Posts Tagged: oysters

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16
Aug 10

Phat in Montauk: Cyril’s Fish House

Sorry guys for the lack of posts.. I’ve been HERE:

montauk ny

Montauk! The crew and I took a trip out to the very end of Long Island, NY for a weekend of fun, sun, and good eats. One of my favorite joints was called Cyril’s Fish House in Amagansett, NY. We liked it so much we stopped on the way to the beach, and again on the way back to the city!

oysters montauk cyrils fish house amagansett hamptons
What is a weekend at the beach without RAW BAR? i was dying to have oysters and clams on the half shell, and Cyril’s served it right up.

raw bar clams cyrils fish house amagansett hamptons
I had never had raw clams before, but for some reason I knew it would be something I’d like. Actually, I love them. They are so clean, crisp, and meaty, perfectly… 鲜甜 (xian tian), or fresh and sweet.

clam bellies cyrils fish house amagansett hamptons
We tried out Cyril’s clam bellies, something else I’ve never had before. You start with a Ipswich clam, remove the tongue (mostly used for commerical food purposes), and you’re left with the soft flavorful clam belly, which Cyril’s fries up and serves with tartar sauce and a wedge of lemon. American seafood culture is definitely different from what I experienced in Hong Kong, where most items are steamed or cooked gently in a wok. In Montauk, most of our seafood options were FRIED. Not that I am complaining of course…

tuna steak cyrils fish house amagansett hamptons
After all the fried clam bellies, we opted for an extra fresh grilled tuna steak over greens. The fish was so fresh, you could taste that it had been pulled out of the water that morning. Amazing..

lobster roll cyrils fish house amagansett hamptons
Of course, what is a fish house without a lobster roll? Cyril’s ($16) is delicious, served on a potato roll hot dog bun and presented with plenty of waffle fries. The lobster salad is meaty and substantial, and not smothered in mayonnaise. Because you know, you gotta fit into that bikini!

navy beach montauk
Hope you’re having a great summer!

Enjoy!

Cyril’s Fish House
2167 Montauk Hwy
Amagansett, NY
+01 (631) 267-7993

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9
Jun 10

Phat in Hong Kong: BBQ

above second gallery hong kong
Last Saturday I spent the day at Above Second gallery in Sai Ying Pun. My friend Minh teaches an awesome kid’s art class there and we prepped for it by making papier mache pinatas. If you’re ever in Sai Ying Pun, stop by Above Second – they currently have an exhibition called Small Victories up, it was produced in collaboration with one of my favorite design websites – booooooom.com.

After a couple hours of covering balloons in wet newspaper, we started to get hungry and Minh suggested we grab some food at a nearby restaurant simply called, “BBQ”. With our friends Jasper & Larry in tow, we headed on over. BBQ is a really interesting place. It’s totally bare-bones, a little greasy, and all the waitresses have fucking amazing asymmetrical haircuts! BBQ’s menu is an amazing mish-mash of Japanese yakitori skewers, Cantonese seafood classics, and elegant interpretations of Western dishes. A really fantastic combination. The dishes range from $12 – $50HKD, and the portions are huge – so beware of over-ordering!

grilled giant clams
The menu at BBQ is pretty vague, listing dishes simply by what they are. No fancy descriptions. You order from a little checklist, and I think the checklists are color coded or something. We let Jasper take the reigns and he ordered up 17 dishes for us to sample. I love these people – they really take it from “dinner” to “competitive eating.” We started with giant clams on the half shell – cooked over the grill with green onions. The seafood in HK is so fresh… these babies were sweet and tender and cooked in their own clammy juices.

grilled razor clams at BBQ hong kong sai ying pun
Of course we had to have razor clams as well..

lamb chops BBQ hong kong sai ying pun
The lamb chops were the star of the entire meal. After munching on things like grilled clams and squid balls on a skewer, I definitely did not expect a dish of perfectly seared-on-the-outside, pink-on-the-inside lamb chops to arrive on our table. They were seasoned gently with some assortment of spices (fennel? cumin? magic?!) and served up with a dallop each of yellow mustard and mint pesto. Genius. Just pure genius. They come four to an order – we had two!

grilled oysters with cheese tobiko BBQ hong kong sai ying pun
The grilled oysters here are amazing. They are cooked in the half shell with shredded cheese, minced onion, green onions and then topped with a bit of tobiko. BBQ really has their cooking system on point. While the clams or oysters are on the grill, the chef will gently lift each morsel of bivalve goodness and turn it over in the shell, maximizing flavor seepage! Not only that, but the chef also takes the juice from one clam and uses it to baste the next. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen such effort go into preparing food – it’s the real difference between Cantonese food in HK and in Shanghai.

bbq sai ying pun hong kong
BBQ also serves up your typical items on a stick – quail eggs, various seafood balls, chicken hearts, a gigantic portion of super tender beef tongue, eggplant with bonito. Also a few “HK-style” yakitori items, one of my new favorites being BBQ’s grilled gai lan (chinese broccoli). The gai lan soaks up all the smokey flavors from the grill and transforms from a humble green to something really spectacular.

17 dishes later, we had crammed every speck of food on our plates down our throats, yet we were still in search of dessert. A nearby 7-11 offered the perfect solution – ovaltine ice cream cones!

ovaltine ice cream cone hong kong

Enjoy!

BBQ / BBQ2 – 美食店
129 Third Street at Pok Fu Lam Road
Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
西環西營盤第三街129-號地下B號舖
+852 2548-9880

Above Second Gallery
31 Eastern Street,
Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
+852 3483-7950

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4
Jan 10

Phat in San Francisco: Tomales Bay Oyster Co

tomales bay, california
Man, I love Nor Cal. It’s such a beautiful place – mountains, redwoods, beaches. And amazing food. If you drive across the Golden Gate and north along the coast for 40 miles you’ll come across Tomales Bay, an estuary and home of the Tomales Bay Oyster Company.

tomales bay
Once you pull into Tomales Bay, you can purchase fresh oysters that are farmed right in the ocean water. The oysters come in various sizes, from xsmall ($32/50pcs) to be served on the halfshell, to xlarge ($55/50pcs) to be grilled up or rockerfeller’d.

grilling at tomales bay
There are picnic tables with shucking stations, BBQ grills, and reggae tunes bumpin. There used to be mariachi bands, but I’m not sure if they still come around. The crowd is always diverse – Koreans bbq’in up some sweet meat (bo ssam anyone?!!), Mexicans mixing it up with limes and tapatio, and yuppies toting picnic baskets filled with wine and cheese.

tomales bay oysters
How do we do it? Nice and simple with lime and tapatio. A couple on the grill for nice contrast.

tomales bay oysters
Super fresh, pristine, and salty from the bay water. Beautiful! Definitely worth all the shucking.

Tomales Bay Oyster Company
15479 Highway One
Marshall, CA 94940
+01 415-663-1242
www.tomalesbayoysters.com

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21
Nov 09

Phat in Hong Kong: Seafood in Lau Fau Shan

So Gee had been raving about this seafood spot way up in the New Territories since her visit to Shanghai, so hells yes I had to go! We met up with our friends Minh & Lindsay at their place in the NT and then took a 20 min cab ride to an area called Lau Fau Shan. LFS is waaay up north, you can even see Shenzhen from the coast!


LFS was originally an oyster cultivation village, and is famous for its fresh oysters.

dried oysters
Some vendors along the water were also selling dried oysters (ho si). I brought some back to Shanghai, but I don’t think my fellow airplane passengers appreciated it.

seafood market
Lots of fresh seafood in LFS. After wandering around the wet market we got really hungry, it was TIME TO EAT! LFS is famous for its amazing seafood restaurants.

pissing shrimp
We started with a dish of salt, pepper & chili mantis shrimp, called la nieu ha (pissing shrimp) in Chinese. I’ve never had mantis shrimp before – they are pretty freaky looking, like some kind of millipede crustacean. Gross to look at, but really delicious. The flesh is springy and resilient, like a lobster tail.

black bean clams
Clams stir fried in black bean sauce. A nice classic Cantonese dish. The clams were a good size and meaty. Can you see the fried oysters in the background?

fried oysters
These fresh, plump oysters were sold in the wet market next door in plastic tubes filled with water. pretty cool One of my favorite preparations for fresh, plump, meaty oysters is a roll in batter, a quick dip in the fryer, and served piping hot with red vinegar on the side. I love this dish, jaa sang ho (fried oysters) because the oysters stay juicy from the quick cooking method. These oysters in particular were coated with an extremely light and flaky breading – the same kind you find on fried taro dumplings at dim sum. Served up with a plate of fresh romaine.

hairy crab!
So everyone in China nows that now is the season to indulge in hairy crab. We decided to bump up our cholesterol levels and order some salt-baked hairy crab (yeem gook dai jap hai). This was my first time eating hairy crab and ohhh myyyy gahhhh I totally understand why people love it now. The roe of the female crab is amazing – like a cross between foie gras and the yolk of a salty duck egg. All imbued with crabby essence!

For some reason, even though Yancheng Lake, where the crabs are from, is very close to Shanghai, the crabs in SH are very expensive. They start at around $60RMB a pc, whereas in Hong Kong, I found very fresh, sizable hairy crabs selling for $100HKD / 5pcs. HK > SH!!

seafood fried rice
The restaurant we ate at seemed to specialize in all kinds of seafood dishes, we saw clippings on the wall praising a sea urchin soup – served in shell. Yum! Unfortunately they didnt have this soup so we settled on another of the restaurant’s specialities, seafood fried rice with roe. After a bite of this dish, I’ve decided that all fried rice should have roe in it! The eggs had such a nice refreshing crunch. The rice was also expertly prepared, neither soggy nor undercooked – “good wok-foh (wok fire)” as my mom would say.

We left with our bellies full and all fell asleep in the cab back. Good work, team!

$$
Happy Seafood Restaurant
Roundabout at Lau Fau Shan, Yuen Long
New Territories, Hong Kong
+852 2472 3450

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5
Nov 09

Phat in Saigon: Quan An Ngon

This post is a little late… but decided I should throw it up anyways!

So on our last night in Vietnam, we met up with our friend Minh at a “street food restaurant.” I expected lots of little red plastic chairs and blue tarp. Instead, we ended up sitting at a shared table in a beautiful French colonial villa under swaying palms and breezy white canopies.

Photo credits go to Ades.

open kitchen
Quan An Ngon is Saigon institution, and apparently an inspiration for NYC’s famed Spice Market. Its an open air restaurant that features some of the best street chefs in the game. Conveniently, all their different specialities can be ordered from one menu.

Rice with periwinkle clams
I’m really glad Minh was there, because we totally got schooled in Vietnamese food. This was my favorite dish of the night (left), and something I had never tried before. I believe Minh said it was a Hue dish. I don’t know the name, but basically it is rice with periwinkle clams served with shrimp paste on the side. Yum! It’s been a while since I had had either periwinkles or shrimp paste, so this was a real treat.

EDIT*** This dish is called Com Hen, thanks to Dennis!

grilled oysters
The grilled oysters were really fresh and meaty, cooked simply & served with lime dip.

Snails!
Oc buoc nhoi thit, snails minced with pork and lemongrass. I havent had very much experience eating snails, but these were delicious. I like how you tug on the knot of lemongrass to release the snail/pork meatball from the shell.

shrimp on sugar cane
I love Vietnamese food because eating it is such a customizable experience. We ordered chao tom, shrimp on sugarcane, which was brought to our table and expertly sliced off the sugarcane skewer for us. Then we got to wrap up the pieces with fresh lettuce and herbs in a rice paper wrapper which softened in the accompanying fish sauce. (No, that is not my man hand up there)

???
This meal took place a little while ago, so I can’t really remember what was inside this rice noodle roll. But im sure it was delicious because I remember really liking it. Served with cold cuts on the side. Looks a bit like what I had at Chatuchak in Bangkok, eh?

dessert
For dessert, we each had a tall, icy glass of che suong sa hot luu, which is coconut milk topped over tapioca pearls, mung beans, water chestnuts, and various types of jelly (herbal jelly, green bean jelly, jelly noodles!). It was so good. I’m glad I made a little extra room for jelly in my belly. hahah.

If you are in Saigon, you should definitely stop by Quan An Ngon, the price is much more expensive than what you get off the street, but the experience and the atmosphere really make it worth it. Enjoy!

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Quan An Ngon
160 Pasteur, District 1
Saigon, Vietnam
+08 3827 7131

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26
Oct 09

Phat in Shanghai: El Willy

It was Li’s birthday and a lovely October night (i’m talking 75F, peoples!) so we had dinner in the garden at Shanghai institution, El Willy.

Sorry for the yellow photos.

happy bday dinner li!
Happy Birthday Girl!

Started off will several delicious tapas, including the requisite Spanish style bruschetta, meat plate featuring jamon iberico & chorizo, and a few more lovely starters:

el willy oysters
Super fresh, meaty oysters

el willy scallop over guacamole, topped with fried shallots
Scallop ceviche over guacamole, topped with fried shallots.

el willy patatas bravas
A classic tapa, patatas bravas, or potatoes with a creamy spicy sauce. I think this had cheese too!

el willy cochinilla
Cochinilla, or roasted suckling pig. Yummy chunks of tender meat, a layer of fat, and a thick crispy skin. I mean it was no BOTIN or anything.. but pretty fantastic.

el willy foie grais
Seared foie gras served on toast with a bit of apricot, topped with grated cheese. I know foie is cruel and everything, but this tapa was just amazing. the savory foie just went so well with the sweet apricot.

el willy paella
in addition to tapas, El Willy also specializes in rice. We enjoyed a fragrant porcini risotto alongside this superb paella. Really rich in flavor, especially since it was laced with chunks of melt-in-your-mouth pork fat! Yes, pork fat!

$$$$$
El Willy
20 Donghu Road
Shanghai
+86 2154055757$$

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19
Sep 09

Phat in Beijing

bj-source
So a couple of weekends ago, we took an overnight train from Shanghai to Beijing to attend the opening of the Source flagship store. It was awesome. See more pix courtesy of Jenn Wong for Source here.

Having gotten off the 12 hour, food-less train at 7am, we were in desperate need of some nourishment. We wandered over to Gu Lou Lu, a bohemian street lined with traditional hutongs, and ended up at a small restaurant run by a mother-daughter team.

bj-gulou
They cooked us up some delicious grilled oysters served with ginger, garlic & green onions. We also enjoyed their specialty – a whole roasted fish garnished with lots of cilantro, chopped celery, peanuts, chilies, bean sprouts, and onions – all served in a metal pan over an open flame. I have no idea where this dish is from (Sichuan, maybe?), or whats its called, but it was DELICIOUS. Slightly spicy, served bubbling hot – exactly what we were looking for after a looong trip.

And of course – you can’t go to Beijing and not have Peking duck! The next day, armed with a recommendation from Adrian’s pops, we set off in search of some legit Peking duck. We found it at Quan Ju De, BJ’s second oldest Peking duck restaurant. Apparently the story goes that the founder of Quan Ju De paid off a cook from the imperial kitchen of the Tongzhi emperor to obtain the secret recipe. Mmmm, tastes… imperial.

bj-peking
Crispy, juicy, flavorful roasted duck sliced tableside!

bj-peking-02
Served with lots of steamed Chinese-style tortillas, green onions, and hoisin sauce. A Phat masterpiece by Allister Lee.

Quan Ju De serves up some real tasty & meaty duck.. but honestly I prefer the Cantonese version!

Another awesome thing about being up north in China is the abundance of hand-pulled noodles, or la mian. Lin Lin took us to this amazing noodle spot near Sanlitun on our last day. A real BJ treat.

bj-noodle-02
Noodle Ninja doing his thang.

bj-noodle
The menu was really simple, consisting of thick or thin noodles (chewy, dense, filling) served in a hearty & flavorful broth with your choice of meat. Fancy it up with tableside garnishes of scallions, dried onion, and dried cilantro. Everyone had the beef rib special, and I went for beef tendon (left). Boy, I love tendon. And trust me – there is no good tendon in nyc!! The portions at Noodle Bar were huge and the atmosphere was nice and cozy.

Thank you so much to Chris & Jellymon for an amazing time in BJ! Can’t wait to come back!

Quan Ju De Peking Duck
13 Shuaifuyuan Lu, Wangfujing Dongcheng District, Beijing
Tel: +86-10 6525-3310

Noodle Bar
At 1949- The Hidden City.
Courtyard 4, Gong Ti Bei Lu, Sanlitun, Beijing
Tel: +86-10 6501-1949