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Restaurant Review: Pig & Khao
Leah Cohen‘s Clinton Street restaurant Pig & Khao has been calling my name since Colameco’s piece on the former Top Chef contestant last year, but they’ve been open since 2012. After three failed attempts to get in, I decided to make a reservation like an adult.
Our waitress says that for two people we should order three to four small plates. We order three plus the Chicharron to start – homemade fried pork rinds. Kim has an FTP, which is rum, cognac, peach, and cinnamon bark. Sweeter than she’d like. I tossed back four Perfect Storms (ginger, sherry, lemon, rum) like they were happy juice.
I’d skip the chicharrons next time as they’re a bit one note – and the coconut vinegar was so mild it really only got them wet. They look nice, though.
Then the evening special blew our minds. Crispy pork belly on pumpkin puree and bok choy with nuts and fried onions. Kim and I looked at each other like we’ve done only a handful of times – registering extreme delight with barely a raised eyebrow – silently acknowledging that we just ate something special. Crispy and smooth, sweet and unctuous.
I had an awesome pork belly experience with friends a week ago and didn’t expect another so quickly. The gods of ham throw bacon in my path. Next up, the Sizzling Ssig; An egg cracked on a hotplate of chopped pork head. Stir the egg in and SHAZAM! So very tasty, especially for Kim who identified the anatomy as she ate it.
“This is an ear. My mom used to make this.”
“Your mom made ears?”
Not a morsel remained and it paired perfectly with their amazing coconut rice. That rice borders on dessert and I will slay any man that gets between us. Although even it could not contain the heat of the next dish.
“Wait, we have another dish coming?” I ask Kim.
“Wait, we have another dish coming?” the guy at the next table asks his girl.
Seems both tables were talked into three dishes, but do yourself a favor and stop at two and a dessert. It’s a lot of food, especially with that delicious coconut rice. Unless you’re in a group, I mean. Or you could just do whatever you want.
The Khao Soi (red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, shallots) was so spicy it should be mentioned when you order it. Help me help myself, Pig & Khao. We had to give up and get it to go. I just tried it again after a day in the fridge. Whoowweeeee that’s a spicy Khao Soi!
Hence the Halo Halo was a no-brainer. A traditional Filipino shaved ice dessert I’ve only had once before at Talde where Dale puts Cap’n Crunch in it. Known for being a concoction, at Pig & Khao there’s some tasty purple ube ice cream and the occasional leche flan your spoon discovers happily, all melting into a soup with macapuno coconut and pinipig, (toasted glutenous rice).
We rolled ourselves onto Clinton Street and walked by the now closed WD-50 with a liquid nitrogen tear running down our cheeks. Somehow we made it to the F train on Delancey before collapsing into heaps back in Brooklyn – where Leah Cohen plans to take more of my money.
“Next time I’m getting the tasting menu,” I thought to myself, before slipping into porky unconsciousness.
Almost every year for the past 6 years and on the same day, I’ve posted the same pic of me in the hospital during my temporary and untimely demise in 2015. A few weeks after I was back to “normal”, I asked Eric “Why’d you take the pics?” And he said, “I knew you would want to write about it if you lived.” Eric was right. Eric was often right and Eric always had my best interest at heart. I am going to miss my friend.
You ever meet someone and become friends immediately?! Well this was not the case with Eric. Before he was my manager at Morgan Stanley, I would often see this 6’4″, giant white guy walk up to the only black woman at work, say something then walk away without any hint of human emotion. Naturally I thought he was a jerk until I asked her “Yo, is that dude bothering you?” She laughed and proceeded to tell me he was a great person, which I ultimately got to experience first hand. Little did I know this Italian from Staten Island was more Brooklyn than most Brooklynites.
Eric was not with the shits!! If there were ever someone who lived their life in direct, honest and no uncertain terms, that would be Eric. He would ask me questions at work like “Why are the other consultants making more money than you?” I knew the answer to that question and so did he. Eric then proceeded to increase my salary by 15K. After arguing with all our managers that “You need to hire Alfred!”, they eventually did 1 year prior to the 2015 incident. In the hospital, one of my friends asked me, “What if you didn’t have health insurance when this happened?” I would be in debt for the rest of my life is the obvious answer. I still am in debt for the rest of my life but at least, it is to those who made sure I had a more enjoyable life and for that, I will gladly repay.
My mom loved to tell me the story of how she met Eric. After they told her I was going to be in the ICU for some time, she told the doctor “Well I’m not going anywhere.” She then hears a voice from that back of the room that says “Well I’m not going anywhere either!” That was Eric and in true form, he was at that hospital every single day until I was discharged.
Eric passed away in December 2021 of stage 4 cancer. After feeling faint on his way to my bbq, he went to get checked out and was diagnosed. During the past 5 years, Eric lost his mom, twin brother and dad. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have felt like but I’m glad that pain he was feeling is no more.
From being my manager to my business partner, writer, book editor, artistic director, and most importantly, my friend, I am going to miss you MC Krispy E a.k.a “Enrique Pollazo!” And although you told me Enrique means Henry in Spanish and not Eric, it was too late!
Sidebar. The day I was discharged, while everyone was deciding what was best for me, no one had remembered that I would need clothes in order to leave the hospital. Eric shows up (unasked) with all the clothes I had on the day I coded, laundered and ready to go. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve friends like this but i need to keep doing it! Sidebar complete.
Rest in Peace Eric. “Be Good.”
I had the distinct pleasure of participating in a panel discussion on writing your first book, presented by the Harlem chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Alongside Jim St. Germain, Author – A Stone of Hope: A Memoir and Dr. Keneshia Nicole Grant, Author – The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century. We opined on pain points, benefits and strategies regarding our inaugural voyages into authorship. Feel free to watch for your self and I hope this provides some insight to all those looking to make the same voyage. Enjoy!
