We’ll get right to the point: Skewer dishes, which long suffered from a lowly reputation in the Big Apple’s trend-driven food hierarchy, now carry the biggest stick in town.
Skewers — in the form of Middle Eastern kebabs, Greek souvlaki, Japanese yakitori, French brochettes, Peruvian anticuchos and other global permutations — are often sold at street carts, where you might ingest wood splinters along with suspect meat and fish.
But elevated versions are popping up, even in our fanciest restaurants — e.g., luscious binchotan-grilled shrimp at Rocco DiSpirito’s rejuvenated Standard Grill.
Skewer madness owes something to chefs’ passion for global “street food” that Anthony Bourdain inspired. Customers love them, too, because they’re in tune with all the right eating-out trends: They’re easy to share. Their clear-cut presentation makes us feel that we — not an egomaniacal chef — are in control. Skewers give us what we pay for. They can’t clown us with a few ounces of protein buried under a heap of leaves.
Plus, even if they’re full of fat and high in calories, they look almost healthy. Foods presented in visually distinct, usually small units seem less threatening to our well-being than those blurred by heaps of unidentifiable items.
While they can now be found in Georgian, Nigerian and even Uighur forms, these three spears — of familiar origins, but extraordinary flavor — reflect the best of the city’s skewer cuisine.
Wayan’s chicken satay
Satay, something of a national dish in Indonesia, is the national disgrace of American roadhouses and bars that slather peanut butter on flavorless chicken. But it rises to glory at Cedric Vongerichten’s stylish new French-Indonesian bistro.
Their chicken satay is a tongue-tingling revelation. The chef uses crumbly dark meat that’s quick-marinated in a soy garlic sauce, seared with coconut oil and topped with chili and kaffir lime leaf powders. I had four generously loaded skewers for $11. Succulent shrimp are mixed with coconut and red curry, seared with coconut oil and spiced with dabu dabu (a tangy blend of chilies, tomato and calamansi lemon/lime juice). Wayan, 20 Spring St.; 917-261-4388, Wayan-NYC.com
Avra’s sea bass souvlaki
This Greek staple — a $26.95 appetizer at dinner — is amazingly cheap by day when you can have the same-size portion as part of a $29.95 three-course lunch at this elegant Greek power scene. The house’s riff on the classic dish is made, unusually, with Chilean sea bass. It’s marinated in Samos wine, olive oil and herbs before being skewered, charcoal-grilled and served with red roasted pepper, olive oil and lemon. The result is pleasantly oily and persuasively Aegean-flavored. Avra Madison Estiatorio, 14 E. 60th St.; 212-937-0100, AvraNY.com
Nonono’s yakitori
This popular Japanese izakaya, which also has wonderful ramen, deftly skewers everything before your eyes on a grill behind the counter, including tofu, bacon and eggs, prawns, scallops and every whole chicken part (think heart and gizzard).
But while a single skewered prawn looked cute, it was hard to peel from the stick and under-flavored. My favorite items were yakitori — especially the chicken “meatball,” a single, thick slab of minced meat that was grilled to a light blister and glazed in a tangy, soy-based sauce ($3). For a “splurge,” chewy beef short rib ($4.50) displayed a compelling, near- gamy complexion. Nonono, 118 Madison Ave. (near 30th Street).; 646-707-3227, NononoNYC.com