Momofuku's Duck Ssam Platter

I don't like David Chang.  

He's probably my most unfavorite famous chef (I know, thems are fighting words). Despite the fact that he's highly touted as one of the top chefs in New York/USA/Wherever, color me seriously unimpressed. Perhaps I haven't eaten enough of his wares (like Momofuku Ko) to truly experience his culinary expertise, but what I have tried thus far, I haven't loved.  His food feels completely overglorified and overhyped for dishes that feel and taste so...ordinary.

But this previous weekend, I changed my mind.  And I hate that.  I hate to now love David Chang.  (Deep sigh.)

Thanan and I decided to meet at Momofuku Ssam Bar to check out David's new duck rotisserie duck offering.  

For lunch on the weekdays, you can grab duck on rice from the former Milk Bar space next door to the Ssam Bar.  On weekends, they only serve the duck from the Ssam Bar.  It's $14 weekdays (just duck on rice), $24 weekends (comes with the whole works).  The new Milk Bar is now located across the street from the original Milk Bar.  You got all that?  It's confusing.  David Chang has got to make things so goshdarn difficult.

The beautiful whole duck rotates and bubbles in fat in the former Milk Bar space.  I was mesmerized by it.  So mesmerized, I didn't snap a photo of it, but you'll just have to check it out yourself.  It's a juicy, oily mess, and you'll love it.  

The Duck Ssam platter comes with a handful of slices of the gorgeous duck atop fluffy rice, strands of fresh watercress, thin, buttery Bibb lettuce cups, charred scallion pancakes, 

The scallion pancakes were okay (not essential)

a small bowl of pickled vegetables including green onions and rhubarb,

and a small bowl of oily ginger compote.  I ended up slathering this flavorful concoction on everything: duck, pancake, whatever.  It was terrific.

But enough on the sides.  The true star was of course the duck!

The duck that you just knew had to be delicious because of the freakish amount of fat.

Oh such glorious fat!!  Oh how the duck is so ridiculously crispy, yet so succulent and oozing with the cholesterol rich nectar of the gods.

The pieces with meat were just as good also - check out that lovely white rim of fat that I know Diana loves just as much as me.

And then as an added bonus...we discovered our fatty slices of duck were sitting on another form of fatty poultry!  Best discovery ever.

Is Thanan extremely excited by the awesome lunch?

No, he's just enjoying watching these people attempt to load this large couch into this moderately sized SUV.

And wouldn't you know?  They did it!  It seemed quite impossible, but they were able to achieve it - like how David Chang finally made a believer out of me with what is quite simply the best duck I've had in the city yet.  Granted, it's the absolutely priciest, but just looking at those lovely bites of duck fat makes me yearn for another plate yet.  (Goshdangit.)

Momofuku Ssam Bar

207 2nd Avenue

New York, NY

Kelvin's Ginger Mango Slush

Soooo sorry for the silence.  It appears I left for a weeklong trip to California and forgot to tell you!  This past week, Greeshma and I drove from Los Angeles, made a pitstop in Carmel and spent a couple of nights in San Francisco.  It was a great trip full of beautiful sights and wonderful eats.

Unfortunately, my bad luck in San Francisco continued, as my last trip there with Carrie resulted in me dropping my Canon camera, lens out on the subway floor.  This trip fared no better, and my S95 also has the dreaded Lens Error.  :(  I have a lovely backlog of eats to post though in addition to what I did manage to capture in CA, so hopefully I will have another cam up and running soon.

In the meantime, here are some pics of a refreshing beverage I had from the Kelvin Natural Slush Co., a truck specializing in naturally flavored ice slushes.

The truck was stationed near Trader Joe's in Union Square and offered three types of ice slush bases: ginger, citrus and tea.  You pick the base as well as a real pureed fruit flavor like raspberry, pink guava, white peach, mixed berry, among others.

A peek into the sleek, stainless steel interior of the Kelvin truck.

The medium ginger slush with mango.

This slush was a beautifully refreshing treat on this particularly sweltering New York afternoon.  The ginger flavoring was light, the slush completely fine and smooth.  And the mango puree!  Oh, a gorgeous golden burst of summer in your mouth.

These bright icy beverages just might be my new favorite summer treat!

Love me a good pun!

Kelvin Natural Slush Co.

Locate the truck nearest you via their website or Twitter

Taste of Tribeca 2011: Terroir, Bouley, Duane Park Patisserie, Mark Forgione, Pepolino, The Harrison

On Saturday, Taste of Tribeca took place with over 60 restaurants from the Tribeca area.  

For over 15 years, area restaurants have banded together to offer signature samples from their restaurants to help raise money for New York public schools 150 and 234.  Each ticket purchased includes a tasting card entitling attendees six tastes from any participating restaurant.

Fortunately, the gloomy overhang of the week broke Saturday, and the sun and warmth brought everyone out in droves for an afternoon of feasting.  

Lines were ever long for the more popular chefs, but even the longest that I stood in (Marc Forgione) moved relatively quickly (~7 minutes).  Here are the snapshots of the day along with the six items I tasted!

Beautiful seafood soba salad from Kori

Cupcake tower from Tribeca Treats

The Tribeca firemen from Ladder 8 served up stuffed mushrooms.  What a hot booth! ;)

Hungry after gazing after the initial tables, I knew I wanted to try something meaty first, and Terroir's meatball sandwich fit the bill.

I got super lucky - the gent scooped out the final meatballs from the pot right at my turn!

Gorgeous!

Noted in New York Magazine as one of the top 100 sandwiches in the city, at #9, Terroir's meatball sandwich is indeed delicious - the red sauce, the nice heartiness and bounce of the meatballs and the soft pliant bun makes it an all around winner.

Scalini Fedeli's porcine ravioli in a porcine black truffle cream sauce. 

Duane Park offered gougers with crawfish remoulade, but I just rather liked this pot of boiled crawfish.  Mmm crawfish.

Bubby's Pie Co. apple brown betty

Landmarc Tribeca's s'mores cookies

Marc Forgione definitely had the longest line at the event.  I knew I recognized his awesome mohawk from something I watched on television, but I still didn't know why I knew him somehow.

Last night, I watched Iron Chef America and quickly realized he is the new Iron Chef.  What a hip guy!  And he was so nice - he posed for pictures with anyone who wanted them (mostly Asian ladies).

Marc grilled up high plains bison prime rib.  (Wolf whistle here)

The bison prime rib slice, topped with a verdant ramp chimichurri, was sooo tender.  My only complaint was that the meat melted in my mouth way too fast.

Duane Park Patisserie is noted as one of the best bakeries in the city; their booth was stationed right outside their restaurant so they were able to keep churning out freshly baked molten chocolate lava cakes topped with bittersweet chocolate sauce.

The cake wasn't oozing out a chocolate center, as one would typically expect with a molten cake, but it was still rich, warm and absolutely decadent.  

David Bouley's flagship and 2 Michelin starred restaurant, Bouley, provided an option of either calamari risotto with black truffle sauce or a soy panna cotta.

I can never say no to calamari.  Or black truffle sauce. The combination of the chewy rings of calamari, the creamy risotto and earthiness of the truffle was a delight.

Brick's cute display of chocolate budino served in eggs

I went light with my fifth taste at The Harrison which dished up small plates of mixed seafood ceviche topped with taro chips.  The ceviche was fresh, not too citrusy, and the strands of taro added the perfect bit of crunch.

Pretty (forgot which vendor this is from)

Zucker's Bagels & Fresh Fish prepared fresh smoked salmon on site to construct pretty croissant sandwiches

I was intending to try out Locanda Verde's lamb meatballs, but they ran out when I arrived and were restocking in 5 minutes.  I took it as a sign that it wasn't meant to be.  And I couldn't quite shake this image I had seen earlier involving someone carrying an unbelievable slice of cheesecake.  So I beelined for the ricotta cheesecake from Pepolino as my final taste.

Oh goodness, this cheesecake tasted just as lovely as it looks!  The filling is so light and airy, creamy without being rich, with a bit of sweetness embued in the puff-pastry like crust.  A rather remarkable cheesecake !  Made with ricotta !  I think it is my new favorite cheese ever, so versatile and delicious.

Besides food, there was also a bit of entertainment provided by a great folksy band playing at the far end of the festival as well as

some kid friendly performances and

face-painting and hair color spraying for suggested donations.  I particularly like how scary the hair color station looks with the girls hiding their faces behind towels.  Oh, the price of beauty!

A surprise treat after filling out your card was that if you turned your card in at the Bazzini's Nuts table, you can pick a bag of nuts to take home!  Best souvenir ever!

This was my first year at the Taste of Tribeca, and I am glad I finally attended.  It's a great event filled with a lot of culinary talent.  It was so hard for me to pick six tastes; I could have easily eaten a dozen more tastes (especially with my elastic pants!).

If I can get out of my outdoor food festival craze, I am headed straight back to Tribeca to eat proper meals at these establishments - these samples have definitely whet my appetite!