Asmak Taama – New York’s Finest Egyptian Seafood

03/22/2009 0 Comments

As a big fan of Robert Sietsema’s food blog in the Village Voice, the cleverly-named “Fork in the Road,” I’m always on the lookout for his latest discoveries.

Jamie & I had a need to get out of the City, a brief relief from the everyday commonplace. We’ve also long wanted to travel to Egypt, ride a camel, and check out the Pyramids.

Sietsema wrote a memorable piece about his experience with a few rock and roll luminaries at Asmak Taama in Bay Ridge, and, being huge fans of great seafood, we decided to investigate for ourselves.

Asmak Taama features seafood cooked in the style created in Alexandria, Egypt, representing a unique blend of the Greek and North African-Middle Eastern traditions.

Jamie and I began our meal with steaming glasses of sweet black sage tea (no alcohol is served, although you can bring alcohol in, and there’s a good liquor store around the corner). We followed this up with plates of hummous and babaganoush for appetizers. Redolent with more than enough garlic, they were thinner than usual, and very tasty.

We had chosen two fish from the steel ice bed in the restaurant window: A tilapia, which our waitress/hostess informed us was best fried, and a striped bass, which we agreed would be grilled.

The tilapia was first out of the gate, with a thick, crunchy and tawny coating studded with red pepper flakes. The meat within was extremely tender, and not at all oily.

Next up was the striped bass. This was truly the highlight of the evening. The skin had been burned a deep black, and had mostly to be scraped away. But the meat inside was some of silkiest, tenderest, and most flavorful grilled fish I may have ever tasted. This was accompanied by plates of a brown rice cooked with some kind of fish stock, and strewn with pine nuts, and two solid salads.

We followed this up with two more cups of the delicious sage tea.

The bill at the end of the meal? $40. A truly great hidden gem, and we will definitely be back.