I should have mentioned in my last post on this, and didn't, but a neighbor points out: Frank Bruni loves the Filipino restaurant that's relocating from Soho to Cortelyou off Argyle.
He wrote:
Cendrillon doesn't cook or act in predictable, populist, homogenized ways. It doesn't serve dishes that are merely anagrams of what's available a block or two in any direction. It makes choices that fly against the grain and leans on effects that are more intriguing than they are instantly appealing (and have a special merit for that reason).Countless other restaurants serve duck as slices of breast so trimmed, tender and red they could almost be mistaken for beef. Cendrillon glories in the layers of fat and thick skin that make a duck a duck. It air-dries the bird, encases it in kosher salt, cooks it in the oven at very high heat and then chops it into crunchy nuggets that can - and should - be eaten with your hands.
Beyond that salty treat, Cendrillon favors sour notes, which it hits so hard and often that you experience a kind of taste revelation, realizing as never before just how far into the background of most cuisines these notes recede.
[snip]
Cendrillon may not be easy or sexy. But it's daring, different and a sure remedy for the malady, too widespread these days, of dining déjà vu. That has to matter, and that gives food lovers a real investment in the survival of this unconventional place.
[snip]
Cendrillon may not be easy or sexy. But it's daring, different and a sure remedy for the malady, too widespread these days, of dining déjà vu. That has to matter, and that gives food lovers a real investment in the survival of this unconventional place.
