Red Farm

Last month, I had a fabulous dinner with two former managerscolleagues who are extremely special to me. Even though we haven’t worked together for some time now, we developed a unique connection and friendship, and every couple of months we get together for a catch-up over a great meal. Not surprisingly in the least, food is one of our shared passions that we always bond over.A., who I swear knows about new and noteworthy restaurants even before the Times restaurant critic, the writers at Grub Street, or anyone else for that matter, recommended we try the recently opened Red Farm for our last get together.Let me digress quickly by noting that I love love love Asian cuisine, but while I enjoy Chinese food I wouldn’t classify it as my favorite (I’d put Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean ahead of it). I realize this may be in large part due to the Americanization of Chinese food… while there are certain dishes I think are fantastic (hello dumplings and moo shu!), in general I’ve had too many overly oily meals, and more often than not it ends up being the kind of experience that you know going in you aren’t going to feel great after.  Not so desirable.Red Farm, however, offers a simplistic, fresh and modern twist on Chinese cuisine. We opted to share some dim sum and one main dish. The main – grilled and sauteed short ribs with broccoli and cauliflower – was very good, though not particularly wowing. Everything else, however, was.First, “pac man” shrimp dumplings:I'm not usually that impressed with gimmicky foods, particularly regarding presentation. It seems that more often than not, when too much emphasis is put on entertaining plating, it’s often done at least partially at the expense of flavor or quality – but the taste and texture of these dumplings was fantastic, so I can’t criticize! Alongside the dumplings was some kind of fritter (the "pac man") - maybe sweet potato, though I unfortunately can't recall - over a mash of I think peas. This side component was as good as the dumplings themselves.Then, there were the vegetable and chive dumplings:Very clean and simple, as I think is also apparent just by looking at the dish – you really could taste each component, and the freshness of the vegetable was apparent. Delicious.And then came the two more indulgent dishes – both of which were SO worth it.Spicy crispy beef:Katz’s pastrami ggroll:Yes, pastrami from Katz’s Deli in an eggroll with cabbage and a mustard dipping sauce. It might sound a little out there, but don't let that deter you... it was one of the best comfort-food-type dishes I've had.I purposefully don't eat much animal protein in general(more on that in another post), and save the occasions I do for when it's really great quality meat that is truly worth it. Such was the case at Red Farm!We finished the meal with a shared piece of key lime cheesecake that was surprisingly light and more tart than sweet (unfortunately, I didn’t capture a picture). As I mentioned before, Chinese food has a habit of making me feel a little ill or off after eating, but even having tried a few more indulgent dishes at Red Farm, such was not the case this time whatsoever (and happily so!).I really dug the décor too; very minimalistic, with light wood furniture and white walls. There is a large communal table in the center of the (fairly small) restaurant – a medium-sized table by the front window, and smaller tables for 2 (I think) around the perimeter. All of the chairs are wooden and mismatched, giving the place a nice touch of character. There is a lot more on the menu that looks extremely appealing, so I really want to go back to try more - and recommend you do the same!