If you haven’t heard by now the craze of Momofuku, I don’t know what rock you have been living under. When rumours were confirmed in 2010 that David Chang was going to bring his craze of Asian inspired, French technique of cooking to Australia, I was eagerly waiting for the day to try his cuisine. There was questions of will there or won’t there be those oh so famous pork buns? Which of his four restaurants of which 1 has 2 Michelin stars was he going to bring to Australia? Momofuku means lucky peach and Seiōbo is the japanese goddess of the west and her sign is the peach tree.
The chances of getting a reservation to this place is almost like trying to win the lotto. First of all they only take online reservations and only for 10 days in advance at a time. You need to create an account, log in at precisely at 10am and pray! They only accept reservations for tables of 1, 2 and 4 for time slots of 7pm, 7:30pm, 8pm. It’s a matter of getting into the system and don’t think or hesitate, just press the button or you will be faced with a series of red crosses, reminding you better luck tomorrow.
On the day I flew back from my 3 week holiday, I thought if I could cheer myself up and try my luck on the Momofuku reservations site. I held my breath and waited……was it true? I got in to secure a coveted reservation to Momofuku Seiōbo!
Blink and you will miss the entrance
The day has arrived and I was eager to get to The Star on time as Momofuku has a strict policy of if you are late for more than 15 minutes without informing them, they will cancel your reservation.
Once inside, I am greeted by sounds of Wu Tang and simple, bistro like decor. In full view is the kitchen with approximately 15 seats along the bar where diners can watch the various chefs fuss over their dishes.
I wish I had this kitchen at home!
There are 15 courses tonight and here…we….go…..
Course 1: snacks. My favourite was the mochi and the smoked potato. The mochi was grilled which ended up with a char on the outside and soft gooey, chewy centre. The smoked potato was just heavenly with a delicate, wafer like casing and smooth, buttery potato with shavings of light fluffy cheese.
Clockwise from front: mochi, nori, smoked potato, shiitake chip
Cheese inspiration from El Loco Hot Dog perhaps?
Course 2: steamed bun. This is what I was waiting for, the infamous steamed bun. Homemade steamed bun which was soft, pillow like, wedged in between, succulent slices of pork belly with cucumber and hoisin sauce. A cute little bottle of sriracha hot sauce came with the steamed bun, I soooo wanted to take it home!
steamed bun: pork belly, cucumber, hoisin
Course 3: sea mullet. I never had sea mullet before and I found it being very oily and fishy but the blood orange took the taste away. The dusting of dried nori was more of a decorative than for flavour, I thought.
sea mullet: blood orange
Course 4: marron. Normally I am not a fan of fennel as I don’t like the aniseed flavour. I think the squid ink masked the aniseed flavour. The marron was lightly poached with a semi-raw center and along with the squid ink and, it was absolutely divine.
marron: fennel, dill
Course 5: beef. The thinly sliced radishes looked like little fans all spread out and underneath it, perfectly cubed chunks of beef with dried watermelon oil (which was surprisingly black?) . I liked this dish the least as the dried watermelon oil gave it too much of a smoky, earthy flavour which over powered the beef.
beef: radish, fermented black bean
Course 6: smoked eel. Another favourite of mine on the night. The smoked slices of eel was nothing like the sort you would find in Japanese restaurants, laden with a sweet soy. The smoked eel spoke for itself with the pink grapefruit pieces providing the acidity to cut through the sometimes “fishness” of the eel. The dish came with a bowl of smoked eel dashi which I could happily slurp another bowl of.
smoked eel: Jerusalem artichoke, pink grapefruit
Course 7: mud crab. Hand picked mound of mud crab covered with old bay sauce. Old bay sauce is a mixture of spices such as mustard, red pepper, cinnamon and cloves. It is commonly used in Southern American cooking to flavour crab and shrimp. The yorkshire pudding was an interesting pairing to the dish but it provided to be a great sponge soaking up the old bay sauce.
mud crab: old bay, yorkshire pudding
Ok we are half way through…..
Course 8: egg. This was presented to us as slow cooked egg and I kept on slicing into the egg, hoping for a runny yolk to ooze out. I finished the whole thing and I realised the slow cooked egg was their interpretation of a Japanese dish of Chawanmushi. The burnt butter was more broth like, rather than the traditional burnt butter sauce you would find with Italian pasta. The toasted rice made the egg seem like I was having a ochazuke.
egg: toasted rice, burnt butter
Course 9: pea agnolotti. Pea puree encased in pasta, surrounded by slices of serrano ham and parmesan. The crunchy sugar snap peas provided a textural element to the soft, pillows of pasta.
pea agnolotti: parmesan, ham
Course 10: mulloway. I found mulloway a little to dry for my liking as I like my fish to be semi-cooked, otherwise I find it too dry. My favourite component on this is the lettuce!
mulloway: smoked roe, lettuce
Course 11: lamb neck. By this stage I was stuffed and I nibbled at the lamb. I never had lamb neck before so I when it came out I was surprised at how big the piece of meat was. I think I was trying to picture how much meat there is on chicken neck and thought it would be same on lamb (go figure?).
lamb neck: onions, mustard seeds
Course 12: pecorino. Finally we are on to desserts! I could only have 1 spoonful of the finely shaved pecorino as I found the cheese more rich being eaten this way. I was desperately trying to save whatever space that was left in my stomach for the 3 other courses.
pecorino: honey licorice, bee pollen
Course 13: wattle seed. I wasn’t a fan of the crispy milk but I love, love, love the malt ice cream. The wattleseed meringue had more of a honeycomb like texture of it sticking to your mouth, rather melting in your mouth.
wattle seed: malt, crispy milk
Course 14: miso. Miso? For dessert? Yeap! Fresh cherries were buried underneath miso ice cream with black sesame on top. The finely ground black sesame resembled soil and I was digging my way into the dessert for more cherries!
miso: cherries, black sesame
Course 15: petit fours. I knew this was going to come but I had no idea how it can go down. The slow roasted pork shoulder was to be eaten with our hands! The skin had a dark, toffee like caramelisation to it and quite frankly the strands of meat was so tender. I could pull the thing apart and turn it into next day’s leftover sandwich (how I wished I asked for a takeaway bag for this).
Petit fours
I think overall I hyped myself up and was expecting to be wowed by every single course, but with 15 courses, it is very hard to do. I took a step back and thought about it again and yep David Chang is a chef who takes real simple ingredients and show cases them and let it speak for themselves. He shows fine dining technique in a casual-esque environment which allows the diners to be loud and have fun at their meal, not whispering and worried about making clanking noises on their table. Would I come here again at $175 a pop? Yes, I would!
Momofuku Seiōbo
The Star
80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont NSW 2009
