A
mali, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is
possessed of an unusual name, one, which offers, only
indirectly, a clue to its cuisine. The Amali were the leading
dynasty of the Goths, a
Germanic people, vassals
of Attila the Hun, who
participated in the sack of
Rome in 410. Amali offers
delicacies the Huns might
have pillaged from wellset Roman tables, rather
than cooked themselves.
The splendid summer
meal I enjoyed at Amali
was anything but Gothic,
or Germanic for that
matter. It was purest
Mediterranean, a light yet
filling series of dishes that
built like a fugue. Satiety
crept upon me unawares until, suddenly, I could consume
no more and had to take home a doggie bag of grass fed
beef with duck fat roasted broccoli, just leaving room for
vanilla bean pannacotta with strawberry granita, about
which more, later.
