Momofukurage Dinner
It began some months ago, as a simple quest for tickets to eat New York chef, David Chang’s food during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. For more on how this phenomenon came about, see Jess Ho’s post (bottom of the page).
Twitter was abuzz with the hastag #momofukurage but it didn’t take long for my fellow foodies to turn this energy towards creative endeavours. We decided to hold out own Momofuku themed dinner party. We would all cook a dish from the cookbook and bring them all together for a fine feast!
David Chang is a big fan of Pork. There was lots of pork, and bacon, and some more pork, and chicken wings! Thank goodness for the chicken wings!
David Chang’s food is a strange beast. Some dishes are simple, some dishes take a bit of skill,and some dishes are horrendously time-consuming (anyone up for double peeling a kilo of pistachios ?). My favourite dish of the night was the salad of fuji apples coated with kimchi, covered with bacon, sitting on a bed of rocket and dressed with Mayonnaise with maple syrup added. I can recall the taste now, many days later.
Although, the Báhn Mì were delicious as well; it was made from two of the ugliest terrines in the world – no really…
Now for something completely different .. Pork Belly Ssäm. What made this special was the fantastic mustard seed sauce, in which the mustard seeds are first pickled before being combined with other kinds of mustard and Kewpie Mayonnaise.
Never fear, there were some vegies. Roasted cauliflower with rice bubbles was pretty moorish, and the mushroom salad on pisatchio with radish was deemed delicious by JB, and of course the delicious BBQ Chicken wings. I missed photographing these, but @thatjessho didn’t. They are here.
I reprised my Pork Buns.
*groan*
We washed all this down with copious amounts of Normandie cider and pinot noir.
So right about now, anything non-porky sounded delicious.
Thank goodness @annetreasure went the sweet route.
Our first dessert was a compost cookie…now my mum used to make what she called “manure” biscuits back when I was a kid (cornflake cookies basically), compost was a new one on me. Until Anne told us what was in the delicious, sweet, salty treats.
Twix, Mars, Kinder Bueno, walnuts, oats, sour cream Pringles, Twisties. Although Anne omitted the coffee grounds, I think they could only make these strange biscuits even more delicious.
Then, Crack Pie.
First – make a giant cookie. Then crumble it at mix with butter and sugar to form base. Fill with sugar, sugar, butter, cream and eggs. OMG – this was a show stopper. I couldn’t eat anymore, but I just *had* to have a piece.
Good lord!
If this is #momofukurage – then long may it rage on!








April 2nd, 2010 at 9:39 pm
What a beautiful way to channel that energy. And then a nap?
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:49 pm
A big long sleep! Many mentioned that the next’s day gym workouts left us smelling a bit “lardy” – does wonders for the wrinkles though.
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Ah, porky goodness. As you say, the chicken wings were a welcome change from all that pig. The vegetable dishes were amazing! The pistachio puree, the kimchi and apple… oh my! I’m still dreaming of the pork buns, too.
Excellent wrap up of the night – and lovely photos (even the ones of some fairly hideous dishes!).
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I especially like the focus on your ugly terrine – so clear – so ugly! but oh so delicious!
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:58 pm
My kimchi is approaching perfection apparently:
“There’s a point, after about two weeks, where the bacteria that are fermenting the kimchi start producing CO2 and the kimchi takes on a prickly mouthfeel, like the feeling of letting the bubbles in a soft drink pop on your tongue. It’s right around then that I like it best.”
They’re some good looking photos!
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Looks like an amazing feast. The pork rolls and the fuji apple salad both sound interesting. I am not sure what I think of the crack pie, it sounds so rich and sweet.
I am heading to NYU next month so will have to try and eat at one of the momo’s.
April 6th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Looks like a fantastic feast! So sad to have missed it. The flavour combinations sound interesting, especially the apple kimchi salad!
April 26th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
[...] few weeks ago we got together for a feast of Momofuku themed dinner party. Master baker Anne brought along some “Compost Cookies” from David Chang’s Milk [...]