Monday, June 14, 2010

Buena Comida

Summer is sadly flying by and I haven't had a chance to blog about my recent adventures! Bikini season has definitely not stopped me from eating out on countless occasions. Last week I met some friends for dinner at Yerba Buena Perry. A sister location to the original Yerba Buena in the East Village, this restaurant is smack in the middle of the West Village. For a Tuesday night it was pretty crowded but thanks to Opentable, we got seated promptly at our 8:00pm reservation.

My two friends hail from South Florida, so they know their Latin food well so I knew I was in for some good menu choosing. We started with some botanas, which I learned (or googled) are snacks/appetizers. We got the arepas with coffee glazed pork belly and the empanadas with cheese, spinach in a fig vinaigrette. The main selling point for the empanadas was that it also came with Peruvian corn. This isn't just a normal kernel, but one on steroids. The are probably 5 times the size of a normal kernel and delicious. Both dishes were great, the arepas had a strong bbq taste and was super crispy. The empanadas were cheesy and salty - but in a good way.










Not sure why these pictures are turning sideways, I can't figure out how to fix them!


Next we ordered two entrees and the most exciting thing of the whole night - the trio of fries. But I'll get to those in a few. We ordered the shrimp dish and the glazed duck confit. The shrimp were massive with a tomato salsa and hearts of palm on the side. There was a hint of olive in the salsa as well so it turned off a member of the group. The duck was great. It had two pieces, one on the bone and one off and there was a fried duck egg on top. I'm sensing a trend here in the eggs for dinner but I'm liking it.

Now for the trio of fries. These weren't your normal potato fries at all - but a trio of avocado, hearts of palm and watermelon fries. Can you even imagine what a watermelon fry would look like? I couldn't either and that's why we had to order them. Each item was panko crusted and flash fried and served with a bbqish ketchup and another dipping sauce that tasted like a spicy mayo from a sushi restaurant. The watermelon were my favorite, mostly because it was so original. I didn't think it was possible to fry a watermelon and still be able to taste it.

We definitely got some unusual dishes at Yerba Buena, and they didn't disappoint. Without drinking or dessert involved, it was a very reasonable dinner and next I want to try their brunch which I hear is also great!

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