aldea

photos by jerry errico

portuguese-american chef george mendes opened aldea in may 2009 on 17th street. having worked with celebrated top chefs, like david bouley, roger vergé, alain ducasse and martin berasategui, mendes fuses his exceptional culinary training and family heritage at aldea.



while someone with his culinary resume could easily succumb to delusions of grandeur, mendes' dishes are surprisingly simple, refined and elegant. his presentations are clean, whimsical yet still look like the actual food.

the menu is divided into 5 sections: petiscos (or small bites), charcuterie, appetizers, meat, and fish and shellfish.

to start, we had the sea urchin toast, accompanied with cauliflower cream, sea lettuce and lime; the salt cod croquettas with garlic-truffle aioli; and dry-cured portuguese ham, presunto. the sea urchin was light, sweet and delicate, and sat on top of a nicely-toasted piece of bread. i enjoyed it for its varied texture and the balance of sweet and savory. the croquettas, i have to admit were good, although i felt it was obvious that a ball of fry served with garlic-truffle aioli was going to be alright. sure there can be good and bad croquettas, but in the end, it will still be a croquetta. my dining companions surely rolled their eyes as i professed this sentiment. the presunto wasn't spectacular. the only reaction i had was that tasted like a poor man's prosciutto di parma.

next, we had the lightly-cured fluke with meyer lemon, almond milk and crunchy soy. slippery and subtle and delicious!

we enjoyed the chatham cod, encrusted in sea salt before its seared and served with braised cranberry beans, tomato confit and tarragon-parsley coulis, but the shining star of the night was the arroz de pato. paella-type crusty rice is topped with duck confit, chorizo, olive and duck cracklings - no question that we cleaned the plate. in the words of rae rae: YUMMO.


had i been dining alone, i might have ordered a bit differently...perhaps the crispy pork belly with apple cider and szechuan pepper...or the foie gras terrine with caramelized bartlett pear, vanilla-pear puree and blis maple syrup or the baby cuttlefish served with caramelized lychee, mentaiko and squid ink...but i can't deny that i left satisfied and content!