This story originally appeared on Fork in the Road.
Eddie Huang has returned from a recent jaunt to Taiwan and is busily making plans for Xiao Ye (formerly Crackhaus), his 50-seat Orchard Street restaurant slated to open in mid-June. Huang gave Fork in the Road the exclusive on the menu of small bites and shareable plates, revealed below. The chef explains that Xiao Ye will be his chance to explore Taiwanese classics like red-cooked meats and fried chicken. “I really want to put in my time and tackle some of these dishes before I go do the more modern, crazy stuff,” he says.
Like at Baohaus, where buns are stuffed with Niman Ranch pork and Angus beef, Huang plans to emphasize quality ingredients. He hopes to use sustainably sourced meats, especially chicken–”free-range chicken is always used in Taiwan,” Huang says (a topic he also blogged passionately about while abroad).
On the small-plates menu, he’s in talks with several meat purveyors about getting his own blends of pork and beef for the dumplings, and can’t resist a boast: “We’re going to take dumplings to a level you’re not seeing elsewhere.” House-made master stocks will go into everything from soups to sauces, and spice powders will be ground in-house from Chinese medicinal herbs.
Yet despite these ministrations, Huang wants to keep prices “30 percent lower” than at other Asian drinking-and-eating spots. A full liquor license and hours till 2 a.m. on weekends should also help draw a crowd. “I wanted to have a cool place with really good food that doesn’t kill young people with the price–it’s really for me and my friends,” he tells us, which is a more subdued version of what he expressed on his blog today: “It sucks that by the time you can afford the dope shit in life, you’re old, ugly, and probably have diabetes. So, I don’t want to perpetuate that.” Sounds good, as long as the LES customer base doesn’t end up being like the dessert: drunken fruits. Check out the full menu below.
See the rest of the story on Fork in the Road.
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