The Spice Of Life

Sublime intensity on a plate at NOVO in Ridgewood.

- Cathy Miller

THE GREEN TAHINI SAUCE, draped over florets of roasted cauliflower, is so intensely flavored that you think just one thing: This is what green tastes like. Likewise, the Turkish muhammara. It’s so rich and deeply colored that it almost looks like pigment. Now, I’m tasting red.

Indeed, the vibrant collection of vegetables, commingled with an equally vibrant collection of spices, is what is remarkable about every plate we experienced over two visits to NOVO in Ridgewood. You think this is what a symphony of vegetables must be. In fact, the menu descriptions just pop with vegetables — fava beans, spinach, microgreens, turnips, artichokes, fennel.

So many vegetables, a bazaar of vegetables, that you might miss these words on the menu — house-mixed Moroccan spice. Don’t miss these words, these are words that ought to be in neon.

In America, Mediterranean food has become associated with the word diet, a clean, wholesome way of life based on olive oil and fish. What often fails to sink in is that Mediterranean cuisine is lush, vibrant, exciting. We hear diet, and somehow forget that the Mediterranean culture is one that exalts in the pleasure, bustle and beauty of everyday life.

NOVO reminds you of that in a New York minute.

Oh sure, the space is deceptive — those modern clean lines, that sleepy cream and beige decor, those adorably sleek silver salt shakers. Everything to suggest a certain relaxed elegance, nothing bold or outrageous, no hint of the colorful, exotic treasures from the kitchen.