Fat Guy

Sam, I think you're conflating a few things. First of all, how well a system defends against cheating is not really a measure of "egalitarianism." I think, however, leaving aside that the current system is being gamed anyway, it's a lot easier to defend against most identity-fraud-based cheating than you think, especially when payment is part of the mix. Second, there's no real complexity added by having different party sizes. You just have to manage each queue or lottery separately, as is done now anyway. You can even tell people (as is the reality now) that it's going to be easier and quicker to get a single than a double than a quad. The other technological specters that you raise are actually quite minor -- they're easier to deal with than, for example, having a small server hammered by thousands of people for one minute a day. Third, the real-estate example is not really on point. We're not talking about a 20-year waiting list for a handful of openings. We're talking about thousands of openings. I don't know the actual number of people who've registered for the Ko system, but it's not likely anywhere near the order of magnitude necessary to create a Peter Cooper type of situation. The most out-of-whack example I know of in the world is El Bulli, which purportedly gets 500,000 reservation requests for 8,000 seats. My understanding is that El Bulli uses a lottery system with set-asides for various groups (visiting chefs, locals, journalists, etc.) and does just fine with it. And people do plan ahead a year to go to El Bulli. Finally, the salient feature of the current system that is hard to characterize as fair is that some people are getting in repeatedly and others are not at all. The systems I've proposed would guarantee entry to everyone eventually, and limit repetition as much as possible.

I have to dissent on the rice cakes. While I've always enjoyed the rice cake dishes, I don't think they rise to the Momofuku standard. Let's define the Momofuku standard, loosely, as a dish being either 1-categorically better than its non-Momofuku equivalent, or 2-unlike anything else out there. Dishes like the pork buns, pickles or fried chicken fall into category 1. Dishes like the octopus salad and the prawns and grits, while they have arguable similarities to existing dishes, are sufficiently different to qualify as new inventions. I think the rice cake dishes that I've seen throughout the history of both Momofukus have been unsuccessful attempts at category 1. The Momofukus just don't do rice cakes any better than the norm. The one rice cake dish that came close to transcendent was the one at Ssam Bar with the sausage and bitter greens, but even that was I think more of a near miss. Meanwhile, the rice cake dishes with the sticky-sweet red sauce were not worthy of the Momofukus. In addition, rice cakes are the most inconsistently cooked item I've noticed coming out of the Momofuku kitchens. They're first browned on the griddle then sauteed with the rest of the ingredients. Sometimes they're barely browned and other times they're almost burnt.

Let's keep remembering that David Chang is on record, on more than one occasion, saying he's planning to make exceptions for industry people. So any notion of fairness, egalitarianism, what have you, is already out the window. But even if we're only talking about the general population that won't be getting special treatment, just changing from the word egalitarian to the word fair doesn't change the terms of the discussion. What is meant by either word? If we're talking about "equality of opportunity" (which I suppose is close to the Rawls/Dworkin idea of "luck egalitarianism") then there's nothing unfair about systems that reward regulars -- because every person within the set of people lucky enough to be born into circumstances where they can rise to be able to afford $100 for dinner has an equal opportunity to become a regular. So how is the Momofuku Ko system more fair? Nor is accessibility fairness, unless it can be demonstrated that some coherent group of people (such as wheelchair-bound people wishing to ride public buses) is being treated unfairly by lack of accessibility. In that regard, there is no evidence that an online system is more or less accessible than a phone system. However, it is patently obvious that both the queue and lottery systems I outlined are more accessible, fair and egalitarian than either the standard phone system or the Ko online system.

Well, that kind of luck is by no means obviously egalitarian to me -- especially not when it's so easy to design a system that allows everybody to have a turn. But to look at the example given: Chances are, yes, if you flip a coin repeatedly then you'll see all sorts of patterns of heads and tails. You could even see ten heads in a row, though over large numbers of flips you'd tend to see a very clear 50-50 pattern. But that has nothing to do with the Momofuku Ko reservations scenario. In a lottery system, if somebody with long odds keeps winning they don't just say, "Oh well, if you flip a coin you might see some weird patterns." No, they initiate a fraud investigation. In any event, I'm suggesting that perhaps not everybody has an equal chance in this system. That, for one thing, technical factors may give advantages to people using certain ISPs -- and that the existence of repeat winners raises that possibility to more than a suspicion. And, for another thing, I think we may not all be working from the same definition of "egalitarian." For example, assuming it's even possible to have egalitarianism in the context of a business that charges $100 for dinner, I don't think there's anything uniquely un-egalitarian about that business rewarding its loyal customers. There's nothing un-egalitarian about airline frequent flier rewards -- they're just business incentives and rewards; they don't reject the notion of human equality. I do, however, think it's utterly un-egalitarian to give preferential treatment to "industry people." Not that I object to it, but it's not egalitarian. The decision to give preferential treatment to industry people does not mesh with the notion of equality.

My recent observation at Noodle Bar is that the slow periods are early and late. That's kind of true at any restaurant, but specifically Noodle Bar is really relaxed from after the lunch rush (say 2:30pm) until 7 or even a little later. Then it tends to be slammed from 8-10. And then if you come in late, like 10:30 on weeknights or 11:30 on weekend nights, it's usually pretty tame. They close at 11 on most nights and 12 on the busy weekend nights. Ssam Bar doesn't have the mid-afternoon option on account of the limited hours of the "real" menu. Just to recap: the good menu runs 5pm to 12am Sun-Wed and 5pm to 2am Thu-Sat. The place is open at other times but with a limited menu, and while you can get some nice food at any time it's just not the same as the full-on Ssam Bar menu. My casual observation is that Ssam Bar is more popular than Noodle Bar at peak hours -- say 8-10pm -- but I've never had a problem getting in to Ssam Bar at 6pm or after 11pm. Also, at both places, if you're just one person chances are they'll find you a spot at the counter pretty quickly. The hour-long waits are more likely to be a problem for groups. In terms of the can't miss dishes, I think if you've never been to either place you really should start out with some pork buns and the seasonal pickles. Those are common to both Ssam Bar and Noodle Bar, and are a good first taste. From there it matters how many people you've got, their preferences, etc. Also the daily specials tend to be winners, and those are always in flux -- you just have to make a judgment call when you hear them. Still I'm sure folks here would be willing to advise on ideal menus for any size group.

''It's egalitarian,'' he says. ''We want to run something honest.''

A camera would have been much more efficient. Picture, thousand words and all that.

In order to test that assertion, we'd need to perform an experiment: we'd need to try another process to see if it created more or less frustration. By my calculations there are about 4,000 reservations available per year at Momofuku Ko. So, if we are to believe Ko is after a truly "egalitarian" system then the purest forms of that system would be, I believe, a queue or a lottery. So let's say there are 8,000 people who want reservations. I have no idea what the actual number is. In a queue system, you'd just give each person a number in the order of registration on the website. Your number is 3,288, okay, that means you're going to get your reservation in about 10 months. We'll contact you in 9 months to offer you some slots and you can pick one. In a lottery system you say okay, today we've picked the following 12 people to have reservations next Tuesday. The first person picked gets first choice of time, etc. You also pick alternates if a few people in the first group of 12 don't work out. In both cases, you don't get to enter again until everybody gets a reservation. I personally would find that system less annoying than the current system. And I imagine most folks who haven't gotten in yet (we can safely say that's the overwhelming majority of people trying to get in) would too. Certainly, in a few more months they'll agree, even if they're still optimists now. It's going to be frustrating to some people no matter what, but it may be possible to reduce the level of frustration. Meanwhile I think there is probably a group of people who, because they happen to be on servers with short hops to the Ko server, or because they're really good at mouse clicking, or whatever, are getting in to Ko multiple times. So I think, yes, the high demand and need for rationing does indeed make for some unavoidable frustration. But there's also frustration that's attributable to the process itself, which I think is a weak process that is not yielding the desired result. Well, I should say that, assuming the desired result is "everybody has an equal chance of getting in," it's not achieving that result.

On Serious Eats, they've done an examination of this issue, complete with a quote from David Chang: "It's just food. Eat it." It's more like eat it, pay for it, write about it, answer emails on your iPhone while you're eating it, have loud and inane conversation during dinner if you like (including settling arguments by accessing Wikipedia from your iPhone), but if you want to take a photo -- even without flash, with a small camera (even that iPhone) -- well, we draw the line there. We're not going to give you real service, real chairs, more than exactly 120 minutes to eat, or any of those wussy creature comforts that other restaurants give you, but we sure are going to protect you from intrusive cameras.

Just back from the herring lunch buffet at the Aquavit Cafe. All the different herring preparations were terrific, especially the curry and the herb-garlic, but that I sort of figured would be the case. Pleasant surprises were the Swedish meatballs with anchovy sauce (the sauce is on the side so you add as much or as little to the meatballs as you like, and there's also a berry garnish you can add), the smoked and poached salmon offerings, the beef liver pate, the anchovy pizza and the nice bread selection. Perhaps most enjoyable were some of the items that incorporated anchovies for umami flavor -- you wouldn't have guesses anchovy. For example, the "gentlemen's delight" was the best egg salad I've ever eaten, pumped up by barely detectable sweet anchovies. Also the "Janssons temptation," creamy potatoes-and-onions enhanced by anchovies. I also loved the names of those dishes. And there was a terrific Caesar salad, though not called that. Actually, nothing was called anything. There were no signs or other indica of what was on each platter, so we had to keep interrogating the servers who were refilling the bountiful and gorgeous buffet. That's peeve number 1. Peeve number 2 is that they overbooked so everybody got seated late. You just can't make people wait 20 minutes to be seated for lunch. Peeve number 3, related, is the it was really crowded so we sort of had to fight to access the buffet, though the crowd thinned out later and we had the place basically to ourselves. Still, an awesome deal for $27.

It's not a simple matter of clicking a million times. You basically get one click, after selecting the desired number of seats from the dropdown menu. Try it one morning and you'll see it would require a fairly advanced program, sort of like Auction Sniper. I imagine that's why it hasn't commonly (if ever) been done.

It seems pretty clear, just based on the public record, that David Chang has both a humble-and-insecure streak and an angry-and-imperious streak. I'm not sure why any of that matters, though. In the end, while some reasons for the policy have been given here (none of them compelling, in my opinion), we don't actually know the policy or its justification yet.

I'll try to find out the restaurant's justification, as well as confirm what the policy actually is. Anyone else in a position to do so please try to do the same. The purported policy sounds idiotic to me at first blush but maybe there's some great reason for it that I haven't thought of.

Chinatown.

If there is indeed a ban on all photography, not just flash photography, I'd be interested in the reasoning behind it. With flash photography, it's easy: the flash disturbs other diners. But a ban on non-flash photography has to proceed from some other assumption (preserving trade secrets, etc.).

Just to state it explicitly for those who aren't familiar with the history: Floyd Cardoz (now chef at Tabla) was one of the key Gray Kunz sous chefs at Lespinasse, where all the greatest-hits dishes were hatched (though they've undergone development since then). Kunz credits Cardoz with educating him about Indian spices, so chances are Cardoz had a hand in an earlier iteration of this dish.

The appearance of a conflict of interest comes not from connections but from lack of disclosure (and subsequently getting caught). If Hesser had simply said "by the way he blurbed my book and I'm known to him" then there wouldn't have been a problem. Bryan Miller was thoroughly connected to the industry, and it wasn't a problem. In other news, I thought Bruni's most recent review -- of Bar Q -- was his worst in recent memory. Just when I think, "You know, he's getting better at reviewing," he always manages to let loose with one of these. I thought the review was not only self-indulgent and lazy with all that talk of his dining companions but also relatively incoherent in that the meandering, ambiguous narrative simply did not make the case for two stars.

Is the ban on all cameras or just on flash photography? At Alinea we were asked not to use flash but told that non-flash was fine. That seems a sensible approach.

Just catching up re some recent Noodle Bar visits: - If you want to know where Adam Perry Lang goes for steak, look no further. He was eating the tri-tip a couple of seats down from me at the bar. I confronted him about this and he said it was actually something the kitchen just sent out to him. But he also said it was damn good. I concur. - The snap peas are a great product. There are snap-pea dishes on the menus at both Noodle Bar and Ssam Bar right now. Try both if you can. - I somehow never managed to have the fluke before. Shame on me. It's a must-order. Tastes like a signature Nobu dish that Nobu forgot to invent. - I took six Momofuku virgins to Noodle Bar on three separate trips lately. I mention that because, in the past, I took all Momofuku virgins to Ssam Bar. These days, I enjoy the Noodle Bar experience more so I've switched over to Noodle Bar for deflowering situations. - I've now made my way through pretty much the whole current Noodle Bar menu, with some dishes sampled repeatedly. I'm not as comprehensive on the current Ssam Bar menu but I've had a lot of it as well as previous seasons' versions of similar dishes. I also recently ate dinner at both places on the same night. I'm starting to have a clearer sense of how to compare the places food-wise (service, for me, has been far superior at Noodle Bar of late). I think it's still fair to say that Ssam is more haute than Noodle. I mean, you can tell that pretty much just from the beverage programs without even looking at the food. But menu-wise, while each place has both rustic and haute dishes, the center of gravity is more haute at Ssam and more rustic at Noodle (I actually sat with both menus and a pen and, I think, demonstrated this numerically). However, the haute/ambitious dishes at Noodle are just as good as the haute/ambitious dishes at Ssam. You don't have to order according to the center of gravity of the menu. There's enough haute at Noodle to fill several meals before you have to start repeating (assuming the menu hasn't changed by then). Ultimately, though, if you want to experience the full range of Momofuku wonder you need to eat at Noodle, Ssam and Ko. There's no getting around it. Still, if I had to throw two Momofukus out of the lifeboat I'd keep Noodle.

The hanger steak ssam is awesome, though I think it's tied for best with the pork sausage ssam (I also leave the bo out of the comparison because it's such a different experience, but I don't think the bo is all that great anyway). If you're partial to a simple, beautiful, rare piece of meat then the hanger steak is the way to go, but the melange of flavors in the free-form pork sausage is also formidable. I don't know how many times I've been to Ssam Bar -- a couple of dozen maybe -- and I've had the specials mentioned to me maybe twice. I've just made it part of my routine to ask about specials in response to the "Are you ready to order?" query, and every time I do the server is like, "Oh! Yes, we have two specials today . . ." If anybody way back there in the kitchen is wondering why the specials don't sell very well, this is where you want to start looking. Someone reported that Cory is back on the floor regularly at Ssam Bar but I haven't seen him. Not that the staff was any better about reciting specials when Cory was nearly always there. Logic says this is Ssam Bar we're talking about. 1. There isn't really a space behind Noodle Bar that could operate as a standalone concession. Noodle Bar is mid-block. However, Ssam Bar is on a corner so a space or carve-out behind it could open on to 13th Street. 2. Noodle Bar's commitment to the buns is significant. Unlike Ssam Bar, which only offers pork buns, Noodle Bar offers pork, chicken and shiitake variants. They also do a ton of volume on buns at Noodle Bar. At busy times, there's one guy in the kitchen who does pretty much nothing but fill bun orders.

As best I can tell, about three months into this place's existence, there is no eG Forums topic devoted to it. Maybe it's the theory attributed to Yogi Berra that "It's so popular, no one goes there anymore." Or maybe nobody liked it enough to post about it. In any event, I finally walked by there at an off hour in inclement weather and was able to score a couple of slices. Not that you need a couple of slices. Even hearty eaters like me can make a meal of just one, and I don't say that about a lot of pizzerias. For those of you who have not walked on 14th Street between First and Second Avenues in the past three months, let me just catch you up: there is almost always a ridiculously long line out the door of this minuscule, unpresupposing pizzeria. The line, however, is an incredibly powerful advertisement. All anybody on the line talks about is the long line, and if there's a short line all anybody on it talks about is the absence of the long line. Most people seem to be there because they saw the line at some point. I think some people on the line might not even know or care that it's a pizzeria. They just figure, like Russians in the former Soviet Union, that if there's a line they should get on it first and ask questions later. The place is so popular that, were it to implement an online reservation system, it might take some of the load off the Momofuku Ko server. All day and all night the guys in there sling pizzas as quickly as they can, and every slice is snapped up within moments. You don't so much as choose your slice as get it rationed: when you reach the head of the line, there might be one or two choices of pizza and you take what you can get. I was lucky. I had three choices, which other people on the short line told me was wildly abnormal. I had one regular slice (as in tomato sauce, cheese and basil) and one of the signature artichoke slices (a white pizza topped with mozzarella and a thick spinach-and-artichoke goo, dip, fondue or whatever you want to call it). The Brobdingnagian pizza, while not representative of any known (to me) category of pizza (it has been called Staten-Island pizza but I've had pizza on Staten Island and it's not like this), is quite tasty. Part of the credit has to go to the high turnover -- whatever you get is quite fresh -- but it's also a nice product. The crust is rigid and crisp: it supports the generous toppings with no trouble at all. The quality of the materials is good -- better than any Manhattan slice shop I can think of at the moment, though I realize that's a low bar to clear, and on par with some of the better whole-pie places thought stylistically not at all the same. I guess it's almost like a hybrid of New York thin-crust and Chicago-style thick-crust pizza: the crust is not as thick as a deep-dish crust but it has some similar properties, and the quantity of toppings is somewhere in between the two styles. Peter Meehan reviewed the place in the New York Times in the "$25 and Under" column a couple of weeks ago. Worth a read. Though not mentioned in the review, it was Meehan's last (he is now working on the Momofuku book with David Chang). (Edited to add: Alan Richman's comments here. I see he beat me to the Soviet analogy.)

There's a substantial op-ed on this subject in today's New York Times, titled "Yes, We Will Have No Bananas." The basic thesis:

I think there's likely to be store-to-store and batch variation, however my own experience indicates that the McDonald's product is competitive.

Grayz is a pretty good name. I wouldn't give it up.

According to the Sun, Grayz will close for August and reopen as a real restaurant. http://www.nysun.com/food-drink/kitchen-di...way-east/80186/