It was a lot of fun to get back in the kitchen with Natashia, Dylan, Vladdy, and the guys. HR may say we had too much fun…
A few things I learned from our first week at The Flower Shop.
The kitchen fits 3 cooks broken into 3 stations: Grill, Sautee, and Fryer. For last week’s menu, garde manger was split between the grill side and fryer side, which isn’t ideal. Vladdy had the grill and fired the ceviche, but Saul had the fryer and fired the salad.
Vladdy will be pissed, but garde manger is coming exclusively off the grill side lol. Congrats, Vladdy!
Every cold savory dish requires an item from the grill and will no longer need anything from the fryer.
This is the shit that makes cooking commercially significantly harder than cooking at a dinner party. At a dinner party, you need to produce the dish one time.
In a restaurant, you have to figure out how to fire the same dish 70 times a night not knowing when it’ll be ordered so the dish has to be set up in a way where with about 10 seconds notice, you can deliver it in about 3 minutes.
In June, I put dishes on the menu that I have picked up thousands of times over 10 years at Baohaus or private events. My good friend, Paul Chang, came and was like, “I see what you did. You anchored the menu with the Lion’s Head Meatballs and Red Cooked Pork.”
It made me laugh and I appreciated that Yung Zagat saw the math. Not knowing the strengths of each cook, I picked dishes that I knew I could personally pick-up if I had to.
When you’re back’s against the wall, play the hits…
BUT, every one in this kitchen exceeded expectations. The team can do more so I got in the lab over the weekend and wrote up July’s menu with an eye toward the summer.
More seafood, less stews, more vinegar.
The dishes that stay from June are the ceviche, the mustard green skate wing, a braised meat on rice that you could get roadside in Taiwan, the Iberian pork and clams from the quesadilla are now in a pan, and a grilled seafood on rice that feels Greek Taverna meets Southeast Asian.
That’s the identity of this restaurant: something raw, something pickled, something braised, something Taiwanese, some pork with shellfish, something grilled and something vaguely Southeast Asian.
Lots of drinking and dance music.
In a week or so, I’ll announce the wines we’re serving as well.
As you saw with June, by the time these dishes hit the table there will be tweaks, but I think it’s fun to talk this through on substack. If you came, you liked, didn’t like, leave a comment.
Additionally, I will be picking two dishes from this menu to run every Friday Night at The Flower Shop. There will be 8 to 10 orders of each, I’ll prep them personally after taping the pod, and then it’s on Vladdy. If you didn’t get a table for July or just happen to be in the neighborhood, pop by and try them out.
Gazebo July
First
Halibut Ceviche - it’s the same leche de tigre and presentation from last month, but flipping the Hokkaido Scallop to the grill since it’s halibut season.
Duck Rice - the turkey rice was a hit, but with the rest of the menu getting lighter and brighter, I wanted to do something richer and heartier over rice so here comes the braised duck. It’ll be a very simple soy-based braise accented by anise because WE GON LET THE DUCK TALK TONIGHT!
Fried Clam Belly Bao - I feel like this one may flip to oyster depending on the quality of clam bellies available through our purveyors. I prefer clam cause it has a cleaner, lighter, sharper flavor in a bao, but the oyster is like those bombs Israel keeps asking America for that can explode underground bunkers. I would like to avoid that scenario. It’s a bit heavy for a bao, but the writing is on the wall and we may see oysters in a bao. Sadly none of this is up to us, but I think maturity is continuing to do what you think is right as the world burns around you. If I have to serve oysters, I will, but I prefer clams. The sauce on this bao comes from shrimp heads and lobster tamale blended with our proprietary chili oil and kewpie mayo lifted by exotic citrus. It’s very nice.
Cool Calm Spot Prawns - These will be spot prawns or Montauk red shrimp, heads removed (for sauce), grilled in shell over binchotan charcoal, dressed with a Filipino cane vinegar and aromatics.
Vinegar Noodle Salad with Grilled Lobster +20 - this is a variation of the noodles my Mom made for most pot luck dinners. She always got a lot of compliments on this cold noodle salad with cucumbers and they’re driven by smoky chilis that she would burn in the pan before picking up with vinegar. I’m doing the same thing, flipping some spaghetti in the sauce, and serving with a whole grilled lobster tail. Each order gets 8 oz of lobster, which we’re simply passing along the cost for.
Second
Tempura Fish Cheeks & Chips - I’ve wanted to serve a trio of fish cheeks since last month. Right now there are halibut, monkfish, and grouper cheeks. I prefer them grilled, but because Saul needs something to do during the second course I’m giving him fish cheeks to fry. If it were up to me, I’d just throw away the fryer and run two binchotan grills, but I cannot throw out someone else’s fryer. That’s just rude when you’re a guest in their kitchen.
The fish cheeks get the same shrimp head-lobster tamale mayo that goes in the clam belly bao so I’d order one or the other since they’re similar flavors. That’s what I’m going to be doing each month as well. If there’s a sauce/flavor I really like, I’ll offer it in both courses so you have a shot at it in the preparation you like.
Mustard Green Skate Wing - This was the runaway hit of the June dinners and I’m still enamored with this dish so it stays. I highly recommend ordering it.
Double Vinegar Iberian Pork Collar - Every Taiwanese Mom I know makes a pork chop marinated in black vinegar. If you’ve ever been to Din Tai Fung and ordered the pork over rice, that’s what I’m talking about except that version has much less vinegar than you would get at home. I’m going to do a similar prep for this, but instead of a pork chop, I’m going to hit Iberian Pork Collar with two vinegars, grill it over coals, and then pick it up with a ton of clams in the pan. I believe that pork belongs with shellfish and will continue serving it.
Grilled Medium Rare Hokkaido Scallop Rice - I loved the Hokkaido Scallops from last month and this time around they’re coming over rice with Filipino Cane Vinegar just like the prawns from the first course. I would say order either/or so that you can try something else.
Squid Ink Oxtail - I made this at home years ago after hitting a bong I called The City Dancer and found a random note scribbled into a note book “squid ink oxtail yo”. I found it this week and this is probably the thing I’m most excited to serve this July. Squid ink sacs, heirloom tomatoes, garlic, chili oil, ox tails, FUCK WIT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I’ll be there in July 🤙 thanks for the sneak peek at the menu / your process.
Sounds like a fantastic lineup. Pittsburgh food scene is getting better and better but would love to see more of this kind of interesting and funky stuff served here.