Table Talk: East meets West in Goosefeather brunch

Do they do brunch in China?  A rhetorical question. And yet there”™s certainly a corollary between dim sum, which the Chinese enjoy from midmorning through late afternoon, and the American notion of brunch. Dim sum means a panoply of stuffed bao buns, slithery cheung fun (rice noodle rolls), wontons, fried and steamed dumplings and myriad other sweetmeats and delicacies, while brunch ”“ at least a good one, perhaps in a smart hotel ”“ can encompass a vast panoply of dishes, everything from eggs, pancakes, waffles, fish and meat all the way through to sweet cakes and desserts, prepared with a noticeably lighter touch than typical lunch or dinner dishes. So, the two are definitely related ”“ second cousins if not close-in-age siblings. 

At Goosefeather, the restaurant in the 19th century King Mansion at the Tarrytown House Estate, Chef Dale Tiade has long been delivering his particular take on Hong Kong and Cantonese cuisine, and brunch, which was suspended during the pandemic, has recently returned. Served only on Saturdays and Sundays, it celebrates the brunch / dim sum special relationship with aplomb.  

On a glorious fall Sunday, there was no room on either of the restaurant”™s two terraces when we arrived late for our reservation, but with the doors to the terraces wide open, sitting inside in one of Goosefeather”™s four stylish, dining rooms was pleasure enough, even if the acoustics were challenging. 

Above the general sounds of loud conversation and merriment ”“ with a bottomless, drink-all-you can $40 cocktail option, there is indeed a lot of merriment ”“ poor Lou Reed could barely be heard as he “Walk(ed) on the Wild Side,” although the sound that occasionally broke through of cocktails being shaken in the adjoining bar was a delightful backdrop to the goings-on. 

You must start with chicken dumplings, extraordinarily crunchy parcels of moist and tender chicken, served with a punchy aioli. The crispness of the fry juxtaposed with the softness of the chicken inside raises this dish to greatness.  And you won”™t go far wrong with pillowy bao either, steam rolls stuffed to the gills that you eat with your fingers. They come three ways ”“ with tender lobster (Goosefeather”™s answer to the lobster roll); with shrimp or with market mushrooms. 

I was initially less sure of a dish of smoked salmon fried rice, luxuriating under a veritable canopy of dill, only because I don”™t do terribly well with warm smoked salmon, even when, like here, it is zhuzhed up with crême fraiche. But the gorgeous, light egg fried rice took me straight back to my first flirtation with Chinese food in my college town of Bristol, England, where the egg friend rice at the local “Chinese Chippy” was the only dish we could generally afford. How can the simple combination of cooked rice with scrambled egg produce such a wondrously comforting sensation? But it did back then, and it still does now at Goosefeather  ”“ that warm smoked salmon an interloper but not one that is going to bother you unduly. 

There was more egg to come in a rich dish of sprue or baby asparagus, recumbent under a six-minute cooked duck egg. And we strayed significantly, but uncomplainingly, from the Chinese narrative, as a vast bowl of birria steaming ramen was brought forth, its separate elements of radish, shaved cabbage and pickled jalapeño ready for you to mix yourself. Served with two beef-filled tacos, this was an all-out Mexican number, although the broth did remind me of a refined Taiwanese beef noodle soup. 

For dessert, just two choices:  The menu returns briefly to China with its subtly delicious Hong Kong milk tea tiramisu but gives up any pretense of Chinese kinship in its all-American Goosefeather Sundae. This is an ice cream coupe with banana chips, candied cherries and cookie bites so calorific that if calorie counts were displayed on the online menu you read via a QR code on your cell phone, it might just explode from the sheer immensity of the numbers. 

But to hell with it. It”™s the weekend and you”™re here to have fun. Besides, it”™s a sublime dessert. A dreamy sundae to round off a dreamy Sunday, you might say. 

For more, visit goosefeatherny.com.