TOURS

The Bacon Tour

By David Tez

Photo: Staff

From time to time, The Scout will feature interborough food tours designed as culinary and geographic explorations of our fair city. Each has been field tested, in a single day,…

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The Tenenbaums

By Siobhan Vivian

Photo: Staff

The Royal Tenenbaums is Wes Anderson’s visual love letter to New York. Though never explicitly named, the film presents a stunningly constructed pastiche of the quirky, the kitschy and the…

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DINING / BARS : ECLECTIC / MIX

Macao Trading Co.

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Photo: UrbanDaddy

Photo: UrbanDaddy

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Macao Trading Co. has all the elements of an “in” place – discreet Tribeca location, spicy cocktails with exotic ingredients, and a “gimmick” – Chinese-Portuguese food (both small and large plates) with an old-world flair. But those cocktails, like the Drunken Dragon’s Milk – a grown-up pina colada with coconut milk, green tea vodka and Thai basil – are delicious. And the atmosphere – ceiling fans, bric-a-brac like antique vases, chairs and roulette wheels, and honeyed lighting that makes everything (even your date) glow – can’t help but make you feel like you’ve entered a sexy, scruffy supper club from the ‘40s. Amazingly, with all these other elements in its favor, the restaurant’s food is very, very good (you can thank Chanterelle’s David Waltuck for that). The Portuguese-style mushroom and truffle croquettes are crispy on the outside, creamy inside; clams with chorizo in a spicy broth deserve plenty of bread to mop up the sauce; and “ants climbing the tree” – ground pork with chilies over whispery glass noodles – is a wonderful rendition of a Chinese classic. Even better, head downstairs to the quieter, more intimate lounge, where you can cozy up on cushioned benches and savor the food and cocktails without distractions.

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