Description
David Chang's foray into Midtown showcases chef Tien Ho's Vietnamese-French cooking. Lacking the crowds and the excitement of Chang's downtown ventures, Ma Peche gets by on the strength of Ho's excellent cooking, but it's not a restaurant that puts stars in your eyes. One of the best dishes is frisée with a poached egg, pork jowl lardons, and tomatoey tripe stew. It's a take on the classic frisée aux lardons salad, with the funky addition of the tender braised stomach lining. Break the egg and mix it all up into a fantastically smoky-sticky mess. On the Vietnamese side of the spectrum, slurp a salad of silken squid with peanuts, Thai basil, scallions, chilies, and plenty of fish sauce and lime. But skip the rice noodles with pork ragu. The pasta is over-toasted and it's the wrong shape for the sauce, which falls into the bottom of the bowl.
