Going Tapas; Amada's Long Menu Adapts Old World to Old City.

Summary

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He also offers five varieties of cured pork. Sliced into silky, salty rounds, the charcuterie is authentic and delicious. Order it. But unless you're a serious pig connoisseur, or here with a party of eight, you're fine with one or two--maybe light-as-air white chorizo, or aged-for-18-months Redondo Iglesias, the Kobe beef of Serrano. On the side: sliced bread, a dollop of dijon, a few cornichons and caperberries.

Then there's [Jose Garces]' signature green plantain empanada, a fried-tasting pocket containing a bechamel-like blend of spinach and manchego and surrounded by bits of pickled artichokes. It's pretty good, but it can't touch the warm, savory fava and giant lima bean salad with roasted red peppers and raw Idiazabal cheese shavings soaking in olive-oily sherry.

Larger dishes include traditional paella--haven't tried it yet--and chuleta, sliced beef tenderloin complicatedly prepared "sous vide," a process that involves cryovacing, protein sealing, low-temp poaching and so forth. It's a whole lot of fuss for what amounts to a hill of chewy beef slabs atop a pile of tasty truffled roasted fingerling potatoes and pearl onions.

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Going Tapas; Amada's Long Menu Adapts Old World to Old City.

It's impossible to take in Amada on the first try. The place is too vast. The menu's too long. There are too many wines to sample, too intense a crowd to ogle. With a straight-from-Starr chef, and a flamenco group performing twice a week, the r...

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