Arrive Magazine - November/December, 2008

with tomatoes and jalapeños. It’s the restaurant’s namesake—the Surf Taco— and it’s the ideal beach meal. There are seven Surf Taco branches along the Jersey Shore, and an eighth is on the way. The restaurants’ California-style vibe— reggae on the radio, bright blue walls and orange ceilings, a blackboard of specials written in neon-colored chalk—is so laid-back you can go with your bathing suit on, but this taco is so good you’ll want to come back after you’re showered for dinner. Or try the quesadillas, bur-ritos and wraps, if you must.

no menu, no hard booze, and that one of the most-talked-about dishes is an English mu n with pork fat, Momofuku Ko became one of the most celebrated restaurants of 2008. The chef, David Chang, has been worshipped in every publication from the Eater blog to The New Yorker, and for good reason: the spicy buttermilk-poppyseed dressing that accompanies his sashimi (fluke or scallops, mostly); the “smoked” egg whose yolk oozes out into a caviar dish

and onions soubise (they are mixed with a Béchamel-based cheese sauce); the grated foie gras with lychee and pine nut brittle. The dishes are inventive and delicious and take the original Momofuku concept of casual Korean-American cooking to haute cuisine— except for the uncomfortable chairs and the blaring music. If you ever get a reservation, the experience will leave you saying, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

Unearth the

Lost Art of Charcuterie Bar Boulud 1900 Broadway (across from Lincoln Center between 63rd and 64th streets) Manhattan 212-595-0303; Danielnyc.com There’s a glass case along the eating bar at Bar Boulud, and you would be wise to sit in front of it. That way, even if you don’t have room to try each variety of charcuterie, you can still marvel at their hand-crafted beauty: terrines glistening with aspic, pâtés with pockets of pork, rilettes so rich you want to take a bath in them. Yes, it’s superchef Daniel Boulud’s menu. But chef charcutier Sylvain Gasdon, who studied under master charcutier Gilles Verot, is offering dishes like we’ve never seen in the U.S. His pâté grand-mere with chicken liver, pork and cognac is utterly ethereal— and traditional; it’s as if you’re in Lyons. But there’s innovation, too: lamb terrine with eggplant and sweet potato; beef-cheek compote with onion confit and pistachio; tourte of duck, foie gras and figs. Find a spot in front of that case and order a slice of something. You’ll truly marvel.

Be Punished for
Desiring Delicious Food
Momofuku Ko
163 First Ave. (between 10th and
11th streets), Manhattan
No phone. Momofuku.com
Reservations are only available online,
and the website opens exactly at 10 a.m.
daily. By 10:01, all seats are gone. But
despite what some are calling the most
annoying reservation system ever in-
vented, and despite the fact that there’s

Ignore Doctor’s Orders
Granville Moore’s

1238 H St. N.E., Washington, D.C.

202-399-2546; granvillemoores.com

Granville Moore’s is named after Dr. Granville Moore, and every once in a while the phone still rings with calls for the family medical history. That is, when the phone isn’t tied up by the sta , which is making calls to the throngs of folks who leave their mobile numbers at the door, hoping for a table to open up. Granville Moore’s is a gritty restaurant, and it calls itself a gastropub with a Belgian tilt, which means it serves French-and Belgian-style food in a pub setting (wooden beams and exposed brick). When it opened in late 2007, it was among the first dining destinations in the edgy Atlas District, and that’s mostly because of the mussels. There are six kinds (try the Au Pesto, made with walnut-arugula pesto). (Of course there are frites, too: these are hand-cut and served with a choice of six sauces.) And to wash it down? A list of more than 50 Belgian beers. Just don’t tell the doctor.