New York City College of Technology, CUNY
Department of Hospitality Management
Janet Lefler Dining Room
Memorandum
To: Professor Abreu
From: Sthefany Gomez, SG
Date: December 4th, 2017
Re: Summary of “At Ugly Baby, the Name Isn’t All That Unusual”
Just a few stops away from Jay Street off the F train you will find a James Rosenquist palette, vibrantly painted restaurant. “Named after the Thai superstition that evil spirits won’t bother harming unattractive infants” Pete Wells recognizes this as important not only to calm the confusion of the reason behind the name but to understand why Sirichai Sreparplarn, the chef at Ugly Baby, wanted this name specifically. Mr. Sreparlarn had previously shared Chef duties with two restaurants that did not have much luck in staying open for too long. However, this is his own restaurant where he playfully incorporates Thai tradition into the name as well as the dishes that are served.
Mr. Wells review throughout the article stays in a consistently pleased tone. He immediately dives into the food, mentioning that they had perfectly created little fried coconut cakes which were sweet enough to be a dessert known as tue ka ko. He then mentions his first dish coming out and his first thought being “how much of my tongue the curry would shut down” he ordered rice vermicelli tangled up with tender pork in a tamarind-soured dry curry from northern Thailand. Wells continues to compliment the chef, who he had previously reviewed when he was co-chef at Kao Soy, and his restaurant, “All of it was very good and a few things were so exceptional that they are now pinned to my map of great Thai dishes in the city, up on the mental wall with such standbys as the duck curry at Ayada and the papaya salad with crispy ground catfish at Sripraphai.” Personally, I would definitely go eat at this restaurant I am a huge fan of Thai food and this place seems ideal to try authentic dishes. Pete also mentions that nothing is more than $25, which is great for a college student on a budget.
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