if i were a truly diligent and committed to the craft of food journalism, i’d carry around a camera to photograph the restaurants i go to, and the food i eat.
i’m not. so i’ll have to rely on my memory.
it’s about 12:41am on sunday morning. we’ve just come back from p*ong, pichet ong’s restaurant. ong is a pastry chef who has worked at some stellar restaurants, most recently, spice market (owned by jean georges). nothing to sneeze at, even if brian thinks he looks like lloyd from entourage.
this is the third time we’ve gone to p*ong. the first time we went, it was a saturday afternoon. i had just returned from a business trip in mexico — talk about only having half a week-end. we had dinner at a spanish joint, and were hungry for dessert. lo and behold, around the corner from the apartment: p*ong!
we ordered the dessert tasting menu and the chocolate mousse. good times had by all. a palate cleansing sorbet, followed by the malted chocolate bavarian with caramelized bananas, the miso ice cream sandwich with wasabi candy, and something else. can’t remember. the chocolate mousse was heaven — rich bittersweet chocolate balanced with la tur cheese and some housemade membrillo. killer.
the second time that we went, we ordered a bunch of plates of the menu. the plates are small, but well-balanced. we ate everything from the burratta to the crab claw to the desserts and the cheese plate. apologies for the vague recollection, but frankly, we ordered so many plates that i’ve completely forgotten what we ordered. but i do remember that the very sweet hostess introduced us to this lovely sparkling sake called hou hou shu.
we had more hou hou shu tonight. we also had:
– fava beans and sugar snap peas with parmesan and almond purée
– american wagyu carpaccio
– scallops with soba, salmon roe, seaweed
– burrata with paddlefish roe and freeze-roasted tomato
– california peaches with ricotta and aloe gel
– malted chocolate bavarian with the bananas
i finally got to try their roses cocktail: champagne, gold flecks, rose petals, and rose candy. fantastic!
life's a gasp. . . 