New York City Restaurants: The Rough Guide by Daniel Young

Author:Daniel Young
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Travel/Outdoor Recreation
Publisher: Rough Guides Ltd.
Published: 2003-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

Marichu

(Basque)

* * *

Lunch $27–50

Dinner $35–75

Address 342 East 46th St, between 1st & 2nd Aves

Tel 212/370-1866

Transportation 4,5,6,7,S to 42nd St-Grand Central

Open Mon–Thurs noon–2.30pm & 5.30–10pm, Fri noon–2.30pm & 5.30–11pm, Sat 5.30–11pm, Sun 5.30–9pm

Accepts All major credit cards

Reservations Suggested

* * *

With its location just west of the UN and its status as the city’s foremost culinary ambassador from the Basque Country, Marichu could well have been envisaged by chef/co-owner Teresa Barrenechea and her husband Raynold von Samson as a diplomatic mission, or at least a restaurant on one. They instead fashioned a self-confident import which, precisely because it has nothing to prove, proves to be charming, genuine, and special. The candlelit walls are decorated with ceramics and color photos, including one of another New York-Basque connection, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The courtyard garden, with its terracotta tiling and zigzagging glass canopy, is appropriately spare. Thus nothing comes between your nose and the sizzling, snap-happy gambas (shrimp) al ajillo ($12), whose garlicky component could stop traffic on First Avenue. Other must-try appetizers include the lettuce-wrapped monkfish with béchamel and a sensuous black (squid ink) vinaigrette ($12) as well as the beautifully arranged leaves of endive cradling sharp Cabrales cheese, almonds, and yogurt sauce ($10). Two specials also merit your undivided attention: ajo blanco, a cold soup of almonds, grapes, and olive oil infused with garlic ($8), and the white asparagus served over sweet, olive-oil-immersed piquillo peppers ($14). Befitting the cuisine from Spain’s “Region of the Peppers”, the piquillos (pimentos) return for the next course, this time stuffed with salt cod and draped with an outstanding, slightly bitter roasted pepper sauce ($18). Among entrees it is second only to the delicate, slow-cooked chipirones (baby squid) en su tinta ($24), with a classic ink sauce centered by a ring of white rice. This is Basque cooking at its most basic and elegant.

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