Chaupoly Ratha - Num Pang: bold recipes from New York Citys favorite sandwich shop

Copyright 2016 by Ratha Chaupoly and Ben Daitz
Food photography 2016 by Evan Sung
Other photography 2016 by Ricky Powell
Illustrations 2016 by Serve
Prop styling by Kira Corbin
Book design by Laura Palese
Ebook design and production by Rebecca Springer

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chaupoly, Ratha, author. | Daitz, Ben (Restaurateur), author.

Title: Num Pang : recipes from New York Citys favorite sandwich shop / Ratha Chaupoly and Ben Daitz, with Raquel Pelzel ; Photographs by Ricky Powell ; Art by Serve ; Food Photographs by Evan Sung.

Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015019993| ISBN 9780544534315 (paper over board) | ISBN 9780544534940 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking, Cambodian. | SandwichesCambodia. | Num Pang (Restaurant chain) | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX724.5.C16 C49 2016 | DDC 641.59596dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015019993

v1.0516

I would like to dedicate this to my dear motherour journey together has made me who I am. Your love and support will always live in my heart.

Ratha Chaupoly

This book is dedicated to the memories of my father, Stephan Daitz, and my sister, Francesca Daitz. Both were unique individuals and influenced my life in more ways than can be counted.

Ben Daitz

Ben and Ratha would like to thank their business partners Michael Nieberg, Dan Bartfeld, Richard Chapman, Randy Mcnamara, Patrick Milner, and Gordon Hamm. They would also like to thank their cookbook co-collaborators Raquel Pelzel, Evan Sung, Kira Corbin, Ricky Powell, Joe (Serve) Vega, and Laura Nolan, and their publicists Gita McCutcheon from Gita Group, and Phil Baltz, Ilana Alperstein, and Victoria Trinko from Baltz & Co., for putting up with them. In addition they would like to say a special thank-you to the numerous staffers that have been with them since the beginning.

I want to thank my son, Tristan, for always teaching me the way of life; to all my family and good friends who have propelled me to be a better man; and a special thank-you to the Howell Family: You guys rock.

I would like to thank my mother, Mimi, and brother, Maurice, for their unconditional support. In addition, thanks to my inner circle (you know who you are) who have helped keep me on track in a variety of ways over the years. All of this would not have been possible without all of you.

From the time I met Ratha and Ben to the moment this book is published will have been three years, and over those years, each of our lives has changed in major and significant ways. I love you both so very much, and am thankful to not just have you in my life as collaborators but as trusted friends and confidants.

Thanks to my boys for always reminding me whats most important (baseball); to Evan Sung and Kira Corbin for making everything so gorgeous; to Ilana Alperstein for the introduction; to Stephanie Alleyne for your keen eye and assistance on recipes and at the shoot; to Brooks Halliday and Alexandra Utter for your testing prowess; to our agents Sarah Smith, David Black, and Laura Nolan for everything above and beyond; and to Justin Schwartz and the entire HMH team for believing in the power of Num Pang.

Not a pastrami on rye. Not a Reuben. Not an egg and cheese. Its a num pang, the Cambodian sandwich that is the specialty and namesake of our NYC-based restaurant chain, Num Pang. For three years running New Yorkers voted our version of the Vietnamese banh mi their go-to favorite sandwich. And its no wonderoffering a taste of sweet, spicy, tangy, fresh, crunchy, and savory umami in every bite, a perfectly made num pang is a snapshot of contrasts, colors, and bold flavors. Its balanced, its delicious, its addictive.

A num pang offers all the elements of a meal in between two slabs of toasty semolina baguette: sweet-tart pickled carrots, fresh cucumber slices and cilantro, spicy chili mayo, and protein, be it fall-apart-tender ginger-braised brisket, soy-lacquered peppery catfish, or thick-cut bacon and greenmarket peaches.

Num Pang has a cult following for a reasonpeople just freak out for our cooking and the unique way we match pickles to proteins and complex sauces and glazes to herbs and spices. Our sandwiches, rice and noodle bowls, salads, and sides reflect flavor trends happening now: smoky-sweet, pickled, spicy, and umami all the way. The ingredients we use can be found in most every supermarket. In fact, the key sandwich component that tops every single Num Pang sandwich, the Holy Trinity (well, actually four ingredientssee ) is composed of pickled carrots, fresh cilantro and cucumber slices, and chili mayo. Theres nothing hard to find or obscure about that. It just proves that there really isnt anything overly complicated about our food, even though it tastes exotic and bold. Thats why our recipes are so home-cook-able: most home cooks probably already have just about everything they need to make our fresh and modern dishes in their pantry.

We opened our first Num Pang in March 2009 in Union Square. That month we sold out of every sandwich, side, and soup, every single day. There were lines sixty-people deep waiting in sub-zero temperatures for our hoisin meatball num pang or five-spice-glazed pork belly num pang. It was nuts. It showed us that people are hungry for flavor, for something that tastes just exotic enough, yet touches on the familiar too. You probably wont find a pulled pork num pang or a skirt steak num pang in Cambodia, but you will find them at our shop and in our cookbook.

The Num Pang vibe is an important ingredient tooin every shop, we incorporate an intensely vivid urban feel, from the graffiti on the walls to the Golden Era hip-hop on the sound system and the general casualness of the space. The brightness in flavor is replicated in the brightness of the shops. Theyre modern, a little gritty, and totally transportive and accessible.

Almost immediately after we opened, we knew we had something. Which explains how we grew from one shop in 2009 to eight in 2015. Thats no jokeits the reason Grub Street called us New York Citys quietest restaurant empire. Today we have our flagship in the NoMad neighborhood, a small shop in Chelsea Market, a location near Times Square, one near Grand Central, one in the World Financial Center (at Brookfield Places Hudson Eats), and our sleeker and better version across the street from the first Num Pang on 12th Street in the Village. With lots more to come.