Dining at Tabla in New York City - April '02
A wonderful thing about food is the seemingly never-ending world of new flavors you can encounter. These flavors are not new in the ‘just created” sense of the word. Rather they are newly discovered in their current incarnation. Which brings me to Tabla. Tabla is located on Madison Avenue at 25th Street in New York and is one of a number of restaurants conceived and operated by Danny Meyers. Others include Union Square Café and the recently opened Blue Smoke, New York’s first serious barbecue restaurant. Tabla, the restaurant, is located on a second level with a balcony that overlooks Tabla, the Bread Bar.
Tabla is not an Indian restaurant. The cooking style is light and contemporary, the ingredients decidedly American, but with a flavor palette of Indian spices, herbs and condiments. In some degree is like our Frog restaurant was in that we frequently utilized Thai flavors, but Frog was hardly a Thai restaurant. Tabla is more Indian than Frog was Thai, but still far from what you would encounter at an “Indian” restaurant.
Tabla’s key flavor elements
- Dried spices including cardamom, cumin, ginger, coriander and turmeric
Herbs including mint and coriander
- Tamarind – a sweet, sour fruity puree of tamarind pods
- Coconut milk – not the liquid from inside the fruit, but rather a luxurious liquid made by pouring boiling water over shredded coconut. The mixture is cooled and the white liquid is strained and rendered.
 The restaurant is large, noisy and comfortably relaxed. The servers were friendly, knowledgeable about the flavor elements, and attentive without being intrusive. You genuinely believe they were pleased when you told them everything was wonderful. Shortly after we arrived at our table, we were greeted by Floyd Cardoz, Tabla's executive chef. This was a surprise. It turns out that a long-time server at Tabla had worked for me years ago at Frog and, I guess, was sharp enough to pick-up from the night's reservation list that I was dining there. Beyond the friendly greeting, there was nothing to suggest that we got special treatment so I would expect my experience would be like yours.
There is an a la carte menu and a tasting menu offering a choice of more or less courses for your dinner. We each selected the seven-course menu for two people. However, since we each selected this menu, for most courses they gave us different items so we could taste what was on our plate and the plate across the table.
Breads are a specialty and a basket of warm Indian flatbread was served with a delicious puree of apple and green squash.
We began with a tiny crab cake on a pappadam. Pappadams are paper thin, crisp, deep-fried breads made of lentil flour. Two seafood sampler plates followed. The first was a sort of sashimi with two kinds of raw tuna and raw fluke in pools of herb-based dressings. Across the table were Taylor Bay Scallops and grilled mackerel. More seafood followed with rice-flaked halibut in a dry ginger broth and a baby halibut curry. Next, “Day Boat” scallops in a coconut tamarind sauce and Nova Scotia lobsters with morels in a tamarind sauce. Coconut poached quail came next for each of us accompanied by seared foie gras and tapioca. Our final course before dessert was a roast tandori lamb with an eggplant puree flavored with mint. Dessert was an assortment of different sorbet and ice cream.
Done. Full, but not stuffed. It felt like we had flown to a place far away. It’s been New York. But the flavors transported us to an exciting place far away. The trip is highly recommended.
Tabla, 11 Madison Avenue at 25th Street, New York
Reservations: 212.889.0667
Most Indian spices are routinely available from your neighborhood supermarket. Tamarind is available in most Asian markets. Pappadams are available in many specialty food stores. There is an Indian market that we use in West Philadelphia at 45th and Walnut on the north side of the street adjacent to the Restaurant School.
Note: "Day Boat" Scallops are scallops that have not been soaked in a preservative as most fresh scallops have. The preservative extends extend the shelf life of scallops, they are held in a clear liquid preservative that subtly alters the flavor and seriously alters the texture of scallops. The name "Day Boat" suggests that the scallop fisherman are just out for the day and immediately take the catch to market.
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