For my first mother's day, team Jewrean had lunch with my parents and my brother and his family at Momofuku Ssam Bar. It's hard to believe, but there are 11 of us now - six adults, two big kids and three tiny kids! Just six months ago, we were only 8! Dan and I have barely eaten out since the arrival of Double Trouble and I've pretty much given up any hope in ever eating at Ko, but this was a nice consolation.
We ordered a couple plates of pickles and pork buns, as well as the brussels sprouts to tide us over until the bo ssam feast arrived. That would have been more than enough food, but then some comp plates started coming out!
My family's been in the restaurant supply business for over three decades now. I've had many meals where the kitchen sends out special plates, but these took the cake. The cured hamachi arrived first. Linda wonders if the guy who does the ordering in the kitchen is in the house. He was not.
The Peanut shows off her chopstick skills, which are way better than mine.
The roasted brussels sprouts that I love so much. The puffed rice that goes in the dish was, I think, cheese flavored, like mini Chee-Toes, this day. A little weird.
Meacham and Broadbent's country ham, both from Kentucky, with redeye mayo on top. Bread with Vermont sea salt butter and whipped lardo below. The last time I had lardo, it was atop a pizza at Otto years ago. I remember being completely put off by the texture, which was like thinly sliced cartilage or plastic. Not that I'll make a regular habit of eating it, but whipped is the way to go.
Sichuan beef tendon with Chinese greens, peanuts and green mango. Tendon is not ever something I seek out, in fact I go out of my way at Vietnamese or Chinese restaurants to avoid it, but this was enjoyable. It had really deep beefy flavor and wasn't too chewy. The crunch of the peanuts and the freshness of the mango were good compliments.
We all momentarily ignore the food to stare at the Dumpling, who had just woken up from her nap.
Cabbage lettuce patch kid!
Pulling apart the pork butt. The thing was huge. I ate a ton, the table ate a ton and we still had pounds of meat to take home. Served with the pork is a platter of oysters with a light kimchi consomme which I didn't love. I thought they were a little lacking in the briney taste of the sea that makes oysters so delicious. You also get rice and four condiments - kimchi, kimchi puree, ssamjang and a scallion ginger sauce. My style was to put a dab of all four on each lettuce purse I created.
In case you were wondering, Sam and Otis slept through the entire meal!
Labels: double trouble, east village, lunch, pork
Clockwise from bottom left: tortilla de patata (I didn't have the proper pan, but M did a good job of improvising), mixed greens with homemade vinaigrette, a pyramid of chevre, whole wheat pain au levain and asparagus. 
