Mutants in a Paella Bar
By Steve Herte
People
have asked me if there is any food, dish or recipe I would not try
and each time my answer is an emphatic “No!” This doesn’t mean
I like everything; it means I would try anything (even if it means
closing my eyes before eating it).
When
I was growing up at home the selection of foods was limited to the
costs, the tastes of my parents, my Mom’s expertise (which
regrettably wasn’t passed down from her mother) and what was
available. I remember hating bananas after eating a bad one. Now I
can tolerate them cooked or with strawberries in yoghurt. I also
remember dreading the Lenten season and meatless Fridays when the
horrid “Baked Macaroni” was served. This disgusting dish was
served in a long aluminum pan and topped with blackened, crusty
slices of Velveeta cheese and tomato sauce. The noodles were always
overcooked or burnt at the edges. I still shudder at the memory. I
hated pasta for the longest time (except for tuna macaroni salad,
made with elbow macaroni).
But
when I joined the Barbershop Society in 1973, the food world was
opened up to me. My friend Renate introduced me to escargot and from
there it was easy to try frog’s legs (both of which I love.) My
friend Tony introduced me to sushi at a place called The Galleria in
a White Plains mall, and I wondered why anyone would cook the flavor
out of a fish. On a trip to Italy, I discovered the wonder that is
pasta in all its myriad shapes and sauces. On a trip to Paris with my
brother, I learned that the worse a cheese smells, the better it
tastes. Suddenly food was something I wanted rather than needed. Ham
hocks? No problem. Sweetbreads? Wonderful. How about baby eels in
garlic butter (Angulas)? Exciting. (Forgive me, Dave. It’s what
I’ve become.)
I’ve
tried strange dishes in England (fish burgers), Iceland, France,
Italy, Germany (pork Tatar), Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and Montserrat
(Mountain Chicken – really a large frog). Granted, a few would not
get a second try (like the fish burgers) but I gave them a chance. So
it’s no surprise that the cuisine of Spain and the new Tapas dishes
joined the list of favorites, hence my restaurant choice. As for the
movie, my first name is Animation and my second name is Science
Fiction/Fantasy and that’s what it is. Enjoy!
X-Men:
Days of Future Past (20th Century
Fox/Marvel Entertainment, 2014) - Director: Bryan Singer. Writers:
Simon Kinberg (s/p). Jane Goldman, Simon Kinburg, & Matthew
Vaughn (story). Cast: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart,
Ian McKellan, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry,
Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Shawn
Ashmore, Omar Sy, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, Daniel Cudmore, Mark
Camacho, & Bingbing Fan. Color & 3D, 132 minutes.
New
York is in ruins. The camera takes us through a hole in a skyscraper
to a tortuous cityscape in depressing shades of gray. The scene
changes and we realize that this has happened all over the world as
the voice of Professor X (Stewart) explains. An army of robots
initially intended to wipe out mutants has gone out of control and
mankind has become “collateral damage.” He and the remaining
X-Men, Magneto (McKellen), Logan/Wolverine (Jackman), Storm (Berry),
and only a handful of others are all that’s left and they travel to
a remote monastery in Tibet for safety. Together they reason that if
they could keep Raven/Mystique (Lawrence) from shooting Dr. Bolivar
Trask (Dinklage) in 1973, they could avoid annihilation. Kitty Pryde
(Page) has the power to send one’s consciousness back into the past
to inhabit one’s younger self but can only do it safely over a span
of weeks (This cleverly also avoids temporal anomalies created by
sending oneself back). Wolverine’s healing powers make him the only
one who could survive a journey spanning years.
Knowing
that “people skills” is not one of Wolverine’s strong points,
Professor X gives him his instructions: Find his younger self,
Charles Xavier (McAvoy), convince him to lead the effort, locate
Peter/Quicksilver (Peters) to assist in breaking Erik Lehnsherr
(Fassbender, the younger Magneto) out of his concrete prison deep
below the Pentagon and together find and stop Mystique. “It won’t
be easy. I was a different person then…” cautions Professor X.
Kitty performs her magic on Wolverine and he suddenly wakes up to the
tune of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack.
He learns early on that he doesn’t have his Adamantium skeleton
when he has to battle his way out of the bedroom of a girl he’s
supposed to be protecting.
He
locates Professor Charles Xavier’s university, now overgrown with
vines and weeds. As it is closed he has to get past Hank/Beast
(Hoult) to see Charles, who is not only drunk but not confined to a
wheelchair. Hank has been administering a serum to counteract
Charles’ psychic mental power that allows him to be ambulatory.
Only by revealing personal knowledge of past and some future events
does Logan win Charles over, and the three find Peter and set off to
invade the Pentagon. Up until now this has been a dead serious movie.
Hank manages to hack into the security cameras and sets them all to
display Sanford & Son videos. Quicksilver uses
his hyper-fast speed not only to break Magneto out but to foil the
army of guards shooting plastic bullets at them in the final scene.
(If you saw Over the Hedge, you would recognize it.) The
world slows down so we can see Peter zipping around the room, posing
all the assailants as to knock each one out and individually
repositioning each bullet so that they miss their targets. It’s
hilarious as well as a great special effect.
Erik
is harder to convince than Charles but they manage (almost crashing
their plane in the process) and they locate and stop Mystique from
killing Trask at the International Leaders meeting in Paris. But this
does not deter her, nor does it stop Trask. In a confrontation
between her and Erik, he shoots her in the leg and Trask’s men
scrape up the blood for her DNA (the last ingredient he needs to
create invincible robots – remember, her power is to be able to
transmorphose into anyone).
Trask
takes his campaign to Washington, D.C., directly to President Nixon
(Camacho) – who by the way does a beautiful job – and sets up a
demonstration of his prototypes. Little does he know however that
Magneto (Erik) has already semi-hijacked the train the robots are
being transported on and has filled them with metal from the shredded
tracks the train has already cleared, so that he can control them.
It
becomes a bit of a nail-biter from then on. Charles is pinned by a
piece of baseball stadium Eric has levitated to surround the White
House, Wolverine is sent to the bottom of the Potomac and, in the
future, the Sentinel robots have located the last hideout for the
mutants in Tibet.
If
you love X-Men, this movie is for you. The violence of certain scenes
is a little difficult to take, so judge accordingly before taking
small children. The language is surprisingly restrained except for
two small occasions of vulgarity. Otherwise, the cast plays
brilliantly, and the special effects (especially the 3D ones) are
eye-popping and sometimes dizzying. The soundtrack is consistently
reinforcing the action on-screen and we even get to see a cameo of
Kelsey Grammer as Beast toward the end. Be sure to stay through the
credits. There is one more pertinent scene. I enjoyed it and look
forward to the (obviously) next installment.
Rating:
4½ out of 5 martini glasses.
Socarrat
259
West 19th Street (7th Avenue), New
York
When
I choose a restaurant I’m very cautious of the word “Bar” when
used either in the title of the establishment or in its description
online. Very few bars qualify as restaurants (decent food, adequate
seating, table service), just as calling something a “restaurant”
(the McDonalds chain erroneously does this) does not magically
transform it into something better than a fast-food joint. Socarrat,
which opened nearly seven years ago, calls itself a “Paella Bar.”
I love Paella. Adventure time!
The
word “socarrat” means “to singe” in Spanish, and refers to
the crusty layer of rice at the bottom of an iron Paella pan. When I
arrived at the quaint NYU neighborhood it was a little difficult to
photograph the exterior because all the front windows were open to
the street (a feature they call “natural air-conditioning” in
southern states and not one of my preferences).
I
entered the glass door emblazoned with the restaurant name and met
the young man at the Captain’s Station. He confirmed my reservation
and asked if would like to sit at the bar, which was all that was
visible at the time. I stated my belief that eating at a bar makes
one look like a loser and that I would rather sit at a table. He
smiled and took me into the next room (the one open to the street)
and down a long table – looking very much like a bar – and
indicated the plush stool third from the end. (What? Hey Steve, it is
called a Paella Bar, so what did you expect?) He indicated hooks just
under the bar surface to hang my bag and jacket and I swallowed my
pride and hefted myself onto the stool, eventually locating a
position for it and myself where it did not rock me off and I was
semi-comfortable. If you have a bad back do not dine here.
Open
brick walls give the place a rustic look, as does the bare-plank
wooden ceiling. The black enameled wooden bar reflects the
tulip-shaped swags overhead while jars of noodles, spices and various
Tchotchkes are arrayed on a shelf overhead. My server introduced
himself as Miguel and brought me a glass of tap water, the wine list
and the menu. The specialty cocktails were listed on the wine menu
(although the word “cocktail” was missing the “k”), and one
interested me. I ordered the Oaxaqueño – Mezcal, cucumber,
Royal Combier (an orange-flavored French Grand Liqueur mixed with
cognac and known to combine the flavors of aloe, nutmeg, myrrh,
cinnamon, cardamom and saffron), basil, and jalapeño. It was
amazing! The taste was reminiscent of a Marguerita, but with herbal
overtones and the sting of hot pepper.
I
asked Miguel what people usually do in a dinner setting here. He
cautioned against the Paellas (there are eight different recipes on
the menu) because the minimum order is for two people. I was slightly
crestfallen having built up my hopes to have paella. Miguel advised
making a dinner out of the Tapas list (just above the Paella list on
the menu) and gave me some time to read and decide which ones looked
interesting to me. I had a choice of 21 small dishes and with
Miguel’s help decided on two to start with and go on from there
according to my appetite.
The
first dish I ordered was Alcachofas Fritas – fried
artichokes, oven roasted kale, lemon and Spanish caper aioli. It was
a larger portion than I expected with the crispy kale floating on top
like the wings of a fallen angel. The fried artichokes were crunchy,
not over-cooked and nicely flavored with the lemon and capers;
surprisingly easy to finish. I decided to switch drinks to red wine
and chose a glass of 2006 Cerro Añón Reserva, a lovely
varietal of Tempranillo, Garnacha (Grenache),
and Rioja. I began to like the place and forget the stool
I was perched upon.
The
second dish was Milhojas De Cordero – a Lamb
Terrine with spinach cream and peppers topped with shoestring fried
potatoes in a lamb reduction sauce. The earthy, almost musky flavor
was heady and sexy. The potatoes were a surprise, which I noted to
Miguel. When a menu only states “potatoes” one can’t imagine
what one will get. The wine complimented this dish as well.
I
still had an appetite after finishing the lamb and was ready for
choice number three. The Pulpo a la Gallega – Charred octopus
with Pimentón (Spanish paprika), Olive oil and
potatoes (this time in small soft cubes) – was served in a small
mound on a black square of slate, which accented the red of the
paprika, the white of the tender octopus meat and the black of the
crispy grilled edges. For the umpteenth time I wondered how anyone
could make octopus so tender and delicious.
It
was now time to switch wines (there were six reds by the glass) and I
chose the An/2 – 2010 Callet Mantonegro Syrah from Fogoneu,
Mallorca. The flavor was rich and slightly piquant but on the sweet
side with a wonderful aftertaste. It made a perfect introduction to
the fourth dish: the Cochinillo Asado – roasted
suckling pig with spinach, potatoes and chestnuts in a pork sauce
reduction. When it arrived there was only one image I saw. It looked
like the robot “Kronos” (from the 1957 sci-fi flick) standing in
a pool of blood (but that could have been the effect of the reduced
lighting). The pork, potatoes and chestnuts were molded into a block
atop the spinach, surrounded by the sauce. It was a challenge to cut
because the pork shredded easily with a fork but the entire
experience was sheer delight. A small steel bowl was supplied with
three slices of crusty bread to get all the sauce. (I wish I knew
they had that when I was eating the lamb dish. That sauce was very
good too.)
Four
Tapas later, I was amazingly ready for dessert. Miguel presented the
dessert menu, but I had my own ideas. I read it dutifully and it did
show some promise, but I went with my own instincts. I ordered
another Tapa, the Datiles – Bacon-wrapped Dates
stuffed with almonds, Valdeón (a Spanish bleu
cheese from León) and apple purée. I told Miguel that no man could
resist this dish, and it did make a very good dessert. I mentioned
after-dinner drinks and Miguel pointed them out at the bottom of the
dessert list. One caught my eye right away. Miguel said, “I want to
buy your after-dinner drink. Knowing that you like to eat I have the
perfect one for you.” Guess what? It was exactly the one I wanted,
the Hidalgo “Triana” Pedro Ximenez – San Lucar de Barrameda, a
sherry from Andalucia, Spain. Smooth, sweet and delicious. I didn’t
need any coffee.
After
I paid the check Miguel advised me to come again at lunch, when they
make the paellas for one person. “After all, you MUST taste the
Paella!” I had to agree (although I don’t know when I’ll be in
that neighborhood for lunch). The excellent food more than made up
for the less than adequate seating at Socarrat and I saw the Aroz
Negro (black rice) Paella. It looks divine.
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