Mokomandy's: Take 2

For my birthday I wanted Superking to take me out to dinner so we picked a great little local gem we've been to before...Mokomandy's!  Mokomandy's is a modern Korean Cajun experience.  And small plates are our friends!! We decided to try a bunch of stuff we didn't get to have on our first visit there.

First they have a list of Snacks/Sides of which you can order 3 for $7 so of course we went for it.  Our little trio consisted of...

kimchi pancakes...completely awesome! I could've kept eating those all night, especially with the sauce it came with.  It was something kind of like soy sauce but with a sweet and sour flavor added in. Super yumm! And the little canning-type jar it came in...is that not adorable?!

cracklins...fried pieces of pork fat or pork skin, like pork rinds but better.  They fry them up fresh too right before serving.Super crispy with a bit of spicy cajun seasoning on them.

jalapeno hush puppies...slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside with just a small bite of heat from the jalapenos.  Even a spice wimp like me can handle the heat on these.  A great little snack to start the meal!

Then for the actual small plates, I ordered Gator Croquettes.  We wanted to order these last time but another table had ordered the last ones right before we did.  These little tasty gators were made with their very own house-made bacon and bechamel (a French sauce made with milk, flour, and butter) and served with a salsa piquante (again in a cute little jar). This salsa was very tomatoey and definitely had a kick.  The gator croquettes were crispy and yes, it did taste a bit like chicken.

Superking ordered the Seafood Gumbo.  It was served in a beautiful clay-pot-type bowl that looked almost hand-made with the handle on one side.  It was warm and comforting and full of crab meat and oysters and shrimp and rice with a little spice thrown in.

After all that, we had just enough room left to split one medium plate of mussels.  This is one of Superking's favorite dishes.  If we go to restaurant that serves mussels, he's most likely going to order them.  These were Prince Edward Island mussels swimming in pecan smoked cayenne butter...wow, I could just stop right there and be happy! But it also had thyme, lemon, garlic, and was served with these amazing little brioche buns that were slightly sweet.  And something else I could've eaten all night.  In fact, we did order extra of those to slop up the juice under the mussels.

Unique modern relaxing atmosphere and amazing food you won't find anywhere else!  Another fantastic meal at Mokomandys!

Mokomandy's

Who would have ever thought Korean food and Cajun food could go so well together?? A while back a good friend of ours (thanks Jay) recommended this crazy little restaurant nearby that served just that...a combination (not a fusion so they say) of Korean and Cajun cuisine.  This place may be located in the middle of the Northern Virginia suburbs riddled with boring ol' chain restaurants but Mokomandy's is anything but boring or a chain. In fact, between the cool atmosphere, the amazing food, and friendly service, for a moment you might think you actually teleported to the city somehow.  This "casual fine-dining" restaurant hand-crafts every single dish bringing a modern twist to both cuisines creating a unique and delicious dining experience.

Their menu offers small plates, medium plates, and large plates.  Superking and I stuck to mostly small plates so we could try as many items as we could stuff in our mouths! Here's a look at what we ordered...

Fois Gras Dumplings...juicy braised duck wrapped in a beautiful little dumpling pouch and served with a house-made plum sauce and a tiny radish and sprout "salad".  The duck was perfectly moist and flavorful, the plum sauce had a lovely sweetness, and the radish provided a crisp fresh crunch.

we actually wanted to order their Gator Croquettes but they were all out

Oyster Po' Boy Sliders...3 juicy little oysters breaded in cornmeal topped with lettuce, tomato, and a remoulade sauce all on their own adorable little brioche buns.  I'm not a fan of oysters...I've tried them several times prepared several different ways...not a fan.  But these, honestly didn't even taste like oysters (I mean that in a good way!). They were actually quite tasty! And not slimy!

Wild Boar Bowl...this was one of their medium plates, or bowl rather.  Braised wild boar meat in a bowl with kimchi rice, kochujang (a red pepper bean paste), laver (a type of seaweed I think), a few carrots, a fried egg, and sweet potato chip for garnish.  The red pepper paste provides a little spicy kick and the boar meat was tender and juicy!

At one point during this course, the hostess walked by and noticed Superking liking a certain hot sauce on the table. She stopped and asked with a devilish grin, "would you like something hotter?" Tentatively Superking says yes. She returns a moment later with a non-descript, non-labeled bottle filled with a dark sludgy sauce and says, "this is our Ghost Chili sauce."  For those of you who may not know, ghost peppers are among the hottest in the world.  To put this in perspective...the scoville chart which measures hottness of peppers says that a simple little jalapeno is about 4,000 scoville units.  A habanero is roughly 200,000. A ghost pepper...over a million.  In other words, don't go near these things unless you have a death wish. Luckily there are other ingredients in their Ghost Chili sauce besides just the ghost peppers to help cut the heat a little but its still pretty daggone hot! Use very very sparingly!

Ssam...no thats not a misspelling, and its not short for Ssamuel.  Its basically like a Korean taco where you use a lettuce leaf as the shell and inside is pork (though there were also chicken and veggie options), purple rice, kochujang, sesame, radish, and scallions. The lettuce cups were crisp and fresh and the pork was tender and a little spicy.  Every flavor was perfectly balanced and delicious.

One last small plate we had to try before delving into dessert...Wagyu Carpaccio.  You just don't see a lot of Wagyu so its hard to pass up.  This carpaccio was served with a nice clump of greens on top drizzled with soy sauce, sprinkled with pine nuts, daikon radish, and believe it or nor a few slices of pear! It sounds odd but the pear added a bright sweetness to the savory salty wagyu carpaccio with the soy and nuts.

Finally we order dessert and as we're waiting the owner brings us a dessert we didn't order. "Oh I don't think thats ours," we said. The owner replies, "I know but we made an extra one so we thought you'd like to have it!".  Ok, an extra dessert can't hurt, right?

Chicory pudding with chocolate sauce, pecans, cane syrup salted caramels, and fresh cream.  Omg! It was light and fluffy and creamy. Flavors of coffee and chocolate and caramel. And these lovely caramel wafers buried beneath all the chocolate sauce and cream; it was like finding buried treasure!

Then came our real dessert...Beignets. Ah, beignets! Even saying the word makes me happy.  Beautiful little donut holes, fried crispy on the outside, soft and doughy on the inside, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with 4 sauces...chocolate, caramel, strawberry jam,  and cane syrup.  We even dipped a few bites of our beignets in the leftovers of the first dessert...yumm!

Left: caramel; Top: cane syrup; Right: strawberry; Bottom: chocolate

Needless to say, we were so stuffed when we left they practically had to call a crane to roll us out to the parking lot.  But every bite was so worth it.  A cool urban atmosphere, friendly attentive service, and awesomely delicious and unique food. Its very refreshing to find a hidden gem like this so close to home. Can't wait to go back!

the aftermath