Pok Pok by Death

I had one of the most delicious, complex and spicy things today and this was at Pok Pok, aptly named after Papaya Pok Pok (also known as Thai Papaya salad). Pok Pok is most well-known for its fried chicken wings, but after eating mouthfuls of their potent Pok Pok, I now realize why the restaurant is not called Wing Wing. I ordered the Wing Special, which included 3 wings marinated in fish sauce, garlic and sugar, deep fried and tossed in caramelized fish sauce and sugar with a heaping side of papaya pok pok, Vietnamese daikon radish pickles, fresh cucumber slices and a hunk of sticky rice.  

Now, I've had papaya salad many times, but have only had memorable papaya salad on 2 occasions: once at the night market in Chiang Mai and once at a random Thai restaurant in Central Market called Ginger. Now I can add to those occasions and say that this was the most satisfying and sneakily spicy papaya salad i've had in the U.S. It was marinated in just the right amount of sweet fish sauce, with a kick of spice that just creeps up on you and catches you by surprise after you've already ingested a mouthful. My mouth was on fire, but it was the perfect set-up to tear into the juicy, garlicy, yet perfectly crispy chicken (far superior to korean fried chicken), complimented by the sweet Vietnamese daikon radish pickles and the coconut sticky rice wrapped in a plastic bag which reminded me of the Taiwanese breakfast rice balls. Look at the platter of beauty below! Although it was what you might call a 'hole in the wall', Pok Pok pays careful attention to detail, with free servings of pandan flavored water (Delicious), and plenty of wet wipes to clean your fingers with. It was a memorable meal and I plan to be back soon! J, not sure if this is your thing but woww it was pretty amazing.

An un (Fig)-gettable meal

While J was "up to his eyeballs in work", I went on a weekend escape getaway with my girlfriends to Sonoma. Although it was not difficult to find delicious food there (fruits and vegetables are amazingly juicy and cheap in California!), one notable meal was at the Girl and the Fig, which is a restaurant in downtown Sonoma featuring contemporary, yet homey/earthy fare with a twist of French flavor. I came across the owner's recipe book which was featured at one of the wineries that I visited earlier that day and went in with high expectations after witnessing the mouthwatering recipes in the book. Our table started with the cheese sampler, which was a mix of fruit, cheese and nuts. We chose 3 different types of cheese: two from goat's milk and one from cow's milk. My favorite was the piece in the middle, which is goat's milk crusted with some kind of herb. The pièce de résistance and what the restaurant is partly known for, was a fig cake which provided a sweet accent to the cheeses. 


Our second dish was a simple, yet delicious plate of arugula salad tossed with caramelized bacon bits, crumbled goat cheese and dried fig.  The arugula provided a surprisingly spicy kick which enhanced the bacon, fig and cheese.

I ordered the duck confit for my main, which was highly reviewed by yelpers but which I was skeptical about because usually duck confit either comes out too salty or fatty for me. This one was perfectly prepared with a very subtle flavor, tender amounts of duck that fell off the bone and was served over a bed of quinoa and carrot ribbons, providing a lightness from the vegetables that complimented the duck. We didn't get to try dessert since we were stuffed, but overall was impressed by this charming farm-to-table restaurant!

More Chili?? You bet I Kin(Kin)!

Before we dive into the NY carb-tastrophe (which could be the title of the next blog...) last week, i thought I'd finally do a blog on an amazing Malaysian noodle place I went to the week before NY.

So, for those of you who are familiar with Malaysia, you know that we are famous for hawker stall food and each stall pretty much makes only 1 or 2 types of dishes, but makes it deeeliciously. One of the more uniquely Malaysian dishes is Pan Mee, which as you can read here, is freshly made flat noodles either served dry with sauce, or in soup. I love them both, but a certain type of dry Pan Mee, Chili Pan Mee has become extremely popular in the KL area.

The most famous Chili Pan Mee still belongs to the original, Kin Kin.

Now, it's definitely a Malaysian dish in that it is meant to be eaten with glorious amounts of this sambal/chili type stuff. It isn't incendiary like most chilis, and is FILLED with flavor so just a little is required, but it may be daunting for the spice-averse. I can't even really describe what it tastes like besides a little spicy, a little salty, and very rich.

Chili Pan mee is served with dry anchovies, fried garlic and chives as well as a lightly poached egg. Now... the egg is a little curious because the yolk is completely runny, which is unusual in a dry noodle dish... but this is the secret that makes it so delicious. The right pic includes the amount of chili I usually add.

  

When you mix everything together then, you get the beautiful flavor of the chili and anchovies tied together and thickened with the egg... it's delish. The egg just works so well to give the dish weight and a meaty feel, which helps to lighten the fire of the chili, leaving just tons of that rich flavor and the chewy consistency of the fresh noodles. And you get a tasty anchovy soup with veggies to soothe your chili-numb tongue.

It all sounds like much ado about noodles but you'd love it Mokes!

          

No such thing as Red Lobster in Southampton

We are far too snobby to eat at chain establishments!!

J & C were finally reunited this past week, and one of the first snobby meals of course had to be at the #1 rated restaurant in Southampton on tripadvisor.com, which ended up having outrageously expensive things on their menu such as a $38 lobster roll for lunch. However, since we drove allll the way out to  Southampton, we figured we needed to go all out or else we would regret it for the rest of our lives. So that's exactly what we decided to do.

First off, Silver's is located on the main street of Southampton filled with chic shops and delis (you don't see Gap here! Only the obligatory Ralph Lauren and Vineyard Vines retail stores of course)

Thy offered us the best seat in the house facing the window, because we are kind of a big deal :)

Yelp and tripadvisor reviews are never wrong, and everyone said to order the lobster bisque, so J got it for us to share and mopped up the bowl with our complimentary basket of crusty baguette drenched in a pool of olive oil (the bread was surprisingly delicious, at least for the first few bites). We asked for a second basket of plain, un-oiled bread to go with the soup, and J was in carb heaven after that. The lobster bisque had healthy chunks of lobster meat in a creamy base with a very well-rounded and deep / hearty flavor, but was on the salty side in my opinion. 3.5/5 for this one.

Next up was my lobster roll, which was nothing short of amazing. It was stuffed and overflowing with huge, fresh chunks of lobster, lightly dressed in a dab of dressing and sprinkled with a few herbs here and there, letting the true lobster flavor shine through. Absolutely outstanding and worth every $38. The only thing i'd improve on would maybe be a softer or more flavorful bun which kind of paled in comparison to what it was holding. 4.5/5 for the lobster roll and i would possibly consider rounding to 5.

J got the roman sandwich which was grilled tomato, mozzarella and prosciutto in between two crusty pieces of white bread. J seemed to enjoy every last bite and the portion of the ingredients looked extremely generous. Carb heaven once again!

Overall this was one of my favorite meals in the Hamptons! I'm sure we would have bumped into many more people far snobbier than us, but it was still quiet season. J, your turn to post the next meal!

Yum Yum Sae What?

If the US lacks culture, it makes up for it with the most diverse set of self-proclaimed new age 'fusion' restaurants, fusing all sorts of different types of dishes. Some restaurants end up losing any type of identity, whereas others veer very little away from their original culinary roots. Zutto, which calls itself a Japanese American Pub was more asian than American (C suspects the American pub aspect just comes from the fact that it's located in Tribeca) but was an interesting experience nonetheless. We began with the  Kobe beef steamed buns (steamed buns, by the way, are all the rage in these types of fusion restaurants thanks to Momofuku which if credited with anything, should be credited with elevating steamed buns through its signature pork belly buns):

The bun was quite substantial and had strips of seaweed salad (which I appreciated), a bit of red onion and spicy mayo. I kind of wished there was more spicy mayo or something because the beef was a bit dry and sort of reminded me of the beef in a mcdonald's cheeseburger (sorry Zutto-chef, you must be aghast if you read this). Next up was my favorite dish of the night: the most randomly named maki roll called the Yum Yum Sae Woo which was stuffed with tempura shrimp, crab, and spicy sauce in a lettuce wrap instead of the typical rice and seaweed. I was a bit unsure of this choice as it sounded pseudo-thai, but it ended up being a winner, with the lettuce pieces chosen carefully so that the skin was dry and tough enough to hold the chunky pieces of shrimp and crab inside. I liked the smear of spicy red bean sauce on the side which added a kick to the lighter roll. Yum yum indeed! J, bonus points to you if you can figure out where the name of this dish came from.

Last up was the seafood ramen which had healthy chunks of shrimp and clams. My favorite was the juicy clams inside. The broth was a bit on the salty side, but otherwise pretty tasty. I can't figure out whether I'm just not a big ramen fan because I haven't really been blown away by any ramen I've had so far. Overall, more Japanese than American, but appreciated the twist, thought the ambience was really nice and would like to try more yum yum yummy rolls again.

Too many dumplings!

Since i finally had a meal without my family, i decided to spoil myself with a dumplings feast at Din Tai Fung, a famous soup dumpling chain all over Asia. Apparently, C's home in Taipei is next to the original store, but we'll see how much better they can be because the ones here are pretty deeeeelish!

I usually have a standard menu when i eat here alone, the string beans with ground meat, 6 xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and a zha jiang mian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zha_jiang_mian)... but today i felt like dumplings so i had the following!

6 Xiao Long Bao

No commentary needed on these babies! delish. I usually bite a hole in the top then directly pour vinegar into the dumpling... i know, I'm like a pregnant woman -_-

6 Fish Dumplings (forget what kind of fish ><)

I was very curious about these and they were actually pretty good! Very light (100% fish chunk with some ginger strings) and there was a surprisingly tasty broth in each dumpling. Not a salt bomb like most dumplings and no extra vinegar needed (though of course i added some)

6 Shrimp and Pork Dumplings

This is a pretty standard dumpling at Chinese restaurants but DTF really elevated these... skin perfect as usual but the difference was the broth in each dumpling. i don't know how they do it, but the broth is a shrimpy/porky mix and it is DEEELISH.

And since i'm me, I had a giant plate of spinach too.

Spinach with garlic is spinach with garlic. Tastes like you'd imagine. Ate the whole plate -_-

Total bill was like 55 MYR which is >USD20... Not so cheap now that i think about it haha... but YUM! My type of comfort food! Don't worry C, I still had space for dessert ^^ which was ALSO taiwanese! Green Tea and grass jelly mmmm

(Not Kentucky) Fried Chicken and Waffles

While J romps around SouthEast Asia eating the likes of pad thai and tandoori chicken, I have been in the US, happily stuffing my face with good old American classics, such as fried chicken and waffles! Yes, although not as common as the hamburger, this Southern dish is quintessentially American and no doubt only found in this country. How fitting it was, then, that I dined at a restaurant in the nation's capital, aptly named the Founding Farmers, a restaurant that embraces the farm-to-table concept (and as a side note, always brings the 'we are farmers, bum ba da bum bum bum bum!' song in the insurance commercial to my mind when I hear the name). For brunch, I debated extensively with myself whether to order the signature Fried Chicken and Waffles dish since I don't fundamentally like fried chicken all that much to be completely honest with myself, but my sister convinced me to do it and I was quickly persuaded. The dish ended up being a complete winner! We asked for the eggs to come scrambled, and a thick piece of crisply battered fried chicken with thick, moist white meat inside sat on top of a thick waffle that was perfectly crunchy on the outside and light, yet substantial inside. Coated with a layer of syrup, the chicken, egg and waffle together provided a sweet and savory bite, resembling a more sophisticated version of the McGriddle. J, this was better than what we had at Buttermilk Channel!