Choose Your Own Chopsticks!

Hello again!

Last week, Ham and I got a whole peck of peppers fermenting for (fingers crossed) the best hot sauce of 2021! They're not quite ferment-y enough, so I'll follow up with all the deets on how we blend, season, and finish them next week. In the meantime, let me tell you about our dinner at Atomix!

Ham and I have never been to a Broadway show. We’ve never gone to the ballet. We don’t even stop by the occasional museum. We do, however, sometimes splurge on a little “high art” in the form of tasting menus. When we were young cooks in New York City, we’d obsess over every new tasting menu spot that opened and save for months to experience them. We considered this part of our training, a way to expand our palates and learn new techniques that we wouldn’t have seen at work. But after a while, they all started to blend together into one mish-mash of tiny food on big plates. Thankfully, there has been way more variety in the tasting menus popping in the city lately.

Ellia and Junghyun Park’s Atoboy opened in 2016, the same year we opened Hail Mary, our now-shuttered Greenpoint diner. We were even in the same group recognized by Rising Star Chefs that year. My transition from the back of house into food media caused me to lose touch with the restaurant scene, so we never ended up checking it out. When they opened their critically acclaimed, two Michelin-starred tasting temple Atomix a few years later, it shot up to the top of my list of restaurants I needed to dine at.

We finally experienced the magic of Atomix this summer. Like going to the latest Marvel movie, we did our best to avoid spoilers to experience Atomix in full. We didn’t know what to expect...

----SPOILER ALERT---

We stepped into the building and were immediately greeted by co-founder Ellia Park’s warm hospitality. She walked us by a small bar where we assumed we’d be having dinner, but we were then guided to our counter seats in a cavernous space downstairs.

At our place setting, we found a beautifully decorated card with a heartfelt letter from Ellia about how difficult the past year has been. There was a hopefulness and gratitude in her words that encapsulated how so many people in the restaurant industry were feeling. We thought this would be the end of the cards, but after ordering our drinks, we were presented with another one. This one listed the snacks, paired with another message.

Each course received its own colorful card with a description and details on the thought process of the dish. Chefs usually have servers give you this spiel, but I think it feels awkward at best or pretentious at worst—and I want to eat my food hot! These cards created a direct link between the dishes and the mind that created them. We eagerly awaited the next card almost as much as the next dish.

There were so many fun moments scattered throughout the meal that I couldn’t possibly touch on all of them…

SO here are my top five favorite Atomix moments!

5. They had a pouch filled with mismatched chopsticks for each guest to pick the one that called to them. Unparalleled cuteness!

4. Right after our final meat course, a grilled lamb chop with punchy langoustine sauce, we received a surprise chilled noodle dish. The bouncy noodles were dressed in a pine nut and spruce sauce then showered with shaved summer truffles—the perfect creamy transition to dessert.

3. Persimmon leaf tea! I’d never tried this before and am a huge persimmon fangirl. Surprisingly, the floral and fruity notes really shone through from just the steeped leaves. They also served the tea in an adorable Korean tea pot.

2. The final course combined so many of my favorite things: perfectly caramelized puff pastry, savory soy caramel, and aromatic chamoe ice cream. I especially delight in desserts that play with textures and temperatures, and this one delivers on that hot/cold, crunchy/creamy glory. My stomach magically emptied itself and demanded at least 4 more orders.

Drumroll please…

1. Small oily fried fish on a stick—I could’ve had a meal of just these! The sweetfish had the delicate aroma of watermelon and reminded me of a fish that is popular in Bangladesh, but I hadn’t eaten in years (cue the nostalgia!). They were fried until the outside was as crisp as a lightbulb (Oculus reference), while the flesh stayed flaky and tender.

After being away from tasting menus for so long, Atomix reminded me of all the things that I missed about them: warm hospitality, unfamiliar ingredients I made sure to Google when I got home, and familiar things cooked in a new way. I especially appreciate the cards that accompany each dish, making it easier to nerd out (like this) long after the meal. These cards, like the meal, will be something I cherish for a while.