La Nacional

After reading this rather rave review about “the best and quirkiest Spanish restaurant in New York” (emphasis mine) on Serious Eats, well, I had to go, of course.  (Click to their review for a better picture of the front… I was trying to avoid having StB in the shot, but I missed anyway and got part of her head, haha.)  I emailed StB immediately “Let’s go here,” and it was decided that for her birthday lunch, we would visit this secret spot.

Before I get into the food, though, I need to share with you two important details. 

First, on my first-ever-trip-to-Europe, I actually went to Spain.  Barcelona & Palma de Mallorca, to be exact.  (Don’t get too excited; it looks like I only posted in detail about one restaurant, the rest is just a showcase of what I ate but not much detail.)  Shortly before this trip to Spain, I’d discovered that I really like paella, thanks to SpB and LTS – one for requesting paella, and the other for giving me the rec for good paella.  So when we got to Spain – which, if you clicked over to those pictures of what I ate, you’ll see this in great detail – I ORDERED PAELLA EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Sometimes twice (lunch & dinner).  I swear, it is a testament to how patient my friends are (that or at the time, some members of the group didn’t know me well enough to slap me and tell me to stop! haha) that it was Day 6 of our 7 day trip before someone said “Really.  Do we have to eat paella AGAIN?” (Most of the time, paella was not a single person dish.) 

So I haven’t really eaten paella much, if at all, since then.  It isn’t just because I got scared off, but because I am constantly disappointed by the quality of paella; even the paella I had in Spain wasn’t that good.  I don’t know what it is.  It was just never that good.  Tasty – ok.  Sometimes good – fine.  But never mind-bogglingly so, something I expected since, well, paella is Spanish.  Maybe I was just going to the wrong restaurants; maybe I was in the wrong region (I didn’t do much research about the regional cuisine before going on the trip, shame on me).  Whatever the case, the paella was just not up to par.  (And yes- I even tried going back to that first restaurant that sucked me in, and it was terrible, not even just off, just horrible and gummy and gross.)

That’s my relationship with paella.

But the other important detail has to do with my relationship with StB.  My partner-in-eating, who features prominently in a lot of my dining experiences, one of my closest friends, – I can go on and on and make this into a mushy birthday shout out but I don’t think I shall – she already knows how I feel, awww – has told me a few things in life that I hold dear and abide by, by and large anyway.  (And other things that I quickly dismiss and ignore and then regret later.)  One of those things is that adventure always makes a good story later.  You won’t talk at length about how you were hiking and stumbled across a cave… but didn’t go in.  But you’ll tell the story for ages to come if you actually go in the cave, even if you don’t find much besides bear poop.  As StB also says – interesting people have interesting stories. 

How is this at all relevant to La Nacional?! 

Well, you see, the front of this place doesn’t really look like a restaurant.  We walked in and were immediately inside the entryway of what could pass for a school.  A bulletin board with notices and announcements, a stairway going up to I don’t know where, and a short hallway at the end of which was a doorway with a sign posted on it.  After a moment’s hesitation, StB and I both headed that way, coming across the sign you see on Serious Eat’s review, stating clearly that this was a private club and for members only.  If I hadn’t read that review, I seriously would have turned around and left, crying and hungry. 

And with this, I was reminded of our adventure in Argentina with another club.

Ok, enough with the tangential thoughts completely unrelated to food.  Let’s go back to the food:

The friendly hostess slash waitress looked up from the bar on the right at us.  We were clearly newcomers, out of place possibly, but here for the food.  I wondered out loud if they’d known Mr. Levine had run a review on their place.  StB suggested that they didn’t.  The place was completely empty of patrons, save two businessmen huddled over papers, with their plates pushed to one side.  We chose to sit in the front parlor area, with better light, but surrounded by dark wood on all sides. 

I liked this place immediately; the atmosphere gave me the sense it was secret, forbidden, and that made it all the more fun.

When placing our orders, I struggled to remember what Mr. Levine had said was particularly delicious.  I couldn’t, and StB reminded me that it was an overall positive review, so anything should be good.  We settled on la croquetas, which came quickly, piping hot and atop a line of mayo, which StB surreptitiously wiped off.  I dipped mine in more, because I’m a fatty like that.  I bit into it; the center was squishy, a dark blended concoction.  I asked StB what it was, and she said lentils; I’m inclined to agree, though the SE review says it was chicken.  Completely blended and pulverized chicken, perhaps?  Next time I go, though, I will definitely be sampling the tosta choricera, which Mr. Levine describes as “the open faced Spanish breakfast sandwich of [his] dreams”.  Nice dreams… I definitely want to try that.

StB and I both walked in knowing exactly what we each wanted for entree – myself, paella of course, and StB, the black rice, which came with a squiggle of the very mayo she’d been avoiding.  I tried a bite of it and found it scrumptious, but pleased with my own choice.  Her opinion… to come in written form.

Now, my paella… wow.  All I can say is… WOW.  This is what paella is meant to be!  Crunchy in a good way around the edges, bursting with flavor in the center, each rice granule separate but not… coming together to form a symphony of flavors … just excellent, all around excellent.  I was delighted with the entire platter.  I wanted more when I was done; I found myself scraping the spoon around the edges just to get more of the delicious rice mixture. 

A point to note: the waitress, upon us ordering, seemed to think we were ordering way too much food for us two girls.  We ate every last bite.  I’m not sure if she just assumed we were small eaters or if she gave us smaller portions (I don’t think so) or what, but she actually seemed to be trying to convince us to order just one dish instead of both plus the appetizer.  Well, I was glad we ordered each our own, or I’d have had to fight StB for food, haha.  (Something that may happen one day… but not just yet.  Hahaha.)

Yvo says: What are you waiting for?  Well, I know I will definitely be back here, although I kind of don’t want to tell you where it is, so it will remain a little hidden gem of a place.  But I’ll be nice and share with you.  I will definitely be back sooner than later, for more paella and some tosta choricera.  Ahhh… deliciousness & adventure, all wrapped up into one.
highly recommended

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