One of the things that I love about New York is that there are so many interesting, different and fun things to do. The latest craze for the past couple of years has been the pop-up shop. It's usually a random space that has been turned a short term restaurant by aspiring chefs. I was excited when my friend Lav invited me to a pop up that her friend's boyfriend was working at: Abode Family Meal by Gregg and Sarah - located inside the old Bowery Subway station (complete with old subway tiles and old beams and structures). I showed up without doing much research but I wished that I had because one of the two founders of the pop-up is currently on The Taste, the new Anthony Bourdain cooking school and I would have loved to talk to her about her experience on the show.
I got to the space at 7pm and was seated at a communal table with 2 other couples. Our meal started with a hot toddy small bowls of 5-spiced nuts and olives. The toddy was a nice way to start the meal - with a good warm kick of alcohol and handfuls of sweet nuts. The first dish of the night was the egg n'oyster - poached oyster with chili sauce and deviled eggs stuffed with uni. I enjoyed the oyster but thought that the marinate on it was a bit sour. But it was a clean and well shucked oyster. I loved the egg dish and thought it was so inventive and creative with the uni. I thought that the uni could have been a bit creamier but since it was almost baked into the egg, it had hardened a bit but that didn't really make the dish any less interesting or tasty. Lav had the vegetarian option for dinner and it looked like they had a bit of a count or service issue because the girl next to us got her veggie starter with 4 stuffed mushrooms but Lav had to wait a while for hers and when she got it, there was only 1 mushroom on her plate. Waa Waa. The next dish was the smoked bluefish caesar served on a roasted romaine lettuce leaf. I'm generally not a huge blue fish or lettuce fan so the combination wasn't my favorite. The leaf was a bit soggy and the whole thing just didn't work for me. Meanwhile Lav's vegetarian option was the leaf without the bluefish so being served a piece of roasted lettuce wasn't really the most exciting of dishes. The next course was the best dish of the entire 7 course meal - the oxtail lasagna. It was served with smoked mozzarella and oxtail ragu and I loved every bite of it. The lasagna layers were super soft and light and I would have traded in the rest of the courses for more of this dish. The next dish was the mussels with scallion focaccia bread. The best part of the dish was the scallion bread. It was amazing and squishy and addictive. Unfortunately the mussel dish wasn't. The mussels themselves were totally fine but what ruined the dish was the over peppered broth. It was to the point where I thought I was just eating a bowl of pepper. Luckily I wasn't the only one who thought that because the girl next to me also started coughing up a storm as she ate the dish. The dish would have been so much better if they just stuck with a basic white wine broth instead.
The 5th dish was the glazed skate ribs with a kanzuri glaze and chinese broccoli. While they were serving us, we were told that we could eat it like a rib but instead I continued to use my fork and knife. Given that I just came back from Iceland, I've been on a huge fish kick so I was excited for this dish. But my fish piece tasted undercooked and not in the good rare or sushi form. I just felt like it could have been grilled for a bit longer. I looked over to Lav's dish and it was one of those things that you see at a wedding banquet where instead of making a new creative dish for a vegetarian they just removed the meat/fish portion that they couldn't eat. Lav got a large bowl of chinese broccoli and while she said that the greens were cooked well, it's disappointing to think that this was the alternative to the dish I got. The 6th and last main dish was the roasted pork hocks with black bean sauce, mustard greens and a chicken foot. Even though I'm Chinese and see chicken's feet all the time when I eat dim sum, the presentation of this one just really unappealing, even for me. When you get it during dim sum, it's usually covered in a sauce so it doesn't look like it was just served out of the fridge. While this foot was cooked fine, it was almost white looking and the nails were on full display which was just unsettling to look at. But I did enjoy the pork hocks part of the dish. I would have preferred another part of the pig like the shoulder but the tendon was cooked well and it was easy to eat and it absorbed the black bean sauce well. On to the last meal of the night, the espresso-chocolate budino with a hazelnut and cardamom biscotti. The general consensus from the table that this was amazing and one of the best dishes of the night (I still liked the lasagna better). The budino (or pudding) was super smooth and had the right balance of espresso and chocolate. It was a great way to end the meal.
I should mention that wine was served throughout the meal and while I don't remember the names of the wines we had, they were all very enjoyable and paired nicely with all the dishes. The service was a bit spotty but generally attentive and good. Besides the first course vegetarian mix-up, there were occasions where we were served dishes with no explanation or description of what we were eating. Despite this, I loved the idea and concept of this pop-up and now that I know that the founder is on The Taste I feel like I have someone on the show I can root for. Another suggestion for them would be to be more creative with their vegetarian dishes. Just because a dish doesn't have meat or fish means that it needs to be boring or simple. I've been to a lot of vegetarian/vegan places where they were super inventive and didn't make me miss any meat or fish at all. Some of the dishes were hits and some were misses but the entire night was great and I'm all for supporting the dreams of local aspiring chefs. Total bill: $75 for 7 courses and wine pairing.
Photo Credit: Eventbrite
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