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Using the best ingredients is the logical way to make classic dishes better. Even my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are an attempt at an entirely more delicious and sophisticated version of the homely original: Peanut Butter and Co. peanut butter, handmade preserves from the farmer’s market smeared on Sullivan Street Bakery bread. Award-winning chef David Chang has once again capitalized on that concept at his new Second Ave. hub, Momofuku Ssäm bar.
Chang already has blazed an organic trail at Momofuku (161 1st Ave.), where he competently prepares big bowls of noodles and steaming pork buns while using top ingredients from small farms. The 29-year-old East Villager was one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Top New Chefs of 2006 “because he has brought incredible sophistication to some of the world’s most simple dishes.”
Ssäm Bar, a 50-seat restaurant that opened in September, is covered in beautiful dark wood and sleek stone and serves Korean fast food staples. Ssäm loosely translated means “anything wrapped.” It is certainly the place to go if you have Chipotle cravings but just can’t stand to give any of your money to the McDonald’s corporation. In fact, upon entering, you feel like you’ve stepped into a much cooler version of Chipotle.
Just like at that corporate fast-food burrito bar, you wait in line and place your order, then watch the line cooks prepare your dish. Here, the chefs pick the condiments; this keeps the line moving as you watch them assemble such fine ingredients as Berkshire pork from the Eden Family Farms, Bell & Evans organic chicken or vegetarian-friendly braised tofu - all at considerably higher quality than at most Korean fast-food joints. Salty shrimp & fish sauce are replaced by a scrumptious red kimchi puree. MSG & mayo are replaced and improved with kewpie slaw, a spicy kimchi cole slaw given its name from the Kewpie brand mayonnaise used in its preparation. Korean OB beer is the only alcoholic drink choice and disappointingly similar to Budweiser.
