Its My Birthday!

Today at 12:07 pm I turn 25. It’s funny that although I know the exact time of my birth, there is only one birthday that comes to memory on which I can remember exactly what I was doing at that time. It was my 8th birthday and I was at my friend Josh’s house eating a hot dog. Weird, I know…

What am I doing to celebrate my first quarter century of life? I’m trying to celebrate a lot (but not too intensely) so that I don’t really want to celebrate my birthday for another year. On Monday I had a truly excellent meal with my parents at Picholine (write-up coming soon) and tonight I plan on splitting a Bo Ssam with a bunch of friends. On Friday I will be cooking a three course meal featuring seared foie gras, halibut, Dr. Pepper braised short ribs and a dessert from Bouley Bakery. It will also include a pair of wines from 1983, a year lucky enough to have me born in it. Finally on Saturday, I have two friends throwing me a birthday party in their apartment preceded by a tasting of Italian wines and Vinny’s Italian American pizza.

Thanks in advance to all who choose to participate. It should be an exciting three days…

How to Eat on Superbowl Sunday

The Super Bowl is this weekend and I’m psyched! I get to spend a four hour block of time rooting for my favorite football to beat my least favorite football team (and hopefully make some townies cry in the process) and hopefully win the greatest trophy in team sports. Because this Superbowl has such large implications on my well being and sanity as a sports fan (ask my friends how I acted after the Giants lost the Superbowl in 2000) I decided not to cook or put any effort into food preparation. Instead I’m going to order pork shoulder from my favorite shrine of pig eating—Momofuku Ssam Bar. For what amounts to about 45 dollar a person (including delivery and tip) we are being treated to the following:

Bo Ssam (rice, bibb lettuce, kimchi, oysters, assorted condiments)
Kewpie cole slaw
Smoked Chicken Wings
Seasonal Pickles Cracker Jacks

Muddy Buddy Chex Mix

Pine nut/Macadamia nut brittle

In addition, if my stomach is feeling particularly ambitious this Sunday I’ll even pick up a bucket of wings from my favorite Korean fried chicken place, Bon Bon chicken.

Osi Umenyiora is a football god. It is also the
name of a consistently strong fantasy football team.

I can’t think of anything better than watching the Giants win a Superbowl and eating Bo Ssam in the same night. Now it’s up to the Giants to keep up their part of the bargain.

Momofuku Ssam Status Update

I go to Momofuku Ssam bar all the time so I tend not to write about it. However, some recent changes in the place have prompted me to put together this brief Momofuku update. Don't worry, nothing bad has happened and Momofuku still remains my favorite place to eat in all of New York, but I thought it would be dutiful to report some actual news for a change.

Ssam Bar now has a tasting menu. Although I appreciate the idea, I went and compared the tasting menu items and looked at how much they would cost on the regular menu (assuming two people ordered every item and split them) and found out that ordering a la carte would be about two thirds the price. Since the tasting menu only really offers one or two off the menu items (for which we made educated guesses about the price to make the math work) its not really worth ordering. I am confident however, that the ever creative Momofuku people will find a way to make the tasting menu worthwhile

The other big new is that they’ve hired a pastry chef! They’ve eschewed the Mocchi Ice Cream Sampler and started creating their own in house desserts. I’ve tried the cheddar shortcake with ham cream and really enjoyed it. Don’t worry, ham cream isn’t as completely far fetched as it sounds. I also tried the PB & J which is comprised of concord grape jelly, a sort of peanut butter cookie, saltine ice cream and crushed saltines. It was fantastic and instantly brought a smile to my face—I love it when food can do that.

I’m also starting to think that the Banh Mi might be my favorite menu item. I love the pork buns but perhaps I’ve been eating too many. Every time I order the banh mi it really hits the spot with the perfect elements of spice, freshness (the cilantro) crunch, creaminess and savoryness. It might be the perfect sandwich.

Finally…if you go to Momofuku and are thinking of ordering the chicken Ballotine...Don’t! It’s probably the only thing I’ve had there that I have actively disliked. Instead, do yourself a favor and muster up enough courage to order the pigs head torchon. Its face meat rolled up, poached, coated in bread crumbs and then deep fried (it doesn’t look like a head but more like a little disk.) It is crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside and tastes like some sort of ethereal little corn dog. Definitely a must have if you go to Ssam bar and fancy yourself an open minded eater.

It's Fall Time!

Leaves are turning color and falling off the trees, the air is perfectly cool, crisp and refreshing, and cooking magazines are starting to feature turkeys on their covers. Fall is finally here!
I

I got through four and a half of the six things on my fall list this weekend... I managed to find a friend to eat some duck breast and drink some good red wine with, although with the offer of me coming over to cook a free dinner it wasn't hard to find a taker.

I ate some apples and they were good.

The cooking class was really amazing. More on that later

I sampled some of the fall menu at Momofuku. I didn't get to try a couple of things that looked good though. I'm dying to try the apple kimchee and for some of that meaty fragrant mushroom salad. I also made it to Tailor for some cocktails and noticed that they have a cocoa tasting menu. Intriguing...

I did not avoid Giants Stadium food. All in all I spent about 4 and a half hours commuting back and forth from Giants Stadium this past Sunday and I'm not happy about it.

I also missed out on the slice of pizza I wanted. There's only so much eating one person can do over the course of two days.

Pictures and more substantial writing to come. I'm tired from all my eating and traveling to and from Giants Stadium.

Pigging Out

From http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/nyc-dining-momofuku-ssam-bar/

The tender delicious Bo Ssam in all it's piggy glory. My friends and I finished an eight pounder this past Saturday and are very proud of the accomplishment.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to eat pig products. If I could only eat one kind of animal for the rest of my life it would definitely be the pig. I can’t think of too many things that taste better than pork belly or bacon. I’m also a huge fan of all kinds of sausage, hot dogs, ribs, pork chops, cured meats and even pig’s head. My friend Aaron even went as far as to call me a ‘pigophile' the other day. This past Saturday, my intense love of pork products led me and my friends to a meal that had been months in the making: the Bo Ssam at Momofuku Ssam Bar.

For those of you that don’t know, Bo Ssam refers to a Korean style slow cooked pork butt (really the shoulder.) At Momofuku, the Bo Ssam is accompanied by a dozen oysters, Bibb lettuce, kimchee, kimchee puree, a chili bbq sauce and a ginger scallion puree.

We started off our porcine feast with a couple of non pig appetizers. These included the Momofuku pickle plate, the fried cauliflower with mint, Delfino cilantro and fish sauce, the tomato salad with fried tofu, the squid salad, and the poached Mayan prawns. After we each had a couple of sample bites, (the consensus favorite seemed to be the fried cauliflower) the Momofuku staff brought out the various Bo Ssam accompaniments. These were followed by an icy a plate of oysters and the highlight of the meal: an eight pound, crackly skinned, fall off the bone soft, rich, juicy, piggily delicious pork butt.

We were instructed to wrap the pork in lettuce and add the accompaniments along with (and this was surprising to me) an oyster! The idea of pulled pork and oysters doesn’t sound that great, but the briny fresh cool taste of the oyster helps add a lightness to the dense, rich flavor of the pork. We liked the combination so much we even ordered another dozen.

Other than the oyster my favorite Bo Ssam add-on was the ginger scallion puree. Like the oyster, the ginger added lightness to the pork that brought it to a completely different level. I can’t think of too many things that taste more perfect than Bo Ssam with ginger scallion puree, an oyster, and a little bit of kimchee for spice.

I’ve probably been to Momofuku Ssam bar 15-20 times and haven’t had an experience there as quite like the Bo Ssam. What made it even better was that the entire butt, our appetizers, a couple of bottles of sparkling shiraz, and a couple of rounds of the fantastically floral Hitachino white ale ended up being equal to, or less than my usual tab there. If you can find 7-9 friends who enjoy good food and have appetites, the Momofuku Bo Ssam is a must in the world of New York Food. There aren’t many meals that leave me sitting with a fully belly and a permanent, stupid smile on my face, but the Bo Ssam was one of them. Even though my fullness led me to be completely useless for the rest of the night, I can’t wait to go back.