Best Thursday Night Dinner

I think it's clear I've been struggling with what to post lately.  Guess I'm a little blog-blocked.  But there's one thing that's always good for a post: Momofuku foods.

Tonight I visited the Noodle Bar with former co-worker Viviana, we tried two new menus items:

Veal Sweetbreads with Rice Milk, Lime and Mint

Duck Sausage Rice Cakes with Kohlrabi, Mint and Cabbage

And enjoyed some tried and true staples:  Pork Buns (not pictured) and the Momofuku Ramen

Ok, this weekend I'm running off to DC and I think, if I'm lucky, I might have some good tales to tell on Tuesday and this blog will be back in business.

Best Wait, I Think See What You're Up To

Ma Peche, the midtown Momofuku, has ditched their Beef 7 Ways for two new large format dinner options--a chicken feast or a lamb shoulder feast or a combination of the two feasts.  Both feasts feature the following accompaniments:


eggplant – egg, sour cream, olive oil
chickpea – tahini, lemon, falafel
iceberg – ranch, chicken skin, scallion
wheat berry – cucumber, red onion, parsley
yellow rice
pita
pickles
tomato chutney
white sauce
red sauce

Or in other words, what the restaurant is offering is the world's first (I believe) gourmet street meat dinner.

The white sauce and red sauce are what give it away.

Best Back to the Noodle Bar

Would you believe I haven't been to the Momofuku Noodle Bar since, err, October?  Dipped in for a little dinner last week, let's run down the dishes, new and old.

Tried the Brisket Buns, pretty nice.  Would have liked more kick from the horseradish and pickled onions.  Of the non-Pork variety buns I think the Ebi Filet-O-esque shrimp buns are still my favorites.

Roasted Cauliflower with preserved lemon, harissa (middle eastern pepper adding a decent amount of heat), and walnut sauce.  Wish I had had a spoon to finish the walnut sauce off with.

Momofuku Ramen.  The classic.  Pork belly, pork shoulder, pork broth, poached egg, a few vegetables.  I appreciate it more each time I get it.  And here is my trick: Always take home any leftover broth.  Cook with it later.  It'll porky-up a dish real nice.

Duck Salad.  What is it that they say?  "Run don't walk?"  Well, run, don't walk (and push over who you have to) to the Noodle Bar to try this seasonal dish because it is.  Wow.  It is just wow.  A salad of shredded duck confit, a few thin slices of breast (I presume), ribbons of squash, some hazelnut, some brown butter.    I hesitate to use the word "umami" but I do believe this dish punches the umami tastebuds right in their mouths.  Best duck dish I've had in a week!  I miss it bad.

First Best Meal of the Year

Let's take a break from the California recap and talk about something that just happened.  Carol organized a little outing for Tuesday night where we had the new Large Format Duck Dinner at the Momofuku Ssam Bar.  I've had a couple duck lunches that I loved there, I was excited to see what the full on duck dinner was about.

Our duck arrived hidden beneath foliage and greenery, just as his ancestors once hid from hunters in the wild.  With all these leaves covering the guy up, it was hard to know exactly what we were dealing with.

This is more like it . . . slices and slices of wonderful, wonderfully roasted sausage-stuffed duck breast, two confited duck legs, rice that was just there to get in the way, and scallion pancakes.  If, at first glance, this doesn't look like a lot of duck to you, trust me, this is a lot of duck.

Additional Dinner Items: Lettuce for wrapping, crispy shallots, hoisin sauce, special ginger scallion sauce with duck fat instead of oil, and Korean barbecue sauce.  And I don't drink sparkling water, but when my friends do, they make it Pellegrino Bulgari.

For sides?  Broccoli with bluefish dressing topped with what I believe to be crumbled duck skin.

And fingerling potatoes, cooked in duck fat drippings, with spicy black bean sauce.

Like the Bo Ssam and Fried Chicken Dinner, this duck is meant to be eaten wrapped up in leaves and pancakes with all the additional sauces and toppings you desire.  And like the Bo Ssam and fried chicken, this duck does not mess around.  This is a meal of hyper-accelerated levels of decadence and deliciousness.  Eating it you get a feeling like you might be getting in trouble for something, but no, in fact you are only rewarded for your actions.

Evan burrito'd his first round.

Poor guy, he didn't stand a chance.  (Don't worry.  That last slice was eaten.  By me.  I don't let my dinner have orphans.)

And now, Roll Call del Amigos:

Evan and Alpha, confusing the internet.

Alpha and Carol

Carol, Trish, Dave.

Dave, me, Claire

The waiter told us they had a "large format" dessert that night, a 'Smore . . . that's all we needed to hear to decide we wanted it.  Maaaybe we should have listened to the whole description a little more closely.  I imagined a platter overflowing with hot and gooey treats, not something as conceptually advanced as this.  I think everyone did.  I still ate a lot of it.

Outside, the Milk Bar had clever signage.

In sum, awesome meal.  Extraordinary company.  If you're going to book one of Momofuku's big dinners, make it this one.  (but make sure to have the Bo Ssam and fried chicken some day, too).

On the way home from dinner I tried to keep a fume-huffing teen from falling onto the subway tracks.  That's a story for another day.  A day like tomorrow, maybe?

But I should at least say that by "tried" I mean "succeeded in."

Best Birthday Battle

Last night we celebrated Dave's birthday the best way there is to celebrate a birthday: With a Bo Ssam at the Ssam Bar.  It was my fifth toe-to-toe battle with one of these ten pound beauties . . . our army was small, but it was expert.

Prior to the pork butt we shared some pork buns, pickles, and apple kimchi salad.

The birthday boy and I shared a special BBQ pork bun.

Logan and Jenn.

Me, Dave.

Bo Ssam, being worked on.  The trick is there's always so much pork hiding under the bone.

And, finally, here's Ellie preparing Justin for pork eating.  Do you notice anything in this picture?  On fingers?  On RING fingers?

It's hard to take lots of pictures when your hands are covered with kimchi, meat, and oyster juices.  But happy birthday, Dave.  Thanks for letting us honor you by eating so well.

I'll admit that right now, at 8:11 am on Friday morning, I have a savage pork hangover.  Does anyone know where I can get an apple or carrot?  Or some sort of juice with fruit in it?

Best New Salad

In Lucky Peach #2 (available everywhere [more or less?] tomorrow!) there's this article where one Kevin Pang rates certain foods after sitting in the fridge for a while.  It's funny.  There's mashed potatoes, deli roast beef, guacamole, Brita filtered water, etc.  Regarding Kentucky Fried Chicken Pang says "My favorite application of cold KFC? Chopping it up into chicken salad, with scallions, green apples, sriracha, Kewpie mayo, and lime juice."

That sounded delicious to me.  So I assembled bought some KFC, ate a drumstick (I couldn't resist!) and stuck the rest in the fridge for a couple days.

And then it was chicken salad making time!

Tore my chicken apart, kept all the skin, and tossed in three or four chopped scallions.

Cut about a third of a green apple like this

Discovered my bowl was too small for all the ingredients, couldn't find my larger mixing bowl, put all the ingredients in a sauce pan, added an appropriate-looking amount of Kewpie mayo followed by an appropriate-looking amount of sriracha.  Took pride in my ingenuity, felt shame over my paucity.

Mixed it all up, transferred it to my bowl.

The Verdict: Oh geeze.  Wow.  I mean, was there ever any doubt about the deliciousness of cold fried chicken with lots of Kewpie mayo and sriracha?  Apple, lime, scallion, they just make it even better.  I might be keeping fried chicken on hand from now on for whipping this one up when the mood strikes.

And for the record: Not all the recipes in the magazine call for cookies as bread or fast food fried chicken  as main ingredients.  Just the first two recipes I tried.

Best New Sandwich

Lay one Momofuku Milk Bark Corn Cookie flat side down on frying pan over medium low heat.

Lay slices of cheese on cookie.

Lay slices of ham upon the cheese.

Top with second Momofuku Milk Bar Corn Cookie.

Say hello to dinner.

The Corn Cookie Ham and Cheese sandwich is one of many provocative recipes found within the pages of Lucky Peach Issue #2, available everywhere decent on Nov. 15.

Oh, and how does it taste?  Surprisingly good, especially with a really sharp cheese and smoky ham playing off the sweet, mellow corniness of the cookie.  Not terribly unlike a Mozzarepa, to tell the truth.

Also, as the recipe points out, the cookies are so full of butter there's no need to grease the pan.  Brilliant!

My Lucky Peach #2 Effort: Kentucky Fried Chicken Salad.

Best World Exclusive!

Sure, you may have seen the cover of Lucky Peach Issue #2 over at Eater . . .

But the first place on the internet with a picture of the interior cover art (by this dude) would be my humble blog right here:



Issue #2 is available November 15th at good bookstores, Momofuku restaurants and, word is, many a Whole Foods throughout the country?

World domination in full effect here.

Best Eating Rampage

Our buddy Andrew came to town last week (and he's still here).  We've done a lot of stuff, including eating.  For now, let's talk about this eating.

(Took that photo while trying out a Leica 50mm Summilux at f/1.4.  Now I've got a brain full of lenses)

Wednesday night we had dinner at the Noodle Bar.  Some of the new things we tried were this Heirloom Tomato, Shiso, Ricotta and Avocado salad--very good.  An all star.  Let's go get it again.

Brussels Sprouts with Spatzle, Sausage, and Mustard.  Very nice.  A lot more sausage than I had expected.

And Hanger Steak with Grits, Gruyere, and Cipollini Onions.

Thursday night we ate at Great New York Noodle Town.  Ginger scallion noodles and roast pork.

Oh and chicken and vegetables and pan-fried noodles.

Then ice cream cones.

Friday night we had pizza.  No pictures.  Too much fun.

Saturday morning: Homemade made at home sourdough French toast.

Saturday night: Ssam Bar!

Plate of Benton's Smoky Mountain Ham.

Pork Buns.

Unexpected superstar of the meal: Swiss Chard in XO Sauce.  When the vegetables were gone I felt quite desperate to find something else to eat the sauce with.  They wouldn't give me any rice.  They used to do that.  Ssam Bar, you've changed.

Pork Jowl Terrine with pears and beans and stuff.  I liked it but I did not understand it.

And Pork Shoulder Steak with like, cauliflower and some other stuff?  This meat is always so good, I don't know where they get it, but it is nice nice nice.  And salty.

So yes.  It has been good eating.  And a lot of Momofuku, wouldn't you say? (there might have been a second trip to the Noodle Bar in there, maybe) I hear Andrew might have lunch at Ma Peche on Monday . . . that would be three out of four in under a week . . . could we possibly be going for a Momofuku full house on this visit?  Is that even possible?  Is that what could be happening?

Stay tuned.