Grub Street,
I live less than two blocks from Momofuku , and I used to eat there all the time and I thought it was good but not some kind of shrine. When did David Chang become such a food god? The soup there gives my boyfriend headaches, and I never saw what was so great about Ssäm Bar. To me there are any number of places in Flushing that beat the pants off Chang.
Lillian
Lillian,
We stand by our affection for Chang. To be fair, we have often heard of people getting headaches from Momofuku’s broth, which seems to have a lot of naturally occurring MSG (the restaurant denies using the artificial stuff, and we believe them). Chang deserves credit for what he did with both Momofukus, which was to find a way to serve serious restaurant food in a very casual setting at a pretty cheap price. And for having taken the idea, which he internalized at Craft, of putting French classical training in the service of good fresh products, passing that through his experience of Japan and his own weird genius, and creating Momofuku with the help of Joaquin Baca, his criminally underappreciated co-chef.
As for there being better places in Flushing (or Sunset Park, or Tokyo), we’re pretty sure he would agree with you. Chang is as psychologically complex an entity as any specimen this side of Bellevue, but vanity just isn’t part of his makeup. Anyway, there’s no need to choose between Momofuku and Flushing. Just go to both.
Related: The I Chang [NYM]
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