Pangea

For a HB’s recent birthday, we opted to go to Pangea, an interesting semi-fusion, semi-old world cuisine restaurant.  Its location (2nd Avenue, between 11th and 12th Street) an avenue block away from Veniero’s was most welcome, as a certain member of the party decided to walk to Veniero’s afterwards to pick up some treats.  The place had a trendy feel to it, but not in a pretentious manner whatsoever. 

I opted to start off with a special appetizer- cod croquettes served alongside garlic aioli.  These arrived piping hot, which I discovered by popping an entire one in my mouth.  Ouch.  (None of my pictures without flash came out because it was pretty dark in there.)  The garlic aioli was infused with garlic, which I liked, but the birthday girl wasn’t a big fan.  I thought these were good, but the cod didn’t stand out; I could have been eating any sort of croquette, really.

AM, who actually planned the dinner (thanks, AM!!!), ordered fried calamari to start (we had a group of about 12, so I didn’t get pictures of everyone’s food, but it seemed as though we mostly ordered the same dishes).  These were crisp, light, and very tasty- actually, very good fried calamari (and as my longtime readers know… I eat a lot of fried calamari, because it’s one of the few seafood items that B eats), though not the best ever.  Then again, how hard is fried calamari?  (Though it’s often pretty bad…)

B decided to try the penne with chicken and Portobello mushrooms, with a light cream marsala sauce.  The pasta was perfectly al dente, with enough bite to it; I didn’t try any of the chicken pieces but the mushrooms were fantastic.  Soft but not mushy, and shot through with flavor… but I love Portobellos and how they taste, so you can’t mess that up for me.  B cleaned his plate.

HB, the birthday girl, ordered the “Asian salmon”- pan seared with a sweet soy, ginger, lemongrass vinaigrette and spiced lentils and crispy leeks (from the website menu).  She actually wound up switching with MD, who sat next to her and had ordered the Thai salmon (something with coconut milk in it).  I didn’t try either dish, but they both tried each other’s and realized they liked the other better- HB said her dish (pictured above) was too sweet for her taste but the Thai salmon (a special) was perfect.

My blackened tiliapia filet arrived and I was happy to note that despite being blackened, the fish was not dry whatsoever, though a bit boring without the mango salsa.  The mango salsa was refreshing, sweet and delicious, and I happily ate it with or without the fish (in fact, I’m probably going to attempt my own version of mango salsa later this week).  I cleaned my plate, as did the birthday girl and many people around our table.

I must point out, however, that many of us cleaned our plate not just because the food was good, but because the portions seemed pretty small.  I still felt hungry after this, and considered eating something else (I had very little carbs, I’ll blame it on that, and didn’t feel full), but AM had brought a tiramisu from Veniero’s and so I sated myself by eating a piece of that (and it was very good, mind you- love their tiramisu). 

Yvo says: Very inexpensive- they even have a two course $14 prix fixe from 12pm – 7pm – this place is definitely worth a try if you’re in the area.  Everything I tried was solidly good, though not mind blowingly so.  The wait staff was a bit odd- or rather, our waiter was a bit odd, but he may have just been inexperienced with such a large group (he cut our cake but didn’t ask us if we wanted coffee/tea until we were halfway done, that’s more on our tab which translates to more tip for him, especially since we were already giving him 18% [it was included in the bill]; before we ordered, he hovered nearby but ignored us because I tried to get his attention for a few minutes; and then, even though there was definitely cake left, he didn’t ask us if we wanted it [I’m sure we would have told them no because who wants to carry that plus whatever], he should have at least offered instead of just “stealing” our cake!).  I say go here but make sure you order one or two appetizers each (they’re also inexpensive). 
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