Spice Market

This afternoon, Kee took me to Spice Market for lunch. The pastry chef had stopped by her shop last week and asked when she was going to drop by. She told him her day off was Monday, and he said he would make reservations for her at 12.30.

The restaurant has a look similar to ABC Carpet and Home, circa 1998. A mix of Asian styles, the space looks more suited to a club than a restaurant, per se. Natural materials lined up and framed adorn the walls. Dark carved wood arches separate the different dining areas. A cut out square in the center of the main room leads down to the lounge, while a bar area lines the open kitchen anchoring the rear of the room off to the left side.

The waiter asked us if we knew the "concept" of the resaurant, and proceeded to tell us that the food was all influenced by Southeast Asian street food. The food would arrive as it was prepared, rather than in traditional courses, he warned, and served family style. He then asked us if we would like anything to drink. I found it odd that a concept for the restaurant would have to be explained to us. I later asked him if the green papaya salad was influenced more by the Lao or the Thai version, and he responded with a description of the ingredients, before saying that he thought it was more Thai-influenced. I asked him if they used fermented crab and he shook his head.

We started with the lobster roll and the crunchy squid salad. The waiter warned us again that the roll was wrapped with a jelly that was particularly vinegary. I again felt odd about his warning. The roll came prepared as a Vietnamese summer roll. The lobster was masked by the other flavors, the aforementioned vinegar (which gave the roll a light kick) and a spicy sauce placed on the side. The squid salad was composed of fried calamari piled over greens supported by watercress and papaya. The fried squid was oddly lacking in crispness, but the papaya was incredibly fresh, and the salad nicely seasoned with a slightly spicy vinagrette.

We next had the Vietnamese chicken curry, served with coconut sticky rice. The chicken was tender, and the curry good. Mixed with the coconut sticky rice, the dish improved dramatically (though the consistency of the sticky rice approached that of porridge), but an equal or better could still probably be found fairly easily in Chinatown. The crispy monkfish in coconut with tamarind was a disappointment. The fish, coated with crispy coconut flakes, proved somewhat tasteless; the dish depended too heavily on the dollop of tamarind placed in the center of each piece.

For dessert, Pichet Ong sent out a chocolate tart with condensed milk ice cream and rice pudding with passion fruit sorbet. The tart was incredibly bitter, the taste balanced by the ice cream. A crumbled chocolate crust contained the creamy molten center. The rice pudding and passion fruit sorbet were excellent. The rice pudding was served on soup spoons, with a caramlized glaze coating it. The sorbet was incredibly fresh.

He sent out the Olvatine kulfi, the Thai juice, a flan, and a tray of three mini take out boxes containing durian, blackberry, and lemon ginger sorbets. The kulfi was too much, a thick bar of caramel consistency, flavored with Olvatine, and unlike any kulfi I have had in the East. The Thai juice appropriated a popular Asian dessert, with colored watercress dumplings floating in a milky soup dotted with translucent tapioca balls. The flan was perfunctory. The sorbets were much better. The durian captured perfectly the taste of that pungent fruit, the lemon ginger proved creamy and thick, and the blackberry was refreshingly tart.

The table beside us gasped as our table filled with sweets, and after the waiter told us that that was the last of it, a bag of cookies appeared. Pitchet came out after the meal to chat with Kee, and then took us on a tour of the kitchen. In the basement prep kitchen he introduced us to Stanley Wong, the head chef, before taking us out into the downstairs lounge. There, he chatted with Kee about the future, while two women hoping to trail at the restaurant waited for Mr. Wong.

While Kee went to the restroom, he chatted with one of the women, asking her if she had trailed at Nobu. "You should," he told her, "see what they're like." She nodded and he asked her what she was doing tomorrow night. She said she was to start at Spice Market. "How about tonight?" he asked. Se made an apology and then he asked her about the food at the other restaurants in which she had worked.

When Kee reappeared, we walked upstairs and thanked Pitchet. I was amazed at the vast array of desserts. Midway through he had asked us if we wanted to try the other five that were on the menu. We demurred. Already we had to take the cookies back with us. I tried them later in the evening. They were fantastic. Posted by eku at July 19, 2004 10:36 PM