Caine Blog

Had only one day to try some of Fergus Henderson’s menu items at Momofuku Noodle Bar.  Henderson is the chef at London’s St. John restaurant, has earned renown for using offal, and last night completed a one-night-only guest appearance at Momofuku.  Whaddya know, a lot of offal last night - on the menu, if not available to order.  I got there around 9 and ordered all that was left on the menu: grilled chitterlings and pig’s head and bean salad.  Everything but those two items - and a deep-fried rabbit priced, somewhat strangely, at $41 - had been ordered, something of a shocker since Momofuku stayed open very late last night…by the time my friend and I left, people were ordering off of the regular menu.

The menu items were…good, for the most part.  The chitterlings were skewered and covered in a mustard sauce of some sort, and despite the somewhat inconvenient texture - like chewing rubber, at least for the first few minutes - I enjoyed them.  They reminded me of the fried intestines I had at a restaurant in Flushing’s Chinatown, although while those were akin to undercooked calamari, these were decidedly more delicate.

The pig’s head and bean dish came out in a light broth, and seemed to me outrageously British.  The head meat was fatty but it melted in my mouth easily, and the beans’ presence - firmer than the meat - created a wonderful inversion to what one normally sees on menus.  That being said, the dish was somewhat bland: the meat was hardly seasoned, and the beans, while rich from the presence of all that head fat, did not make up for it.

Still, I would describe last night as a qualified success.  It’s wonderful to see so many people digging into offal - thanks, Eater! - but at the end of the day, there’s nothing inherently spectacular about it.  What makes the difference - and particularly with offal, with it’s often odd textures and flavors - is the chef’s touch, and I wanted more of that.  But I’m not complaining, really - it was pretty damn good.