Asia de Cuba: Where Asian Meets Latin

I am in New York City this week attending a basic materials conference and making the most of my time here. NYC has been a favourite walking city of mine after London and San Francisco and as always, I love to do the walkabout in the "grid" generally soaking up the sights and sounds and touristy traffic amidst the bustle.

Whilst the days were spent in meetings, I pretty much had the evenings to myself to generally wander about in Soho - I first stopped at the Vosges cafe for a shot of their famous aztec chocolate elixir and after some time found myself doing dinner at Dos Caminos - their heavenly guacamole and tortilla chips washed down with some pino grigio and an amazing farmer's market vegetable quesadilla made of grilled vegetables and wild mushrooms layered with crisp tortillas layered with chihuahua cheese and roasted tomato-arbol salsa.

I also managed to walk around the relatively quieter Hudson Street where I gorged an unpretentious caprese salad and a tasty organic papardelle accompanied by a Peroni beer at Vento as well as the almost-adjoining food concourse at Chelsea Market on 15th and 9th just randomly tasting some of the produce as well the home-style cheeses and freshly baked breads.

Last night however saw me dining at the fashionable and upscale Asia de Cuba restaurant on Madison Avenue. At first shot, I was quite disappointed after looking at the menu selection - mainly meat, seafood and more of the same. Given that I have turned almost-vegan over a year ago, I was getting ready to content myself with a simple salad and marinated tofu. My dinner companion then asked our waiter if they had any off-menu vegetarian selections. I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a "vege" menu, with quite a large selection to choose from - well, bon appetit it was indeed!!!

We started with a noodle box - sauteed asian vegetables (cabbage, peppers, carrots and the like) wrapped in a noodle "box" and steamed, served in a mushroom chili broth drizzled with hoisin sauce - extremely tangy and quite unlike anything I have had before. Think of a steamed rice samosa and there you have it - this just opened up my taste buds to the gorgeous filling inside.

We had also opted for a second appetizer - the fabled Asia de Cuba's salad - made from a melange of heart of palms (and there were plenty of this going around in the salad), chayote, bananas, cashews and chicory on a bed of lettuce and cabbage served with a radicchio-sesame orange dressing. This was possibly a bigger step up from the noodle box - I know it difficult to appreciate a salad but I was hugely impressed by the flavour and fibrous quotient - I demolished a mountain of the salad and was quite giddy post this.

For mains, we chose the stir fried mushroom and vegetable pancake comprising asian cabbage, a selection of cuban vegetables and jalapeno corn crema with a bowl of wok sauteed shanghai noodles - I was almost ad-libbing Meg Ryan from When Harry met Sally, except my gastro induced orgasm was not fake. This was probably one of the best fusion dishes I have had in ages - every single bite was full of colour, flavour and a rich texture that exploded in my mouth. The aftertaste remained for quite some time in my mouth.

I skipped dessert as I was stuffed although I did glance at their menu - loads of chocolate infused dishes and a few pudding and sorbets as well.

Prices were not too steep by my standards, $100-odd all told - quite reasonable I thought for the exellent quality of the food that was served. The service was also extremely attentive and helpful although I felt a bit let down by the seating - we were first seated right next to the kitchen and then on pointedly asking given a slightly cramped table for two near the entrance - ah, well lop a point or two off for the hostess' behaviour.

I finally trundled back to my hotel for a laphroaig night cap before calling it an evening.

The Asia de Cuba at Morgans, 237 Madison Avenue, New York, NY:
Food - 4.5/5
Decor - 3.5/5
Service - 2.5/5 (lopping off a couple of points for an insensitive hostess)
Prices - 4/5

Cheers
S