Má Pêche

Last night was my 27th birthday. Since I am getting old and crusty, I wanted liven up the program by eating outside of my usual downtown routine. Sometimes uptown restaurants are too proper for my wild demeanor, white tablecloths and constant changing of silverware feel foreign. I wanted a sophisticated culinary experience with a twist of wackiness so I decided on David Chang's Má Pêche.

Má Pêche means "mother peach"in French and its concept is probably best described as Vietnamese-French fusion by way of local ingredients. The staff is cool and sweet, no uniforms in sight. 

I was warned that they had an impressive raw bar: 

Best Looking prize goes to the Hama Hama Oysters from Northern California

These New Jersey sea scallops are laced with coffee and some weird home-made nougatine encrustation. They were flamed-up by a young man wielding a torch behind the raw-bar:

A fresh, salad-y twist on Long Island Fluke:

Crispy vegetation and pickled fluke with driblets of Green Goddess Dressing.

Bev Eggleston's Pork in a spring roll with peanut sauce:

Lamb Tangine Corn Dawg: 

Les Famous Peconic Bay Scallops with Chili, Yuzu, Seaweed and some crispy sesame toppings that gave the plate a mind of it's own: 

Modern Edible Art

DESSERT FROM MILK BAR...

I recommend that you save some room because  Milk Bar desserts are irresistible. Crack Pie, as you can imagine, is highly addictive. The incredible Candy Bar Cake will kill you before you stop eating it. My new favorite dessert in the world is the B'Day Cake Ball.  I have no idea how they make this sh*t taste as good as it does, but god bless them.

BTW: They opened a Milk Bar in Williamsburg on Metropolitan @ Havemeyer

Hotel Delmano, I got MAD LOVE for ya!

When I crave oysters in Williamsburg I head to Hotel Delmano. Call me a simpleton but it is much less important to me to have a list of 100 different species from all over the country than it is to have just a few different species of REALLY fresh, REALLY well-shucked oysters. Hotel Delmano masters the art of the raw bar in my opinion because they take a lot of care in what they buy, how they store their bi-valves and how they shuck. It doesn't hurt that they have incredibly delicious cocktails and a super-fine staff as well as super-fine customers. Steppping into the bar room you feel as if you have been whisked to Havana, Cuba ca. 1950. Often you will find a sweet little jazz quartet with a very hip, sultry red-lipped female singer leading her troupe. We were with Cream the Pitbull when we went for our afternoon bloodies and so we sat outside where you can smoke and drink to your hearts content.

Spicy and Fresh, just like the patrons at Hotel Delmano.



Master Shucker Marco and Gabe the Fish Babe.

Fluke Ceviche, Costa Rican style.
This dish and others are inspired by lovely and well-traveled Tessa, Hotel Delmano's manager.

Bi-valve heaven on earth.

Shuck away my friend, keep on shuckin'.



This is what I call an oyster platter. Hell yeah Marco, YOU ROCK!
Beausoliel - New Brunswuck, Kusshi - British Columbia, Wellfleet -Cape Cod
All oysters by Pierless Fish Corp.



A dog named Cream, and his vices.