East Village – Page 2 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Kyo-ya

94 East 7th Street between First and Avenue A
212/982.4140
$130 for two, with drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

I’d like to think that kaiseki is Japan’s answer to Spain’s tapas if only a pincho is served in bejeweled bread held together by a hand-carved toothpick. The most basic types of food need to go a long way in a kaiseki meal, so presentation is key to make them more appealing. For the Japanese, it’s an aesthetic experience.

I remember my first meal at Morimoto where a selection of fine sashimi was served on a large porcelain square container. The tub was so ridiculously big that it took attention away from the fish. Sometimes, you only need the most humble utensil to appreciate a skillfully-executed dish, no? At Kyo-ya, however, the attention to both food and presentation are pretty much equal: both are of very high quality. A very simple mackerel roll was beautifully presented with edible flower petals, while the uni came on top of a miniature bale of hay. The fish was served on a small mat woven together with a soft piece of thread while a twig of what looked like mistletoe stuck out of the crushed ice. Even the wasabi was on onion-skin paper I’ve only seen used for truffles. The accessories seem unnecessary, but Kyo-ya makes them so delicately that they don’t come off cheesy. Each order, even our very simple udon soup and plate of grilled sardines, came out looking like very special gifts.

Curry-Ya

214 East 10th Street between First and Second Avenues
866/602-8779
about $25 for two, with drinks, without tip
♥

Yohshoku, or Western dishes adapted to fit the Japanese taste, kept me alive when I was younger and wasn’t making a lot of or any money. In West L.A., I loved Curry House because I could get a hefty lunch for $5. When I was in Tokyo, I ate a lot of gyuudon and tonkatsu (beef bowls and deep-fried pork cutlets) because they were the most affordable for us kids with a tight budget. Believe it or not, back then I spent my money on design books instead of food.

So when Curry-Ya opened last year, I was excited to go even for the sake of reliving those days. True to form, my kareh raisu, the Japanese-style curry so far removed from its inspiration, tasted like how I remember them: rich, gooey, salty, and just super tasty. Unfortunately, I’m older now and I paid a higher price digesting it afterwards.

I still appreciate good design and Curry-Ya has that style I would like to adapt if ever I opened my own restaurant: marble bar, less than twenty stools up against it, open kitchen. I’m not any younger, but I’m back to having less money because of this economy and I can see more Curry-Ya in my future.

All You Can Eat Sushi for $20 at Sushiya

Second floor, Whole Foods Market
95 East Houston Street corner of Bowery
$20 all you can eat sushi, without tip
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I didn’t expect high quality sushi when I saw the sign for all you can eat sushi for $20 at Whole Foods on Bowery, but I was curious enough to pull two co-workers with me to try out Sushiya’s latest promotion. We dodged the long lines at street level and propped ourselves up the bar stools in front of the conveyor belt sushi bar. At Sushiya, what you see is what you get, and we got a lot of rice.

There were some tuna, eel and salmon; some roe and a torn piece of arugula on a maki; crab and shrimp on spiced onigiris; seaweed salad, edamame and the out-of-place Vietnamese summer rolls. The makis came more often than the sushis, though the servers behind the bar quickly made them whenever we requested. We had the bar to ourselves when we visited and yet they always replaced the plates at the other end of the belt–perhaps to try and slow us down from eating all their inventory. In the end, we counted about thirty empty plates which is about 20 pieces per person for a total of $60. Oh, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

All in all, $20 is pricey for lunch even around the East Village and SoHo, but it’s quite fun to wait for the colorful plates to come your way and pick sushi, makis and onigiris from the magnetic conveyor belt.

Porchetta

110 East 7th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A
212/777.2151
$9 for a pork sandwich, without tip
♥

For Italians, porchetta means boneless pork roast that’s moist and juicy. Chef and co-owner Sara Jenkins doesn’t stray away from that definition: my $9 pork was no joke. The meat was shiny; its own fat glistening in between the two slices of Sullivan Street Bakery ciabatta bread. There are little surprises of crunch and soft gelatinous cubes of fat–my jaw hurt from chewing but I couldn’t stop eating.

I’ll return to try it with some of my own chili sauce, although it was well-seasoned that it didn’t really need any extras to make it more satisfying than it already is. The $5 side of potatoes were roasted in pork fat and tossed with some burnt pork ends. The bitter and garlicky broccoli rabe was a good balance to all the fat.

It took me ten minutes to walk from work to this new Porchetta branch in the east Village and another five to get my lunch order, but it took me two hours to digest one of their fatty-licious sandwiches.

Momofuku Ko

163 First Avenue off 10th Street
https://reservations.momofuku.com/
about $300 for two, with beverage pairings, without tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I was so busy at work last week that I didn’t even have time to be excited about our upcoming reservations at Ko. When Cameron told me she wanted to take me out to thank me for showing her the Philippines last month, I thought, You’re welcome; don’t be silly. But when I received an email from her a couple of weeks later with our Ko confirmation attached, I squealed, Noooooo.

I gave up trying to get a reservation the first time I actually saw a green check mark on their Web site. As soon as I clicked it, I waited nervously for the page to refresh, and then, Sorry, that spot was just taken. It’s like waiting for your lottery numbers to show up on TV: the ball rolls out and you think it’s one of your picks; only it’s a 6 and not a 9 when it finally stops spinning. Momofuku Ko is the first restaurant I know of that uses only a Web site to take reservations and I suppose it’s a good way to keep the die-hard David Chang fans excited. All of us need someone who is willing to click their mouse off once in a while.

At 6:15 sharp, we were seated in the middle of the bar with a couple to our left and a group of four at the other end. The other seats were waiting for the 6:30pm guests–stacking them up this way is their version of turning tables over efficiently. By the time we were eating our fourth course, a newly arrived couple to our right was pouring over the wine list. The night’s pace was swift; our matching wines, beer and sake kept coming until the first of two desserts. I felt like I had to keep drinking to have no more than two glasses on my table. Although I played catch up with my drinks, I kept up with all eleven courses, including the bouches. The portions weren’t French Laundry nor Blue Hill sizes. I wasn’t comatose at the end of our two-hour meal. Perhaps a little tipsy, but quite happy and content. Here’s a rundown:

1. A delicately small toasted English muffin with pork fat and chives
2. A Ssam tribute of pig’s head torchon with mustard

One of the first two came with a light and crunchy chicharron and Japanese salt.

3. Fluke sashimi in buttermilk (!) with Sriracha hot sauce and yuzu paste covered in poppy seeds
4. Matsutake mushrooms in hot broth of bacon and dashi, a dish that reminded me of Tojo’s sable fish soup in Vancouver.
5. A beautifully smoked soft-boiled egg with onion sous-vide and caviar served with potato chips
6. An out of place corn-filled ravioli with Cotija Mexican cheese; I liked it more than I expected.
7. Maine halibut in pepperoncini purée and burnt onions with finely-chopped kohlrabi and radish in basil oil
8. Lychee with Riesling gelée and pine nuts and then covered in grated foie gras. Grated. Foie. Gras. This dish blew me away and I couldn’t stop talking about it. Everything melded in my mouth like Dippin’ Dots, only more luxurious and decadent than anything I’ve had this year. “Son of a peach” indeed.
9. Perfectly, perfectly cooked duck–the surly Asian man behind the counter (who wasn’t David Chang) had skills–with Chinese long beans, chestnuts and bean sprouts in cherry sauce.
10. Lychee sorbet in sesame “sand”; my quotes but perhaps a Thomas Keller-influenced naming convention
11. Strawberry and peanut butter halva with a sickeningly sweet yellow cake ice cream. I told you, I don’t like sweets.

David Chang is so lucky to be the name on almost every foodie’s tongue today: five years in the east Village and he’s still making waves. Ko is obviously his and his staff’s playground and you can feel that they’re cooking for themselves and serving what they want because they know people will follow. I can’t help but feel proud that this Asian American is at the top of his career right now. How I wish all talented and deserving chefs out there get the same chance to cook and perform the Momofuku way.