Warning: this post contains a lot of photos of food! So don’t bother reading farther if that sort of thing annoys you 🙂
Momofuku, which means “lucky peach”, was started in NYC in 2004 by David Chang, as Momofuku Noodle Bar. The Noodle Bar began as a typical ramen restaurant but soon exploded in popularity when Chef Chang gave the team of cooks permission to use whatever ingredients they liked and cook however they wanted. You can read more than you ever wanted to know about Momofuku at the Wikipedia article – but suffice it to say there are now 12 Momofuku restaurants worldwide, each with a different theme or specialty, along with several “milk bars” (bakeries) in NY.
Momofuku seiōbo was the first Momofuku restaurant to open outside of New York, in 2011, right in our very own backyard (it’s about a 10 minute walk away from our apartment), and we were very excited to check it out.
We made a booking for Feb 19th, the 5th anniversary of the first night we went on a date. BTW, you can only make bookings online, and only about 3 weeks before the date…needless to say tables book up quickly!
The big night arrived and we got dressed up and headed over to the Star, the casino where seiōbo is located. The door to the restaurant is extremely well hidden, but the staff inside was extremely warm and welcoming.
The well-camouflaged door to seiōbo
There is no menu at seiōbo, you hand over your dining experience to the wonderful chefs, who serve something different every night.
Busy kitchen.
We started our night with five “bar snacks”. Right away, we were blown away with the first standout being the little zucchini gems on top of black garlic.
Crab & chickpea; zucchini & black garlic; carrot & mullet roe snacks.parson’s nose (aka, chicken butt) and roe, and a busy kitchen.cep (porcini) & hazelnut snackthe snacks were paired with a glass of mauzac (white wine)
after snacks, the meal really got started: 9 courses with the full wine pairing:
wine #1 – Nick and I did not recognise a single one of the wines we had.“scallop”, in a gorgeous ravioli with kombu (edible kelp) and duck broth. this was an early favourite.wine #2 – my wine scanner app had no hope with this one.kobe beef with radish and fermented black bean. another early favourite, even though by the time you were halfway through it looked rather unappetizing…(halfway through the course, the bean powder and beef mix together to form something that looks like wet soil…but was still delicious, and I would not have thought to pair radish and beef!)wine #3marron tail with burnt apple and ajwain (an herb). my question to the server: what’s marron?)the server’s answer to my “what’s marron?”. verdict: fishier and chewier than lobster. not my favourite.wine #4john dory (a fish) with almonds, broccoli, & lemon. a lovely fresh and light intermission.wine #5maitake (mushroom) with parsley and walnut. another favourite.starting to feel very stuffed…wine #6duck with rye and swede (turnip/parsnip type vegetable). this was amazing, but I was getting so incredibly full by this time I was struggling to take another bite.wine #7ewe’s curd (aka, goat cheese), choux pastry, and rose syrup. OK, now this, I can do.the goat cheese inside was absolutely amazing. I could have eaten 13 courses of this.wine #8on the copy of the menu they gave us, this one is called “corn, chervil, and anise”. it’s a bit of meringue, over top of some green ice cream (the chervil – an herb) and yellow custard (anise & corn). this dessert was not my bag. another goat’s cheese cream puff instead, please!the ice cream and custard underneath.wine #9cherry, pistachio, and gin dessert. not bad, but the whole savory dessert thing isn’t really my bag.these little cakes came after we thought we were finished – they were honey/beeswax/vanilla – and delicious – but I could not fit another bite in.cake detailNick had a gin and tonic to finish the night off, and I had a cup of the Momofuku brand tea – which was lovely.a souvenir menu, & two packets of momofuku tea to end the night.…and two very satisfied (and over-full) humans!
2 Comments
John
Man! So delicious! Regarding course #6, swede is definitely turnip: it’s a very British/Australian term.
californiawrights
thanks John!!:)