Masak (East Village, NYC)

Masak
432 E 13th St
(between 1st Ave & Avenue A)
New York, NY 10009
Phone: (212) 260-6740
http://masaknyc.com/

For a late Sunday lunch we all went to Masak in the East Village for lunch.  It was a very unplanned spur of the moment affair that resulted in being one of the more memorable meals that I've had in a long while.

My friends can be somewhat hard to coordinate as everyone is scattered across NYC and timing a meal can be difficult.  We agreed to meet at approximately 2:15pm at the restaurant.  Having lived in the East Village for a bit previously, I was excited to come back to my old neighborhood and check out the ever evolving food scene.

Along with two of my friends, we were the first to arrive at the restaurant.  To hold ourselves over we ordered tea and coffee while we waited.  There was a refreshing hibiscis herbal iced tea that was quite delicious and refreshing.  Also ordered was an iced coffee that hit the spot.

As it was Sunday lunch, both a bloody mary and virgin bloody mary were ordered.  There was definitely a hit of spiciness that should come with a proper bloody mary.  It did not dissapoint.

As our party slowly trickled in appetizers were ordered.  Deviled eggs with candied bacon; Kaya Toast with butter and coconut custard; Fried Egg, Bacon and Manto; and the Chili Crab Dip with Mantou were ordered.  The deviled egg was unique with the candied bacon but was quite salty.  The Mantou with egg was well done but I was a little disspointed that they ran out of quail eggs so we settled for chicken eggs with bacon instead.  The Kaya Toast exceled with the coconut custard.  It won many fans, but the star of the appetizers was the Chili Crab Dip.  The combination of spicy chili, seasonings, oil and crab rounded out by the cripsy fried mantou was very special and unique.  The table devoured the appetizers and we set our eyes on entress.

I love that my friends are foodies.  We're all close, good friends so no one really thinks twice about sharing their dishes or at least letting others sample the item they ordered.  This makes trying out restaurants quite fun with a large party.  We were a party of 6 and we each ordered and entree and then added the french toast as our seventh dish for good measure.

All in all we sampled the:
1) French Toast with coconut custard and bananas,
2) Oxtail noodle soup
3) Chicken hearts with a fried egg and vegtables
4) The Rendang burger which won NY TimeOut's Burger of 2012.
5) The Pulled Pork Sandwich
6) The Dutch Baby - with bacon and eggs and vegtables
7) Spicy Rock Shrimp, grits and fried egg.

Everything was very delicious.

As we ate and talked the waitress came over and asked if we had been here before as the chef claimed to have recognized me.  Even thought this was an impossiblity as it was my first visit to the restaurant we ended up conversing with waitress who revealed that she helped to cook a good portion of the menu at the restaurant.  As our party talked with her and watched the chef, the meal became an impromptu psuedo chefs table.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was warm and welcoming as it was apparent that there was a love of food in the room.

Even though we were stuffed, it was recommended that we try some desserts.  We ordered two desserts and a third was comped by the restuarant which was a nice gesture.

All in all, I was quite pleased with my meal and am quite keen on returning at some point to try the dinner meu which the staff claims is even better than the brunch menu that we sampled.  I may just have to take them up on the offer for dinner at some point in the future.