Five Spice was the only prominent flavor and it was a little overcooked. But that bite of pickled vedge with the other components! 
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Lol yeah I had a feeling there’d be a few of us.
I wanted to pull a cough cough FTC cough whew excuse me 
but got shy haha
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I know! 
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p+p x n/n x ototo x needle
Am i the only one who loved the croquette? That crispy, creamy, sweet bite was probably my favorite of the meal. Other highlights were the seared tuna with all those delicious sauces and toppings, the abalone porridge, pineapple + pear carrot cake, brown butter mochi, cookie, strawberry daifuku, almond jello.
Did I get out of my car before my food was ready?
seared yellowfin, fermented green tomatoes, ume pickled daikon, shiso, crispy shallots, n/naka tomatillo-coriander dressing
pickled calamari croquette, made with sweet potato, pickled veggies, negi bechamel
herbed slaw, sesame-tamarind dressing, rose geranium pickled onions
beefy seasonal spaetzle, rice + cassava spaetzle with five spice braised beef, carrots, fennel tossed in sesame-peanut sauce, finished with chrysanthemum, apricot-jicama pickles, umarni crunch
abalone porridge, brown butter-abalone liver porridge topped with abalone,chef niki’s nori oil, pickled champagne grapes, radish sprouts
elderberry + lime agar
pineapple + pear carrot cake, spicy calamansi cream cheese frosting
The cake was a bit wetter than I would like but I really liked the flavors.
brown butter mochi
Crispy in the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, perfect.
Next time I’ll ask for extra caramel miso on the side
miso chocolate chip cookie
tapioca pudding, ginger, loquat
ototo - strawberry daifuku
Pro tip: eat this chilled, the mochi stays soft and you get a cold burst of strawberry with each bite.
needle - almond jello, orange, nectarine, mango, pluot, goji berry, lychee jello
Perfect on a 167 degree day.
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Where’s Michael Buffer when need him…and still heavyweight re-plating champion of the wooooorrlld! @PorkyBelly
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Ha, I’m handing the title over to @hppzz. He even replated the abalone porridge, how he did that so well, I have no clue.
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This dinner was great! They really hit it out of the park.
Loved the opening yellowfin course. That tomatillo sauce from n/naka was delicious, but I really loved the fried shallots and pickled daikon from P+P.
My other favorite course was the abalone porridge…who knew that brown butter abalone liver would make the greatest version of chao I have EVER eaten?! The flavor was so interesting and complex, but the garnishes were great…except the abalone itself. Mine was overcooked.
The spaetzle was, in fact, banh lot. I’ve seen my Mom use it as an alternative to banh canh noodles. She’s also used it as a stir fry much like this version from Chef Phan. Opening the box…I was immediately brought home to aromas that reminded me of goi and bo nuong vi from bo 7 mon. It was a very good dish…but by this point, I was getting pretty full and wanted to make sure I made it to the porridge. I only ate about half. The oldest chowpup gladly polished it off for me.
The currant and lime agar was a delightful play on rau cau. I haven’t had Vietnamese gelatin in quite some time. I really enjoyed the firm-ish texture and it was nice to have the lime offset the sweet currant.
The carrot cake it was pleasant, but I got spicy from the calamansi cream cheese frosting and none of the calamansi or much cream cheese.
Overall, it was a great meal. I’d recommend it, and would want to purchase a giant portion of the porridge by itself to go…garnishes optional.
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Just noticed this on the great pp scroll:
Please mark your calendars for a special dine-in occasion (dinner under the stars) on 9/25 and 9/26.
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Ran it back with Porridge + Puffs again tonight and honestly thought everything was even better this time around.
It was the same menu as the week before and the porridge remained my favorite course, but I thought the croquette was even better (thicker, heartier) this time around. I also drank the rest of the tomatillo sauce.
If you haven’t had a chance to try it yet, I think they’ve still got openings for the rest of the month.
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Very nice plating!
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Thanks! I knew I needed to step up my game to honor the meal and also after seeing everyone else do it so well 
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I had never eaten at Porridge and Puffs before despite it being on my to-try list for a while…and then COVID happened. But when the n/naka collaboration came up with a vegetarian option I was excited to try! I picked up the vegetarian bento last night and it was really good. Sorry for the weird photos, it was dark in my apartment; also I was super hungry and gave up on plating nicely for photos after a while and just started eating 
favorites: savory tofu pudding, sweet potato croquette and shiitake&seaweed porridge
menu
Savory tofu pudding
This was awesome and would taste great over rice. I want a whole bottle of that tomatillo-coriander dressing. Crispy shallots are always a great topping.
pickled croquette
The croquette was tasty, as the contrast between the sweet potato and picked veggies was just enough to keep it from being too sweet. But I think this is one of those dishes that suffers a little bit when eaten to-go, because it’s fried. Not the fault of the restaurant at all, since fried food tends not to travel well. By the time i got home and ate it, it had steamed a bit and was a little soft.
seasonal spaetzle
I really liked the noodles in this-- they reminded me of the tapioca noodles in Vietnamese banh canh soups. I also liked how the shiitake mushrooms were cut, into thin rectangles – generally not a preparation I see. This didn’t look like a big portion size but it suprisingly was, so I only ate about half of it. The only thing that kept it from being perfect was that I tasted a lot of dill (it doesn’t say dill on the menu but it definitely tasted like it). After a while, that’s all I could taste.
shiitake and seaweed porridge
Loved the texture of the porridge. The shiitake was prepared similarly in the spaetzle, in thin slices.
currant and lime agar, gooseberry cake
I didn’t taste much lime in the agar cubes, but it was still refreshing. The gooseberry tasted like carrot cake, and was pretty good.
Not pictured: brown butter mochi and miso chocolate chip cookie. Both delicious. Need more of the caramel sauce though.
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TLDR: Very bold flavor combinations throughout and clearly deftly executed by Minh Phan. A very satisfying meal!
seared yellowfin tuna | fermented green tomatoes, ume pickled daikon, shiso, crispy shallots, n/naka tomatillo-coriander dressing
Meaty seared tuna, crunchy and deeply savory fried shallots, paired with a bold and a saliva-inducing piquant dressing? Sign me up! But my favorite bite of this dish is the ume pickled daikon. It’s so darn refreshing!
pickled calamari croquette | sweet potato, pickled veggies, negi bechamel, herbed slaw, sesame-tamarind dressing, rose geranium pickled onions
The croquette is pinnacle of this meal. The croquette is puffy, crispy on the outside, creamy on inside. Oh, and amidst all these wonderful texture contrasts, it’s truly a joy to bite into those satisfying bits of chewy, finely diced, mildly sweet and acidic pickled calamari! Do I sound like I’m describing a great takoyaki? Well, this croquette strangely reminded me of that in the most pleasant way possible.
beefy seasonal spaetzle | rice + cassava spaetzle with five spice braised beef, carrots, fennel tossed in sesame-peanut sauce, finished with chrysanthemum, apricot-jicama pickles, umami crunch
Loved the play with using rice flour(?) to make the spaetzle which basically made this a Chinese lai fen (but I’m sure the Vietnamese have their own version of this). It has a gorgeous slippery mouthfeel and slight chew. But the star of the dish, to me, is the pickled jicama! It has a very round sweet and sour flavor and crunch that lifted the whole dish. My only complaint is the braised beef that’s a bit dry.
abalone porridge | brown butter-abalone liver porridge topped with abalone, nori oil, pickled champagne grapes, radish sprouts
A silky and thick congee laced with assertive nuttiness from the brown butter and a hint of savoriness from the bivalve. I quite enjoyed the juxtaposed texture that the thin, chewy and crunchy abalone slices offered in each congee slurp.
currant + lime agar
Sweet, sour, refreshing. Nice intermezzo.
pineapple + pear carrot cake | spicy calamansi cream cheese frosting
Not too sweet and the use use of pineapple and pear kept the cake nice and moist while adding another layer of acid and sweetness.
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Masterful yellowfin plating—I didn’t even think to just drop it in the dressing from the get go!
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That is some nice plating there!
hides my 99 Ranch and Target plates
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You and me both! At least you have plates from Target. It’s 99 Ranch and Ross for me. 
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I just noticed that P + P sells milk tea! 
Anyone tried it? I’m tempted to drive over just to get this…
https://porridgeandpuffs-finedining.square.site/product/jasmine-milk-tea/461?cs=true
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