New
There’s been no scarcity of wonderful regional-Indian eating places these previous few years, exploding the previous, Punjabi-centric butter-chicken ubiquity many New Yorkers are accustomed to for a richer number of the subcontinent’s different cuisines (see final yr’s worthy checklist entry Kanyakumari, whose menu journeys extensively via Southern India). Kidilum, which opened in February in a big, gilded house in Flatiron, focuses on the delicacies of Keralam, the spice basket of India (Tellicherry peppercorns, amongst many different aromatics, come from the realm), a coastal area that was an necessary cease on the Spice Route. Chef Vinu Raveendran, who educated in two-Michelin-starred Mugaritz in San Sebastián, has made it his mission to raise his native delicacies, and his recipe, and the restaurant’s, features a honest quantity of showmanship. Beef pepper comes topped with gold-flecked gelée and arrayed on what seems like a driftwood candelabra, sculpted by the chef himself. Lamb chops are set in a floral association of cinnamon sticks and flowers. Fortunately, the meals lives as much as the over-the-top presentation: The coconut and fennel-pollen-laced nanducurry, served within the precise nandu, or crab; a wonderful pork rib sticky with a fermented tamarind, ginger, and jaggery and slow-cooked to good near-dissolution, a rib any Texas pitmaster may very well be pleased with.
31 W. twenty first St.; kidilumnyc.com