Pok Pok

My sister, my nephew, and I were able to squeeze in a meal at Pok Pok in Brooklyn before my flight back to Columbia. It had been getting great reviews and my interest was peaked by Amy Karol's post on drinking vinegars so I was excited to go.  We arrived about the time it opened and there was already a line of people waiting. In Brooklyn! Crazy. Fortunately, they seated everyone pretty quickly--split between inside and the tented outside seating.

Of course we had to try the drinking vinegars--I had the raspberry and my sister had the pear:

We both loved them.  It was a fairly hot and humid day so the acidic bite of the vinegar cut the sweetness of the fruit to make this such a refreshing drink.

We shared the vegan version of the Khao Soi (coconut curry noodle soup):

and the vegan version of the Papaya Pok Pok salad:

The Khao Soi was dynamite--we ordered a second. The Papaya Pok Pok salad was a little plain but I caveat that since we had the vegan version it probably is more tasty with the salty kick of dried shrimp and fish sauce of the original version.

The one thing I was a bit disappointed in was the wait staff's underwhelming attitude in the particulars of their food, given how unique the food is at Pok Pok.  The waitress was definitely nice and not rude at all but when I expressed interest the drinking vinegars her tone was like, yeah, haha, some people like those--they're just kind of like these syrups...yeah...  And when another waitress/food runner delivered the Khao Soi, she defined the sides (pickled mustard greens, shallots, cilantro, chili paste, lime) and when I asked if I was supposed to mix these in with the noodles, her answer was sort of shruggish, yeah...if you like.  We decided to mix them in and the sides added a great fresh pop to the noodles.  Now is that so hard?

Overall, I recommend it -- the drinks and dishes are wonderfully unique and refreshing.  Looking forward to trying other flavors of those drinking vinegars!