Aldea-licious

Last night I was lucky to have have dinner with my grandma Thelma at Aldea. I'd be wanting to go since I'd heard about this sea urchin toast.  My grandmother is a gourmand-to-boot, so she was the ideal dining partner.  Her palate has been honed after years of elegant dining as well as cooking each night for upwards of 8 people.  I arrived to the subdued, modern, adult space after my grandma - the hostesses extolled her cuteness as they walked me to the table.  The restaurant seemed age-appropriate for us both - something oft difficult to find.  My grandmother started with the small bite of clams.  They tasted like a vibrant splash of sea spray. She proclaimed, "The man who made these is a true chef."  We then launched into a discussion about quality seafood versus the lesser stuff.

I went for that coveted sea urchin toast to my total satisfaction. Crispy, smooth, decadent and visceral. And actually a perfect amount.  More would have been a little overboard. but maybe a bit more of the cauliflower cream.

We continued with appetizers.  I like the breakdown of the three courses because it gave my grandmother and I ample time to catch up on the day to day and well as go deep into long-established family gossip and dynamics of which she naturally knows more than me. We swapped stories while swapping tastes of tomato-cherry gazpacho, her choice, and shrimp alhinho, mine.

The soup may look a little funny but don't be dissuaded.  Packed with little surprises like mussels, cherry bits and ballooned up mozzarella puffys, the soup was a stand out.  Edible flowers ornamented the whole thing.  My grandmother called out the heavy usage of cilantro/coriander in my shrimp dish before I even had a chance to pinpoint the fresh flavor. Genius. Here's where she said, "If he can fix it better than me, he's a chef. Who is this man?" We talked about George Mendes briefly, but I confessed to not knowing too much about him except that he'd been at Tocqueville a few years back where we'd shared an excellent meal as well... with a similar chilled soup complete with mozzarella cloud.

Our entrées arrived - scallops with farro risotto for her and wild bass with spaghetti squash for me - with a little lag time, the only misstep of the night.  The scallops were by far the show stopper.  Seared and silky, citrusy and creamy.  The dish was perfect.  My grandma called the farro risotto the best thing she'd had all year.  And she confirmed, "I like to come to restaurants where I can't cook as well as the chef."

My fish was on the dry side, but I think we were both too enamored with the scallops to care about the bass.  We did like the spaghetti squash, which was flecked with trout roe - a favorite of mine since mt trip to Russia in 2007.  I saved half and plan on making a fish salad (per my grandmother's suggestion) with the leftovers this afternoon. The menu description mentioned green mango but I didn't get it in the dish.  And neither of us were sure about the foam.

We made sure to leave room for dessert but used uncanny reserve and opted only for one - a coup for me and my grandma.  Caramelized brioche arrived as a brick of browned bread.  It didn't look too special but proved to be phenomenal.  It was our favorite. It also helped that by then, the soundtrack had gone to The Walkmen, my all-time favorite band, so I was in especially good spirits.