Truffle shu mei? Dim Sum wizard Joe Ng has urban vision for Red Farm in West Village

Joe Ng makes the round of tables at Chinatown Brasserie. Photo: Steven Richter

        Dim sum wizard Joe Ng has visions of truffle shu mei and truffle-okra-chicken soup dumplings  as the new Red Farm space in a landmark building on Hudson inches toward completion. Yesterday the extended menu dialogue between Ng and his partner, the longtime Chinese food guru Eddie Schoenfeld, finally moved into the kitchen of their West 10th and Hudson Street venture with Jeffrey Chodorow. They actually shopped for groceries.

Ed Schoenfeld with the chef’s animal shaped dim sum in a steamer. Photo: Steven Richter

       It was in a sprawling Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn that first Schoenfeld and then I discovered the amazing skill of Hong Kong born Ng – his stunning repertoire includes more than 1000 dim sum savory and sweet. That was before Schoenfeld brought him to Chinatown Brasserie where he is still directs the kitchen and can occasionally be caught folding exquisite noodle wrappers at Chinatown Brasserie. The duo’s first Red Farm opened in Chodorow’s Food Parc in the Eventi Hotel at 839 Sixth Avenue.

        But clearly the pair have grander ideas for the West Village spot, first seed of a crop they hope to plants in several NYC zipcodes.  “We already have two spaces in mind,” Ng told me. One would be on the Upper West Side, he promised.

Ng’s dim sum repertoire includes these pastry porcupines. Photo: Steven Richter

       The emphasis will be on carryout. But Ng wants to see different menus for take out and eat-in. “I want the people to come in to try the new things.,” he says, describing lotus leaf wrapped halibut and house-made bean paste and miso.  Meats and fish will be listed with their pedigrees. He is impressed by the butchers in the Russian neighborhood of Brooklyn and plans to shop in the Green Market for “seasonal stuff.” 

        Schoenfeld who has wrestled with brand new refrigerators that don’t work and the usual trauma of launching even so modest a place, thinks opening for friends and family may still be a month away.  Aware that residents sometimes object to smells – even truffle perfume wafting from ground floor restaurants, Ng thinks they will soften the neighbors by including them in friends and family previews.

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