I'm not sure. Last night Dubya and I dined at Momofuku Ko, for the uninitiated or blissfully ignorant, it's David Chang's latest dining mecca except without a ssam or noodle (unless you count a pasta shell) in sight. Getting the reservation is the hardest part but completely worth the effort. Dubya and I had been trying for months before he serendipitously lucked out last week. We made a pact that if either of us 'made it' we'd bring the other.
Those who know me know I'm not a huge fan of seafood. I like to blame my mother for serving me lots of ugly looking fish when i was a kid and saying, 'eat it, it's brain food!' But by now I think it's just a personal vendetta of Barb vs. edible sea creatures. Honestly I just don't think I like the texture and taste. Ah mom, what else can I blame you for?
HOWEVER, I was paying $100 for a chef's tasting menu and you better believe I ate every last bit of everything short of the plate(s) and wooden chopsticks. Anyway Dubya pointed out to me that this was going to be a once in a blue moon kinda thing so we should just go all out and get the drink pairing as well. I said, 'what the hell?' I'm in for $100 why not $150? It would have otherwise gone to a pair of jeans i would've eventually 'outgrown,' instead i splurged on a meal that would surely help me outgrow all my clothes. You can choose to spend either $50, $85, or $100 on the pairings and I can say the $50 was WELL worth it. Drinks ranged from sake to beer to a white wine made in the style of a red out of sauvignon blanc grapes. I NEED to find out the label of that one.
I'm not writing to give a detailed review of each course. I actually don't even know how many there were, speculation leads to a number between 10-12. My favorite dishes were the deep fried short ribs, the last dessert course which involved corn flakes, milk and something that tasted like Toblerone (the chocolate of my fatty mcfatty fat childhood), the dish containing split pea soup and items from the great states of Georgia and Louisiana, and the poached egg situation. I was obviously NOT taking copious notes about my food like the dude on my left who I bet was a food blogger/writer of some sort. He was definitely trying to sweet talk the lone lady chef into divulging details she probably didn't care to divulge.
The whole experience was spectacular. I was transfixed watching the 3 chefs meticulously assemble each dish in front of me while the 'two hot women' (Dubya's words, not mine) hustled behind us to bus the dishes, serve and explain each drink, and be generally pleasant. I think the staff were engineered to say, 'good luck,' to anyone who discussed the 'next time' they get a reservation there because i heard it more than once from a 2/6 staff present. haha. not in a mocking way, just simply 'good luck.' In any case, the food was delicious, all of it. I even liked the halibut, the crawfish in the pea soup, supposedly there was some foie gras in one dish but the lychees masked all that flavor for me, the fluke now seems unmemorable compared to my favorites but i'd be hard-pressed to come up with one dish i didn't like. I even liked the butter knives that had contrasting angled handles so that they rested on the cutting edge of the blade. How cool?
My one disappointment? Espresso out of a pod! Everything was so painstakingly prepared and to end with espresso from a pod? Boo. I kid. I have a pod espresso doohickey at home and it makes very tasty coffee for lazy people.
I've realized lately how 'into' food i've become in the last two years but why not? Good food is one of the great pleasures of life and it's harder to come by than you think, especially if you've had great meals like this...everything else just pales in comparison. How many fond memories do you have that are attached to a meal? Plus, you're putting it into your body why not make sure it's the good stuff?
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