Han + Diana Eats! A Food Blog: Saturday Night Bites at Bar Corvo

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Saturday Night Bites at Bar Corvo

Greeshma visited last weekend, so our foodtinerary was dense with decadence and delight.

We made time to take in some culture (her with a self-guided tour of the Met, followed by deep stares into the eyes of long-haired French waiters at Buvette, and finally rockin' some fierce girl power at Target First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum).

Following our exploration of the Mummy Chamber and bad feminist readings, Greeshma, Thanan and I walked a couple blocks over to Bar Corvo, a new restaurant from the owners of Al Di La, one of Greeshma's most favorite restaurants ever.

There, we ordered a slew of sharable dishes including:

The calamari salad, which was light on the salad (my favorite kind of salad!). Tender yet chewy, excellent.

Fava bean puree and dandelion greens for some earthy, healthy dimension.

Fried spicy chickpeas - crunchy, simple and addictive. (Looking at the image, I am suddenly craving Kix.)

Fritto misto with an assortment of fried randomness, like onion slivers, lemon slices and chunks of butternut squash.

One of our favorite dishes of the night was the semolina gnocchi with oxtail ragu.

The gnocchi was essentially deconstructed, presented as a smooth, airy and light puree, entirely smothered with a layer of thick, meaty ragu and flakes of pecorino.

The main meat course was reserved for the braised lamb shank, a huge hunk of cartilage, fat and tenderness.

The lamb pretty much dissolved effortlessly in our mouths, the preferred way for Greeshma to enjoy any edible object.

My personal favorite dish of the night was the chitarra neri. The squid-ink pasta was surprisingly fresh and bright-tasting, from the mint and lemon. The pasta also had a touch of spice from the hot peppers that sparkled underneath the crushed, ripened tomatoes.

After, we capped off the night at The Chocolate Room where Thanan suddenly looked super Asian and Greeshma did not know what to think.

We all ordered the exact same item: the brownie sundae, and might I dare say, this might be one of my favorite sundaes in the city?

The brownie was completely drowned in hot and heavy fudge, the baked confection all but a soft, chewy vessel to shovel more melty, chocolatey goodness into my mouth. The fresh mint chocolate chip was not half-bad either with amazingly large shards of dark chocolate throughout.