Salt and Fat (and everything nice)

Now, J sometimes is a bit of a snob when it comes to venturing outside of Manhattan (I'm kidding!), but considering I live in the transportation hub of NYC, I have to remind myself that it isn't such a big deal to ride the train a few extra stops to access gastronomic deliciousness. One of my friends from high school suggested we try Salt & Fat, a restaurant known for their casual asian-fusion style small plates akin to the style of korean taco trucks, if you know what i mean. Their menu consists of whimsical dishes that blend a mix of east and west, like braised meat in sweet/spicy sauce with daikon radish or bass with plum sake-soy sauce. 


The restaurant does not take reservations and only opens for dinner at 6 pm, so we decided to meet right when it opened to avoid a long wait. Luckily, we scored a quiet table on the side before the crowd rushed in. We were first presented with a mini bag of perfectly crisp popcorn toasted with bacon fat, which provided a deep, smoky flavor. This  small touch should already provide diners with an idea of how well thought-out and executed the food here is. We then asked our server to recommend a few dishes for us to share. Although I think he recommended some outstanding dishes, I have a feeling that everything on the menu is pretty excellent.


We started with the persimmon salad, which was a bed of arugula (my favorite type of leafy green to have as a salad at restaurants), topped with slices of persimmon, italian speck, spicy candied walnuts and tossed with a lemon-honey vinaigrette. The persimmon provided just the right note of sweetness, and the candied walnuts provided a slight kick and crunch to the salad. It was overall both refreshing and flavorful at the same time.

Next up was the scallops with roasted carrot puree and truffled corn salsa. This was so good, we attacked the plate before I got to take a picture. The bits of sweet corn and the puree provided a creamy and comfort-food-like touch to the scallops. The carrot puree actually reminded me more of a butternut squash puree since it was so sweet and creamy.

The waiter recommended the pulled pork sliders and the oxtail terrine, which both turned out to be true winners. The pulled pork made a big impression on me, because there was a substantial layer of pork in between the two pieces of grilled brioche buns (which is sometimes a problem with sliders when there isn't enough filling) and the meat was incredibly tender, with a slightly tangy flavor from the siracha bbq sauce. It honestly reminded me of the delicious Taiwanese beef jerky that I love, in the form of soft pulled pork. The two slices of pickles on top provided the perfect tangy accent. Upon closer inspection, my friend pointed out that the restaurant had actually grilled smiley faces onto the tops of the buns! Another sign of the little details that this place really pays attention to in delighting their customers :)

Our fourth dish was the oxtail terrine, which resembled a brownie on a plate initially, but when we broke into it, realized it was actually a block of braised beef, that was perfectly crispy on the outside and then tender on the inside. It paired amazingly well with the tangy onion puree on the side as well as the roasted mushrooms underneath. This was a surprise hit for me and only because everything else was so outstanding, would hesitate to say it was my favorite.

We were then presented with a tiny square piece of paper which had the desserts and we ordered the lychee panna cotta with yuzu buttermilk sorbet. Again, this was attacked before a picture was snapped. The lychee panna cotta was extremely light (although I almost couldn't taste the lychee) while the star of the plate was clearly the yuzu sorbet which provided intense spurts of yuzu flavor with each bite.

At the end of our meal, we were presented each with a mini bottle of Yakult, the probiotic drink I had as a kid and grew up drinking. This was another display of the whimsical nature of this restaurant. Overall, I was truly impressed with Salt & Fat, and will be coming back to Queens if this is any representation of the quality of the food there!

J, how does this compare to Social Eatz?

A Tale of Two Bears...

One in KL
The other in New York

Hello from Malaysia!!

PC problems have prevented me from posting but here is my first post from sunny Malaysia! I went back to my dad's hometown Penang for Chinese New Year, and even though it was dead dead dead (it's mostly Chinese), we went to the famous Gurney Drive hawker center one night and though most of the really good stuff wasn't open, i still squeezed in some tasty stuff. Sadly, the pictures of the main dishes were blurry but here's a couple of the others!!

A shot of the few shops at Gurney Drive that were open. It's a shared space so you can sit down anywhere and order from any of the shops. The food will then be brought to you as it's cooked.

One of my fave appetizer-type Malaysian foods! it's called popiah and i SUPPOSE you could crudely think of it as Malaysian burritos, but it's completely different. The skin is a thinner tortilla-style flour wrap and it's stuffed with tofu chunks, stewed radish (very mild), roasted garlic and plum sauce. Some mild broth is lightly ladled on at the end. Eat it quickly or else it gets soggy! The stuffing has a great mix of textures and the broth makes it all gel. Delish!

Here is my fave drink in the entire world, sugar cane juice! (water?) it's literally just crushed/squeezed sugar cane juice and ice. Sweet, but not as sweet as you'd think and so so refreshing. Here's the stall they make this amazing stuff at!

As you can see, they just run the sugarcane through a grinder and collect the juice. Natural and delish! Processed sugarcane doesn't even compare...

Too bad i didn't take some of the other delish photos including my Penang Asam Laksa and Rojak, but that will have to wait for next time! Miss you C, wish you were there!!

C(h)iao For Now

...and to think we were giving ourselves credit for some originality...

Ciao For Now actually exists as a cafe/bakery in New York!

Serendipitously, this adorable cafe (how could it not be adorable, with such a fantastic name) has its main location in East Village with another location in West Village. Although it was pretty far East (12th street, between 1st Ave and Ave. A to be exact), I knew I had to make the trip over to see our namesake. The place had a slightly hipsterish feel, with cheerful flowers adorning the front window. As I wandered inside, I realized it was much bigger than it appeared, since the main seating for coffee/brunch was around the corner from the entrance where the bakery counter stood. Although I had just eaten lunch, I felt I needed to purchase something to justify the trek, so I got a blueberry scone which looked quite scrumptious and dusted in powdery sugar inside the glass display case. The guy taking my order must have seen me hesitate when I glanced over at the muffin stand, because he asked me if I wanted a muffin on the house given it was almost closing time. Of course I responded with an enthusiastic yes! Sadly, neither the scone nor the pumpkin loaf (aka the 'muffin' on the house) was anything to write home about, but the cute decor, cute delivery truck (see below), awesome name and the fact I got a free pastry is enough for me to give it a solid 3.5 stars out of 5. J, when the weather's nicer, we should come here for brunch.

Is a Cubano Really Cuban?

According to this wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_sandwich the exact origins of the Cubano are somewhat murky. A version of the ham and cheese sandwich was created for Cuban workers, but traveled with immigrants to Florida and evolved into a sandwich filled with melted swiss cheese, thinly sliced pickles, roast pork, ham, and salami sandwiched between 2 pieces of crusty Cuban bread (something halfway between Subway bread and a baguette).


C & J had been planning for the past few months to try Margon, a classy midtown hole-in-the-wall that was made famous by yelpers for their $6.95 Cubano. Unfortunately, work got in the way, and C didn't manage to make it over until today. The verdict? Two greasy thumbs up!

The joint resembles a slightly run-down deli/diner with absolutely no indication that it could possibly produce anything remotely delicious except for a crowd of blue-collar office workers lining up along the counter with open paper bags to catch the steaming hot sandwiches as they came off the grill. C was intrigued by the assembly-line efficiency perfected by a single sandwich master, who would first lay out huge loaves of cuban bread filled with the works (salami, roast pork, ham, swiss cheese), slice the sandwiches into segments, then would take off the tops and line them neatly onto one of the sandwich pressers to grill. The remaining half of the sandwich would go face down on another foil-covered sandwich press until they were flat and the cheese was sufficiently melted. Then, he would pull off the meat-laden half of the sandwich, squirt mustard, some kind of mayo-looking sauce and layer on thinly sliced pickles before placing back a grilled piece of bread on top. For each completed sandwich, he would thoughtfully slice it into 3 segments for ease of handling. All sandwiches came off the grill steaming hot and would be immediately wrapped in foil and dropped into eagerly awaiting paper bags.

My first impression of the sandwich was that it smelled phenomenal (if somewhat like grease), and the first bite reminded me of biting into a McDonald's cheeseburger (i think it was the effect of the pickles, cheese and magic sauce that tasted somewhat like big mac sauce). The roast pork, salami and ham with all of its drippings rounded out the taste profile to provide for a tangy, savory, and completely satisfying experience. This is definitely not a diet-friendly feast (no calorie-count offered here), but definitely a must-try for lunchers in midtown looking for a satisfying treat!

Wonton Gluttony

That pun is so good i have to draw attention to it in case you gloss over it.

Anyway, I was very sad to have left C in NY so abruptly, so after the 15 hour flight to HK and 3 movies, I drowned my sorrows at the deeelish Hong Kong airport food court stalls. Now, they're objectively not so great, but at 6 AM in the morning, stuck waiting 3.5 hours for your connection, anything you can get that's hot and fresh is amaaazing.

I actually had 2 breakfasts if you can believe that, but this was my 2nd, and the much more delicious one. YUMMM

That's wonton noodles, the congee I have a pic of below (how do you say this in chinese??) and my fave, mango pudding! amazingly good mango pudding BTW.

miss you C~!!!

Ben the Bachelor

J left last night and what was going to be a depressing Monday turned out to be not-so-depressing when C realized that the new season of the Bachelor starring Ben Flajnik (C and her sister's favorite guy from last season's Bachelorette) premiered last week and is going to be on Monday at 8 p.m. EST. Thanks Ben, you're a lifesaver!