eat for work

Asian Invasion

Dear Readers,

Sorry for my major flaking out of writing posts on eat for work. Partially to blame is the extreme cold wintry weather that has settled in to the New York area and prevented both reps and us from trekking out of our offices to grab lunch. Mostly, we’ve been inundated with lunch meetings catered in the office, which hasn’t been all that bad either.

First entry of 2009 – Fatty Crab.

Fatty Crab

www.fattycrab.com
643 Hudson Street
(212) 352-3590

Chinese and South East Asian food – Do not go to Fatty Crab if you are into bland tastes, or if you can’t handle spices. On the other hand, if you’re looking for explosions of taste in your mouth, exotic and authentic cusine, and are ready to try anything, then this would be a great place for you to check out. Also, I’d recommend ordering family style (where everyone shares dishes) to truly get a taste of all the different flavors in the menu. Plus, it’s more traditional.

Snacks (Appetizers):

• Quail Egg Shooters – not for the faint of heart. I personally enjoyed them, but my fellow lunchers were not fond of its strange consistency and pungent tastes. Still an experience, nonetheless.

• Jalan Alor Chicken Wings – “similar to a barbecue-style – tangy, sweet, tender, delicious” as commented by my co-worker.

• Steamed Buns (Pork or Veggie, we got both) – Similar to the steamed bun sandwiches that are all the craze from Momofuku, I thoroughly enjoyed the pork buns because of the fattiness of the pork. The meat was almost creamy, melt-in-your mouth, and perfectly paired with the greens that you add in yourself.

• Fatty tea sandwiches with pork belly and sambal aioli – Forgot to ask what sambal is, but there was definitely a taste of seaweed salad in the sandwiches. The tea sandwiches were a good appetizer because it prepared my palette by blasting it with a mix of spicy and sweet tastes.

Main Dishes

• Assam Laksa with traditional spicy fish soup, laifun – a noodle soup that is large enough to share with three people. As much as I was looking forward to the Laksa (I have yet to find good Laksa outside of Hong Kong), I was not impressed with this dish. For me, it was too fishy (with mini dried sardines and anchovies floating around the soup), and there wasn’t enough of a curry flavor to it as I’m used to. The noodles were good – thick rice noodles – and there were lots of spices and even pineapple slices in the soup.
• Wonton Mee with shrimp and pork wontons, fried noodles – I didn’t get to try this dish, but I would say it is a safer decision than the Laksa. Not spicy, and the crispy noodles were a good contrast to the soup.
• Fatty Duck steamed, fried, toasted tamake – Absolutely divine. By far my favorite dish on the menu. The duck was perfectly season, with this great crispy textured skin yet tender and juicy meat. If you get nothing else on the menu – get this.
• Chili Crab, a dungeoness crab with chili sauce and white toast – Although the restaurant is called “Fatty Crab”, I wouldn’t necessarily order the crab. It comes in the shell, steamed and covered in sauce, but the meat inside is not especially different from regular steamed crabs. Especially after all the work you do to get to the meat, what you get is not rewarding enough to justify the work.
• Short Rib Rendang braised with Kaffir lime, coconut, chili – This is the second favorite dish of mine. It may have been the first if I hadn’t been too full to do anything but have a quick taste. The sauce that the braised ribs were smothered in was tangy, spicy and sweet. My favorite part was the coconut rice that it covered – mixed with rib sauce, was absolutely delightful.

Dessert

• Complimentary Coconut pastry for all customers – I truly enjoyed this asian-style coconut pastry. It was like mochi – sticky – yet the top was crispy. Even though I was ridiculously full, I still managed to gobble up two squares of this dessert. A great way to end an ethnic meal.

Overall on a scale of 1-10: 8 – While some of the dishes were truly extraordinary (the duck and the rib), I wouldn’t say all of it was at the same level. However, if you are looking for an ethnic food experience, then definitely check it out.