#32 – WHOLE PIG at FATTY ‘CUE

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Fat. For some, it’s a bad word that must be avoided at all costs. Others (TV food personalities, for example) embrace it and have a hard time enjoying a meal without a nice white soft layer of the stuff. I fall somewhere right in the middle. I understand that fat makes a dish taste good, but I don’t want to eat pure lard. The texture is unpleasant and I actually want some muscle with my fat.

Seems like a sensible opinion, but in the New York food scene I must be in the minority based on the popularity of self-proclaimed fat palaces like Fatty ‘Cue. It’s the latest from the guys behind Fatty Crab and the late Cabrito. And for other reasons, I was disappointed in the past by both those restaurants. But I’m a huge fan of barbecued meats (it used to be an annual birthday tradition for me) so I was excited to try their recent concept of fusing Southern BBQ and Korean flavors out in Williamsburg.

While most bloggers and publications go on and on about the special Whole Pig served on Sundays only, I felt like we got the short end of the stick. Time Out lists the dish as $18, the menu reads $25, and upon later research other blogs write that it costs $40 with reservations (that seems to be specifically for the pig’s head). We didn’t have reservations, but I did call ahead to make sure they were serving the Whole Pig.

What we were served was a sad plate of fat with a few pieces of charred meat. No head or crispy skin. The server told us because of the snow storm (which had happened a good week earlier), they were out of a few items which meant the whole pig would not be served with the usual belly (I wonder if that also explains the rest of the corners cut). And so it was that we got an expensive plate of loin, shoulder, and rib meat. There was barely any meat here – certainly not enough to warrant a $25 price tag. And the flesh that was present looked more like cubes of fat than the perfect pink meat I salivate for at BBQ joints.

A few empty steamed buns completed the plate along with a tasty spicy mess of greens. The buns were present to create your own pork bun, but I seriously ran out of meat. There were a few shards of crispy leg bits that added some nice texture and the bit of loin meat that was not fat was moist and smoky. The protein didn’t have much Asian flavors, but the bao concept and the greens on the side brought that world into play. I sorely missed the pineapple curry that Time Out mentioned and our waiter said was out of season.

My favorite thing I tasted was the Smokin’ Bone cocktail with whiskey, smoked pineapple syrup (I thought pineapple was out of season!), tabasco, and chocolate bitters. The coriander bacon we tried had wonderful mustard flavors, but again was so layered with soft fat that it was unpleasant. The bowl of noodles had some great deep Asian flavors that I enjoyed, but it like everything else was way overpriced for the portion sizes. We spent so much money at Fatty ‘Cue and I could barely find the meat.

Fatty ‘Cue was missing that wonderful smoky odor in the air, but it had that dark terrain feeling of the other Fatty restaurants. The service was seemingly friendly, but rather creepy and elitist. One server kept saying “No worries” to everything we asked. “Where’s your bathroom?” “No worries.” It was annoying and reeked of faux-graciousness. I really have no need to return. Except they were out of our other list item: the Brisket. So I guess I will be back to give Fatty ‘Cue a second fat chance.

Would Fatty ‘Cue’s Whole Pig make my Top 100 of the year? 5 out of 10. The concept is great, but we spent lots of money for a sad excuse for barbecued pork, with decent flavors but an excessive serving of fat.