dessert anywhere. Either on the table or inside me. That was my second regret of the evening.

So, my final advice is to try Amma when you are in NYC. And the viognier goes well with practically everything. Had we not eaten so much of it, we would have repeated our summation of Amma as "the daintiest Indian food you can eat." After this round, I was feeling far from dainty... but very satisfied.