Munch away, Cambodian style

All photo credit goes to Cathy Lam

Restaurant Name: Num Pang

Location: 21 E12th St, New York, NY

Website:  http://www.numpangnyc.com/ 

Price Range: $30 (for 2) - Cash only

JCL Rating: 8/10

JCL's Choice: Peppercorn catfish, pulled Duroc pork, corn on a cob

My first Cambodian food experience is in Num Pang, a gourmet sandwich shop opened by Chef Ratha Chaupoly and Ben Daitz. Accompanied by Cathy, we traveled all the way to Union Square to look for this unique sandwich shop. All of the gourmet sandwiches are served on a freshly toasted semolina flour baguette and are made a la minute. You pick up your order and have the choice of take out or go up stairs for the first-come-first-serve seating. 

What exactly is "num pang?" Num pang is the Cambodian term for bread or sandwich. Aside from exceptional food, they have a very interesting concept going on. Every month they will feature a chef in the "Guest Chefs Give Back" program to design their signature sandwich. 6$ of each of the featured sandwiches sold will be donated to charities. For the month of June 12 - July 12, the guest chefs are Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger (Chef de cuisine of ABC Kitchen) creating the ABC Num Pang (poached chicken salad with crispy chicken skin).

All their sandwiches are served with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro and chili mayo (which we think is spicy mayonnaise). This set up is extremely similar to Vietnamese sandwiches. Anyways, I had the peppercorn catfish, Cathy had the pulled Duroc pork, and we both got the corn on a cob. 

Catfish sandwich

Aside from the perfect combination of the sandwich foundations in Num Pang, the peppercorn catfish was seasoned and cooked perfectly. The house made sweet soy sauce on the catfish brings out the natural sweet flavors of the catfish and at the same time it hides the earthy taste. This is a fish sandwich to the finest. Every bite is succulent. A must try in my books!

Pulled pork w/ blood orange lemonade

Duroc is a breed of American pig. This pulled Duroc pork sandwich that is dressed in the spiced honey gives the pulled pork the moistness that it needs. A touch of the chili mayo combined with the spiced honey forms an incredible duet of flavors after flavors in your mouth. The cucumber, pickled carrots and cilantro then acts as a refreshing agent to get your mouth for the next bite! The balance of flavors profiles is pure genius.

corn on cob w/ coconut flakes

Their signature side dish, corn on a cob that is drenched in chili mayo and topped with sweet coconut flakes is as good as it gets. With this grilled corn, you are expected to get dirty with it. The chili mayo will be smeared all around your lips and you won't want to stop and wipe your mouth until you have completely devoured this poor corn. 

All in all, this sandwich shop is amazing. I highly recommend it. This has got to be some of the best sandwiches I have ever tasted. 

Organic to the Max!

Picture adopted from bareburger.com (forgot to take one)

Restaurant Name: BareBurger

Location: 85 2nd Ave, NY, NY

Website:  http://www.bareburger.com/

Price Range: 25$ a person

JCL Rating: 7/10

JCL's Choice: The Ruby (Wild boar meat), Big Blue Bacon (Ostrich), The Western (Bison)

As the three musketeers (lol) were wandering around the city thinking of what to eat for dinner, this burger joint came to our minds. We remembered walking by this place plenty of times in the road to St. Marks, but never got the chance to try it out and so we decided to check it out. For all the wild game lovers or exotic meat eaters, this place is for you! It sucks that it only serves it as burger but nonetheless, it is worth the trip. They have bison, elk, wild boar, ostrich, free range chicken. The bun selection includes brioche (personal favorite), multi-grain roll, wheat flour wrap, lettuce wrap, and tapioca rice bun (gluten free!!!). 

The atmosphere was calm and relaxed. The hostess seated us as soon as she found out how many people we had. One funny thing about this was we say this girl wearing a pikachu suit with a pikachu backpack and pikachu stuffed animal, then when we walked in to Bare Burger, they were playing Pokemon. 

This place basically sells everything organic and free range. All the animals were pasture raised, antibiotic and hormone free. Their sodas are natural sodas from Maine. They even have organic wines and beers now! This place is on top of the organic trends that have been going around the food industry. They take orders with a portable device, so no need for that MICROS system (I can see this system being popular in the future since it saves time from walking back and forth to the MICROS). 

We get to pick what type of burger we want (all the other stuff except for the bun and meat), we pick the type of meat and the bun. I ordered "The western" with bison meat and tapioca rice buns. Frankie had the "big blue bacon" with ostrich meat and brioche bun. Ray ordered "the ruby" with wild boar and brioche bun as well. We also ordered a basket of fries (comes with BBQ, spicy chipotle, and ranch dressings) and the Maine hand crafted sodas. 

The memorable part of The Western was the bison meat and the peppercorn steak sauce. The coleslaw adds crunchiness to the burger. The bison meat was extremely tender (I ordered it medium rare). The only thing not so great about my burger was the tapioca bun. It was a bit dry. I knew I should have paired it with the brioche bun!!!

The ruby was probably my favorite out of the 3 that we had. The wild boar was extremely tender. It had a hint of smoked bacon. It had havarti cheese (never heard of it till now) which was very milky and buttery.  

AND IT HAD PASTRAMI AS WELL!!! Double the meat. But I did not taste much of the horseradish mayonnaise at all.

My second favorite was the big blue bacon. The ostrich meat was succulent and flavorful. The apple chutney adds sweetness to the burger. The bourbon sauteed mushrooms adds moisture. And the smoked onion adds smokiness. Too bad the Danish blue cheese wasn't as represented as I thought it would have been. 

Although each of the burgers had its imperfections, it was definitely enjoyable. This is a really cool place for friends to hang out and just talk about random stuff. The servers were very attentive and always had a smile on their faces. The presence of their professionalism makes this a comfortable place. I recommend all the readers to try this place out!