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Pok Pok – Authentic Thai in Red Hook
When I heard Pok Pok started taking reservations, I made one immediately. No way I’m hauling my ass to Red Hook just to wait on a long line of unwashed hipsters – even if Chef and owner Andy Ricker opened a whiskey lounge across the street to keep us occupied until a table was ready.
I’d seen the documentary on Ricker and prepared myself for authentic Thai in a purposefully less than fine-dining interior. White table clothes? Nope. Smart move, as many well intentioned restaurants find themselves unexpectedly in the linen business, coordinating laundry, hole repair, folding and counting- which all a takes focus away from the food.
At Pok Pok, the food, not the ambiance, is center stage.
I have to admit I was excited, and there was no way Pok Pok could live up to what I was expecting, or so I thought.
“We obviously have to get the wings,” Kim says.
Listed on the menu as Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings, they’ve been called the best chicken wings in the country by Epicurious. Marinated in garlic, sugar, and fish sauce, deep-fried and covered with spicy roasted chile paste and caramelized garlic. The result is a chicken wing like no other, and one Ricker owes his empire to – though it ain’t Thai. Like almost everything on the menu, these chicken wings taste like you need another drink.
“That also explains the super spicy nuts they put out on the table,” I say, gulping down my second delicious Tamarind Whiskey Sour.
Kim went for the Mango Alexander, and it knocked our socks off. Mango, vodka, coconut cream and lime. Yes, please.
The corn on the cob is nicely grilled and slathered with salty coconut cream. Squeeze a little lime and these were gone before you could say “how much did that cost?”
The Lap Pet Issan is a chopped duck salad with duck liver and skin, although it was kinda hard to tell what was what. Sometimes you got something on your fork that threatened to burn your tonsils out, if you didn’t already have them removed.
My favorite dish of the night was the Keng Hang Leh, some pork belly and pork shoulder with palm sugar, ginger, tamarind, tumeric, curry powder, and pickled garlic. It had a hunk of fat on it that was, perhaps, as good as slow cooked fat can be. I tried a little with rice, a little with the pork… it made everything better.
The couple next to us was eyeing our choices, making cutesy faces to each other about how many plates we had on the table. So we ate them too. I think they were Chinese, or at least they tasted Chinese.
While I had a great time, and I would go back in a second, I did have a complaint or two. Well, not so much a complaint, but an observation. Seems like this type of cuisine is very forgiving. Ostensibly, the chicken wings were fried pretty hard, so the chicken isn’t really juicy. That dish is more about chicken skin and spices. The duck was also well done, which may be authentic, but my local palate digs softer, more medium consistencies – which I think would improve mouthfeel tremendously.
That being said, I’ll be glad to go back to try their mango salad, pork riblets, boar collar, flank steak salad, and even their whole fried fish. And maybe sample some of their other strong cocktails.
With no room for dessert (next time!), we rolled out of there with our doggy bag and fell asleep standing up on the train back home.
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!
