When you love food, it's not unusual to get a phone call at night that says "you gotta check this place out" from your friends. But it's rare when someone calls you at midnight and says "we gotta go back tomorrow night" then you know you have to drop everything and go.
In this case, the urgency resulted from Hogo featuring Aaron Silverman's (preview for Rose's Luxury opening in the spring on Capitol Hill) menu only for 2 weeks, and my friend's schedule being open only the following night (and maybe his respect for my never-ending desire to look for best and most interesting adventures in food, and willingness to show me what he had found)
So on a Saturday night, I walked into Hogo where everyone seemed to be in a happy mood, not in a way you'd find in regular restaurants, but almost like "yeah, we are part of a small group of people who found about this and can't wait to eat" kind of happy. There was almost a slight nod when I walked in, as if being a special agent you couldn't disclose but everyone else knew secretly. Hogo is a small, casual, dimly lit, brick place you would probably find more easily in Brooklyn or Chicago (I am so glad it is in DC), with average age of clientele around 30 or so. Cocktail list is long and interesting (ahem, Passenger is next door, should I say more?) leaning more towards exotic, plus small beer and wine selections. Friendly bartenders, good drinks, comfortable bar... but we are not here for that. We are here for the food - which I already had my eyes on, especially when the small plate of fried chicken morsels made their way out of the kitchen to the table next to the bar, I was tempted to reach across and grab, when "wait" said a voice inside (or was that my friend? Not sure)
From the cute little space you enter the kitchen through a passage way, and find bare barseating in front of a counter which could easily be a diner in New Jersey or the Midwest, lit with fluorescent lighting. I personally don't care (and apparently noone else as all seats are taken and people happily conversing and watching the action right in front of them)
Move over Minibar - I can watch the action and chat with the chef here for much less (just make sure you are not wearing your nice clothes cause the fryer is about 3 feet away!) Chef Aaron and his team are extremely friendly, not only prepping their dishes but also welcoming the customers, and chatting along with everyone.
The menu is very small, and displayed on top of the kitchen hood with movable letters, as well as printed booklets in front of us:
The chef and his team (2 more cooks, 1 prep guy, and a dishwasher) are excited, and so are we. This is a place where you don't chose, you just let the chef roll it in for you at his pace (which will be pretty fast as the crowd grows outside).
We begin with Kusshi oysters with dark and stormy granita. Kusshi+granita+dark and stormy... do I need to say more? These are good!
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| Kusshi Oysters with dark & stormy granita |
Then follows an amazing popcorn soup - yeah, not corn, but popcorn soup, served out of a small mason jar. From now on, I will be craving this at the movie theater, preferably in a popcorn bucket! Creamy, slightly salty, and with an intense popcorn flavor but it's like drinking the popcorn without anything getting stuck in your teeth (and it has pieces of poached lobster in it, too, does that help?) Now I know we are in for a very good treat for sure.
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| Pop Corn Soup with Poached Lobster |
The pork fat banh-mi is the perfect bar food, and would make the perfect lunch every day (but craves for a strong hoppy beer - in my case it's the He'brew Lenny's Rye IPA from Schmaltz Brewing (well, Schmaltz is chicken fat, and this is pork fat sandwich - should work as long as we don't get a major curse while drinking it!) It looks like I won't be able to eat Banh Mi after this incredibly creamy, intense pate placed inside a simple but real baguette, doused with the perfectly briny and slightly sweet pickle... What have I done? (speaking of pickle, we were also served beautiful pickle juice as bourbon chaser - if you haven't done it, you gotta try it, that's all I gotta say)
Next is pork and lychee salad. Well this sounds odd, for sure... Pork? Lychee? What kind of pork? Salad? (yeah my mind rarely stops asking questions) Relax, sit back (well you can't when you are on a stool, so sit comfortably) and enjoy. Preferably close your eyes. The instructions are to mix everything which makes a mess, but what a mess it is. You are served a bowl with lychees, ground (and extremely flavorful) pork bits, whipped coconut milk and red onions, and this is one bowl to savor. It is delightfully salty, slightly sweet, and incredibly satisfying. This is a dish you eat slowly and savoring each bite (good thing noone can hear the sounds I make with the kitchen hood working at full capacity)
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| Lychee and pork salad (messy heaven in a bowl I say!) |
If you think we were swimming in "gluttony" and "sin" here comes the cleanest dish of the day: "crispy cauliflower with greek yogurt" which is wonderfully crispy on the outside and perfectly tender on the inside. Beautifully seasoned, with the crunch of the panko crumbs perfectly balancing the creamy tartness of the thick yogurt. I always loved cauliflower, but this makes it a "sexy vegetable" from now on. I can hardly stop myself putting my finger in the bowl to swipe the remaining yogurt on the edge.
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| Crispy cauliflower with greek yogurt |
Then follows what I've been waiting for - will it live up to the expectations after that pork and lychee? Oh yes, the answer is clear. The chicken thigh pieces fried at the perfect temperature makes them crisp and lightly brown, but when they are drizzled with honey and topped with sesame (or bene) seeds (and per preference doused with hot sauce), you are ready to beg the chef to bring it over the counter and the taste delivers (especially with the not so hot hot sauce), yes, I want more of this for dessert! (or like Anthony Bourdain said on the The Taste last week "Take me now")
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| Bread & butter fried chicken (before we hit it with a good dose of hot sauce) |
After that comes probably the only "ok" dish of the evening (well hard to top that pork/lychee dish and the fried chicken) which is a fragrant pho, but for my taste the salt flavor dominates the others. The soup is not salty per se, but in my opinion, the best part of South Asian cuisine is the delicate balance between salty, sweet, sour, hot, and bitter; and in this soup, the salty taste leads the pack. Maybe this could have worked before the pork/lychee dish, but not at this point, for me.
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| Pho |
I am ready to ask for another plate of chicken (and another one to take home and eat in bed so I can die in my sleep - happily) when the chef serves a small but potent dish which seems to be the theme of the evening:
Crushed raspberries topped with whey stracciatella ice cream (chocolate drizzled in whey ice cream) and crushed merengue. Another complex and intense flavor combination to bring in the finale with fireworks even for someone like me who isn't crazy about dessert. If this is how deserts are supposed to be like, I am a dessert lover, bring it on!
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| Whey stracciatella ice cream served with crushed raspberries and crushed merengue |
Now I know why my friend wanted to go back... I am ready to go back myself the following day, only if they were open... As we leave, the considerably more crowded space and the eyes watching our seats are a sign we are not alone. This was a very memorable (if a bit too fast for my liking, but I understand the reasons, lots of people waiting!) meal I'd like to repeat often. Fortunately, Aaron is working on his new place (Rose's Luxury), and if this Q&A at Washingtonian proves right, I predict we have another Little Serow in our hands. Kudos to Aaron and his team - I can't wait for more!!!
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