My Love/Hate Letter to David Chang: Review of Momofuku Ko

Dearest David

Let me start out with the obvious. I hate you...no thats not right. I detest you. The mere mention of your name makes me cringe in the most elementary school of ways. Yes, thats right. I "hate" you like that first boy with cooties that I ever had a crush on. I want no one else to know about you or my obsession with you. The sad truth is, I want your mystical dinner theatre to be my own (okay and that hot sous chef you have can stay too).

But, I digress. Lets start at the beginning. Course one. I arrived on scene with my very nervous (what if he feeds us something we don't want to try) best friend (who I have seen eat tripe so I felt no concern for). We opted for the mid range drink pairing. The amuse bouche was a trifecta of flavors. The first was a pea soup with a bite of crab and some delicious crunchy pieces. This was followed by a chicaron that tasted as if it could have come from a bag in a spanish supermarket (and believe me this is not to say it didn't taste good but just to say it was unnoteworthy). The final contingent of this "mouth amuser" was the crowning glory and prompted Susan to say "I could eat this all day". The beautiful sweet, savory, yet caramel-tinged black pepper biscuit (which i dare say borrowed from the best of the asian sweet buns and americas favorite southern biscuit) left us wanting a basket full of these left by us to soak up all the remaining flavors we had yet to indulge (though these nearby would have left little room for anything else). This was paired with a delicate sweet sparkling rose. Yum.

Step 2 to wooing me to your evil ways began with a fluke, a long island fluke that is on a puree of buttermilk, something with a hint of spice, and a sea of poppy seeds (do you ever look in a mirror david?). This was paired with a sake that was slightly sweet but not overpowering. So, okay you're not all bad. They say the third times a charm and well you proved "them" wrong. The third dish was a strange mis-mash of flavors that I didn't entirely follow. You put an oyster, pork belly, and sticky rice together and then threw broth on top(albeit some of the most delicious broth i've ever had). The rice was great, the oyster okay, and the pork belly lacked something in a way that pork belly never should (and I watched your dinner theatre mr chang and this pork belly was fried in advance - perhaps some slow roasting and a slightly crispier texture would have added more to the dish...i'm just saying). This was paired with I believe a new zealand pinot noir that was chilled.

Fourth came perhaps my future breakfast of choice. This was the dish that Susan claimed she feared the most from the onset. The egg. This wasn't just any egg. There was a "bed" of slightly caramelized sweet onions with a splash of red wine vinegar that laughed in the face of all other onions i have ever had in my life, the egg itself that was smoked and served in a fashion that was not unlike a slightly overpoached egg, and then the fantastic bite finishers of cavier and fingerling potato chips. I have never tasted anything like this and will likely crave this as a hangover breakfast until my final days. This was paired with a wine that i believe was a sweet white chardonay.

Now here is where my brain goes slightly foggy with the order of things (and truth be told if your brain doesn't turn foggy after the fourth course that includes wine pairing there is something wrong with the pairing and you should request a refund). I do believe the next course was the one that first let me down. It was a pasta with snail sausage, chicken skin and parmesan. This dish was missing something and david we weren't the only ones who thought so. The snail sausage was good but the chicken skin lacked any of the delicious flavor that i expect from even the simplest of roasted chicken. The pasta was experently made texture-wise but again was flavorless...susan's claim was that all this dish needed was garlic and salt. Personally, I would scrap this idea altogether until I learned how to make chicken skin taste good and then I would put it into the pasta dough itself and add something sweet to the pasta sauce. The saving grace of this course was the red wine it was paired with.

Course numero seis brought back the promise of good flavors, although again it lacked the insane wow factor that the meal began with. This was a halibut that was half encrusted with bread crumbs on steroids and then partially plated on an artichoke puree and then the other half on pickled califlower. Personally, I could have eaten a bowl of the cauliflower and been happy with the dish. The fish was perfectly cooked but was not a dish I would order at a restaurant again. Paired with another white wine

The seventh course was more sweet in nature. It was paired with a strangely flavorless sake. The dish consisted of lychees, peanut brittle, shaved foie gras, and cheese. This was not to my taste bud's liking but many of those around me enjoyed this thoroughly. I couldn't get over the wierd lychee texture with foie gras.

Course number eight was beyond great. This is where I was glad I still had plenty of room. This was a 14 day aged sirloin cooked sous vide. The steak was plated with a puree of the most delicious spicy sweet grilled jalepanos this world has ever created (without the heat of the peppers this dish would be nothing). The beef was cooked perfectly medium rare and served with caramelized brussel sprouts that I would gladly take as my daily vegetable serving and lets not forget the pickled onions that were surreptiously slipped onto the plate. Now this was a dish. And throw some red wine in the mix from the south of france and well there was a party in my tummy. I would run 10 miles a day if I it meant I could have this meal even weekly.

Now there is a certain sadness that surrounds the end of all things. I didn't want my dinner at Ko to end. I wanted more acts. The first of two dessert courses was a gauva sorbet coated in cream cheese paired with a wonderfully sweet muscat. Now, this sounds simple and forgetable, but I urge all those who have yet to taste the beautifully basic flavor love between cheese and gauva to take heed from the hoards of spanish speaking countries and take one bite. You'll never regret it. And David, you did this match made in flavor heaven the justice it deserved. I do however believe that one could have thrown some crisped puff pastry in the mix and rocketed this dessert into the outer echelons of this galaxy...but again I'm just saying.

Last but not least, we visited the Jersey shore. Now how do you end an 8 course meal one asks...why in the fry daddy you fool. The final course was a funnel cake with black sesame ice cream and lemon curd. This was paired with a dry sherry that Susan despised but despite her previous promise did not say she'd have a different drink when offered. Personally, I think the flavor toned down the sweetness of the funnel cake and deepened the flavor of the ice cream and lemon.

Now the true question is do I continue my daily attempts to attain a reservation at Ko or do I accept it as a once in a lifetime event and go on from there (recession be damned)? After all, there are many more restaurants in Manhattan that I have yet to eat at. Honestly, I hate you David Chang b/c I don't want to end up a slave to your ridiculous reservation system any longer, but i do want to have that egg again...oh and that steak...and can you throw some biscuits in there too. I mean it...I hate you. Ugh...I have to go its almost 10 am.

Love always

Left out in the Cold - Review of Jean Georges

My visit to the iconic namesake restaurant of Jean Georges Vonreitchen on New York's Central Park West began with the promise of dinning excellence. Sadly, this promise was broken quicker than the oath of most politicians. The entrance to the restaurant, which is located in the Trump Tower on Columbus Circle, is beautiful. On your way to the formal dining room, you walk through the bustling bar filled with a mixture of both old and young "see and be seen" types mixed in with tourists from the hotel. The dining room has a modern-ish decour that has a somewhat classic scheme built into it. The colours are black, white, and gray and the "spider" light is one of the coolest lights I have seen in a while. You never get a clear feeling of who your actual waiter is, as numerous people serve you, present dishes to you, and fill your water glass throughout the evening. The experience is meant to be made an evening of and as such you are never rushed to decide. Start to finish, we were there for over two hours.

We began with red wine. Karen had a Cabernet from Napa Valley that was big bold and slightly sweet. I had a Shiraz that was slightly sweet and excellent. The amuse bouche was a triangle of fun. There was a beautiful chicken stock with a hint of lemongrass flavor, which clearly demonstrated JG's love of asian tinged french cuisine, a wonderful seafood spring roll, and a salmon sashimi with kumquat. What a way to open the taste buds. To have a plate like this to start is perfect, not only because the flavors all vary but also because each has a very different texture component - the liquid slightly sweet broth, the crunchy spring roll, and the melt in your mouth fresh sushi all truly get the taste buds' attention.

We opted for the 4 course prixe fixe menu. I choose the Bluefin Tuna Ribbons with avocado, radish, and ginger marinade and Karen began with the peekytoe crab dumplings in a celeriac lemon meyer tea. Wow. Both were excellent. The Tuna ribbons melted in your mouth and the ginger marinade went marvelously with the fish while the radish and avocado added both flavor and texture. The Peekytoe crab dumplings were stuffed with beautifully soft and sweet crabmeat and the lemon tea broth stepped this dish up to another level.

For the second course, I had the Nishiki Risotto with porcini marmalade and five herb gremolata and Karen had the Seared Gulf Shrimp with silky pumpkin, ginger and basil. Well, these elicited another round of you have to try these from Karen and I. The risotto was silky smooth and the porcini added a rich flavor that was complemented nicely by the herb and olive oil mixture that rimmed the bowl. The shrimp were slightly spicy and paired deliciously with the sweet pumpkin-ginger puree and crunchy-spiced pumpkin seeds. This course left us excited for the third and final savory course of the evening. If this is what Jean Georges did with his starters we thought, then his main courses had to be amazing.

Well, it turned out that line of thinking was wrong. I had the Duck Breast topped with cracked Jordan almonds and amaretto jus, which was ceremoniously sliced tableside by one of our many servers (thanks but I think I can cut my own dinner). And Karen had the Roasted Beef Tenderloin with crispy potato blintz and apple jalapeno puree. Okay, now both meats were cooked to the perfect color but where was the juice and the heat? Both meats seemed to have the lovely meat juices that come in perfectly cooked meat drained from them and were lukewarm at most. As if to tease us, the sauces on each and the crust on my duck were perfection as were the sides. But, how did they screw up the proteins themselves so badly? What a disappointment.

Both Karen and myself were excited for the dessert course. What delectable sweets would Johnny "the tatted bad boy of pastry" Iuzzini present us with? For those of you who don't know the Modus Operandi of Jean Georges' dessert, it consists of a quartet of desserts with a flavor theme served on a sectional plate (a "fourplay" if you will). I opted for the chocolate theme (such a surprise I know) and Karen chose the caramel adventure. The chocolate plate included a chocolate egg cream, the JG signature chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream, aerated chocolate mousse sponge with blackberries and whiskey, and a warm chocolate gnocchi. The egg cream was not at all up my alley and neither was the chocolate sponge, which had a strange resemblance to the 80s astronaut food packs. The lava cake was a masterful execution of chocolate lava cake but was nonetheless a chocolate lava cake in a restaurant world oversatured with this particular dessert. The gnocchi was very good and left me wanting one more bite of it with its fruity sweet flavor. The Caramel Plate included a vanilla soda with a caramel bubble, a warm caramel tart with a crispy olive-hazelnut praline and caramelized bacon, caramel curd with dehydrated sponge and roasted pineapple sorbet, and a chocolate pop filled with coffee-cardamom ice cream. The caramel bubble in the delicious vanilla soda had a texturally unpleasing film that prevented Karen from even caring about the burst of caramel flavor in her mouth. The warm caramel tart was delicious and Karen really liked the praline but I thought it tasted too much of olive oil and not enough of hazelnut. The caramel curd was both Karen's and my favorite dessert, as it had a great texture and was a much better use of the dehydrated sponge. The pineapple sorbet went fabulously with the caramel and sponge. The chocolate pop was also very delicious, although the cardamom in the ice cream was a dash too much. The petit fours arrived at the table in time to end the meal on the right track. There were 3 plates of petit fours - a plate of three different flavors of homemade marshmallows, a plate of 3 different flavors of french macaroons, and a plate of chocolates. The homemade marshmallows were banana, which I really didn't like, cranberry, which had a nice tart flavor, and vanilla. These were perfect in texture and I would take all but the banana in a big cup of hot cocoa any day. The french macaroons were mocha (okay), gingerbread (out of this world), and pomegranate (very good). There were four chocolates and each was excellent. My favorite had a thin layer of marzipan. There was also a lemon ginger one that was refreshing. The other two were very good but must have been forgettable, because I can not recall what the flavors were.

All in all, a very nice evening. If it had not been for the third course, I would certainly return. But, with all the other restaurants in Manhattan, its doubtful I will make an effort to return to this one.