Momofuku Ko

I haven't returned to this blog for some time but now I must.  On March 28 I had lunch at Momofuku Ko in New York.

Google gave me directions to Ko.

Foodies who know a bit about David Chang's Ko understand how difficult it is to get a reservation here.   The restaurant seats 12 and in order to get a reservation, you must first register at the website and then get online at exactly 10 in the morning, Eastern Coast Time, exactly two weeks ahead when the site opens to grab one of the dozen backless seats.  It was a one week out requirement two years ago when I missed my seat by 1 minute.  This year I was on at 6:58 a.m. my time and just kept clicking in.  I was lucky enough to grab the last available seat.  (I wound up sitting next to a young woman from who'd done the same thing in her London workplace at 2 in the afternoon that same Friday.)

by Krista Garcia

by Krista Garcia

Photography isn't permitted at Ko, though it was back in 2008 when Krista Garcia at Goodies First  snapped pictures of her meal.  These shots from Julie Zeveloff's 2013 column at Business Insider will give you an idea of what the plates at Ko look like.

I didn't have the wine pairings with the meal because I thought I might get too tipsy.  I had a glass of Spanish sparkling white, a glass of sparkling Pinot Grigio rose and finished the meal with the very medicinal amaro, Fernet Branca.

I took notes during the meal.  This menu was $175 without the wine and amaro.  With alcohol and tip I wound up spending a little over $280.

Here is the menu I enjoyed with a few minor editorial comments.

1. A tiny saki cup of fermented apple and carrot juice, looking a very pretty orange in the black cup.
2. Fried duck rillette on mustard with pickled ramps.
3.  Kumamato oyster with mixed spices in apple vinegar.  (A very sweet and meaty bivalve.)
4. A small straw made of onion cracker stuffed with soft potato souffle.
5. Snapper tartar with a sauce, topped with shredded turnips and onion.
6. Raw hamachi (Pacific yellowtail) with spicy buttermilk sauce with chives.  (The hunk of fish was fresh and perfectly matched to the spices in the buttermilk.  ****)
7. Pickled and cured tataki of Spanish mackerel.  (Tataki is a Japanese style of preparation with the fish lightly seared on each side then marinated in vinegar, sliced thin and seasoned with ginger.  The skin on my slice was nicely charred.    It was topped with teeny rice balls.  I watched as the fish was seared by a chef wielding a cook's torch.)
8. Salad of sunchokes, strawberry, and anchovy.  (Very pretty to look at but rather bland.)
9. Slow cooked smoked trout with pickled beets, smoked beet puree, all topped with "everything bagel" spice.  (This was terrific to look at and eat. The beet slices were cut into almost see-through slices cut into floral shapes.) The sauce was bright red.  The trout amazingly flavorful.  Wow.  **** )
10. Diver scallops and button mushroom with slices of snow pears in a mushroom broth. ( The sweet and sea combination was new to me.  The see-through pear slices had a lovely chrysanthemum pattern. **** )
11. Green potato soup over grilled cuttlefish chopped up with charred cooked rice.  (The rice was very crunchy and chopped into the cuttlefish.  The green of the soup was pretty.  The cuttlefish is related to the squid and octopus.  I've never eaten it before.  Tasty.  But the super burnt crunchiness of the rice wasn't completely to my taste.)
12. Venison tartar topped with a soft boiled quail egg and red onion marmalade.   (I could tell the venison was farmed -- its taste was wasn't wild.)
13. Puffed egg with kelp bits.  (This was by far the oddest thing I ate.  The egg is mixed with methylcellulose then sprayed into boiling broth.  It looks like a puffy round ball and has a very strange texture.  Ko's founder, David Chang, was featured on the PBS show "The Mind of a Chef" and you can watch him making this amazing dish on a video from that show.
14. Deconstructed lobster roll -- mini-brioche and lobster pieces broken into a thick lobster sauce.  (I watched the chef squeeze a potful of lobster shell, meat, and spices through cheesecloth to make the sauce.  **** )
15. Semolina pellizzoni pasta (a thick spaghetti) with duck meatballs.
16. Halibut with sea urchin and granny smith apple sauce topped with charred Brussels sprout leaves.  (Another lovely pairing of fish and fruit. **** )
17. Foie gras shaved from a frozen roll over lychees and pine nut brittle.  (The sweets were hidden by the shaved liver, bright surprises beneath the brown, fat covering.  **** )
18. Marinated pork slab with roasted cabbage and red onions.  (Lots of fat on the pork.  The meat was very good. I couldn't eat the fatty bits as I was becoming very full.) 
19. Dessert 1:  Huckleberry and espresso sauce over a chocolate and black-truffle ice-cream.
20. Dessert 2:  Calamondin sorbet (very orange) with drops of goat cheese on a small round piece of cake.  (I loved the mix of flavors here -- the sharp citrus with the rich goat cheese and sweet cake. **** )
21. Dessert 3:  A rice cream cone -- a small cone made of rice flour filled with rice cream.
22. Dessert 4:  cookie of chocolate ganache stuffed with meringue.  
23. All wrapped up with an espresso with a small brown sugar cube.