Fatty Crab... again

Recently we found ourselves going out in the Meatpacking District, and since I'm rarely in that neighborhood, I wanted to go eat at Fatty Crab.  It was a great summer day, so we sat outside, and Redneckhunter and our friend started off the evening right with some Fatty special shots and chasers:  #1 was the Recession Special: whiskey, spicy pickle back, and PBR; #2 was the Panchito Special: tequila, Malay sangrita, and Tecate with lime and chili-salt.

Then came the snacks:  Steamed pork buns (which were good, but less flavorful than Momofuku's), Fatty sliders (pork and beef burgers, with a nice thick Asian-style pickle, and spicy remoulade), the Fatty dog (xo sausage, pickled chili, pickled radish, cucumber, aioli), and charred corn with chili-sugar-salt (a bit overpriced at $6).  We also ordered my favorite dish, Nasi Lemak (chicken curry, coconut rice, poached egg, and otak which is dried spiced fish). We devoured it before I thought of taking a photo.   It's still my favorite dish - just wonderful comfort food -- and of the snacks, the nice surprise were the yummy sliders.  Another shot and chaser and we were ready for the Meatpacking circus!

Fatty Crab

643 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 352-3590

Singapore's Banana Leaf, Farmer's Market, LA

Nestled in one corner of the LA Farmer's Market in Hollywood is a small stand, Singapore's Banana Leaf, that serves unique tasting food from recipes inspired by Singapore and Malaysia.

I've been coming to this place for several years and was glad that on this recent trip to LA that I was able to come back.
For a starter, we ordered the Rojak salad, a fresh salad made up of cucumber, sprouts, pineapple, apple, and fried tofu covered with a peanut tamarind dressing. One of my favorites.
We also ordered Paratha, basically fried dough you could pull apart and dip in a warm curry sauce.

For entrees, we got the Me Goreng with chicken and the Beef Rendang.
The Me Goreng was a fried noodle dish with some chile, vegetables, and meat- kind of like a Malaysian take on lo mein- delicious.

The most flavorful dish was probably the beef rendang- it's basically a slow cooked meat with coconut milk, ginger, and other spices. So flavorful and rich.

6333 W Third St Ste 122
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: (323) 933-4627

Fatty Crab

So I've been reading about Fatty Crab in NYC for a long time, but the gods have kept conspiring against me when I've tried to eat there. In fact on Friday, I first showed up for lunch only to find a sign on the door saying they were closed until dinner -- undaunted, I wandered the West Village for 4 hours and returned promptly to chow down.
The dishes aren't huge so even with only 2 people we got a nice variety. A green mango with chili-salt "snack" was simple and refreshing -- Asian wisdom knows that the salt brings out the sweetness in an otherwise tart fruit. The other "salad" (which usually implies healthy...) was pickled watermelon with crispy pork. The striated cubes of fatty pork were deep-fried, so when you bit into them the fat melted in your mouth like butter.
Our two main dishes were Sambal clams: which included one huge succulent razor clam and over a dozen cherrystones simmered in a spicy, pungent sauce. I wasn't familiar with Indonesian Sambal sauce, being more used to Chinese chili-garlic sauces, but I'm gonna look for it next time I'm at the Asian market; and the fatty duck: large chunks of duck that have been brined, steamed, then fried had a wonderfully peppery flavor, crispy outerskin, luscious fat layer, and nice meaty flesh. They were topped with crisp pickled cabbage, thinly sliced red chilies, and served over fragrant toasted rice with a rich sweet sauce. The sweet teeny rice flour cakes they brought out with the check were nice too. We were pretty fatted-out, so for dessert we just grabbed a couple lovely little Valrhona chocolate cookies at Three Tarts. They sell gifts, collectibles, cutesy baby things too -- everything in the store was just precious.