photo by Candace West
Bakudan Maki - panko fried shrimp, grilled pineapple, arugula, avocado and coconut curry sauce.
Food Porn: Kubo Asiatic Cuisine
"Oh, wow!" And "Oh, shit!"
"Oh, wow!" because just reading the thing ("Green tea-cured salmon with longan, fried basil and yuzu kosho jelly," "Lao-grilled beef, somen noodles, romaine hearts and nouc nam") was like taking 220 volts straight to the taste buds. This isn't the stuff of one more generic "Asian McFusion" eatery, cranking out tuna tataki-black cod with miso-10,000 wackymaki cream cheese and spicy sauce on everything with the palate-numbing relentlessness of a franchise burger joint.
And the "Oh, shit!"? Well, what if it weren't the real deal? What if, just as zombies eat the faces off their victims and politicians act like rabid scum weasels, Villacrusis was another of those South Florida chefs who let their mouths write menus that their asses can't cook?
And the "Oh, shit!"? Well, what if it weren't the real deal? What if, just as zombies eat the faces off their victims and politicians act like rabid scum weasels, Villacrusis was another of those South Florida chefs who let their mouths write menus that their asses can't cook?
Go with the wow.
Go with the wow because Kubo Asiatic Cuisine is indeed the very real deal, and Roy Villacrusis can cook just about any menu his mouth can write. Go with the wow because he's not channeling Nobu or Morimoto or any of their dozens of tenth-rate imitators but drawing inspiration from the cuisines of his native Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries and crafting dishes that let you taste their flavors in a whole new light.
I had two reactions looking over Roy Villacrusis' menu at his new Kubo Asiatic Cuisine.