Taste of Prague Travels: Momofuku Ko, NYC
Two Michelin stars. The foundation of David Chang’s status as a chef and empire as a businessman. 13 courses. A bill for two equal to more than one half of the monthly average income in the Czech Republic. Worth it? Would we go again? Yes please!
We’ve always wondered what it takes to get the second Michelin star. Better food? Improved service? Purer silver alloy in the silverware? We have a feeling it must be, first and foremost, consistency, but we know one thing. It’s not added stuffiness, because Momofuku Ko was one of the most casual fine dining restaurants we ate at. Zuzi was afraid she would be underdressed for the occasion. She wasn’t. You can walk in in a pair of jeans and t-shirt, and no-one would mind. Sure, the place looks beautiful and pulls of being modern and cosy at the same time, but it’s not stuffy at all.
vegetable rolls
We love open kitchens, and the Ko delivers: unless you are a large group, you sit at a spacious counter and look directly into the kitchen. There’s one thing Momofuku Ko does not have: waiters. Just the sommeliers and someone taking out the dishes. All the interaction is with the fairly young chefs who present and explain the food and later on talk just about anything you want to talk about. The room is lit fairly low, and the prep kitchen/food lab is separated from the dining room by see-through fridges full of dry-aging beef and poultry and other produce, incl. Parmigiano Reggiano, allegedly donated by no other than Massimo Bottura.
uni-chickpea, hozon paired with dom pérignon, champagne, france 2004
There’s nothing to choose from the menu: Momofuku Ko offers a set menu only, with optional alcoholic or non-alcoholic pairing, so that’s about the only choice you get. The wine list is extensive and very nicely designed. So you sit down, choose the pairing - or not - and the show starts. The chef asks about your food allergies and then presents the first amuse bouche dishes. The whole dinner took nearly three hours, and the pacing was just right: we never felt rushed or neglected. At the end, we got a small tour of the restaurant, too.
sawarazushi, wasabi, ginger paired with shimaoka shush, izumi, yamahai junmai
So, how was the food? It was delicious. We wanted to single out some highlights, but it is kinda hard. The uni with chickpea puree? Well, we like anything with uni, really. The razor clams with apple dashi and basil seeds? It was tangy and fresh and a rainbow of textures. The burnt sun choke with blood orange and tarragon? Rich and earthy. Or the fried halibut with paprika and cauliflower? The lamb with the nori and chili glaze? We’d love to point out our favorites, but what’s the point? You can’t choose a la carte, anyway, and we honestly did like it all.
razor clams -apple, basil paired with two wines from peter lauer 'unterstenberg' and 'stirn', both saar, germany 2014
The menu does change, but the food clearly has an Asian influence while being rooted in the French style of cooking. And the context makes it even better: when you observe how your dish is prepared, and when the chef who prepared it gives and explains it to you, it just ends up tasting better we think. This is foodie heaven: when the patrons and the chefs talk about food, make jokes and communicate in a relaxed atmosphere, you just feel a part of it all.
siberian sturgeon caviar, potato paired with béreche brut reserve, champagne, france
A note about the alcoholic pairing: it was was fantastic. Sure, it is pricey, and you could do away with a bottle of something nice, but we think it was worth splashing out. Every drink complemented the food really well and rounded an already excellent experience. From the introductory cocktail to the two Champagnes, the whites, the reds, the sake, the beer (a fantastic sour ale from Jura, Switzerland), to the Marsala and vermouth, it all made sense. Until the finishing courses, when we started getting drunk, that is. But hey, we’re on vacation, okay?
dessert 2: pistachio-apricot paired with doling blanc, chambéry, france
Any complains? Not really, only small nitpicking. Perhaps the dinner was one or two courses too large. And the bill was undeniably high: this was one of our most expensive dinners to date. But we were leaving happy, entertained and inspired. And that’s what good restaurants are all about. Is it for you? We don’t know. But if you’re the kind of person who'd rather spend the money on a fine dining experience rather then, let’s say, a pair of high-end skis and boots, a new TV, or a sightseeing weekend in Paris, we think you’d like it. We know we did.
Alright, this is the moment some of you have been waiting for - Zuzi joining Jan behind the mike, and giving some tips about the way we travel. Now, if you’ve been following us for some time, you know that we love to travel, and we have been getting many questions by email and social media about our particular way of traveling. So when we invited everyone to post questions about a month ago on our Instagram feed, we did expect some questions, but we did not expect so many.
As a result, we have decided to record two separate episodes: one about our travel in general, and a second one (later on) about our travel with JJ (now over 2 years old) as a family. We got lots of questions about both and we thought that the answers would be too long for a single episode, and that the questions about family travel with a toddler would be irrelevant to many. The first episode comes out today, and please stay tuned for the second one… eventually.
We have also edited the questions a bit, combining what really were the same questions, but perhaps worded differently. We also skipped questions asking for tips for various destinations because again - answering them would take a long time and would be irrelevant for many. If you need tips for specific destinations, please have a look at our Instagram highlights, or send us an email. We’ll do our best.
We recorded the podcast in the cinema of the Bokovka wine bar and had a lot of fun doing it. We actually recorded it twice, because we were unhappy about how the first recording turned out. But hey, having more wine while recording worked wonders the second time around. Go figure. These are some of the topics we have discussed:
When did we start traveling and where?
How many trips do we take per year?
How do we choose our destinations?
Which countries have we visited?
What has been our favorite destination so far? Which destination had the best food?
Any dream destination we want to visit? Or any places we do NOT want to see and why?
How did Jan overcome his fear of flying?
How do we buy our flight tickets?
How do we choose the type and location of accommodations?
How do we research restaurants?
Do we book tables at restaurants ahead of time?
How much planning is involved in our travels?
How do we deal with language barriers?
So stuff like that. The answers take about an hour, but we tried to be brief. Oh, and one more thing: we drop names of products and services during the podcast. We are not affiliated with any of them, and none of the mentions have been paid for in any way. It’s just the products and services we have been using in our travels, nothing more.
Thank you for all those questions, and we hope you like this episode!