Talde Restaurant - Dale Talde | Park Slope, Brooklyn
Smart dining at Park Slope's new Talde demands a side of sri-rancha.
This condiment love child of Sriracha and ranch dressing comes courtesy of chef Dale Talde.
The secret to Talde's sri-rancha is simple oven-dehydrated Sriracha (click here for the recipe). For its starring role, the punchy Sriracha powder is mixed with ranch dressing and poured over triangles of underappreciated iceberg lettuce ($9).
The creamy-spicy sauce mixes with chunks of blue cheese and Chinese bacon (click here for the recipe), which gives the classic wedge salad a delicious reconsideration.
Other superb dunking vehicles for Talde's sri-rancha: black-pepper-butter Tai Pan Bakery toast ($3), shrimp toast with Chinese-sausage gravy ($10), crisp-edged pretzel pork and chive dumplings ($8) and shattering doubly-fried Korean chicken ($23).
There's only one option for dessert: Dale's take on Filipino halo halo, a shaved-ice sundae of coconut and condensed milk, lemongrass and kaffir-lime leaves improbably topped with Cap'n Crunch.
In fact, the halo halo is probably the only menu item the sri-rancha wouldn't be good on.
Talde, 369 Seventh Ave. (at 11th St.), Brooklyn; 347-916-0031 or taldebrooklyn.com