let's get this bread: Momofuku CCDC review

For my last night in D.C, I got to pick where we went for dinner. And since the other day I had passed by while going to the milk bar next door, and I was very intrigued. As soon we got back to the hotel, I made a reservation, and now here we are. I gotta say overall, I it was a pretty good experience. We were seated pretty quickly, and the place was very lively that Friday night. We got the four course tasting menu, which is served family style. The courses are composed of a two appetizers and bing bread with spreads, some sort of starch or noodle dish, a main course, and dessert. It cost $49 per person, which for the quantity and quality of the food you get, isn’t really that bad.

Our first course. The cucumbers are on the left, the beets on the right.

The first courses arrived fairly quickly, and consisted of spicy cucumber with togarashi and curried red beets with citrus and radish. The cucumber had a nice bite to it, and the sauce coated the cucumber in a way that set up a good contrast between the crunchy cucumber and the creamy sauce. Plus the togarashi, which is a blend of chili peppers and things like sesame seeds, added an extra kick, but was tolerable enough even for spice-sensitive people like me.

The cucumbers arrived with the other starter, curried beets with citrus and sliced radish. I enjoyed the beets, which were tender and diced into small pieces, which not only allowed the natural earthiness of the beets to shine, it also let the curry and citrus flavor properly permeate throughout the entire dish. While the flavor was good, it was a little muted, which made the dish a tad bit boring to eat after a couple of bites. The radish is mainly is a garnish and I suppose as a texture contrast, but for me its presence didn’t really work. I feel like if it had been chopped up and more integrated into the dish I would’ve liked it better, but the raw radish just acts like a bland roof here.

While I enjoyed these two dishes, I will say they definitely felt more like snacks or like banchan, which are the side dishes you get at Korean restaurants and that come before the main event. To be honest, if I came here again, I would probably not order these two things, as they weren’t that memorable, and there are definitely better things to spend your money on here. More on that below.

Next came the bing bread, which is this crispy, Asian flatbread-esque thing, made of wheat. Here it was served with various spreads. The bread arrived looking like it was brushed in some sort of fat, but in a good way. It was crunchy and buttery on the outside, but when you tear into it, its soft and tender and bread like on the inside. The bing bread has some flavor, reminiscent of sourdough, but not too much that it detracts from the delicious creamy things you’re supposed to spread on it.

So now on the those delicious creamy things I was talking about. The spread that kind of looks like hummus is sunflower hozon, which is a Changian invention that’s basically like if miso paste was made of sunflower seeds. It’s super creamy and nutty and just so luscious and rich, that you cannot scoop enough of it onto the bread, which is the perfect vehicle for this dip. It’s like if the hummus and pita triangles you see at parties had a makeover and was like twenty times better. There are also some marinated radishes and sesame seeds sprinkled on top, which add some surprise texture and acidity that make the spread even better.

Next we tried the salted chili pimento cheese with bread butter pickled kohlrabi. The peppers weren’t too spicy, but not mild either, and the cheese was rich and creamy, and the crunchy, acidic kohlrabi was a pretty ideal spread for the warm bing bread. I could probably eat this every day.

My favorite spread however, had to be the simplest one: path valley cultured butter with honey and gochugaru, which is some type of Korean chili pepper. It was so simple but so delicious. Unsurprisingly, the combination of the honey and slightly salty softened butter, which melts and soaks into the bread, turned the bread into a rich, decadent, and sweet treat. I didn’t really taste the gochugaru, which was fine, although it probably would’ve added a nice extra kick.

spicy black bean noodles with scallions and fried garlic.

The starch, was spicy black bean noodles with scallions and garlic. I love noodles of all kinds, so I really enjoyed this dish. The sauce was very thick and only slightly spicy, and the noodles where my favorite kind, as they were wide and sightly chewy. They kind of reminded me of boxed fettuccine noodles. And the crunchy fried garlic on top added an unexpected bitterness and crunchiness that was a good addition. After all, adding fried garlic to a dish is almost never a bad thing.

The main course was dry spiced chicken with olives, cilantro yogurt and rotisserie fat rice. Chicken was basically the only meat I ate when I was younger, so I consider myself a roast chicken connoisseur, and I really enjoyed this chicken and rice dish. The dish did a really good job of balancing flavors and textures, from the juicy chicken, crispy, crackling skin, herby, creamy yogurt, and crunchy, bright, and acidic picked red onions. Even the rice was perfectly cooked and a great compliment to the chicken and sauce, and was also flavorful on its own as well.

We had two desserts: black sesame pudding with whipped cream, and bread pudding with oat topping, creme anglaise, and fresh blueberries. I’m allergic to sesame, so I didn’t eat the pudding, but according to my parents, it was pretty good. I love custard, eggy bread budding, so I really liked it, especially how it wasn’t that sweet, and also like most dishes here, was super balanced. I only fished the oat topping was a big more crispy or crunchy, as it kind of tasted like eating dry oatmeal. But other than that I really enjoyed this bread pudding.

bread pudding with oat topping, creme anglaise, and blueberries.

Overall, I really liked eating at Momofuku CCDC, and would definitely come here again and order the tasting menu, as it changes every day, and you get to sample the full range of the restaurant.