FOODYHOLIC'S Choice: CASA MONO

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

CASA MONO - Spanish Tapas

What are tapas. Tapas began in Spain where they serve about a quarter amount of food in little plates. Any dish can be a tapa. You can serve cured meats, vegetables, potatoes, fish etc... The plate size is similar to a dessert plate.

I recommend to order at least 3 - 4 plates of tapas for each person consisting of different things to be eaten with a glass of wine or sangria. It could be your appetizer or your main dinner.

My favorite tapa place to go for tapas in New York City is Casa Mono; located between Gramercy and Union Square areas. It's a small restaurant with a bar where you can sit mainly to eat and not necessarily just to drink. They have little tables too. But the maximum they can sit in a table is 6.

I love sitting at the bar facing the kitchen where I can watch my dish and other dishes prepared. The bar area have hooks under the counter to hang your bags or coats (if short).

You will see videos of the dishea I had ordered. Watch how these 2 people busily cook behind the counter at 3PM Sunday afternoon. Imagine them at peak hours!

I'm seated on the counter facing the chefs prepare food. This is my Confit Goat with Rhubarb and Basil Seeds. He was also preparing other dishes along with it. He took something from the cupboard below and put it on my plate where he layered a crisp circular dough for the confit of goat.

The Confit of goat is ready:

Confit Goat with Rhubarb and Basil Seeds

Below, my Quail order is being prepared. The vegetables are prepared with a dressing where the quail will be layed on top. The video below shows how my quail is being cooked with a heavy plate on top to keep it flat. It took roughly 12 minutes to cook it on both sides.