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“Brushstroke”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	Tribeca	Break the Bank	Off the Charts

aramel might.

You may think you know black cod from its days at Nobu where it is beautifully glossed with miso, but it is reinvented at Brushtroke with a sesame marinade, a pistachio crust, and a crown of sea urchin. The supple fish is just exquisite, and while the off-the-wall but brilliant marriage of pistachio with sea urchin would have never occurred to me, I haven't been working on this menu for 12 years.

Hang on, kids, we have several more courses to go. Before you get overwhelmed by the thought of this much food, let me assure you that the courses are paced well so that you won't be at Brushstroke to watch the sun rise, and the portions are tidy and appropriate. By the end of the meal, you may still want even more. But it's better that way.

I only had one quibble with the meal and that was with the next course, a Pacific jumbo oyster the size of a baseball cap. Rather alarming, actually. But it wasn't the oyster's size that was the issue, it was the plum wine gelee that smothered its surface, stifling the life out of it so its flavors just went mute. Luckily, this course was followed by one of my favorites of the night: a steamed chawan-mushi egg custard. This creamy egg pudding, almost the texture of crème brulee, sits at the bottom of a small ceramic cup and is topped with generous lumps of sweet Dungeness crab and submerged into a wildly rich truffle broth that recalled a deep Pacific Northwest forest in the early days of summer.

Now come the meat courses, two in total. The first was roast duck breast fanned out over charred and sweetly smoky eggplant in a miso dressing ratcheted up with a hit of mustard, and the second a portrait of Waygu two ways: domino-sized chunks seared and dressed in a feisty garlic and sansho pepper sauce, along with thin rare Carpaccio slices in a vivid citrus ponzu, a dish that I would have gladly eaten for days.  Honestly, I hope when I return they forget to change things up.

The final savory course of the evening-the rice course-is next, and it's only one you'll get to choose. Yes, all other courses are chosen for you, which to me, is heavenly. At the end of the day, all I really want is for someone else to take care of me, and at Brushstroke, they are quite adept at this. So, for your one choice of the evening you are given options like a platter of nigiri or chirashi, but I would recommend at least one Do-nabe Pot, a rustic rice dish that ... [more, click below]

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Posted: June 22, 2011

Other restaurants in Tribeca :
+ Lunchbox Food Company--Closed   + 66: THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED   + Ola-- Closed   + Bouley   + Dominic   + Landmarc   + Pace-- Closed   + EN Japanese Brasserie   + Centrico   + Cercle Rouge   + The Harrison   + Turks & Frogs Tribeca   + Devin Tavern   + Dani-- Closed Now   + Bacaro/Smith & Mills   + The Harrison   + Matsugen, By Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Forge   + Macao Trading Company   + Harbour   + Review text tbd...   + Mehtaphor   + Brushstroke   + Jung Sik   

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