Buddakan

A couple Saturdays ago we (meaning my mother, step-father and I) went to Buddakan, a Chinese/Fusion restaurant on Ninth Avenue right next to Chelsea Market. The space itself is huge; two floors are completely filled with tables and it's so dark that you can barely make your way around.

As an appetizer, we ordered steamed buns with pork belly and cabbage. The softness of the pork belly mixed with the crunchiness of the cabbage made for a delightful contrast in the mouth; the cabbage was seasoned with spices which balanced out the fatty pork quite nicely. We also ordered taro puff lollipops, which basically consist of pork inside crunchy taro on a stick. The saltiness of the minced pork went quite well with the sweetness and crunchiness of the taro, making the lollipops one of my favorite dishes for the night. The last appetizer we ordered was scallion pancakes with short ribs and green apple. The concept was quite innovative, and had it worked out it would have been delicious, but the execution was poor. The short ribs were overly seasoned and tasted strange, which drowned out the scallion pancakes and the sweetness of the green apple. The apple itself was a wonderful addition to the dish, but the spices in the short ribs completely masked the texture and taste of the apple.

Now, on to main courses. It has been my personal experience that chefs spend all their time and creativity thinking up appetizers, and may sometimes fall flat on main courses. This was not the case that night. My mother ordered whole crispy fish with cabbage, apple (which seems to be a part of many of the dishes). The fish was excellent; the skin was crispy but the inside of the fish was tender and flavorful. The fish itself was very fresh and had its own flavor without any sauce; the sauce just made it taste better. My step-father had Mongolian lamb chops. The lamp was coated with crystallized ginger, which added a nice crunch and sweetness to the juicy meat. I ordered roast duck and noodle soup, with roast duck meat, noodles, and wontons. The wontons were so fresh that the vegetables in it were still crispy; not like those wontons that you get at your average chinatown haunt. The duck meat was fresh but it didn't have much flavor on its own. The noodles were good, but were a bit soft and thin for my taste. The broth was very flavorful and spices that were added into the broth enhanced the flavor of the duck, noodles and wontons.

For dessert, we ordered a coconut creme brulee. The texture was different from your average creme brulee; the creme was not as creamy as it usually is. We also ordered something called "crying chocolate", which was basically a chocolate cake filled with molten chocolate. It was very good, of course. After all, how bad can chocolate and chocolate together be?

Rating: One star