Best of New York 2011 • Eating

• Nuela

  43 W. 24th St., nr. Sixth Ave. 212-929-1200

  This regally portioned (and, at $64, regally priced) dish at Adam Schop’s deceptively sophisticated Pan-Latino Flatiron-district restaurant isn’t a paella, exactly, even though it’s served on a bed of soft, crunchy-bottomed Calasparra rice. It’s more like an elaborately deconstructed, multicourse duck dinner, with every element of what makes duck so delicious conveniently arranged on one giant, hubcap-size pan. There’s the confit of leg and thigh, perfectly cooked, under a layer of crispy skin. There’s the gizzard, if you enjoy that sort of thing, a rich lobe of duck foie gras, and a delicately sliced and carefully roasted duck breast, arranged around a scattering of seasonal vegetables. Most impressive of all, though, is the fried duck egg, which mingles deliciously with the other components of your dinner when you toss them together in the pan and is big enough, all by itself, to feed a family of four.

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