Puchowitz's most successful dishes were those that roamed farther off-road into his own creativity, like the panfried cloud puff bao buns stuffed with intensely smoked, Sichuan-spiced pastrami, sauerkraut, and sweet onions, with Russian dressing on the side. The panfried turnip cakes cleverly bound with matzo meal (instead of sticky rice flour) were still too dense beneath their fried egg and bonito flakes. The Jade dumplings had a fantastic center of perfectly seasoned minced shrimp, leeks and fish sauce, but their gorgeous green har gao dumpling skins, turned a deep forest hue with spinach water, were a hint too puffy and soft. The curried cauliflower stuffing inside the crispy dumplings was tasty, but a bit mushy. The inevitable comparisons to more traditional renditions were impossible to avoid.Īnd, for the most part, our complaints settled on subtle textural miscues that pushed a few Bing Bing dishes just slightly off register. That didn't stifle the steady nitpicking at my table: The skins are too thin! No, the skins are too thick! It's no Dim Sum Garden. Even if the 97-decibel roar made conversation a challenge. With a seat inside one of the booths framed by filigreed Chinese bed frames, a coconut-rum drink smoked with lapsang souchong tea draining all too fast, and a parade of inventive, affordable, and boldly flavored Asian small-plates flying by, it's hard to think of a place I've had more fun eating in recent months. ![]() And the two varieties being served now at Bing Bing - the plain ground pork filling bobbing inside a hot gush of pure pig flavor the kimchi-spiked variety blushing sharp with chile heat (though a shade weak with fermented kimchi tang) - are definitely required slurping. And although Puchowitz's soup dumplings are still not as elegantly crafted as one sealed by a certified bao master with 22 identical pleats at the neck, they're more than tight enough to hold the juice. He's made considerable progress in the first few months on those broth-filled Shanghai beggar's purses also called xiao long bao. They drew on the joyous, frenetic energy of that journey for the trippy cartoon dumpling characters that are muraled across the walls of their boisterous wedge-shaped space, the cafe windows wide open onto their sharply angled corner of East Passyunk Avenue.īut none of the Asian dough masters back home - not Sakura-Mandarin, not Dim Sum Garden, not Nom Wah Tea Parlor (a local branch of New York's oldest dim summery just opened in Philly), not even a restaurant in Portland, Maine (!) - would allow him into their dumpling inner-sanctum. The two had gone on a dumpling binge across Hong Kong, and knew the possibilities. The chef behind the irrepressibly likable and unabashedly inauthentic Cheu Noodle Bar was determined to get serious training in authentic dumpling craft before opening Bing Bing Dim Sum, his latest riff on Asian street food in collaboration with partner Shawn Darragh. "I tried to get everyone to let me work with them," he said. In particular, from the prying eyes of Ben Puchowitz. And the many mysteries of the dumpling's art - the recipes for perfectly pliant dough, the sleight-of-hand to shape them deftly - are fiercely guarded by its skilled practitioners. But a great one can be devilishly complex. It may well be the world's cutest food - a bite-sized wonder of sheer dough handiwork gift-wrapped around an infinite variety of juicy hidden treasures. If it came in a bowl five times the size, I would have munched it down myself and asked for more.So damn good.Do not be deceived by the dumpling. I followed that up with the Mapu Tofu Chow Fun. ![]() It was like an explosion of flavors and textures in my mouth. Wow.I had the Everything Bing Bread and spicy Sichuan cucumbers. That treatment alone should merit a five-star review.Then the food came. ![]() So we went from 45 minutes, to 15 minutes, to right now, to private table. After the server took our order, Mike came over and said a table for two opened up. That sounded good, so we went outside to wait, and a minute later, Mike said he could seat us at a communal table if we don't mind. Just then, Mike came out from the back and said that he could probably seat us in about 15 minutes. We chanced upon Bing Bing and ended up having a great experience and a delicious and flavorful dinner.When we arrived we were told it would be about 45 minutes to be seated, so, I gave my number and we were ready to wait. A friend of mine from New York was in for a conference, and I decided to take him to Passyunk to check out the scene and have some dinner.
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