Stray Kat. // Photo by Kyle Wisecarver
Chewology has been rumored to convey globe-class Taiwanese foods to their spot in Westport. Head Chef and Proprietor Chef Katie Liu–Sung run the present, serving compact plates and dumplings. They also present a distinctive menu through their common small business several hours that improve frequently, and it is known as Stray Kat. To expertise the unique eating expertise, you need to make a reservation and pay out in progress. Chef Katie demonstrates attendees the dishes that make up her most unforgettable memories of escalating up about Taiwanese foodstuff.
On getting into, I was greeted by the host and the bartender. I was taken to a home driving the bar that gave off a glow from the neon lights reflecting off gold décor. The kitchen area is open and intimate, searching above the tables. I was handed a tiny menu with unconventional dishes like “Late Night Just after A Movie” and “2nd Quality at a Wedding.” Chef Katie was ready to fall off some of our dishes and clarify the memory that influenced each a single.
The very first course warms your conversation with a beer and your abdomen with a small bar snack—crunchy, salty, sweet, and spicy. This theme carries on in the course of the night: explosive flavors, perfect contrast in texture, and a cinema of memories that felt like my possess.
The second program dropped involved 3 smaller plates: napa cabbage salad with a creamy citrus dressing, topped with a thinly sliced chewy pig ear sesame oil marinated bean sprouts that have been dressed flawlessly, bursting with flavor and boba texture and a compact fried hash brown with a crunchy outdoors and sleek inside of loaded with a conventional fish known as mentaiko.
The third training course adopted was a spring roll named “Vietnamese Wives in Taiwan,” loaded with tempura oysters, carrots, and bok choy, giving a nice contrast of crisp and freshness.
Next the third study course have been 3 dumplings named following a few reminiscences, all bringing some good vintage flavors: a soup dumpling with chicken broth and pork meat a second dumpling with staple flavors of garlic, chili, ginger, and shrimp the third dumpling was vegetarian and tasted nearly like an egg roll.
The subsequent study course was much more of a palate cleanser with a wealthy and foamy coconut milk foundation, topped with salmon, salty roe, and a sweet crunch of dashi. Then we concentrated on some common Taiwanese meat dishes: “Late Night Soon after a Movie” and Property Sitting”—a sample of tender limited rib showered with a tangy ponzu sauce and shaved egg yolk providing it that excess salty chunk. In Taiwan, they are not strangers to typhoons and tropical storms. Chef Katie spelled out her very last entrée dish meticulously, as it was a special dish that introduced the people of Taiwan jointly during these storms. Whilst hiding out, they would get ready Dungeness crab in “typhoon sauce.” This dish was really unique. I really do not try to eat crab very a great deal in this article in the Midwest, and the hurricane sauce left me speechless, with flavors that have been abundant, gingery, and herbal.
We ended the night time with a subtle, sweet dessert—honey cake with lavender and canned peaches.
Chef Katie provides Thai street food items into the Kansas Town spotlight, not with high price details and above-the-prime presentation, but with enthusiasm, experience, and creative imagination.
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Images by Kyle Wisecarver