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Street Eats
Walk, Eat, Repeat – Seoul
11.19.09 | Permalink | 6 Comments

Korean people love to snack. It’s a snacking culture. You eat not because you’re hungry, but your mouth is bored. Walking around in Seoul, there’s a vendor or two on every street. (Remember the bbopki post?) I love it! The most popular, and most well-known, street food is probably ddukbokki (떡복기, rice cakes), but I’ll be posting about that next time. This post will concentrate on some of my other favorite street snacks: roasted chestnuts, hodduk (호떡, sweet pancakes), jeepoh (쥐포, dried file fish), and gohguma mattang (고구마맛탕, candied sweet potatoes), oh my! MORE »
Midtown, Small Shops
Carb-on-Carb Action at Golden Krust – NYC
11.13.09 | Permalink | 10 Comments

I’ve been writing about Asia for so long now, many of you may have been wondering what I’ve been eating these days besides bar food. Well, during the day, I’ve been busy at work so I’ve been either packing my lunch or going to Chiyoda Sushi (Their usual $9.95 nigiri sushi set has been $7.96 since last month!). However, today I wanted something carby, not sure why, but that’s what I was craving so I made a stop at Golden Krust and got a Mild Beef Patty ($1.99, I got the mild only because it was the only meat patty ready at the time, it was either that or soy or vegetable. Mild Beef please!) and a piece of Coco Bread ($0.95). Put them together and what do you have? A Jamaican beef patty sandwich. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering, ‘Why on god’s green earth would you need to eat a patty between two pieces of bread?!” To which I respond, “Why the hell not?!” But seriously, coco bread makes a Jamaican beef patty more of a meal than a snack, and sometimes you want plain carbs with your greasy savory snack; be it bread, rice, or noodles. MORE »
Raising the Bar, West Village
Being Local at Wilfie & Nell – NYC
11.12.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

If I lived in the West Village, I’d hang out at Wilfie & Nell every weekend for Scotch eggs, grilled cheese, delicious cocktails, and their great beer selection on tap. Read my review, “Raising the Bar: Being Local at Wilfie & Nell,” on SE:NY. Drunken food porn awaits.
Restaurants
A Taste of Home at Nun Namu Jip – Seoul
11.09.09 | Permalink | 9 Comments

It seems North Korean food is a trend in Seoul right now. With tensions running high between North and South Korea and Kim Jong Il acting crazier than ever, I’m not sure how this happened (Is it like, another missile?! That crazy motherf*cker! I wonder what he ate this morning?), but for me it was quite nice. My mom’s side of the family is from Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea), so I grew up eating a lot of North Korean food. Nengmyun (냉면, cold buckwheat noodle soup) is probably the most well-known, but another cold soup dish I grew up with is kimchi mari (김치말이). It’s very similar to nengmyun, but the soup has kimchi and sesame oil in it, and instead of the buckwheat noodles, there’s rice. (Rice noodles instead of rice is another option, but rice is more common.) Until recently, no one, unless they were North Korean, knew about kimchi mari. My mom’s friends and my friends always assumed it was something my mom made up with leftover mul kimchi (물김치, water kimchi) and rice. Now everyone eats it, as they should, but those who doubted before, recognize my mom’s skills y’all!

On our second day, Joo Hyun took me and David to Nun Namu Jip (눈나무집, Snow Tree House), a cute restaurant in Samcheong-dong (삼청동) famous for their kimchi mari. We got there early, but there was already a line out the door. Joo Hyun said the line wasn’t so bad, so we queued up and people watched as we waited. MORE »
Hotels, Street Eats
I Heart Bbopki & Free Korean Breakfast – Seoul
11.01.09 | Permalink | 13 Comments

When we first drove into Seoul from Incheon Airport, I was shocked. Seoul wasn’t the charming city I remembered twelve years ago. It was buzzing with lights, the view of the mountains obliterated by monster skyscrapers, and the streets were wide and full of crazy cabbies. That night, as I went to sleep surrounded by cold marble in my 500 square foot hotel room designed to resemble a 20th century French chateau (I was staying in a hotel named Artnouveau City. Could it have gotten any cheesier?), I was crestfallen. Where was I, and how did Times Square follow me back to Korea? MORE »
Restaurants
Late Night Eats at Aberdeen Seafood – Hong Kong
10.12.09 | Permalink | 7 Comments

There seems to have been a crackdown on food vendors in Hong Kong recently. Friends who went to Hong Kong a few years ago came back with tales of delicious night market eats. However, in the three days I was in Hong Kong, I saw nary one street vendor selling anything of the edible variety. The tourist booklet I got at an information booth in Hong Kong even warned of eating at a street vendor if I were to ever find one. Needless to say, I had every intention of ignoring their advice, but coming up short after a thorough crawl up and down Temple Street, David and I settled at Aberdeen Seafood Restaurant, a street-side restaurant with fresh seafood practically crawling at our feet. MORE »
Governors Island, Street Eats
Veronica’s Kitchen at Governors Island – NYC
09.28.09 | Permalink | 7 Comments

It’s 5 a.m., but since I’m jet-lagged, I’m writing my last summer NYC post so I can get started on the Hong Kong, Seoul, and Beijing entries later on this week. I was trying to get it done while I was in Asia, but there was absolutely no time. Sight-seeing and eating takes a lot of work, and I have the blisters — but fortunately no abdominal woes — to prove it.

At the height of the summer, what seems like ages ago, David and I set sail on a ferry to Governors Island (Ferries leave on the weekends from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street. See schedule for times.) for a little island fun, New York style. There were no gentle ocean breezes or white sandy beaches (the man-made beach at the Water Taxi Beach doesn’t count), but we did get our spicy Caribbean fix courtesy of Veronica’s Kitchen. MORE »