A former Top Chef contestant teams up with the crew behind Fatty Crab for a new Southeast Asian-inspired restaurant on the Lower East Side. Zagat editor Kelly Dobkin filed the following report for NY1.

Former Top Chef contestant Leah Cohen has partnered with the team behind Fatty Crab and Fatty 'Cue to open a new Southeast Asian-inspired eatery on Clinton Street.

"I moved to Hong Kong and then from there I kind of decided ‘OK, let’s go to Thailand,’" Cohen says. "I really liked their food and I tried to learn as much as I could about the culture and the food and really immerse myself in the country. Pig and Khao was an idea that my brother and I came up with and I was introduced to Fatty Crew and that collaboration just made sense."

The menu is inspired by Leah’s travels throughout Southeast Asia and her own Filipino heritage.

"The menu is basically a small, plates-driven menu with three large plates," Cohen says. "I like it when people get fun and share food and pass everything around, so it goes kind of with the Fatty concept as well. One of my favorite dishes on the menu is the Sizzling Sisig. It’s a pork head broken down. Then we braise it, then we grill it and we chop it up and we sautee it in a pan and it’s topped with an egg that’s raw. You serve it on a sizzling platter and then you mix everything together and that cooks the egg and it’s just delicious, fatty goodness."

The 43-seat space, formerly home to Falai, features an open kitchen, among other notable design details.

"My favorite part of the restaurant is the dragon," Cohen says. "They actually raced it down a hill in the Banaue Fields in the Philippines. I also really love the bar. It looks like a bunch of pennies glued onto the bar. I want guests to just really enjoy the food, think it’s a fun place to come and eat, sit at the bar and they can interact with me. They can ask me questions, just have fun.

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