Fatty Crab

Wrote this review for class. Class is over which makes me sad. Once school is over I'll do a massive top chef recap. I promise.

Fatty Crab

Zak Pelaccio has a great deal on his plate. The chef at 5 Ninth and Fatty Crab, he is also the consulting chef at Chop Suey in Times Square and is consulting on a restaurant with friends Will Goldfarb and Josh DeChellis. I thought it might be interesting to see how his second restaurant Fatty Crab was holding up considering how busy the Mr. Pelaccio is.

Dedicated to Malaysian street food, Fatty Crab is a tiny store front in the West Village. When we arrived on a chilly Monday evening weekday evening the place was packed, always a good sign. My party and I opted to sit outside than wait for a table or squeeze three people onto a table for two. Service was a bit lacking as we were ignored outside till we went back inside to ask for a table inside or some menus. We decided to sit back outside, and once our waitress did appear she was quite kind and courteous. She helped us navigate the menu and informed us that it was smarter to share rather than to order individual entrees.

The food for the most part was bright and tasty with few missteps. The fatty tea sandwiches, pork belly on white bread with sambal mayonnaise, were for the most part successful. They were fatty and tasty though in my opinion they could have used some acid to cut the richness of the pork belly. The best dish in my opinion came next, the malay fish fry, with fried fish, cilantro and chilies served with tamaki rice. The fried fish was light with no trace of grease, the rice was well balanced with sweet and spicy and the cilantro added a spark of freshness. My other favorite dish of the night was the fatty sliders, small hamburgers made of pork and beef with sambal mayonnaise served on a potato bun with bibb lettuce and a pickle. The combination of meat was perfectly seasoned and juicy and the spicy mayonnaise and the pickle added the perfect spicy sour counterbalance.

Less successful was the fatty duck. Meant to be eaten with your hands, the duck was slightly overcooked and the dish was grossly unbalanced. The sweet glaze on the duck was also on the tamaki rice that the duck came with making it far too sweet for my tastes. The vegetable bun while tasty did not blow me away by any means.

Overall I left satisfied, our meal was under thirty dollars per person and everyone in my party was full at the end of the meal. I feel like Fatty Crab is the kind of restaurant where there are hidden gems on the menu. I look forward to going back to try and find them.

Grafitti and such

So i've been pretty sucky with the blog updates, not that i haven't been eating out or not watching top chef. I've just been procrastinating like a lazy person. So forgive me. Last night I had dinner with my dear friend marsha. We went to grafitti, a tiny asian fusion tapas place in the east village. The menu is split up into three categories $7, $12, $15. We had the following:

Flatbread with cheese
Chili pork dumplings
Pork Buns
Chili prawns
Crab Noodle rolls

The chef is Indian, the flatbread was like the bread i used to eat as a child sprinkled with goat cheese, really nice.
The chili pork dumplings were nice and spicy and paired with semolina crakery things which added some really nice texture. I really enjoyed these.
Pork buns were awesome, beautiful braised pork with more semonlina crunchies, an apricot chutney that tasted like a proper chutney from the motherland. The bun was really soaked up all the braising liquid from the pork. Really Really delicious.
Crab noodle rolls. Nice balance of flavor, but as with most crab things i wanted more crab.
Chili prawns, I was most disappointed with this one. The sauce didn't have enough flavor (where were the curry leaves, don't advertise curry leaves in a dish if you're not bringing curry leaves, please, no one likes a curry leaf tease). The shrimps were flavorless, rice cake unimpressive and the pretzels on top, really? REALLY? how about you properly season your food and stop trying to be cute. But i really liked the pork buns, so we're cool
Marsha chose a nice cote du rhone, because she's a panda sommlier, it was awesome.

Afterwards we headed over to chickalicious pudding, which was down teh street. Marsha had a "adult chocolate pudding", I had a "vanilla custard pudding" Both were inexpensive (2.50) and delicious. The music at chickalisous pudding however, nearly drove me to kill. Z100 can really kiss my ass, being forced to listen to bad music more than anything else, leads me to homicide.

Ate at Degustation again on tuesday. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. Did the ten course tasting again with a wine pairing. Word to teh wise. Wine pairings get you DRUNK. All spainish wines, really wonderful. Some of the courses were the same, one that was different that stuck out was a sardine sandwich in between baugettes that had been fried in butter. Tartar sauce, pickled onions and fresnos. Dear GOD. so fucking good. The last savory course was a slow roasted pork, tomatillo puree, fresnos peppers, mushrooms and micro cilantro. It was like they climbed into my brain. It was amazing. They sent us a glass of port, which i had never had before. Unfortunatly at that point in the evening i was too drunk to really dissect the flavor of the port.

Other dining briefs:
**Went to Gusto two days in a row. My friend is the chef there, after a pretty afternoon on sunday went to see her, more for friend support than for food. Of course the soft shell crab and the fettucine with clams helped. As did that new cheesecake. I also went the next day after class and Nicole sent me some beautiful short ribs with white polenta and root vegetables. Wonderful. Nadine showed up and Nicole sent her some meatballs. Because she knows Nadine. Everything was fantastic.
**went to see my friend ben (hey ben) in a show in long island city. Me Marsha, Dr, and Maria wanted some food before the show. We asked ben where to go, he suggested a pub nearby telling us there was no food in the neighborhood. Marsha and I had burgers, Maria had some fish and chips, and our ever adventuorous DR got some pasta. At a pub. Yeah, he's that guy (by that I mean wonderful, handsome and perfect). The food was fine, wonderful guiness. The thing is, as we walked to the show, we passed a perfectly quaint looking bistro called cafe henri. Yeah no food in the neighborhood. What did we learn, do not rely on ben for food recommedations. For music yes, food no.


I think that's it. Um top chef update soon. I promise.