El Cocotero
228 West 18th Street
New York, NY
(212) 206-8930 |
Map
The
Lehigh Dinner Club (
LDC)
attempted to enjoy the
cuisine of Ethiopia at
Queen of Sheba in April but, unfortunately, struck out at the plate. (
Haha!) So, for our May meeting, Kym chose to leave Africa behind and had us travel to South America to try the
Venezuelan food at
El Cocotero, a small restaurant in Chelsea that you'd probably walk right past without noticing if you weren't looking for it.
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| Tequenos - El Cocotero - New York, NY |
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| Pastelitos - El Cocotero - New York, NY |
To hold us over while we waited for Brian to arrive, Kym and I ordered some appetizers. After looking at the various
arepas on the menu, I was intrigued by the
Cazon because of the words "baby shark" next to it. Having never eaten baby shark before, I asked our server whether he liked it. He made a face because he, personally, didn't like the consistency or texture of it, but he assured me that, if I "liked that sort of thing," I'd enjoy it. I couldn't get the image of his face scrunched up in distaste, so I skipped the
Cazon and ordered the
Tequeños ($4.95), which are traditional Venezuelan crispy cheese sticks. Fried cheese? I was sold! Kym the
Pastelitos ($3.95), a round fried pastry, with ham and cheese.
Brian arrived just as we placed our appetizer order, so he took a few minutes to study the menu and ordered one as well - the
Arepitas Con Nata ($4.95), four bite-size crispy arepas stuffed with something that had a subtle sweetness to it. I'm guessing it was plantains based on the color of the
arepitas after Brian cut into them.
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| Pabellón - El Cocotero - New York, NY |
For our main meals, Brian, Kym, and I all ordered Arepas. I got the
Pabellón ($7.25), which was stuffed with sweet plantain, white cheese, black beans, and shredded flank steak. I'm still convinced that I chose that one because the name of it reminded me of Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, and we all know how much I love those Red Sox! While the
Pabellón was very flavorful, it was slightly awkward to eat because I couldn't bite through the shredded flank steak very easily. Whole pieces of the steak slid out of the corn pancake and were left dangling from my mouth. (Very ladylike, right?) I eventually gave up on biting into it and used my fork and knife.
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| La Catira - El Cocotero - New York, NY |
Kym opted for chicken and ordered the La Catira, which was filled with shredded chicken and yellow cheese. The bite I had was really good -- the chicken was tender and it wasn't too cheesy. Unfortunately, I can't remember which two Brian ordered and the picture was lost (womp womp), so I'm hoping Brian leaves a comment to let you all know what he had! (Sorry, Brian...) While the arepas were very filling, I wished they were a little cheaper. If I hadn't had the Tequeños to start, I would have still been hungry after finishing the Pabellón. In fact, we were all still a little hungry after eating our
arepas, so, of course, we ordered up some dessert.
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| Torta Tres Leches - El Cocotero - New York, NY |
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| Quesillo - El Cocotero - New York, NY |
All of the desserts at
El Cocotero are $5.50. We shared a piece of the
Torta Tres Leches, a cake densely rich in flavor but surprisingly light in texture, and a piece of the
Quesillo, a sweet caramel flan. Both were absolutely delicious! I'd go back to
El Cocotero just for the dessert!
I have one more LDC restaurant to write-up (dinner at
Smorgas Chef @ Scandinavia House) and then I'll be caught up with those. Hopefully, I'll be able to write it before the LDC meets again!
----
And now, without further ado, it's time to announce the
winner of the
Barefoot Wine & Bubbly Summer Beach Giveaway! I know I was supposed to announce the winner yesterday, but I was having too much fun enjoying the relative quiet of Manhattan on a holiday weekend with my boyfriend to allow myself to be chained to my laptop on an absolutely gorgeous Saturday. I apologize for the delay!
There were 22 entries for the giveway.
Random.org tells me that the winner is #8:
Amie: "I love champagne so I want to try the Extra Dry but the Bubbly Pinot and the Bubbly Chardonnay sound really good too!" I like being barefoot anywhere.
Congratulations, Amie!
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