COMING SOON... RAMEN!

Ivan Orkin had been eyeing 25 Clinton Street as the home for his first stateside ramen counter since the end of last year. He was approved a liquor license in January and now the Lower East Side ramen den has a sign up that reads, "Coming Soon... Ramen!"

The Long Island native moved to Tokyo with his wife in 2003, a time he's refered to as, "The beginning of the ramen boom." While living there, he opened two ramen spots, Ivan Ramen and Ivan Ramen Plus. At both locales, his shio ramen (one soup made from two broths) and homemade noodles (uncommon at the time in Tokyo ramen restaurants) were welcomed by the ramen community. Orkin's use of about 60/40 bread flour to udon flour to make the noodles introduced a new texture and unique bite to the array of ramen options - one that will soon be just a subway ride away.

First Bite: The $39 Five-Course Tasting at Pig and Khao

Pig & Khao opened a few months ago on the same stretch of Clinton Street that's home to Yunnan Kitchen and wd-50. The immediate neighborhood, like many in New York, is a concentrated nucleus of popular restaurants and good eats, ie Pok Pok Phat Thai, 'inoteca, and Mission Chinese Food a few blocks away on Orchard Street. One way Pig and Khao stands out is by offering $1 beers and a five-course tasting menu for $39. Pig and Khao introduced both deals last night. The $1 beers are available for happy hour seven days a week, from 5 - 7pm. The prix fixe is available at the bar (six seats) Monday through Wednesday with a menu Leah Cohen put together exclusively for the tasting. We stopped in last night to check it out.

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Wylie Dufresne to Open Alder in the Spring

Wylie Dufresne has been serving the world from his culinary cubicle on the Lower East Side for nearly 10 years. As wd-50 approaches its ten year anniversary, Dufresne readies to open his second restaurant.  Alder wil open next spring in the former Plum Pizzeria space at 157 Second Avenue. GrubStreet revealed yesterday that the "50-seat pub" is going to serve "modern casual food and well-crafted cocktails."  Alex Stupak, the former pastry chef at Dufresne's LES atelier, and whose Empellon Cocina has been packed since it opened on First Avenue back in February, predicted Dufresne domination yesterday via Twitter: "Alder! Wylie is going to dominate the East Village!" [GrubStreet]

Pok Pok Phat Thai is Up and Running

Andy Ricker's Pok Pok Wing reopened as Pok Pok Phat Thai Friday, after closing Sunday the 19th so the kitchen could transition from "Ike's Wings" factory to a phat Thai, aka pad Thai, restaurant.  Ricker is now serving his "Ike's Wings" exclusively at Pok Pok NY on Columbia Street in Cobble Hill. 

Pok Pok Phat Thai is serving five different types of phat Thai, Hoi Thawt (a crispy broken crepe with mussels and eggs), and "A Bangkok Chinatown specialty" known as Kuaytiaw Khua Kai (a wide rice noodle dish with chicken, cuttlefish, and duck egg).  The grub can all be washed down with the famous Pok Pok drinking vinegars or a few other iced tea and coffee options.  Nothing on the menu exceeds $12.

Serious Eats was there to document the reopening Friday, and the Pok Pok Phat Thai website has a few other pictures of some of the dishes.

Pok Pok Phat Thai Menu

The demand for "Ike's Wings" proved too much for the small kitchen at 137 Rivington Street. Andy Ricker's Pok Pok Wing closed Sunday to make the transition from wing joint to phat Thai joint. Pok Pok Phat Thai will open in the former Pok Pok Wing space this Friday. Grub Street got their hands on the menu and we posted it here for you. The base ingredients in the noodle dishes read like directions to flavor town: rendered pork fat, tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar, peanuts, dried tofu, dried shrimp, preserved radish, egg, garlic chives, bean sprouts, and chili powder. In case you were wondering, "Sorry, no chicken Phat Thai!"

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Apparently, Phat Thai's Aren't Just What People Wore in the '70s

Diner's Journal reports Andy Ricker is changing things up at Pok Pok Wing.  The demand for Ricker's wing rendition has proven to be too big for the small Lower East Side space.  Pok Pok Wing will be closing this Sunday for minor renovations and menu adjustments and reopen Friday the 24th as Pok Pok Phat Thai.  Phat Thai, aka pad Thai, is a popular noodle dish Ricker was eventually going to build a space around.  That space will be the former Pok Pok Wing.

He introduced the east coast to his wings when Wing opened back in January.  When Pok Pok NY opened on Columbia Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, the wings showed up on the menu there as well.  Cobble Hill will be the only place to get the wings after Pok Pok Phat Thai opens next week.  Ricker hasn't abandoned the idea of a wing space in Manhattan, it's just a matter of finding a space with a kitchen big enough to accommodate the demand.

As for PPPT, there will be four types of the noodle dish, with the option of rice or glass noodle: pork, prawn, prawns and pork, and vegan.  Everything (vegan dish aside) will be stir-fried in rendered pork fat.

Danny Bowien's Food Knows How to Work the Camera

If you haven't been to Danny Bowien's San Fran import yet, or seen our First Bite, here's another way to see what's going down at 154 Orchard Street.

Mission Chinese Food has only been on the East Coast for two and a half months, but Bowien's creative vision fuels a constantly evolving menu.  The original 23-item-menu from the early days at the end of May now has 28 options.  You can't get those Lamb Cheek Dumplings in Red Oil or the Tea Smoked Eel anymore, but you can get Red Braised Pigs Tails ($10) and "Married Couple's" Beef ($9). 

The large dishes have seen the most changes, though in typical generous Bowien fashion, nothing exceeds $15.  Kung Pao Pastrami ($11) is not likely to disappear anytime soon.  New additions are Sizzlin Cumin Lamb Breast ($13) and Catfish a la Sichuan ($13).

Don't worry, that free keg of beer is still on offer for those waiting for a table which, in our opinion, is always worth the inevitable wait.

"Danny Bowien Was In Swim Trunks"

In his review this week, Wells gives Mission Chinese Food two stars and proves to like Danny Bowien's San Fran import a little more than Adam Platt did. 

Wells hints at the waits you're liable to experience, which happen in any decent restaurant here in the city, especially when its only 30 or so seats.  "Outside on Orchard Street, they were waiting, all right..." "Unseen others were sitting in bars nearby, wondering whether they would order a third round before the phone rang."

Led Zepplin was playing during some of Wells' meal.  "Mr. Bowien does to Chinese food what Led Zeppelin did to the blues. His cooking both pays respectful homage to its inspiration and takes wild, flagrant liberties with it. He grabs hold of tradition and runs at it with abandon, hitting the accents hard, going heavy on the funk and causing all kinds of delicious havoc."

What Danny Bowien is trying to do at 154 Orchard Street is a healthy fusion he himself has dubbed "Americanized Oriental Food."  But, there's more to it than that.  He draws influences from his past.  Bowien is Korean born, adopted and raised in Oklahoma.  He's a generous guy.  Nothing on the menu is more than $15 and 75 cents from every dish goes to the Food Bank for New York. 

The two stars should be as much a representation of the food/experience at Mission Chinese as they are an honor bestowed on Bowien for his undeniably unique approach and his one-of-a-kind perspective on a cuisine and business model he has made entirely his own.