Momofuku you!: An evening with Chang and Bourdain

On Monday night, Erato and I went to see two of the most notorious bad boys of the culinary world - Anthony Bourdain of Kitchen Confidential, A Cook's Tour and No Reservations fame, and David Chang, maestro of the ever-growing Momofuku restaurant empire - on a double billing at the 92nd Street Y. Their chat was an irreverent and insider look at working in the industry, the NY restaurant scene and their culinary experiences around the world.

To me, the most interesting comments that they made dealt with the intersection of food and culture - and America's lack of a real food culture, except perhaps in the South. Tony Bourdain's best point was that the quickest way to learn about a culture is to eat their food. If you've read any of my posts about travel, you know that Phineas and I embrace this ethos. And David Chang, or at least the way he cooks - mixing east and west, modern and traditional, high end and down home - absolutely reminds me of how Phineas (with his Chinese-Jamaican-American background) cooks. In other words, I tend to share both of these interesting chefs world views when it comes to food.

Since some professionals have already summed up the evening, I thought I would give you a taste of this duo from their first on-air appearance together. I should add that Erato and I started the night with dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar, and you will get to see some of the things we ate in this clip (pork buns, spicy sausage with rice cakes...)