Momofuku Ko**

New York City, NY

I must admit, I’ve had my reservations about the popular, wildly hyped Momofuku family of restaurants. Chu-Toro has wanted to come here since David Chang burst onto the scene a few years ago. He’s a young chef who became a culinary star in a really short amount of time. Anytime flavors are labeled “Asian fusion”, I generally run the other direction. Being Chinese, my wife and I often enjoy the classics more than anything. For example, using bao to make pork belly buns doesn’t seem that exciting, but people LOVE it. They love it so much, David Chang has single handedly made it a foodie trend. Amazing, I’ve been having buns like that at Chinese weddings since I was a kid. Sure I love it at the restaurant, but I don’t typically have to pay $5 a piece.  So, to say I’m weary of Asian fusion is an understatement. I simply don’t like it. Here’s the other thing, not to get into the whole East Coast vs. West Coast battle, but David Chang basically said California cuisine is too simple and boring and they’re not as talented as East Coast chefs. Place a fig on a plate and call it a dish, is what I think he said. That cocky, arrogant, annoying attitude is something I hate in chefs.  Another gripe, the restaurant is 12 seats at a bar, really difficult to get a reservation, and David Chang adamantly hates food bloggers. They are extremely strict about taking pictures and their service can be pretty rude from what I’ve read. So why in my right mind would I want to spend $125 per person to get treated this way and put up with this guy? Well because my wife really, really wanted to try this restaurant for years and we did somehow get a reservation, so we decided to give it a shot and the results were surprising.

Ko

We couldn’t take any pictures, so I wrote down everything we had, a lot more difficult than simply asking for a printed menu. Here’s the deal with the attitude that we gathered after a few moment in the restaurant. They really don’t care about you, they don’t care if you like the food, and they’re not there to accommodate you, they know if you weren’t there, someone else would be, so you should feel privileged to drop $400 bucks there. On top of that, they work at their own pace. They want to close shop when they want, they really rush you through the meal; we were done with a tasting of ten courses in two hours. I know, I know, really irritating and ridiculous, why would people want to put up with this? To be fair, the chefs warmed up a bit as the night went on and the service wasn’t friendly but not terrible. They cleared our dishes in a reasonable time, they filled my beer up when it got low, and they answered questions I had. I thought it might be an East Coast thing, where servers don’t get chummy with the guests, but we received pretty nice service everywhere else during our trip.  

I should explain the format. It is a bar, where the chefs prep, cook, and plate right in front of you. We started off with three amuse bouche:  pig ears, had a nice spicy kick to it; fried wonton filled with lobster and peas, good; and house-made focaccia sandwiched with maitake mushrooms, delicious. I also started with a Saison de pupaix a vapeur, a really light but complex beer and Chu-Toro had a glass of Rose.

The first course was fluke from Long Island in a buttermilk sauce with poppy and chives. What a simple, classic way to start a meal with a fluke sashimi style right? Well, not exactly, because buttermilk and poppy seeds are a very curious, unique combination. The plate had three pieces of fish, each with a dollop of buttermilk sauce underneath and tiny poppy seeds sprinkled throughout all over the plate. A thin sliver of chive touched each fish. And the result? Really freaking good. There was another component giving it a tiny spicy kick at the end of each bite. As Chu-Toro put it, the poppy seeds acted as fish row, and the creamy but not heavy buttermilk did not detract from the smooth, sweet fish. A satisfying start.  

Second course was tataki of red snapper with beets, kompu, wasabi and black rice. There were also three pieces of fish on this dish, arranged this time in a diagonal line, topped with popped black rice (like a singular rice crispies), a little wasabi and kompu with thin streaks of beet sauce artfully splattered on the dish. The individual bits of popped black rice and wasabi added a little heat and texture to the fish, while the beet added a unique balance to a sushi grade fish that I have never seen, tasted or could have imagined. It displayed amazing creativity and flavor.  The thin cut of snapper was plump, silky, with perfectly contrasting charred layer of skin – which gave it a subtle smoky flavor.

Third course was potato and daikon soup with roasted lamb rib, tiny bits of artichoke and charred brussel sprout leaves. The first sip of the soup instantly reminded Chu-Toro and I of a white pepper soup that our grandmothers used to make, mainly because the daikon is a key component of that soup. This soup was similar in flavor, but creamy and thicker because of the potatoes. The lamb rib was a one inch by one in size, half fat and half meat. It was delectable and tender, and since Chu-Toro doesn’t like lamb, I got an extra piece. The artichoke was a little tart while the brussel sprout leaves carried a heavy smoky charred flavor. Every piece of this dish was really good, but together, it just worked. It covered, salty, sour, creamy, peppery, smoky flavors all in one bite. And you chewed it in your mouth, it was a harmony of contrasting and complementing flavors, just another wonderful dish.

Our egg course was up next, a poached egg from Hill Crest farms, sous vide onions, chive, a generous dollop of caviar and tiny fingerling potato chips. The egg was better than the one we had the night before at wd-50, but still could not match the favor of a California egg. Not sure why New Yorkers can’t get good eggs. Despite that, the dish was overall good, but not mind-blowing like the previous three. The two things that did stick out to me on this dish were the excellent caviar, not fishy at all and only offering a subtle saltiness at the end of the bite. I think that’s the way caviar is supposed to taste. The sous vide onions were also excellent, melt in your mouth sweet.

Next up, a house made ricotta calvetti, a small, skinny, dumpling like pasta, with beef tongue, watercress, mustard, fried sauerkraut and fresh shaved horseradish. This was probably the worst dish of the evening, not because it wasn’t good, it was solid, but because it was boring. There was nothing challenging flavor wise on this dish. Also, my other gripe was that there were only 2 tiny specks of tongue meat in the dish. The fried sauerkraut that topped the dish was an interesting component.

One of the best dishes of the night for me was up next, a pan fried skate, roasted cauliflower, olives, water chestnuts topped by a marcona almond foam. The small two inch by two inch filet of skate was best piece of cooked fish I’ve ever had it my life. It was delicate, moist, juicy and wonderful. When I asked how they prepared it, they simple said, pan fried with butter. I intensely watched them cook the same course for another couple, and the takeaway was that the cast iron pan must have been really hot; the quality of the fish superb, the fish was only on the pan for a minute and was poked by a skewer once while butter and/or oil were spooned over the fish. Whatever they did, they did it to perfection and this fish course was like tasting goat (Meadowood), beef (Benu), vegetables (Manresa) for the first time and thinking, that’s exactly what fish should taste like. Simply amazing.

Our 7^th course was another first time dish for us, consisting of lychee (canned), Riesling gelee, pine nut brittle covered in shaven Hudson Valley Foie Gras. I’ve had foie gras a lot of different ways, but I have never had a pile of shaven foie gras entirely covering all the contents below it, almost like dough on a pie. Innovative doesn’t begin to describe the dishes that we received throughout the night, this one maybe topping them all. By the way, it was delicious to boot. The anticipation of seeing someone furiously shaving a high pile of foie gras is awesome.

The final savory course was roasted duck, mustard greens, Tokyo turnip marinated in honey and ginger, breaded by pumpernickel.  The creativity did not really shine through on this dish, it was simply a great tasting dish. I think I’m a traditionalist a lot of times, so I would still prefer the classic prep of a Chinese roast duck, but this one offered the same flavor with a very crispy skin and well-cooked, rather large strip of duck breast.

The first dessert was a sorbet of Sancho peppercorn with green apple marmalade and green apple soda. Sancho peppercorns are a Japanese pepper with a mild spice. Another unique dish, this time in the form of a light, refreshing sorbet that ended with a little heat. The green apple marmalade added a bit of texture at the bottom of the bowl and the apple soda was added at the end like a soup. It was a playful, creative, pallet cleanser.

Our final dish of the evening was a parsnip ice cream, atop a hazelnut crumble with two donut holes.  I’m not sure why anyone would be inspired to make parsnip ice cream, but it just worked. I think Chu-Toro enjoyed it more than I did. The donut holes were a little doughy and dense, a rare miss.

Books in Bathroom

My number one complaint by the end of the ten courses was we were done in a blazing fast 2 hours. That gives you an idea of the type of pace we went through. We were really glad that we opted not to do the wine pairing because to have ten different alcohols in that timeframe is ridiculous and we would have been hammered. But as for the food, I just left shaking my head in awe of creativity and flavors I was presented with. It was unlike any meal I’ve ever had before in my life and I thought it was spectacular overall. Chu-Toro was surprisingly less impressed, ironic because she was the one who pushed for us to come here. She did enjoy it, but she preferred the creativity at wd-50 more. The meal was so good, we walked around the East Village to find Momofuku Milk Bar to have more David Chang inspired desserts. I’m now a believer of David Chang’s empire and upon our next visit to New York, I will come back for the extended three hour lunch.

Rating 9/10

March 5, 2011