Every year we attend a wonderful dinner at the Food &Friends
Facility here in Washington which is for major donors, and it always
proves to be a very fun evening.
This year it was DC's
youngest super-chef Erik Bruner-Yang who has blown DC away with his
ramen restaurant Toki Underground ( H St, NE). Last week he opened
Maketto which serves
breakfast, lunch and dinner while you
shop for clothes; it's a novel take on dining & shopping and might
be worth a stop-in to see. Chef Bruner-Yang still came last night,
although he departed a bit early after taking questions and walking
around the room to greet the diners; he had lots of work to do in his
6-day old restaurant/store.
We chose this night as we wanted
to see what he could do outside of the ramen realm, and he explained
that the cuisine last night was indeed Cambodian-influenced as his wife
is Cambodian and this will also be one of the styles of cooking at
Maketto.
On arrival we tasted an awesome Cambodian Sausage in a
Cabbage wrap which he later explained was fermented in rice giving it a
slightly sour yet spicy tang which made me go for seconds. As Chef
Bruner-Yang is from Taiwan, Chinese buns feature largely in his cuisine
and we had Leek Buns with a tangy Hoisin sauce as one of our hor's
d'oevres. Only the Scallion "Pancake" was a bit boring and because it
just needed more flavor. It was not really a pancake but a phyllo-dough
pastry like Spinakopita which was buttery, flaky and delicious, but only
one bite had enough scallion for me.
The first
course was a tasty Red Snapper Crudo(Ph'Lee Uh Sach Trey) with
Watermelon Radish, Coconut and a Salt Cured Egg which was quite novel
and a bit spongy. Chef later explained it is salt cured for three weeks
in tamarind & lime like salmon hence the name 1000-year old egg in
China. The Domaine des Cassagnoles Gros Manseng 2013 was the perfect
foil to the complex flavors in the dish.
A beautiful, if
simple, Khmer Tamarind Salad (Nyoam Teuk Amp-uhl)of greens including
lettuce, pea shoots and "Phil's" carrots was next with a tasty tamarind
dressing. I loved the in-bloom watercress flowers that were quite large
and yellow atop the salad as these were tasty and not bitter as some
edible flowers can be. Domaine les Fouques Cotes de Provence Cuvee de
l'Aubigue Rose 2013 was a superb crisp wine and ideal for any dressed
salad.
American Wagyu (Bao Gua Bao) was our
main course and again with beautiful steamed rice buns (which we were
told are gluten free) and more of that yummy Hoisin. We made our own bao
sandwiches with the lean meat and accompanying pickled veggies. A Marc
Kreydenwiess Costieres-de-Nimes Perrieres 2010 was aged enough for sure,
but didn't have enough punch in it's light red mix to work well with
the intense flavors of the meat, pickles and hoisin.....
Dessert
was Banana Cream Pie and I would call it RE-constructed (no
deconstructed) with Struesel, Caramel, Pastry Cream and Coconut. Not one
plate had a bite left on the table.
