AfterTaste (by Sherry)

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 Second Avenue (on the corner of 13th Street)
(212) 254-3500

Excuse the ridiculous title. I couldn’t help myself.

The Momofuku restaurants (Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, and the latest Momofuku Ko) and their omnipotent, do-no-wrong, GQ’s Chef of the Year creator David Chang have gotten plenty of hype in the past year. Chang’s image as a rebellious young chef with an attitude appeals to New York diners. We may enjoy prissy, delicate, subtle foods (our Masa, our Payard pastries) now and then, but when it comes right down to it, we like our food like we love our city: innovative, brash, unapologetic, yet full of mirth, with just a touch of pretension. This is why Chang’s Momofuku empire has taken off and that is why David Chang is here to stay.

I have yet to sample Chang’s other little “lucky peaches” (that’s what “momofuku” means apparently), but I have been to Momofuku Ssam Bar (MSB) twice now and have been amazed each time by how satisfied I am when I leave. I always expect to like Momofuku Ssam Bar, not love it; to be full at the end of the meal, but not sated. And each time my expectations are dashed to pieces to my pleasant surprise.

I went recently with Matt, who else (God I sound isolated and pathetic) at 7pm on a Friday night. The joint was, as always ,packed and hopping. I predicted it would be filling up, but I always thought of the majority of MSB’s patrons as being the nocturnal hipster type from Williamsburg who don’t eat dinner until 10pm. I thought we wouldn’t have to wait, but alas, we were told the wait would be about 20 minutes. Matt and I had both psyched ourselves up so much that we couldn’t just turn and go eat at one of the other 9 million restaurants in the area so we squeezed our way past the tables on the left and the bar to our right to the “waiting” area in the back of the restaurant, an area so clearly carved out as an afterthought. It consists of a 5 foot x 5 foot open space with one side by the open and bustling kitchen, another side covering the entrance to the bathroom and to one of the kitchens, and another side hemmed in by the entrance to the area behind the bar. I was jostled to and fro by dashing waiters in their American Apparel long sleeved tees, while a table of 10 to my left (covering the 4th side of the waiting area) savagely tore into their whole roasted pork butt (Bo Ssam) offered for $180.00 for a minimum of 8 people.

I don’t know how, but the 20 minute waited turned into a 5 minute and we were able to grab two seats at the end of the long, dark bar.

MSB’s famous brussel sprouts came out first, a glossy dark brown, you taste the intense roasting that those little sprouts have suffered through, and yet they’ve managed to maintain a certain amount of crispness. You also taste the vinegary, spicy, sweet light dressing they were tossed in. The hint of mint and the flavor of that deep dark char are what elevate the dish from Lovely-Thanksgiving-at-Your-Parents’-House to Dammit-Chang-You’re-a-Genius territory. The spiced rice krispies sprinkled on top seem an unnecessary novelty, as they become soggy too soon to contribute much to the overall texture of the dish, a texture which is fine as it is anyhow. They look like maggots in photographs to boot.

The next dish to come out were Chang’s famous pork buns, like the lovechild of peking duck and a steamed pork bun from Chinatown. Upon a bed of hoisin sauce, cucumbers, and scallions (the peking duck part) lie slices of roasted pork belly tucked into an unattractively pale, white slab of dough (the steamed bun part) that has been folded over the filling. The texture of the dough is hard to describe, at once sponge cake-like and Wonder™ bread-like. The comforting warmth and doughiness of this dish makes me wish I could wake up with one of these every morning on my bedside table.

Two adequately sized pieces of banh mi, aka Vietnamese sandwich, arrived next. Slices of pork pate, layered with pickled carrots, pickled cucumbers, cilantro, and mayo, are served on crusty, fresh French baguette. If you’ve never ventured below Houston and are never planning on heading to Chinatown, try MSB’s fairly classic, conventional take on the dish. But it’s not the most spectacular banh mi I’ve ever had, having worked near Chinatown.

For our main courses, we both had ssams, lettuce leaf ssams, not real ssams (more to come on that later). They both resembled Korean barbeque wraps more than any Korean “burrito” type ssam. My dish consisted of slices of grilled pork sausage patties, lettuce leaves, pickled carrots, pickled turnips, some cilantro leaves, and a big bowl of thin sweet and sour sauce similar to Vietnamese nuoc nam. The pork sausages retained the flavor of the grill and had the pleasantly rough texture of most Asian sausages, as opposed to the slick skins of some classic French and Italian Sausages. Here texture was key. There was the soft, somewhat chewy texture of the sausage underneath the crunchy texture of the pickles topped off with a few fluttering cilantro leaves, all wrapped up in the snap of the Boston lettuce. This interplay of textures between the different ingredients mirrored and highlighted the interplay of flavors: salty, porky sausage, tart, sweet pickles, green, herbaceous cilantro, and mild, fresh lettuce. I was disappointed there was no rice so for most of the bites I stole some rice from Matt’s bowl (there was plenty to go around with some left over too). So add to all of that the sticky, warm rice and you have the perfect little bite.

Matt’s marinated steak came sliced over caramelized onions with a scallion oil, a kimchi puree, lettuce leaves, and a bowl of rice. The onion-y, but mild scallion oil paired perfectly with the fiery kimchi. Once more, we see the beautifully structured composition of flavors. The rice provides a warm bed to soak up the delicious oil and the spicy, sharp kimchi. Then come the lusciously sweet caramelized onions and the perfectly pink, lean, and tender steak.

Some things I had the other time I visited MSB were the seasoned pickles and the Jonah crab claws. The claws were delicious, fresh with a fantastic yuzu mayo, but the four little claws were not worth the price. The pickles, again though tasty, were not worth the price tag.

As for the incredible ssams that I once had the privilege and pleasure of having at MSB, the real ssams with the burrito-like structure, they are no longer on the dinner menu and, rumor has it, they don’t even exist on the lunch menu anymore. The lunch menu used to focus centrally on the more traditional ssams. Where did they go? I’m not sure, but will investigate because it would be a crime to offer New York the uniquely beautiful ssam and then cruelly yank it away. Here’s my source for the ssam having disappeared.

Regardless of all that, this is one of the few times I will openly say this about any chef or restaurant: believe the hype.

Because Chang ain’t goin’ nowhere.

• Brussel Sprouts - $12*
• Banh Mi - $9
• Steamed Pork Buns - $9
• Grilled Lemongrass Pork Sausage Ssam - $18
• Marinated Hanger Steak Ssam - $21
• 2 Glasses of Riesling - $20
• 1 Bottle of Anchor Steam - $6*
• Total (excluding tax and tip) - $95

*  Price estimated because I couldn’t find it anywhere on the Internet.