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Agua Dulce
802 Ninth Ave.
New York, NY 10019
P. 212.262.1299
www.aguadulceny.com
On the corner of 53rd Street and 9th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen sits Agua Dulce, a new restaurant offering a wide and tasteful selection of Pan-Latin cuisine. “We like to say we embrace, but not focus on the cuisines of Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba.
Agua Dulce
Chef Ulrich Sterling
On the corner of 53rd Street and 9th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen sits Agua Dulce, a new restaurant offering a wide and tasteful selection of Pan-Latin cuisine. “We like to say we embrace, but not focus on the cuisines of Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba. So it’s sort of the best of Central and South America, with a little bit of Caribbean.” Said Ulrich Sterling, the chef of Agua Dulce, on a busy night at the restaurant. While a New York native, Sterling spent much of the last year in Turks and Caicos, picking up the tastes of the land personally. “I fell in love with Latin food when I started my first restaurant in New York, Chicama, under Douglas Rodriguez, sort of considered the god father of Nueva Latino cuisine,” says Sterling. “The excitement, the flavor, the fun.” After the financial crisis, Sterling moved back to New York to set up a restaurant with an elegant and personal atmosphere. Jazz and Latin American music play softly in the background letting you enjoy conversation as well as your food.
Chili soybeans serve as a nice starter, flavored with chili, soy, ginger, shallots, and garlic. “A very awesome, addictive bar snack,” says the chef. Next, is the Caribbean pumpkin soup, a creamy starter with amazingly no dairy, perfect for the fall. Bits of Chorizo sneak up towards the end of the bowl. Cerviche, a favorite dish of Sterling’s to experiment with, is filled with fresh salmon and an array of sweet and tangy flavors. The appetizers are topped off with crunchy homemade chips and a guacamole sprinkled with sweet mango.
Beef Short Rib
Salmon The beef short rib is braised with a potent smoked tea that fills the dish. A mix of Latin and Chinese, the meat is sweet, and loose, and easy to devour. Yucca fries serve as a nice side, full of vanilla and garlic. The Aji panca glazed Long Island duck is a favorite of the staff, who offer their own, personal knowledge of Latin American cuisine. One server, Christian, originally from Peru, says some of the dishes remind him of the cooking of his grandmother, but with a fresh, new spin. “The sweetness to the marinade is something I’m not used too,” says our server on how the dishes change when the chef has his hand at them, “but he’s not trying to replicate the cuisine, he’s trying to do his Ulrich version of it. For seafood, “Bacaloa con Bacalao”, the cod crusted cod is a light and tasty dish over Peruvian purple potato and smoked bacon.
For desert, an incredible sweet, caramelized flan is served, covered in salted caramel and served with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream to match. Cooked very slowly, the flan is made from a caramelized, condensed milk, making a wonderfully rich and sweet finish to the night. The chocolate cake is covered in a powerfully rich mole sauce, hard not to finish even after all the other tastes of the night.
Agua Dulce, 802 Ninth Ave. New York, NY 10019 P. 212.262.1299 www.aguadulce.com
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