Scenes From Purple Yam's First Weekend in Ditmas Park

Haegeen's homemade kimchi

Purple Yam, the new pan-Asian/Filipino restaurant from Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, the former owners of Cendrillon, opened in its new digs in Ditmas Park last week. On Friday night, the place was packed. Both the service and the kitchen were running a bit slow, which is only to be expected on a restaurant's first weekend. The food was generally successful--and will surely only become more so--encompassing Filipino classics like beef tapa, pancit bihon, and oxtail kare kare, along with Korean bibimbap, Balinese duck leg, and, oddly, wild boar pizza.

Tocino (sugar-annatto cured pork) sliders are served in purple yam buns with pickled persimmon.

The best dish of the night: Chicken adobo featured tender meat in a terrific vinegar-soy stew.

Kare kare, a Filipino peanut-and-meat stew, is made with braised oxtail, eggplant, and long beans. A small dish of bagoong, a delicious Filipino fermented shrimp paste, comes on the side.

For more fermented shrimp paste, order bagoong fried rice, slightly salty and rich in umami.

1314 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn
718-940-8188