Shukette Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja’s Favorite Restaurants for Sharing Everything

Lilia is one of my favorite places. I worked with Missy Robbins for many years. I was the executive sous chef of A Voce [when she was there]. And there’s something about the Lilia menu that I love because she does put out a lot of those small plates. There’s crostini on the menu. You could have pasta. There are big steaks if you want it.

I love her cooking. I remember she had this tomato dish – it was either at Lillia or A Voce — and the tomatoes were fresh, but they were just barely dried in the oven to concentrate the flavor and take out some of the moisture. And I think they were tossed in some kind of coriander vinaigrette and drizzled with honey, and it was such a dynamic flavor for me because it was definitely a great balance of like, savory and sweet, but it just packed a lot of flavor.

She also has these cacio e pepe frittelle; they’re like these light, savory kind of zeppole. And when you bite into them, they’re ethereal — flagrantly flavored with parmesan and black pepper thrown all over them. They’re dynamite and really delicious.

Note: Here’s how to get into Lilia.

It’s this wine bar that serves small plates. I remember eating there and it was my kind of menu. There were maybe 13 things on it where you could order all you want. The wines were really good, with a lot of skin-contact wines. And the food has a point of view. It draws from all different cuisines; there are some Japanese ingredients, some farm-driven ingredients, for example.

Everything is simple. When you order charcuterie, that’s all that comes on the plate. And there are these crispy maitake mushrooms with black garlic fudge. They were these earthy nuggets of mushroom with this black garlic sauce that you dip into. It literally has the texture of molasses. It was so damn good. And like I said, “simple.” It has two things: mushrooms and this garlic sauce. It’s the same thing with the sardine toasts with smoked butter and yuzu kosho. It’s just buttered toast with sardines and the kosho, which provided these salty bites of citrus.

Note: Here’s everything you need to know about Place des Fêtes.

I’ve only eaten at Lodi for lunch. And as a chef, lunch, to me, is a splurge. You could have a glass of rosé in the middle of the day at one o’clock, I’m down. Because it’s not something that I do often, and their lunches have been pretty spectacular. I usually get four or five dishes from the antipasti section. And then one secondi.

Their bread program — listen, if you want to be demure, don’t go there because you’re gonna wind up wanting to eat a whole bowl of bread — is just so good. The salads are so interesting there. The lettuces are really fluffy and dressed to perfection. They had a swordfish dish on the menu in the spring. And it was just as simple as a grilled piece of swordfish with some peas and fava beans. The execution was perfect. And getting swordfish right is not that easy.

Note: Here are six things to know about Lodi.

It’s old-school Italian. I’ve been going there for 20 years, usually with my family and childhood friends.

We always get the baked clams, the house salad, sauteed broccoli rabe, linguine with clams. It’s no frills. Just clams, butter, white wine, and parsley. I would not be surprised if there was clam juice from a can, and I’m so OK with that. There’s no reinventing the wheel. If you close your eyes and think about Italian American food, this is where you would go.

The shrimp oreganata is pretty fire. They make a compound butter. I’m just assuming this, but it’s a triumph of the shrimp with garlic and herbed breadcrumbs. They put it in a salamander [high-temp broiler] so the crumbs get nice and toasty. The shrimp are snappy and delicious. And the best part of that dish is the juice at the bottom of the plate, which is probably like butter and white wine that you rip the garlic bread and just dunk it in there. So, this one dish becomes a twofer.