Pork Butt II
Saturday night we went to Momofuku Ssam Bar for the Bo Ssam (i.e. the pork butt) with some robots. Loyal readers (and aren't you all?) will recall that we first did this almost exactly two years ago and it was a grand time. Stu organized the whole outing again and we were joined by Stu's gal friend, the MattyJ & JackiePony party, and the Jonathan and friend party.
The Bo Ssam is a pork shoulder, although I like to call it a pork butt even though I don't know if that is true or not, that is cooked for something like eight hours. It is served with lettuce to wrap it up with and includes oysters (to go in the little lettuce + pork wrap), rice (don't fill up on rice), and four tasty sauces for your saucing needs.
Oh, and there were starters. Get this: we ordered pork rolls. WTF? Why did we need more pork? But, guess what? They were awesomes.
There was also some hamachi (ehh), some beef offal that I don't recall, and buttermilk. The "buttermilk" was really fascinating - it was solid almost like a soft tofu and creamy and delicious. It included little crunchy bits of things that balanced out the squishy creamy part. I really didn't think I'd like it, but it was pretty tasty.
Drink? Like last last time we did the sparkling red shiraz - what a great wine for this meal. Cold, sparkly, red. I was excited because they had a 1991 Riesling on the list and we had that with the first course. Lovely with honeyed notes and a lot of that petrol nose on it.
Great time.
Brooklyn Fare - Version II Two weeks ago I went on and on about the restaurant at Brooklyn Fare. Last Wednesday I got a call from co-worker who had reservations but the other couple he was going to go with couldn't make it because they were in Spain (I guess that excuse works). He asked if we wanted to come along.
Um. I said yes.
Brilliant meal. This time instead of twelve people who all kind of knew each other, it was four separate parties of people around the table which at first didn't seem like it would be as fun... that was until we starting opening and sharing wine. For the three of us, we brought five bottles with the understanding that we'd be sharing a lot of it.
I was interested in seeing how the menu was different from the week before as they advertise that it changes each week. There were a lot of the same dishes on the menu, but many of them had been tweaked. I was also happy to see one of the dishes that I kind of thought didn't work the week before (scallops, sweetbreads, and a vanilla/veal au jus) had been tweaked and was pretty rocking. Note that when I thought it "didn't work", we are still talking about a pretty great dish. It's all relative. I'd rather have their "didn't work" dishes than many restaurant's "did work" dishes.
Once again, he plied us with many tiny small dishes before the meal. This course of canapés once again almost out shined the regular courses. Oh my. There was this creme freche and acorn squash soup in a shot glass that was a perfect fall treat. And then this little cup of... creamy something. I forget what was in (maybe some foie gras?) because he friggin topped it with like a million dollars of truffles. It was warm and you stirred the truffles into it and the earthy deliciousness of it totally wiped out your brains capacity to recall what was in it.
Oddly, I didn't take any photos of the food. It's like I just ate and enjoyed the experience. Weird, eh?
In NYC? Go.
Reservations are a pain to make right now - apparently they are booked until January. In addition their prices are going up a little bit (probably a good idea due to the quantity and quality of ingredients).
It's a great meal and experience. I felt truly lucky to have been there once - especially before it gets crazy popular - and felt even more so being able to go again a week later. Go.
Leftover Pork
We had leftover pork from the Momofuko meal and last night made tacos from it.
Yum. Leftover pork. Bring it.
Corn tortillas from that place in Brooklyn (they sell them in our grocery store - probably in yours, too), some queso fresco, tomato, smashed up avocado, tomatillo salsa, and topped with a few mixed greens because we really needed our greens.
Served with a Riesling from Alsace - which will be the theme for October.