News from LTO today: The one and only Eddie Huang of Baohaus and Xiao Ye will be replacing current pop-up chef Leah Cohen when her stint ends there (by the way, tonight as well as tomorrow and on Friday, Cohen is offering a $55 three-course dinner in addition to the five-course option). From June 3 till 9, Huang will serve a five-course family-style dinner that’s $88 per head, with the additional option of pairing courses with Four Loko beer, Champagne, and a Pimms Cup. The feast, as you can see from Huang’s explanation as well as the menu, is centered around blue crabs, and Huang isn’t the only one doing the crab thing: The Mermaid Inn has announced that from Sunday till next Tuesday, all three locations will be offering a crab boil complete with the bibs and mallets. $24 gets you a bucket of Maryland Blue Crabs, cornbread, red bliss tomatoes, and grilled corn on the cob. Here’s Huang on the LTO dinner, plus a video documenting the Fatty Crew’s recent stint at the restaurant.
Born in the DMV, raised in Florida, made in NY, this is what American food looks like to me. Go into any Chinese person’s home on Thanksgiving and you probably have turkey with fried rice and some sort of horrible Great Wall Wine. For chinos near the Potomac, blue crab season was better than thanksgiving. We’d catch crabs with raw chicken on a rope and steam them with old bay. You took the crabs out on the back porch and every thing was eaten over the Sunday Post. While neighbors ate them with corn and potatoes, we’d pair it with homemade pickles, cold noodles, and maybe even sliced beef tendon. This June at LTO, we’re gonna do a blue crab dinner inspired by the Chinese South. In New Orleans, you see Vietnamese people bringing their flavors to crawfish and po boys. In Atlanta, Koreans set up shop alongside Waffle Houses. Well, this Chinaman came to New York, and this is what he eats.
Fresh Off the Boat Dinner
First Course
Icebox Duck Wings
Fried Oyster Po Baos w/ Pate
Hunan Corn Kernels w/ Leeks and Ham Hock
Chino Boudin Sausage
Second Course
Sesame Liang Pi Salad
Salt Cod and Chinese Broccoli Fried Rice
137 Fried Gator Tail
FOB Chicken
Third Course
Hush Puppies
Shanghai Steamed Blue Crabs
DMV Steamed Blue Crabs
Fourth Course
Soy Caramel Bread Pudding a la Mode
$88/person Served Family Style
Pairing: $55
Champagne, Gruner, Juicy Red, Beer, Pimm’s Cup
Fatty ‘Cue at Limited Time Only, NYC from ListenIn Pictures on Vimeo.
