"momofuku" news and stories

Diners at Le Fooding. Photo: Pabo76/Flickr

What happens when the best French and American chefs of the moment converge on New York City for a weekend of casual culinary madness, all in the name of charity?

It's called Le Fooding D'Amour Paris-New York. The two-day event took place in Long Island City, N.Y. at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and included tasting stations by David Chang (Momofuku), Wylie Dufresne (WD~50), Yves Camdeborde (Le Comptoir du Relais), Sean Rembold (Diner), William LeDeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie), Christophe Pelé (Bigarrade) and more.

Slashfood attempted to try as many of the dishes on offer as possible, considering the long, snaking lines and lack of lighting at the outdoor venue.

Check out our photos after the jump.

A look at the banh mi craze currently sweeping Gotham, with young Vietnamese chefs interpreting the classic sandwich in non-traditional ways.

Critic Frank Bruni visits Feast, a Houston restaurant whose British ex-pat chefs turn Texans on to the unexpected joys of offal.

Twenty-five percent of Newark, N.J.'s population is of Portuguese descent. Here's what they're eating.

Some bars and restaurants are storing their by-the-glass wines in kegs and serving them as though they're beer.

More about our beloved Momofuku Milk Bar; a writer weighs in on the tooth-bendingly sweet treats.

We can't swear to it, but we suspect that this Momofuku Milk Bar Volcano was sent here from Planet Chang either to teach us or to enslave us. We can't be certain of its purpose, but what we do know is that all the breakfast food bravado we've flaunted up to this point -- Brooklyn deli egg and cheese bombs, full-on Irish black and white pudding spreads, Meatnormous® BK sammies and half-sow Bellagio Buffet crepes laid waste to in short order -- meant diddly squat as we stood at the Volcano's lip and by God, were afraid.

Chef David Chang's co-conspiritor Christina Tosi works the sweet end of the Momofuku Ssam Bar's East Village space at Milk Bar, turning out scrumdiddilyumtious sun-dense cornflake-chocolate chip cookies, dentist-scoffing Crack Pie and soft-serve cereal milk ice creams by the bucketload. We thought we had her all figured out, and there she had to go tossing out double-dog-dare words like "savory" and "volcano." Dang.

Turns out the steaming, softball-sized item is essentially a knish stuffed to rumbling with potato gratin, Gruyere, Benton's bacon, caramelized onions and a good 20 or so minutes off the average human's lifespan. No worries -- contrary to today's New York Times' $25 and Under assessment, we found its hefty, tangy slather of Mornay sauce to be more than adequate compensation for the latter.

We're not ashamed to admit that we were bested and could not conquer the Volcano in one sitting, or even without assistance from concerned colleagues, but we learned and we grew as people (or perhaps that last part was just our thighs.)

No matter. What we'd like to know is this -- how much can you manage to chow down in the morning? Are you after daybreak fare that sticks to your ribs or does coffee alone keep you fueled until lunchtime? Take the poll, and as always, comment away.

Style.com and it's men's site, men.style.com, have been all about the edible goodness lately. Earlier in the week, Style.com posted a fun slide show that features a number of people from the fashion and style world showing off their favorite holiday recipes (I'm particularly drawn to the recipe for Boerenkool Stamppot, aka Kale Hash, from Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren).

Today, I got wind of a video that men.style.com did with David Chang, chef/owner of the Momofuku empire, as he wandered around New York City's Kitchen Arts and Letters bookstore (I made a pilgrimage to that shop last February and it was like I had suddenly arrived at nirvana, right there on Lexington Avenue). It's a great video, because Chang is intensely passionate about cookbooks and doesn't feel the need to hide his appreciation for all those talented chefs who have come before him.

Who knew that food was so fashionable!