Great riff on Portlandia’s “Did You Read?” sketch; Lauren and I actually had the idea to do this but props to these people for actually pulling it off.
“Did you have the chef’s secret tasting menu at Roberta’s? Yes, I did and the month-long wait was worth it because the carrots they grow on the roof there are so sweet.”
Source: vimeo.com
Well it was only a matter of time. TechStars will be featured in a Bloomberg TV miniseries that covers incubating a startup in NYC.
Photos from Ground Zero
After the news, we went down to Ground Zero last night around 1:30 am to check out the scene. It was absolutely incredible; wall to wall people, men and women in uniform and full of chants, cheers, and singing.
I have no idea why I didn’t bring my SLR, but here are some poor quality photos from my iPhone.
Incredible. Must watch in fullscreen. Thanks Chris Dixon.
Momofuku Ssäm Bar
Arrived at Momofuku Ssäm Bar around 8:45 and put our names down for an hour and forty-five minute wait. Drank some yuzu and a lychee shochu cocktail at Sake Bar Decibel until some kind of explosion in the kitchen sent a pungent odor of gas throughout the dimly lit basement. We were rushed out by the staff, and they kindly insisted that we shouldn’t pay for our drinks.
Spent another hour at Angel’s Share, a wannabe speakeasy tucked away in a Japanese restaurant on Stuyvesant, where we drank a martini of bacon-infused bourbon mixed with plum liqueur, pomegranate, lime, balsamic honey and their take on a Dark and Stormy with housemade Earl Grey-infused vodka, Lillet Blanc and ginger ale.
Returned to Ssäm Bar around 10:45 and were promptly seated on high stools at a table near the door.
We were hungry, and ordered as such:
steamed buns* – pork belly, hoisin, cucumbers, scallions
Juicy, super fatty rectangles of pork. A dollop of sriracha was just the right amount of spice, but it wasn’t until the bottom of the bun where I sunk my teeth into the real triumph: perfectly pickled cucumbers, probably the best I’ve eaten.
bbq rib sandwich (newman’s farm, mo) – red onion slaw
This was a take it or leave it dish, I enjoyed the shredded pork and BBQ sauce, but the roll was nothing to write home about, and they should have strained the slaw a bit as it completely submerged our sandwich in juice.
benton’s smoky mountain country ham (madisonville, tn)
Someone told me I had to order the ham. This particular selection was suggested by the waiter at my request of something with a lot of smokey bite. It was indeed, and was delicious a top the provided baguette smeared in gravy. Still, I would have preferred ordering a dish from the seasonal menu instead.
lo mein* – ramps, trout roe
Probably my favorite dish of the evening. The whole wheat noodles were served extremely al dente, tough to the bite, which I enjoyed. They sat a top of bed of large trout roe, that wasn’t too eager to pop in your mouth, but delicious none the less.
chili soft shell crab – green plum, asparagus, lemon confit
Sweet, spicy, a small serving and a bit too much breading in places, but the asaparagus swooped in to save the day.
hanger steak (creekstone farm, ky) – romesco, fiddleheads, almonds
I was hesitant to order this dish as hanger is normally not as juicy or tender as a prefer my steak but I was wary of pork overload from the shoulder steak and decided to ignore my gut. Happy I did because the steak was prepared beautifully, succulent and flavorful. The fiddleheads were a surprising addition, an almost Asian okra. The romesco a bit more sweet than I prefer it but still retained its smokey nutty-ness; a creamy complement to the dish.
We opted not to order dessert (grapefruit cream pie with a Ritz cracker crust, or Thai iced team parfait) knowing that Milk Bar was only a few paces away and the promise of compost cookies was too hard to resist. It turned out to be a grave mistake, as we hit the doors at 12:10am and came face to face with a closed sign. Do not make the same mistake.
Asterisk (*) denotes dishes I recommend.
