nykeiko eats: Lucky Luna [Greenpoint,Brooklyn]

I'm Taiwanese and Dave likes tacos (okay, that was a bad introduction because it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke). Lucky Luna serves Taiwanese-Mexican  dishes which seems like the perfect marriage... just likes ours (awww). Actually, not really perfect. When I heard about this place, I thought it was the oddest flavor combo ever but it is probably because Mexican food isn't something I crave, ever. Except for guacamole, who doesn't like guac?? What I would love to find is a Taiwanese-French eatery...mmm. Foie gras with smelly tofu. Right, that doesn't sound so appetizing. Well, that is why I am not a chef!

After taking a quick look at their menu, I saw that there was no real fusion dishes happening. They served popular dishes from each country and maybe swapped out some ingredients with healthier alternatives and maybe mixed a dash of ingredients from each country. There were no crazy things like a chunk of guacamole in your beef noodles or something like that. You'll find popular Mexican dishes such as chips and salsa, tacos and pozole; and some Taiwanese dishes I grew up loving like lu rou fan (braised ground pork stew), cucumber salad and beef noodle soup. Oddities were the Hong Kong-style congee and Peking duck confit baos (which came highly recommended). While looking at the menu, I kept thinking about how I could probably get a bowl of congee at half the price somewhere in Chinatown and tacos from a food truck at a quarter of the price. But of course, it is not the same here. In order to operate in Brooklyn and stand out from other places that offer the same things, Lucky Luna incorporates organic and locally-made ingredients (tortillas and buns) and uses all-natural, free range meat in their dishes. Will this make you trek out to Brooklyn to grab a bite? Maybe not but when you live in Greenpoint with no authentic Asian restaurant in sight, this might fill the gap. We went there for our "last" meal in Williamsburg-Greenpoint-Brooklyn before our big move to the city last month.

Below are the dishes we tried at Lucky Luna. Since I am very attached to my traditional Taiwanese food, I got very critical. In fact, I didn't dare order my beloved lu rou fan because no one can make it better than my mommy :) I should have been more open-minded about their efforts though. As for the Mexican dishes, they didn't serve guacamole so that's that.

Kim Chi bloody mary

The waitress sold us this Kim Chi Bloody Mary which won a contest earlier that day at the 1st annual Brooklyn Bloody Mary festival. They were on special for $5 each so we took two (I'm a sucker for deals). It was too spicy for me on an empty stomach and I got tipsy right away but it was an interesting cocktail.

Duck confit bao

The duck confit bao might be the only I would come back for except it cost $5...and that time I had it, the bun was soggy wet at the bottom.

Pork pozole (mexican stew) 

The pozole was a bit bland.

The beef noodle soup looks good right? It would have been if the broth wasn't so salty and the noodles so undercooked even having been in the hot broth for a bit. The only thing I liked about this dish was the tender beef. That was pretty darn good.

Thanks for stopping by xx