Moon Rabbit
Advertising agency · SoHo ·
Inventive Vietnamese restaurant with savory-sweet desserts
Inventive Vietnamese restaurant with savory-sweet desserts
"Pastry chef Susan Bae, who as a child hated doenjang jjigae, now says, “I think I love it.” For that reason she put a sweetened rendition of doenjang jjigae on the menu as a tofu cheesecake with a base of zucchini cake, finished with charred-miso crème anglaise, confit squash, and a jam made with chef-favorite Nardello peppers; it’s presented as a dessert that retains “all the savory flavors of doenjang jjigae — and all the vegetables too.” Bae wanted to bring the savory elements, herbs, and vegetables of Southeast Asian cuisine into desserts and aims for a balance of “sweet, salty, and a bit of this random ‘what is that?’ flavor.” The zucchini-and-pepper dish is typical of the program: there’s a sponge cake with all the flavors of green curry, “minus the allium,” a durian mousse graced with dill and passionfruit granita, a pandan panna cotta rounded out by seaweed and sea beans, and a chocolate mousse that comes with wild-mushroom streusel and chanterelle ice cream, with green Sichuan peppercorn oil to enhance the savory mushroom flavor. Diners tend to be “taken aback” by her desserts, Bae admits, though ultimately pleased by them, and she frames the point of the desserts as experiential: “Part of the experience that I like to provide is to look at these savory ingredients that are unconventional in dessert [and prove that] we can make it taste really good in sweeter form as well.” These cerebral desserts are reserved for dinner, while lunch stays more conventional (for example, pandan sponge cake with plum and lychee)." - Bettina Makalintal
"The restaurant whose pastry chef Susan Bae was a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker for the second consecutive year." - Missy Frederick
"An inventive Vietnamese restaurant led by Kevin Tien that carries forward the city’s reputation for modern, creative Asian cuisine with thoughtful technique and flavors." - Katie Chang
"Jang most recently worked at Moon Rabbit, the Wharf’s acclaimed modern Vietnamese restaurant led by Vietnamese-American chef Tien." - Tierney Plumb
