Best Week's Eatings

Last week longstanding plans and unexpected invitations lead to four nights of excellent eating.  Let me show you!

Monday Night

Cory was in town and, unexpectedly, he was available for dining Monday night so we went to RUB for burgers as I hadn't been there for months!  On the left, the evening's special Burnt Ends Burger and on the right, their wonderful RUB Burger.

Tuesday Night

Pearl was in New York, as she occasionally is, and wanted to know if I'd like to join her and her mom for dinner at Momofuku.  Yup, that sounds like something I'd like to do.  So I did it.

I found the Noodle Bar's cauliflower/golden raisin/brown butter vastly improved from when I had had it in January.  It was sitting on something creamy, whatever that creamy stuff was is what made it better.

The roasted potato dish is now served with ramps, hoisin sauce, and bonito.

Crispy lamb belly with green apple and olive.  Let me just say it: a rare Momofuku misfire.

Not a misfire: flank steak with watercress, butternut squash and egg yolk. 

Just so you know: this is how I look when I'm being brought my food at Momofuku.

Wednesday Night

After months and months of planning with Emily, met up with a bunch of amigos at Ma Peche (the midtown Momofuku) for their Beef 7 Ways dinner.

Here's the menu:

Here's the diners,

Suzi and Stevie

Paul and Emily

Micah and Amber

And me and Cory and a beef rib

And here are our many courses of beef:

Tendon, Basil, Watercress Salad with Plum Vinaigrette.  One of the most delicious of all the courses!  The old beef tendon dish at the Ssam Bar had me prepared for this out of the ordinary protein.  I think I've developed a taste for tendon, the lasagna noodle of beef.

Wagyu Carpaccio with Ginger Scallion.  Perhaps my pallet is not refined enough to appreciate carpaccio, it just tastes like lunchmeat to me.

Not beef: Fluke with Blood Orange, Avocado, and Black Rice.  Don't let the dish (the actual dish) deceive you, there's a lot more in there than it looks.  It's a deep pile and very nice.

Here's the fixins for wrapping up the rest of our beefs:

Look at this beautiful lettuce flower!

Beef Ribs in Kunz Ketchup with Masago and Scallion.  The question remains: What is Kunz ketchup?

Meat Pie with Potato and Onion.

Meat pie bisected.  Do you care to know what that meat is?  It's tongue.  A gigantic mass of ground tongue . . . delicious on Wednesday night, leaves a lingering flavor you regret on Thursday morning.

Terribly out of focus but terribly delicious: Carrots with Bone Marrow, Chili, and Lime.  From my experience, any Ma Peche vegetable dish is going to treat you very right.

Black rice with something and something and something else.

Warm Asparagus with Egg, King Crab, and Chili Butter.

Back to beef!  Ribeye!

Brisket with Marrow, Chili Jam, and Shallots.  Very nice, picture does not do it any sort of justice.

Final beef course: Oxtail Soup with Tamarind, Mint, and Cilantro.  At first I thought this little shot of soup was a lame way to finish off the meal, a wimp-out course, but actually I liked it very much.

Final Opinion of Beef 7 Ways: A nice meal, a pricy meal . . . but as far as Momofuku large-format meals go, I rank it below the Bo Ssam and Fried Chicken.

Thursday

No photos, but I had Brooklyn tacos with Bryndee.  And nachos.  It was a two way birthday celebration.  Where did we go?  You know, that place on Graham Avenue that I don't know the name of.