The Lucky Peach

Did you know that “Momofuku” means “Lucky peach”? Well! That’s what I felt like today when I had my first taste of the Momofuku restaurant empire.

Momofuku. Momofuku. Momofuku! For years I have been hearing about Momofuku and its award winning food and sweet confections. While I had not had a chance to visit any of the restaurants, I had tasted some of the Momofuku cookies that a cousin once brought to our home when she visited. Initially, I thought the cookies to be unique and interesting. But as I munched on them I started to get captivated. Have you tried the “Compost”, for instance? There is so much going on in that cookie in terms of ingredients ….and yet they all somehow make delicious and addictive sense! :-)

If you are a foodie, and follow food news it’s hard to not know David Chang…the brain behind Momofuku. This man has single-handedly shaken up the international culinary scene as we knew it and has redefined it to a point where most chefs aspire to think and create like him. I was simply DYING to try his food.

So, my friend ElBo and I decided to make a foodie trip to NYC today. We chose Ma Peche (means “Mother peach”), as we had some business to take care of in midtown. Ma Peche is one of the few Momofuku restaurants that accept reservations, by the way.

With a small menu…comprised of simple sounding dishes. Wait! Did I just say that the menu was “simple”? Well! Let me tell you that the food was anything but. A complex marriage of ingredients and flavors, I can safely say that I have never EVER eaten food like this before!!!

We tried the Brussels Sprouts with chipotle, egg and Cotija cheese (this dish is so good that the restaurant can’t take it off the menu due to popular demand). I cannot tell you what wonderful things the chipotle did to the Brussels sprouts. The Cotija cheese added a delicate tang and salty component while the perfectly cooked egg (runny in the center) created a creamy and smooth sauce for the whole dish and successfully pulled all the components together in the dish.

Going to Momofuku? Gotta try their Ramen noodle dishes. So we ordered the Duck Ramen with miso and bok choy. Mmm…. Mmm… The miso created a wonderful base for the broth that you could not spare a drop of. This broth was so rich and deep in flavor, and I loved the way that the noodles just soaked in all that goodness. The duck was cooked to perfection. Soft and tender with a slightly smoky flavor, it’s juices also dripped into the broth resulting in pure “Wow”!

Our third entrée was shredded Lamb with cabbage, mint and poppy seed. It was served with a light and flaky bread. What an unusual dish and what great taste. The lamb was a little crispy yet quite moist … and so delicious! This dish is a must try on the menu.

We tried a couple of desserts as well. A birthday cake truffle and a candy bar pie. They were a perfect examples of the very essence of the award winning Momofuku pastry chef: Christina Tosi.

Paul Carmichael is the executive chef at Ma Peche. Originally from Barbados, he does a wonderful job of taking David Chang’s primarily Asian inspired dishes and adds a Latin twist to it to make it his own. Since I love both those styles of cuisines, to me this combination was a win-win.

Ma Peche, NYC | http://momofuku.com/new-york/ma-peche/