“We do not serve vegetarian-friendly items here..” says the menu at Momofuku Ssäm Bar, New York.

Ah.. Momofuku. You should hope to bet your bottom dollar, that any dish that bears that “huge” name behind it, would at least have the knack of being big, addictive carnivorous flavour combinations that get under your skin.

Or so you hope.

Momofuku Inspired Pork Buns at S.wine @ Publika

We look at the S.wine deli menu, and we get outrageously excited about the item that reads “Momofuku Inspired Pork Buns” simply because, of what that one word, Momofuku, represents. What do the likes of Mario Batali and the great British chef Fergus Henderson, the gifted Asian chef David Chang of Momofuku have in common? Give up? They all happen to be card-carrying members of the Refined Meathead school of cooking. i.e. they all have an intense fondness for pork products and I am, of course, expecting to be transported to a heavenly realm of porkworshipfullness, when I see Momofuku printed in bold across the dish I am about to order.

The dish arrives and it looks great. We sink out teeth into the “Momofuku Inspired Pork Buns”and feel.. and feel, less than inspired. The pork wasn’t flavourful enough, nor had it been braised long enough. Not what we had expected at all.

Not breaking a sweat, we settle down for more swine.

Salad of Pork Confit with pine nuts, mint leaves, lemongrass, watermelon and lychee

A terrific porcine salad – if there is one salad to order on the menu, this would be it. The pork confit was insanely decadent, melt in your mouth creamy, and oozing with flavour. Please do yourselves a favour and order this.

Pork Satay

Pork satay – if not for the peanut sauce, tasteless and boring. Don’t order this. It had hardly any aroma of a marinade on it. Unless you’re serving super-sonic iberico pork satay, for pete’s sake, put some herbs on it.

Siew yoke – roast pork

Tasty and fatty enough but the crackling was hard. Some say, that this is the Angmoh (western) version of siew-yoke, so don’t expect the skin to be crispy, but rather chewy and hard. Hmmmm, for RM20 for this portion of siew-yoke, I would bloody well expect it to not only be crispy and crunchy, but I’d expect this siew-yoke to sing and dance, and throw in a raunchy burlesque number as well. Not up to par.

pasta – sausage and bacon chunks

This pasta was just OK for me. For RM24, they were generous with the portion of spaghetti, and the massive chunks of pork sausages were delicious, but the tomato capsicum concasse with cream was rather heavy going. If you have the luxury of  taking a long nap after this meal, then go for it!

Some of the dishes we wanted  to try that day, were not available for ordering. The Manager told us that these pork dishes had not met with Ben’s stringent approval yet. This really peaked our curiosity. We will definitely be back for more porky delights – we merely scratched the surface at S.wine Deli today.

The hors d’oeuvres known as devils on horseback (bacon-wrapped dates) and pigs in blanket (cocktail franks in puff pastry) never fail to make me chuckle. I mean, aren’t those names just so cute? Well to tell you the truth, the devils on horseback is the reason I keep coming back to Cristang. Their version is crispy fried bacon-wrapped asparagus. Nice!

There was recently a blogging frenzy on this place and we decided to let it ride for awhile. However, since there didn’t seem to be any letting up on the Cristang Wave , we decided to ride the tide .. and here is our post.

Otak-otak – not the conventional otak-otak as this one is crumbly and gritty as opposed to soft and mushy. Flavour wise – delicious and goes perfect with the crackers. Don’t forget to order your wine by the glass or a huge pot of sangria, like we did. You cannot go wrong with wine. It was priced at something ridiculously cheap like RM18 for an extremely huge glass. The sangria however, left a lot to be desired. Not my cup of tea.

The Nasi Lemak Goreng  here at Cristang resembles fried rice. It comes with Chinese sausages (lap cheong), bacon bits and a nice crispy fried egg on top. It actually looks and taste a little like tomato fried rice to me.. with spice!

The laksa – This was a real winner. Spicy, sourish and full of spices and herbs. This dish I would order again without any qualms.

The P7 – rather difficult to photograph (but I am sure hairyberry would beg to differ).. but really the highest ranking burger on the menu at Cristang. Wait a minute.. it’s so high ranking it’s not even on the menu! Go figure. An excellent burger treat that has in it, all the sinful pleasures that a pork patty, bacon slices, minced pork, and petai could possibly possess.  Mind-blowing. I heard that there is recently a P8..? wait.. a P9? Not sure.. but I think the burgers just keep getting bigger and better!

Top that off with butter cake fried in butter and add a dollop of high fat ice-cream and just call it a day.

Cristang. Have you had your pork fix yet..?

Read about why this place is also these two blogger’s favourites here and here.

After taking one look at the crowded inside of WIP, we decided to take a table outside.

9pm on a Sunday and this place is thriving. Maybe it’s because it’s fairly new.. maybe because the owners of WIP are also the owners of Soul-out.. and thus have a reputation of having the midas touch.. whatever it is, the proof of the pudding is in the eating .. so… less talk.. let’s eat !

Our friendly waitress … soooo adorable! this place is already starting to take on a HIGH CLASS soul-out feel… hmmm… its makes the anticipation of good food all the more ACUTE. Bring it on

The Sang Har mien, priced at RM33 … i couldn’t wait to sink my teeth in it! It looked really really good!

2 mouthfuls later…. hmmmm…

…..

… what can i say…. I was pretty disappointed
it tasted BLAND and the prawns were over-cooked and soft as mush.

At RM33? Man, i was not impressed…

Things didn’t improve as the night progressed… The pizza was so-so and nothing to rave about. Not enough fresh tomato base. Totally average.

Finally we looked to the ice kacang to redeem the night. No such luck… It was like eating iced syrup at best.. and lacked that round, rich, creamy condense milk texture that i crave in any decent ice kacang.

Oh well, been there, done that… not likely to buy the Tshirt ;P

Food:3/10
Price:overpriced
Service : good
MSG levels : nil

We had the steak on hot stone…

very hot stone..!

grilled protabella mushroom with spinach…

the Mongolian shredded duck quesadilla with spicy Asian guacamole…

many, many rolls…

(did i mention , many rolls ?)

and… the famous spicy Kung Pao Calamari steaks with Hazelnuts… !
To tell you the truth , the hazelnuts were soggy… but the calamari steaks were out of this world!

We will be back !

Food : 7/10
Price : very affordable because of the happy hour
Service : Poor (slow) – must be because of happy hour

Next stop…. junk/fast food and coffee in San Diego..!