NIBBLES
FULL CIRCLE Michelin-honored Ginger Pig returns to Boulder BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
F
lashback to the summer of 2016 in Boulder. Ex-collegiate hockey player, ex-lawyer and neophyte chef Natascha Sherman Hess takes a leap of faith. She launches a food truck dishing the Asian home and street food she fell in love with as a student living in Asia. She calls the business Ginger Pig. Over the next four years, Boulderites flock to her rich red curry, nine-spice fried chicken, char sui, and Bangkok rice balls with kaffir lime aioli. Then, in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, Hess took another giant step and opened a Ginger Pig restaurant in Denver, earning new fans and unexpected kudos. Earlier this year, it was one of nine Colorado eateries to receive the prestigious Bib Gourmand honor in the state’s inaugural Michelin Guide Awards. “I have to be honest: It’s shocking that we got the Michelin, and I still don’t really believe it. It’s not like our dream came true. We never even thought about a Michelin,” Hess says. “To have our name in the same sentence as that word is humbling. Getting to serve our food at the ceremony in Denver was a highlight of my life.”
All the while, Hess says she yearned to bring her food back to the place where it started, serving street food in the traditional style: take-out only. After a year of planning, Ginger Pig opened Oct. 24 at 1203 13th St. on the Hill, former site of La Chosa. Initially, the eatery will only be serving dinner. “They always say ‘Location, location, location’ when it comes to restaurants and this is a great spot,” Hess says. “There’s so much foot traffic from the university.” Ginger Pig Boulder was never intended as a sit-down eatery. “I really look at it as a food truck that stays at one location,” she says. “It feels like it did when we had the truck with the take-out window.”
YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN
The new menu includes many of the old favorites along with some additions. “I tried to make the food more transportable, and more approachable,” Hess says. “These are dishes they could grab and eat on the way to class or something somebody could eat in their car.”
Ginger Pig opened Oct. 24 at 1203 13th St. in Boulder. Photos by Jeff Fierberg.
BOULDER WEEKLY
Besides rice and noodle bowls, bánh mì are a major new player on the Ginger Pig Boulder roster. “I spent some time in Vietnam tasting various styles of bánh mì,” Hess says. “I found a Denver bakery that makes the right kind of loaves that are a bit more chewy and a little bit softer and less crispy.” Ginger Pig offers traditional pâté and cold cut Vietnamese sandwiches plus others layered with barbecued pork, fried chicken or Sichuan eggplant. While the menu may be simpler, nothing has been dumbed down. “This
is quick takeout and delivery but everything includes all the same great ingredients, like the pork we cook for 17 hours,” she says. The signature star of the new Ginger Pig menu is an unlikely and somewhat outlandish sweet-and-savory dish. “The Hong Kong French toast might be the best thing I’ve ever made in the seven years I’ve been doing this,” Hess says. “Hong Kong French toast normally has peanut butter in it, but I replaced it with kaya coconut jam.” For this treat, bread slices are spread with butter, filled with sweet coconut NOVEMBER 2, 2023
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