Foodie on Duty – Supercore

Supercore is one of those Williamsburg anomalies that’s part Japanese café, part Japanese homestyle favorites – all with a strong Bedford Avenue spin. It’s a place that has a sizeable selection of mochas and lattes, and yet the first thing one smells when walking in is the Japanese curry simmering away in the background. Take a seat at the scratched, varnished bar and one will see an array of pound cakes flavored with Earl Grey and green tea with an assortment of beers, wine and sake lined up directly behind it. The speakers pump in a mix of synth beats and chirping birds – not quite music and not quite the direct recordings of Mother Nature. And yet, somehow it works and makes sense in a way only a restaurant in Willy’s Burg ever tends to make any sense.

The menu looks as though it has sprung from the imagination of an indecisive child – onigiris (rice balls) are served alongside mixed olives, Vietnam chicken sandwiches and butter crepes – no, Supercore doesn’t want to settle on one kind of food – it wants to haphazardly choose from it all. Of course, being the bargain lunch hunter that I am, it wasn’t the iced strawberry latte or niku jaga fu that caught my eye – it was the meshi. Between the hours of 11AM and 2PM, all of their “over rice” items were served up for $5.95 each.

With its whimsical variety of meshi, decisions were tough. I did manage to settle on the smoked salmon, the beni tori and its namesake – Supercore – not just because it sounded delicious but also because it was the most expensive item on the meshi menu. At any other hour I’d be coughing up 8.75, but since I rolled in around 1PM, I was able to knock off a couple of bucks from its fixed price. To end it on a sweet note, I also got the green tea crepe with azuki – a sweetened red bean paste. After each item had been safely tucked away in plastic containers, I whisked them off to try them at home.

The first thing I tried was the green tea crepe – for crepes are meant to be eaten hot and fresh. The delicate scent of vanilla and butter puffed up upon prying open the lid. The edges still held their lacey brown crisp. The crepe itself was delicious – though I did wish the matcha (powdered green tea) flavor was a little more pronounced. The azuki paste in general would have been a nice match in flavor profile, but the crepe was stuffed with so much of it, its sweetness overtook the flavor of the crepe. The strawberry on the side was a nice touch in lightening up an otherwise overly-sweetened filling. I think the crepe was good, but would have been better had the filling been a bit lighter. The thick slab of azuki was just too heavy a partner for such a sweet and delicate crepe. Perhaps an azuki-flavored whipped cream would have been a better accompaniment.

The next thing I tried was the smoked salmon – lox, scallions and wasabi mayo over vinegar rice. Overall, the flavor was very nice. I’m not a huge fan of wasabi, but for some reason, when mixed with the thick Kewpie mayonnaise, it worked really well with the smokey, salty slices of cured salmon. In fact, I found my wasabi-hating palate wishing for just an extra dollop of mayo to mix in with my rice. And extra dose of scallions would have been nice as well. Being lox, the overall dish was a little on the salty side, but was otherwise yummy. My only other complaint is that my rice was also clumpy and gummy in texture.

The beni tori, on the other hand, wasn’t salty enough. Since it’s basically chicken stewed in dark soy sauce and ginger, I found this surprising. The rice, on the other hand, was much better, and the light dose of scallion coins brightened up an otherwise lackluster dish. I was delighted to find a whole shoyu egg tucked away in one corner. Fussy eaters should be wary of slivers of chicken bone.

I had a mixed reaction with the Supercore. The most deluxe of menu items came with a dark beef curry stew, hamburg and egg. The menu says “sunny side up” egg, but mine was definitely cooked all the way through and was a bit on the rubbery side. The curry smelled unbelievably delicious, though. The taste, however, was a bit disappointing, initially. It’s a rich and hearty curry, thick with tomato paste and onion – and just a touch of cinnamon. But, again, it wasn’t salty enough. It wasn’t that it was flavorless – quite the opposite – but that it was in need of a good dose of sodium. This is also a sweet curry. The hamburg, on the other hand, was great. It’s basically a super moist and tender meatloaf molded into the shape of a hamburger patty. And perhaps the fault was in the fact that the curry tasted too hastily made – there was just something off in the balance of flavors. However, when I tried it again as leftovers the next day, the curry was much tastier. The spices seemed more well-balanced, and with a good shake of the salt shaker, the Supercore made for a super tasty breakfast.

Supercore
718-302-1629
305 Bedford Avenue (between S 1st and S 2nd)
M-F 9AM-1AM
Sat/Sun 10AM-1AM