This weekend, after a quick few beers & Korean fried chicken the night before, I went to Chef Jay Morjaria’s (Twitter, Instagram) pop-up event at Vineworks. If you haven’t watched Chef Morjaria’s episode on Million Pound Menu (BBC2 & Netflix), you should check it out.
Here’s what was on the menu. Snacks. Bibimbap arancini, ssamjang aioli, kim. Bibimbap in handheld form. The ssamjang was heavy on the Doenjang. This was also on Million Dollar Menu.
Kaennip, pickled mushrooms, pine nut crumble. Bright wake up. Could really taste the pine nuts.
Cured and torched jeon-eo 전어 (gizzard shad), pickled radish, green chili. Orange ponzu.
I love jeon-eo! Delicate. The acidity framed it and put it on the stage.
Grilled duck breast with maesil jus, BBQ Cabbage, kimchi crumb, seasonal figs, acorn squash puree, quick acorn squash kimchi.
Extremely seasonal. A walk through autumn woods. Acorn squash also makes a satisfying kimchi.
Chestnut mousse, fresh persimmon, clementine, Italian torched meringue, walnut brittle.
Late autumn into Christmas, especially when paired with Justino’s Madeira
The whole menu felt like a journey from September to December. Chef Morjaria will be in Singapore and other Asian locations this week. Go to the Vineworks website to find out more wine related events. They have a lot of them.
Eric Ripert is in Korea. This is just after it was announced that Le Bernardin maintained its three Michelin stars and was again voted “Best Restaurant in New York City” by Zagat. He’s traveling with Matt Rodbard (Korean Restaurant Guide New York) for a piece in a major American food publication. On Sunday evening, I had dinner with them at YangMiOk 양미옥–a dinner of cattle innards. YES!
I was so giddy that this was the only picture I took of Chef Ripert. During dinner, I was trying to act all nonchalant, which just made me sound dumb. We sat next to each other, and I was so nervous to talk to him. I mostly talked to Matt, who is an amazing dinner companion.
When they were choosing what to drink, I asked if they had any dong-dong-ju, which they did. The mini-pot came out with the cloudy bubbly liquid. We filled our bowls and toasted.
“This reminds me of champagne,” said Eric.
We downed a good many beers and sojus following that. Eric made a Vine of the lovely intestines.
https://vine.co/v/hXew1APKWlW
He had learned about Buddhist temple cuisine the day before, and he was ecstatic about it.
in Korea :JINKWANSA Monastery learning &fascinated by"Temple Cuisine" Nun Dowoon Snim is so knowledgeable 🙂 pic.twitter.com/deEfEmayZv
After dinner, we headed to Gwangjang Market. It was Sunday, so it wasn’t as crowded. But we did have some soondae, ddeokbokki, and various innards. Eric particularly liked the hogs jowls dipped in ddeokbokki sauce. The ajumma at the stand motioned us towards a bubbling wok of meatage and goaded us to try it. I was the only one to do so. We asked her what it was, and she pointed to her chest and breathed heavily (I have that effect sometimes). I figured out she meant that I was eating lung. And it wasn’t that good.
We moved on to some bindaeddeok, one of my favorites. We downed that with some road beers. Eric was texting on the phone and showed it to me.
“Who are you talking to?”
“Bourdain.”
—-FLOORED—
As most of you know, I’m a serious fanboy of chefs. It was more than enough to be within breathing distance of Eric Ripert. But Anthony Bourdain I partially credit to my being in Asia. It was in 2003 that I spent my Friday nights at home just to watch at 20-minute episode of his first show, “A Cook’s Tour.” At the time, I was struggling to stay afloat amidst a divorce and the dot-com bust. One of my friends was beckoning me to go to Korea. After a few episodes of “A Cook’s Tour,” I said, “Screw it. I need to get my butt to Asia.”
My first year in Korea was a bit on the lean side. When I was able to get a secondhand computer, one of the first things I did was get my hands on as many “Cook’s Tour” episodes as possible. It comforted me. It gave me a frame of reference to help survive as an expat in Korea. It’s so easy to fall into a dark pit of negativity here. But the cynical swaggering gusto that Bourdain captured in those old episodes kept my brain in the right space.
So I said to Eric, “Tell Bourdain that he’s the reason I moved to Asia ten years ago.”
“Okay, I will.”
They wrapped up, and Eric went back to the hotel. He signed my copy of On the Line, gave me a hug, and went back in the van. I grabbed taxi to hang out with Matt and the gang.
What’s been fun is watching their travels through Eric’s Twitter account.
The Game of Thrones Pop-up Restaurant happened last night at Magpie Brewing Company, and it was a success. Thanks all of you who turned out for the event. As you saw, I was extremely busy the entire time either cooking or cleaning. Wish I had more time. But it seems like the food was enjoyed, considering how little we had to take home 😉
Now for nerding out. Here’s how this whole thing went down. A few months ago, before the beginning of the new Game of Thrones season, I joked on Facebook how fun it would be to do a Game of Thrones pop-up. A few minutes later, I got a message from Jason Lindley at Magpie saying that he’d set it up–calling my bluff.
We originally had planned it to go with the beginning of the season, but I had just returned from the Philippines and had not time to plan and shop. So we scheduled it to coincide with the final episode. Even then, it was hard for me to plan much. But when crunch time came, I broke down the menu, set up shopping lists, contacted folks to help, and laid out a schedule. We placed orders with Authentic Meats (the High Street Market folks) and The Baker’s Table. June Chang helped me shop and transport groceries from Costco. I did more shopping at the bakery market by Euljiro 4-ga, Foreign Food Market, Home Plus, and Costco. I also carried the major meats on my back, including two legs of lamb and two pork shoulders, from High Street Market to Magpie. In the meantime, I was transporting equipment and serving ware from my home in Anyang to Seoul via subway. The morning of the feast, I lugged a heavy suitcase filled with equipment, platters, and ducks.
With each dish (except one I forgot) I made name placards that included what house/location they were associated with and a passage/anecdote from the book where it comes from. Most of the food was meant to compliment the beer.
This was the easiest one to set up. When signing in, guests partake in eating bread and salt to secure guest rights. Television viewers may recall that Robb Stark did this at the beginning of the fateful ninth episode of season three. The original plan was to bake all the bread, but we had so many dishes, along with a really great bakery next door (Baker’s Table), that I included a few loaves of German bread in our order.
The Baker’s Table supplied us with the shells. I used some frozen berry mixes with sugar, star anise, and fresh lemon juice for the filling. We had a tough time getting the filling to set, which delayed us a bit.
If you’re going to have a Game of Thrones event, you gotta have the famous Lemon Cakes that Sansa adored so much. This recipe I got from Inn at the Crossroads, and it’s a great one.
I was warned. Expats love hummus. I made the hummus at home the night before. Actually, I started soaking the chickpeas two nights before. We added the lemon juice the day of the event. One of the themes I had for this event was to have food that was somewhat familiar with flavors that jarred your preconceptions. In the hummus, I used Spanish smoked paprika to set it off a bit. The giant capers I stumbled upon at the Foreign Food Market. The bread was from Baker’s Table. The olives are some of the things I’ve been loving. E-Mart has these olives stuffed with bacon, feta cheese, and almonds (separately). So that also surprised diners.
This was the big one. You won’t believe how hard it is to find arrows. I was freaking out about it for weeks, asking around. Then it occurred to me–In Insa-dong they sell lots of children’s toy arrows with suction cups on them. I bought a couple of them on the way to the office, snipped off the suction cups, and stylized the rubber feathers to make them look more feathery. The first lamb was encrusted with juniper berries, star anise, coriander, and I don’t remember. The second lamb had more traditional herbs, like rosemary, with lemons stuffed in the cracks. The lone casualty of the dinner was my hand blender. It burned out from blending so many spices, which it’s not designed to do.
We needed vegetables! It’s hard to find veggie dishes in The Song of Ice and Fire. The Spiced Squash was easy to prepare. The dominant spices were cardamom and coriander. The squashes themselves were hard to cut, so I figured I’d roast them and then deal with them. Unfortunately, their shells got rock hard in the oven. So I had to cut each piece away and chop it up.
I don’t have pictures of everything. If anyone else has pics, I’d love to see them. We couldn’t get any actual boar for this one. But as Linus Kim told me, there ain’t much different between boar and pork. We made a small bending of imagination for this one. I got some pork shoulder and slapped that mother down with yuja cha and fresh basil. Roasted it along with the duck.
Was kinda proud of this one. It’s a simple roasted duck with honey. But the throw-off was that I used this special Thyme Honey from New Zealand. It’s a honey that makes you do a double take.
Onion Broth with Goat and Carrot
This was a very popular soup. (PHEW!) I’d never cooked with goat before. It was a basic stew with roasted bone beef broth (we roasted the bones first thing that morning) and Magpie’s Porter. It just cooked and reduced all day. The goat I got from the Foreign Food Market.
This also was an easy one. With that roasted beef bone stock, I added beef stew meat, onions, carrots. At the end, we added barley and leeks. The flavorings were from Scarborough Fair lyrics.
Chanju prepping the salad
Originally called “Sansa Salad,” we were planning to have edible flowers and pomegranates. But while shopping, I changed my mind a lot based on what was available. I stewed some prunes in red wine and bokbunja (Korean raspberry wine) the night before, a take on ancient Roman cuisine. The salad was basic greens with fresh herbs thrown in, including mint, cilantro, and dill. The dressing was a yuja cha vinaigrette. This dish was slaughtered. I should have made more.
The idea I got from Inn at the Crossroads. For the filling, I was hoping to get some blood that’s used in Haejangguk. My local Home Plus had been selling it–until I NEEDED IT!! So I made do with spicy flavored soondae mixed with ground beef. For the flavorings, I leaned on curry and Jamaican ideas with lots and lots of black pepper. June turned out to be much more adept at folding the pies than me. So she and Chanju took this one over. Served it with mango chutney from the Foreign Food Market.
Again, I plan for something, and then the stores that carry this ingredient no longer carry it. For years, E-Mart has been carrying goat milk. I’ve been making goat cheese with it. I was planning to stuff the peppers with goat cheese. No luck finding the milk anywhere. But I had an idea while shopping. Mix some feta cheese with sour cream and butter-sauteed onions and chill it. Oh my! This was my favorite dish of the entire evening. I could eat those all freakin’ day!
How to make butter-sauteed mushrooms more decadent? Add more butter! You know those blocks of butter that are the equivalent of four sticks? I used one and a half of them with oyster, shiitake, and portabello mushrooms. Threw in some tarragon. That was my final dish of the night, and I was exhausted. Nothing but cleaning left.
I’m still wrapping my brain around everything. Magpie was super cool with it all. I also got to try mead for the first time. Strong stuff, but I liked it.
Many thanks go to Simon for helping me cook all day and all night. June and Chanju for swooping in at the right moment to do the rest. Jason and Lydia at Magpie for hosting such a great evening. Linus and Kip for hooking me up with some ingredients. And thank you to all that arrived. Wow!
The Filipino Department of Tourism invited Korean bloggers for a tour of the Philippines, paying for transportation, lodging, and most of the food. The goal was to highlight areas that were under the radar of tourists and to check out attractions that were being developed. This is my diary of that trip.
Thursday, March 28 2013
Day 1: Getting There
For the flight to the Philippines, we had to meet at Incheon Airport at 6:20 a.m. There was no way that an airport bus would go from Anyang that early. So I decided to spend the night at the airport.
After packing my things and kissing my family goodbye, I took the subway to Seoul Station and then took the AREX train to Incheon Airport. I arrived around 11 p.m. The place was dark. Very few people were there. Mostly workers. I looked around, and eventually I found the spa and sauna, which had private sleeping rooms. Luckily, they had one available, so I took it.
Now, this was also a Korean sauna, which I am always awkward in. I never know what the correct etiquette is. I found my locker and stripped on down. Grabbed a towel and hit the showers. I was planning to go straight to bed when the baths called to me.
“Maybe a little relaxing hot soak will help me sleep more deeply.”
The way this was set up was it had a pool with cool water in the middle of a pool with hot water. There was a marble stepping stone bridge to the cool pool. I walked over and dipped my foot. Decided I wasn’t in the mood for the cool pool. So I stepped from the marble stepping stone bridge into the warm pool.
I misjudged.
The bottom of the pool was deeper than I anticipated, and I guess they didn’t intend for people to enter the pool from the stepping stone bridge. I fell down and banged my cheek against the edge of the marble. I think I blacked out for a second. Pulled myself up and went, “Oh, no. This isn’t good.”
I thought I had chipped the bone in my cheekbone. I found my glasses. Thankfully, they weren’t broken. My towel was floating in the tub. No one else was there. I sat there a while and tried to still enjoy it. But really, I felt like an idiot and left.
I checked in the mirror, and it didn’t look so bad. Hurt like a mother, especially when I smiled. I found my sleeping room and was disappointed that it consisted of a sparse mattress with a tiny cubic pillow and thin blanket.
I think I got two hours sleep.
I was able to meet the tour group on time the next morning. We flew Philippine Airlines—a four hour flight. Not bad at all. When we got there, a greeter gave us—well, they’d be leis if we were in Hawaii—necklaces made of jasmine flowers.
Smelled so good! And hey, when they dried, I could make them into tea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irq27pMTjqk
We boarded a small bus to take us to the ferry to Marinduque. A four-hour drive turned into six with little bouts of traffic.
One thing I got to check off my bucket list was a trip to Jollibee, the homegrown fast food franchise of the Philippines that my Pinoy friends rave over. Their fries are good. Not McDonald’s but way better than most fast food franchises. We each had dinners that included pieces of fried chicken, a rich brown gravy, and rice. I thought the rice was a biscuit at first because it was wrapped up in paper. Loved the gravy. For dessert we had peach mango pies. There’s talk of a Jollibee opening in Korea. I think it could do well.
There’s not much else I can say about the drive down. My first impression was the architecture reminded me a lot of the Spanish part of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a bit eerie. I was in a much different place than I’ve ever been before, but little things were familiar. Houses looked like what you’d find driving down a tiny road in Florida, south Alabama, or Mississippi.
We caught the ferry at 6:30. It was crowded, and it was a three-and-a-half hour trip. I found a place close to the bow and sat down. Listened to podcasts under the full moon.
By the time we got to Marinduque, it was getting late. The driver zipped use through dark curvy roads to a festive place where a serious Passion play was in the works with deep voiced narration and lots of lighting effects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEhvpB75w4
Our dinner was waiting for us there.
Fried fish with butter sauceLo MeinEggplant Ensalada (favorite!)Fish with soy vinegar sauce
The whole dinner was great. I particularly liked the eggplant dish, which reminded me of Brazilian vinaigrette. Bright, tart, and fresh.
We were tired from a long day of travel. So sleep found us quickly when we arrived at our quaint hotel.
Back when Sarah Lee and I were putting ideas together for our first pop-up restaurant, our friend Linus gave me a call.
“Joe, it’s interesting y’all are doing a pop-up because I’m working on a secret project myself. I’m doing barbecue.”
Over some drinks a while back, Linus and I got to talking about ideas for future restaurants, and I mentioned that I wanted to eventually bring Alabama style barbecue to Korea. Or at least I wanted someone to. It looks like Linus already had that plan.
He held his first small pop-up in early summer. He was cooking ribs. I liked them. The smoke flavors were there. The sauce was almost there but not quite. Linus was really critical of himself, but we all had a great time.
Then late last month, he held another pop-up restaurant in east Itaewon trying out his pulled pork sandwiches and his improved sauce. I didn’t have a chance to go, but I heard it was crowded, and there was a line.
Yesterday, though, I made sure to make it over there for his third pop-up. There was an assembly line going, butter toasting buns, laying on sauce, portioning pulled pork–oh, the aroma!
A plate with sandwich, beans, and slaw was W10,000. I bought two. Good thing napkins were free. One of my guidelines is the messier the food the better it tastes.
The pork itself was very much like North Alabama, specifically the Decatur style popularized by Big Bob Gibson. I spent my first thirteen years of life in Decatur, so I knew that. The sauce for pork in Decatur, if ever used, is just white vinegar and cayenne pepper. Linus instead used a thicker vinegar-tomato sauce that pretty much nailed the taste of the famous Dreamland Bar-B-Que in Tuscaloosa.
By the end of the evening, I’d eaten three whole sandwiches. Right before the “Sold Out” sign went up, I made sure to get one more for the road.
I had to get one more for my baby girl.
And she downed all the meat and beans on her plate!
If you want to try Linus’ BBQ, he is getting a lot of requests. This weekend, he’ll be at Platoon in Gangnam, along with the cocktail stylings of Southern Sons.
As you may have heard, I participated in a cooking contest for multicultural families, sponsored by CJ Foods. They had four groups of 12 competing for finalist spots in the preliminaries. I made it to the finals and ended up taking home the 2nd place prize and W1,000,000.
The theme was to make a food that could globalize gochujang, Korea’s famous red pepper paste. I have watched a lot of Iron Chef, Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen and have always played couch chef, saying what I would have done differently. This was my chance to finally enter a cooking contest and see if I was all talk.
One of the rules I’ve learned from those shows is to cook what you know. If I know how to cook any food, it’s Tex-Mex. My first job in a professional kitchen was at a Tex-Mex restaurant. And I’ve been making Ko-Mexican food since my first few months in Korea back in 2004. So something along those lines was logical.
But how to incorporate gochujang?
When I visited my brother Ben’s restaurant in 2008, he had some cool sauces he made up. One of my faves was a roasted red pepper aioli. So, make a gochujang aioli. Is there anything else in my spice drawer that can kick it up a notch?
Oh, yeah! Spanish smoked paprika.
Ben gave this to me as a present, a whole industrial sized bag of it. I’ve enjoyed it sprinkled in my kimchi jjigae. I tested this out in the kitchen, making the aioli from scratch. Tasted it, and it worked. Wow!
So, let’s make Bulgogi Quesadillas with a Smoky Gochujang Aioli. Didn’t feel complete and balanced, though. It needed something bright and fresh. Staying with Korean flavors, I experimented with making a Korean pear salsa. And I threw in the idea of adding goat cheese as a curve ball, but I later decided against it.
I tested my experiments at the Nanoomi party a few weeks ago. It was a hit.
A couple of weeks passed, and it was the day of the competition. EJ couldn’t go with me because of doctor’s orders. Got up early and headed to the COEX exhibition area. The ticket people had no idea what I was talking about regarding the cooking contest, despite it being advertised on a large banner in front of them, but the guard knew about it and let me in.
The cooking contest area was right by the entrance, and they promptly dressed me in chef’s whites with a coffee filter. Cooking wouldn’t start for a while. I used the time to make sure they had gotten all the ingredients I listed. A few were missing, but they rounded those up for me. Korean power blogger Jo Hyo-ryeon of Natural Kitchen was my sous chef. She was amazing. Her knife skills humbled me. And she was my second opinion when tasting.
After loads and loads of speeches and cheesy photo ops (“Fighting!”), we got to cooking. I was one of only three men in the entire 48 competing. Both of them were in this group. One was from China, and the other was from Pakistan. I hung out a bit with the Pakistani guy, since we both spoke English. And I was excited that he was attempting a lamb curry with gochujang.
I don’t know about the other groups, but this one was quite diverse. Other than China and Pakistan, Vietnam, Russia, Japan and Uzbekistan were represented. They came up with some great food that I’d like to try at home some time.
Check out that lamb curry. He made his own bread for this. And it was good. I was surprised it didn’t place. Other people loved it.
The Uzbek lady across from me made her own dough and created these tortellini-shaped beef dumplings with a gochujang sauce. This was also a hit with the crowd that didn’t place.
This one made it to the finals, though. Vietnamese spring rolls.
This one did too. This was done by the Chinese male contestant, but I never got the name of the dish.
Mmm! Stuffed peppers! Feeling homesick.
This one was a forehead slapper. Of course! Golubsky (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls) using kimchi in place of cabbage.
Again, don’t know what it was, but it looks like it would go good with some mashed potatoes.
Looks like a type of chicken stew or Dalk Doritang. This smelled scrumptious! It was made by the chef next to me, and I would go to wash stuff in my sink just so I could be near and smell her food.
This was mine–after the judges had taken a sample. I’ll post the recipe soon.
I made a lot of extra quesadillas, anticipating mistakes. And I plated them for the crowd.
They seemed popular.
Both Thursday and Saturday, the extras got cleaned out by everyone. What’s funny is that I still haven’t eaten one myself. I know how the elements taste individually, but I never got to eat one of my completed dishes.
From September 18th to September 25th, I have been in New York. The reason was to give a presentation on Buddhist Temple Cuisine on the 20th. I’m posting my personal diary accounts of all the food and peeps. I hope you enjoy.
Read the first part of this journey at Edible Queens and then return here for the rest.
Back for Manhattans in Manhattan
Joe called it a night, and Jonathan, who is a distiller and intimately knows the New York cocktail world, took me to PDT (recently found that this was Food Network Magazine’s #1 Best American Food Destination), which people told me was THE place to start my cocktail research. I was also told that I wouldn’t be able to get in. But Jonathan said it wouldn’t be a problem. We walked into a restaurant, Crif’s Hot Dogs, and Jonathan entered a phone booth. He dialed the rotary dial on an orange phone, and the wall opened up to his left. He told the hostess that he knew the owner, and we were in.
Classic speakeasy.
So we sidled up to the bar, and I took a glance at the cocktail menu. WOW! These things aren’t drinks. They’re stories. Jonathan was my guide for all this. I wanted to try a classic cocktail first. I don’t remember the names. But this one came from the 1930s, was bourbon based, and tasted like an adult cocktail–like something my grandfather would have drunk. Manly and sophisticated.
But I really wanted to try a fat washed alcohol, so he ordered me a drink with some bacon-infused whiskey. That was my favorite of the night. It was like drinking the bacon drippings from the refrigerator. But better than that. I got drunk.
A model from L.A. sat to our right and was talking about how she was pining for this guy from London who was leaving that evening. Other than that, she was pleasant to talk to. Another couple sat down next to us, and the woman ordered a Sapphire Martini. Jonathan talked her out of it into something more interesting, and then they started to have a good time.
After two drinks, we headed out to The Summit Bar, another one in this cocktail renaissance. But I noticed Jonathan was hitting the end. He didn’t bother ordering a drink. I ordered some cured meats to help him out, but he left to go sleep it off. So I had a platter of meat before me and a drink called the Gov’ner.
I decided to go home too. My morning had been hazy since I was still decompressing from the adrenaline of the day before. You know that feeling like there’s cotton in your brain. It had cleared up by Shikgaek, but I was crashing fast. I wanted to try to walk home from the East Village to the West Village. On the way, I saw Katz’s Deli, which was closed. But Ray’s Pizza was open next door. Had a simple Margherita slice, which was the perfect drunk food, and decided to catch a taxi home. Good thing I got the taxi. I found on Google Earth that I was walking south, not west.
From September 18th to September 25th, I have been in New York. The reason was to give a presentation on Buddhist Temple Cuisine on the 20th. I’m posting my personal diary accounts of all the food and peeps. I hope you enjoy.
This week was packed! There was no way I could do everything I set out to do, but I did as much as I could on Friday.
I set out in the morning for Jacques Torres on Hudson Street to get a box of chocolates for my ailing grandfather, whom I was leaving the visit the next day in Alabama. He’s a picky eater, but he’s always had a fondness for chocolate, keeping petit fours and Whitman’s Samplers at his house, which I always raided behind his back. I felt that I needed to repay him with a nice big 50-piece box of chocolates from one of the world’s greatest chocolatiers. I was holding back the urge to get teary eyed as I got them.
After dropping them off at the apartment, I met ZenKimchi friend Zach in front of Trump Tower at Columbus Circle. We had plans to sit at the bar for lunch at Nougatine at Jean-Georges. I had been told by a few that I needed to go there, particularly since he and his wife are the hosts of the upcoming PBS documentary series on Korean food.
There were some great highlights of the meal, but it was obvious that this was a set up for the tourists, like me, who wanted to tell their friends they ate at Jean-Georges. I particularly loved the little Brussels sprouts with bacon and pear and the Johnny Iuzzini dessert of peaches with a champagne sabayon and pistachio ice cream. But the steak was so overseasoned that it burned my tongue–you know, that feeling you get when you eat straight salt. I also liked the yuzu cocktail and the cucumber mint martini. It felt like something was missing from the martini, and Zach and I discussed it. Then I asked the bartender for a little salt. After adding a pinch of salt, it really tasted good. It just needed a little something to amp up its subtle flavors.
The only touristy thing I wanted to do during my trip was to go to Central Park. So we trekked a bit there. I specifically wanted to see the Dakota Apartments and Strawberry Fields.
Strawberry Fields was very touristy, but so is Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris, which I also make a pilgrimage to in the early 1990s.
Artist Elaine met us, and we walked through the greens. We were still peckish after that lunch, and David Chang’s new restaurant Má Pêche was within walking distance. As a Korean food writer, I also felt obligated to try out a David Chang restaurant, so this checked something off my list.
We sat at the upstairs bar and ordered three items, a bánh mi with duck terrine, a variety of oysters and some ribs. The food was good, but it didn’t blow me away–especially when compared to Chef Kim’s food at Star Chef in Seoul. I think we were disappointed in the ribs. Great flavor on the outside but empty in the middle. But I did like the sandwich. So, yeah, I ate at a David Chang joint.
Don’t you hate it when food bloggers treat restaurants like score cards?
The next plan was to check out Xie Xie, the sandwich place owned by Top Chef contestant Angelo Sosa, but it was closed. So was the pub next to it that Zach wanted us to try.
Luckily, he had a Beer Passport guide, and he knew of another good place for a drink, The Pony Bar.
This place specializes in artisan beers, mostly from upstate New York. This is where I had the best beer of my life. On the menu it’s called “Super Friends,” and it’s a combined effort by Ithaca area brewers. A beer so hoppy it smells like a freshly cut pine tree.
That was the end of our little walkabout. I went back to my apartment to shower and rest before the final dinner. Eddie Huang had invited us to check out his new place, Xiao Ye.
When night fell, I walked out into the Friday evening. Parties were starting. I saw the San Gennaro street festival and walked down the road. It had been a very long time since I’d been in a fairground atmosphere like this. Carnies. Grilled sausages. Sideshows.
Xiao Ye is a tiny dark joint directly behind Katz’s Deli. Jonathan was already at the bar, miserable with his cocktail (“It tastes like it’s from the 1980s”). And we waited for the rest of the party to show.
Hainan ChickenBrick Sit on Wall TofuCheeto Fried ChickenApple Sidra Pork Chops with Fried Concubine CucumbersDericious EggGochujang Grilled Cheese (add kimchi and then we're talkin')Poontang Potstickers
Man, was it cramped and loud and dark. But we still had a good time. Youngsun Lee and his lovely wife joined us. You may remember we interviewed him a while back. This was the first time I had to actually talk to him. We ordered a lot of food, and Eddie gave us a little more. I agree with most every person I’ve read and the Village Voice that the Cheeto Fried Chicken is good, but it needs more cheese flavor. My favorite thing–and I think it was the consensus of the table–was the glazed pork chop with fried “Concubine Cucumbers” (fried pickles). The Hainan Chicken and Rice was also a hit.
But when they set down their monstrous dessert so ugly only a mother could love–Blue Magic–that’s when I was truly happy. It’s a bing soo. A shaved ice treat that’s all over Asia. But this came with some blue stuff and a precariously dumped mango pudding on top. Electrically sweet. It was gone way before the heat in that place could melt it. “Xiao Ye” means something like “snacks when you’re piss drunk,” and I get the concept.
I want to go back for those fried pickles.
Robert Cash, Jonathan Forester, Joe McPherson, Joe DiStefano, Chef Youngsun Lee, Veronica Chan, Emily
After snapping a final picture of the gang, New York Joe walked me most of the way back to my place. I got back and took yet another shower. It was hot that day. I finished packing and making sure I had all my papers organized. I had an early flight to Huntsville, Alabama. I calculated I needed to get up at 4 or 5 to get to the airport in time. It was 2 when I got in bed. Obviously I couldn’t sleep. So when it rolled on to 4, I got dressed, grabbed my stuff and walked to the subway amidst the dying embers of Friday night parties.
From September 18th to September 25th, I have been in New York. The reason was to give a presentation on Buddhist Temple Cuisine on the 20th. I’m posting my personal diary accounts of all the food and peeps. I hope you enjoy.
Last week, I had met Dorothy Cann Hamilton (founder, French Culinary Institute) in Seoul, and she said she wanted to have lunch while I was in New York. Turned out her schedule kept her out of the country this week. But she suggested I still go by and check out the school.
ZenKimchi editor Shin and I met at L’Ecole, the restaurant of the institute, which has been rebranded as The International Culinary Center because they now have an Italian Culinary Academy and more. We had a good long classically French meal with a few surprises. Here’s a quick rundown.
Shrimp bisque. I really like the tarragon and the surprise crunchy crouton inside.
Calamari stuffed with rice and chorizo.
Arctic Char Tartare. I chose this because it had Stilton–what a surprising flavor!
This was the venison with a rich sweet and sour sauce and cheese polenta. Seasonal veggies in a small pot. Another object that I miss eating. The meat was juicy and minerally, which was fun to slide around in the sauce.
Duck. This was Shin’s dish. I liked it, too, but I don’t remember every bit. I particularly loved the creamed spinach and potatoes.
Fig and greek yogurt tart with frozen greek yogurt. Oh, I loved this, especially the barnyard flavor of the yogurt in the tart.
They gave us this as extra. I don’t remember the details on this either. Great lady fingers. The strawberry ice cream and the cream were both highly sharp, and I was mood for something creamy after the already sharp tart.
The meal was great, and I suggest L’Ecole for a lunch stop using the prix fixe menu. It’s decently priced and quality food.
Later, Will Doze took us on a tour of the school. They’ve recently expanded to five stories and are developing the fifth one for events and such.
My favorite parts were the library–oooh, cookbooks–and the theater. I also got to meet School Director Chris Papagni. We all had a great talk.
Check out that chocolate R2-D2.
Oh, and bonus–we got bags of bread swiped from one of the baking classrooms!
The plan was to head to the apartment and relax a bit before trying to grab a bar seat at Babbo at 5:30. Living in Korea, it’s an extra bonus to eat at a restaurant that means “Stupid” in Korean, and it’s conveniently located just two blocks from the apartment. But my body had different plans. Suddenly it was 9:00 and I had been sleeping. I decided to have a slice at Bleecker St. Pizza with Regina instead.
And everyone was right. That was some amazing pizza! Crisp crust all the way through, and the ingredients were balanced. And we had the requisite grease drips.
Regina and I hunted for a non-meat-market drinking hole–you know, someplace we could stand and be able to hear each other talk. A hostess at one restaurant suggested this place called Blue Ribbon. They have a restaurant and a cozy little wine bar across the street. It was a little crowded when we entered, but we got a seat after a couple minutes.
This was a great find!
I’m not wine expert, but Wine Korea Josh and friends have been teaching me a lot, and I know more what I like. They didn’t have any high tannic wines, but they had a lot by the glass and half bottles. I started with a pinot noir, and we ordered a filet of smoked trout with this joyful cream sauce. The bar wasn’t quiet, but we could at least hear each other. The tunes were post-ironic jazz renditions of ’80s new wave hits and foreign language versions of old pop songs with an occasional Quincy Jones thrown in.
I think the night turned out better than planned.
ZenKimchi in New York
Arrival
Wendy’s Rooftop
The Presentation
Feasting through Queens
Ultimate Food Nerd Time
The Culinary Institute
The Big Finish
Pictures
From September 18th to September 25th, I have been in New York. The reason was to give a presentation on Buddhist Temple Cuisine on the 20th. I’m posting my personal diary accounts of all the food and peeps. I hope you enjoy.
From September 18th to September 25th, I have been in New York. The reason was to give a presentation on Buddhist Temple Cuisine on the 20th. I’m posting my personal diary accounts of all the food and peeps. I hope you enjoy.
NOTE: I’m holding off on the Tuesday post, Eating Through Queens, because it will be a guest post on World’s Fare.
Surprised that I got over my hangover quickly. But I was still frazzled from Monday. Wendy IM’ed me and asked if I wanted to join her at the Union Square Market. At the same time, Jonathan was saying he could get me a press pass for Star Chefs that afternoon. My original plans were just lunch at 11 Madison Park and the ZenKimchi meet up in Koreatown that night. So I really packed it in that day.
Greatly enjoyed the market. All the vegetables made me envious. Just look at those heirloom tomatoes!
And emu eggs!
I badly needed coffee, so we went to a Starbucks. The guy at the table next to us needed it more. He passed out at his table, and stuff fell on the floor. I was worried he’d knock the table over. Good candidate for Blackout Korea, if we were in Korea.
I was intimidated about going to 11 Madison Park, as I’m usually intimidated by fine dining. And also being a single diner. I took the train a few blocks up and found the restaurant. I showed up 10 minutes early and walked through the revolving door.
“Hello, Mr. McPherson.”
Man, it’s true! The new version of this restaurant knows who you are when you walk in the door. They quickly made me feel welcome, and I settled down to enjoy an epic two-hour experience. I’ll dedicate an entire post to this meal later. I’m still in awe of it.
The table next to me was a Korean woman taking her elderly mother out for a Chuseok meal. When they got up to leave, I wished them a happy Chuseok.
By the time I finished, I was running late for Star Chefs. I wanted to see a lecture by bartender Junior “Liquid Chef” Merino. I got up to 66th and Park, but I couldn’t find a pay phone to call Jonathan to get me inside. It was then that I ran into Veronica, who was able to get me in without a press pass.
I couldn’t believe where I was!
For someone like me, this was the ultimate fanboy event. Celebrity chef sightings everywhere. Ooh, there’s Wylie DuFresne. Rick Moonen was MC for the main stage, and we watched the Voltaggio Bros. make a dish they called “Tongue ‘n’ Cheek.” Bryan got it finished okay, but Michael was being greatly ambitious, and equipment broke down on him. He was going to make cotton candy with smoke inside it, but the cotton candy machine didn’t work. I think it flustered him a bit because he had forgotten some of his components and added them after he had presented his dish. It still looked a lot of fun.
My big thing there was the cheese. CHEESE! We miss this so much in Korea. And they had some stanky ass cave aged cheddar and a blue cheese where the mold was so strong it had texture.
I found Jonathan, and he took me over to introduce me to Junior Merino. I tried some mezcal. I couldn’t handle hard spirits because of my previous night’s recovery. I met Junior’s wife back on the show floor. Jonathan was going to introduce me to the man himself, Dale DeGroff, but we ran out of time. We left as chefs were enraptured by a speech on pastry by Ferran Adria’s brother Albert.
Jonathan and I shared a cab. He was trying to get across the river to the gala, and I was going to the Empire State Building–Koreatown–for the ZenKimchi Meet Up. We got stuck in traffic because the UN delegates were in session, and there was added security. I just hopped out of the cab a few blocks away and found our meeting place, Seoul Garden.
When I got there, my body crashed. I really couldn’t think straight. But I was so happy that people showed up. There were Megan from Bento Zen, my old pal Regina, Elaine Tin Nyo from the artist’s project in Anyang two years ago, Robyn Lee from Serious Eats and her friend visiting from Europe, Marcus, Bohae, and Zach showed up later.
I was drinking cokes to try to get my body back up, but it wasn’t working. Thankfully, everyone was hitting it off well, and they were enjoying the food. I just couldn’t eat anything more than a few bites of Kongbiji and Budae Jjigae.
It started raining a bit when we left, and we decided to go to a cafe to get some caffeine in Joe. I actually started falling asleep on the table. But after the latte I was getting back to normal. But again, I was so happy that everyone who didn’t know each other got connected. It’s a wonderful group. Some of them I knew in Korea, and I miss them terribly. Others I had known online for a while and was glad to meet them. I just wish I was my normal annoying awake self.
We caught a train back south, and Elaine walked me home. She used to live in Soho, and her boyfriend currently lives here.
