Dreaming of Wings

If you haven't been to Pok Pok (or Whiskey Soda Lounge, or now the new Pok Pok Noi) and tried their 'Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings' you are missing out.  They are available regular or spicy, and both are soooooo good. 

Pok Pok is a great little restaurant on Division and 32nd.  They're pretty clever, if you're there after 7:00 there's almost always a wait, but if you put your name in you can wait at their sister bar across the street - the Whiskey Soda Lounge and they'll call you when your table's ready.  Both serve amazing Thai street food.  It's nothing like your corner Thai restaurant, it's much better, and having not been to Thailand I'm assuming much more authentic.  We decided to eat there on Tuesday because they participated in the "Dine for Japan" night. 

In addition to the wings (in their not so spicy form) we got a beef salad (Laap Khua Meuang) which was delicious and full of flavor.  It was mostly perfect slices of med rare beef with tons of flavorful herbs and spices.  They said it was spicy, but it wasn't too bad.  I'm pretty wimpy sometimes, and I handled it. 

We also got a glass noodle dish with shrimp and pork belly (Kung Op Wun Sen).  It was good, but the flavors were more subtle than the wings and the beef salad so it was sometimes hard to taste them since my palate was a tad overwhelmed by the huge bold flavors of the other dishes. 

We paired everything we had with beer which was perfect.  We'd tried cocktails in the past, but this is Thai street food and nothing goes with that better than a cold beer. 

I never leave Pok Pok without their Pok Pok Affogato, condensed milk ice cream (WHAT?  yes that's right - amazing), drowned in a shot of Vietnamese coffee and served with a Chinese doughnut.  That translates to YUMMMMM.  It's so good it's almost tough to handle.

Before we left my sweetheart decided he hadn't had enough of the wings and we got another order to go - spicy this time.  They were just as good at home as they were at the restaurant.  We decided it's not something we could eat daily, but maybe 3-4 times a week.  They're that good.  Go NOW - Pok Pok!