We Went to Nishi…
…And got two orders of Ceci e Pepe. But let me back up.
I have a friend from New Orleans who bartended in New York for more years than I have been eating solid food. He doesn’t know everyone in New York; to claim that would be nuts. But sometimes it seems that way. Like, in the way that he texted me when he touched down in NYC and asked where I wanted to get dinner that night. And when I said, “Nishi,” he said, “okay, 9pm.” How did he do that? Is he magic? Did he anticipate my Nishi desires and make the reservation weeks in advance? Or, does he know everyone in New York and can get reservations anywhere at the drop of a hat? Anyway.
Five of us sat down at Nishi, I only knew Thomas, so I thought. Within moments I learned that the two other girls were fellow NOLA ex-pats (is that the right terminology?). I felt I was in good company– NOLA in NYC.
Despite having read Ryan Sutton’s review : “One star for David Chang’s ambitious, chimeric, deeply flawed Italian-Asian Chelsea hotspot,” I ate nothing all afternoon and had menu anxiety up the wazoo upon entering. Sure, the backless stools aren’t comfortable, the tiny bathroom legitimately smelled like urine and was out of toilet paper, and we were squished at a communal table with two very loud picky eaters. But our server was a gem. She smiled genuinely, and seemed to honestly feel bad when she let us know they were out of the Spanish Makerel Tataki, Fried Whole Shrimp, and Bitter Greens. That, or she was worried she would get slapped by one of us overeager late-night diners who had all previously memorized the menu.
My boss had told me we had to order the mackerel. I took this as a lovely sign that I must return to Nishi a second time. I was sad about the sold out items but, a new David Chang restaurant was packed and ran out of things– worse things have happened.
From the slightly truncated menu we (happy fatty sharers that we are) ordered the following:
Diver Scallop- tiger’s milk, shio kombu
Beef Crudo- watermelon radish, dashi ponzu
Ceci e Pepe- chickpea hozon, black pepper (x2)
Chicken & Dumplings- broth, torn noodle, smoked shiitake
Spicy Lamb Lumache- mint, crispy shallots
Chitarra- squid, xo, fresh & fermented chili
Roast Pork- asparagus, rye
Grilled Sweet Potato & Anchovy
I described the menu to my boyfriend (how much I wish he could eat all these things with me and not be in stupid Rome) as, “the food I think I make when I’m drunk.” Like, when I come home a little tipsy and a little hungry I want pasta… but I want it super spicy, covered in fish sauce, with cilantro (not stupid italian parsley), with xo, with ponzu, with lime, with anchovies, and squid, and pork fat… so I put all of that stuff on my pasta and it turns out… barely edible. Nishi is the stuff of my drunken dreams. Baby anchovy covered baked sweet potato? Sign me up.
I wish I could have tried the mackerel, the bitter greens (more xo sauce!), the head on shrimp. I’ll be back.
On top of all the sensual funky fermented Italian Korean mastery, the menu has FOOTNOTES.
There are in-between bits to recipe description that is difficult to describe on a menu. I think footnotes might be the perfect tool for this. For instance, this (made-up) dish: Pork loin¹ over creamy grits² with spicy collards³. Footnotes give the chef of this dish the ability to further explain: ¹24-hour marinated in molasses and rice vinegar (is that gross?), ²buttermilk and pecorino, ³rice vinegar, sumac, xo, scotch bonnet. To write all of that out in a menu description comes off wordy, annoying, maybe pretentious. But what if someone is allergic to scotch bonnet peppers? Or what if most people will ask your server to more fully explain the dish anyway? Footnotes, man.
I will be back to Nishi for further inspection– on mackerel, as well as toilet paper stocking. But mostly I’ll be back because that food is damn good.
Menu Anxiety level: 9