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Home Cooking, Palisades Park

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year! Another year is upon us, another 365 days to fill with delicious eats. For me, New Year’s Day began — as it does every year — with a big bowl of my mom’s ddukgook (떡국, rice cake soup). I’ve written about it before; it’s the Korean tradition to have ddukgook on New Year’s Day, and if you don’t eat it, they say you won’t become a year older. (Many bad jokes about ddukgook and aging are abound New Year’s Day.) Now as to why we eat it, there are a few theories. The most credible, in my mind, is that dduk being white (the color of purity), it symbolizes the new year and new beginnings. In any case, I ate a sh*t-load of ddukgook along with tons of grilled Berkshire pork wrapped in perilla leaves and dipped in salted sesame oil. It was a great start to the year. 2011, holla! MORE »

K-Town, Restaurants

Oyster Soondubu & Galbi at BCD Tofu House – NYC

11.19.10 | Permalink | 10 Comments

For the longest time I resisted cooked oysters. Why cook something when it tastes perfectly good raw? Then a few years ago I started to appreciate cooked oysters. Gently cooked so the meat is set like a soft boiled egg, oysters take on a creamy quality raw oysters don’t possess. Sure, I still prefer raw oysters, but I understand why people like oysters cooked too. Done right, they’re delicious. Overcooked, you might as chew the piece of gum you spit out hours ago. It’ll be just as tasteless and chewy.

One place where they do oysters right is B.C.D. Tofu House (북창동 순두부) on 32nd Street in K-Town. The specialty at BCD is soondubu jigae (순두부 찌개), soft/silken tofu soup which can be ordered in varying degrees of spiciness: plain/not spicy, mild, spicy, or very spicy. My regular order is the Oyster Tofu Soup (굴순두부), spicy. MORE »

Palisades Park, Restaurants

Squid & Pork Belly Stir-Fry at Chung Dam Dong – Palisades Park

10.23.10 | Permalink | 7 Comments

The first time my family went to Chung Dam Dong (청담동) we left unsatisfied. We had ordered a bulgogi jungol (불고기전골, barbecued beef soup similar to sukiyaki) type of thing even though everyone at the restaurant was eating some sort of spicy stir-fry at the table. Not sure what we were thinking actually. I think we did so to appease a non-pork eating person in the group, but at the end no one was happy. Not even the non-pork eater. The jungol was a compromise in every which way including taste. Banchan (반찬, small sides) had been great, but great banchan can only get you so far (at max, fifteen minutes of happiness). Still, we kept hearing good things about the restaurant, and noticed while other restaurants along Broad Avenue were going out of business, Chung Dam Dong was going strong. Another visit was in order, and then another just to be sure. The verdict? Undeniably delicious as long as you order right. MORE »

Events, Flushing

Best Bites at Asian Feastival 2010 – NYC

09.13.10 | Permalink | 12 Comments

Long time readers know I was a huge fan of the Singapore Chilli Crab Festival. Last week, Wendy Chan (the same woman behind the Singapore Chilli Crab Festival), along with daughter and food blogger Veronica Chan, brought to Flushing Asian Feastival, and I was invited to cover the event. As can be imagined, it was a great event with several small panels, some thought-provoking (Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi spoke about the differences of sustainable eating versus eating locally during the Sustainable Seafood Panel) and some a little more light-hearted (In the Asian American Cuisine Panel, upon asked where he gets inspiration, Akira Back of Yellowtail responded that sometimes inspiration comes from “a stupid flower.” Hilarious.). But most importantly, there were a lot of tastings from Asian restaurants all around Queens. I made sure I did a lot of “research,” and my favorites of the day were the xiaolongbao from Nan Xiang, fish cutlets from Bownie, kimchi mal-ee (김치말이) from Hahm Ji Bach (함지박), and miang kana from Ploy Thai. MORE »

Fast Food, Hawaii, Oahu, Small Shops

More Plate Lunches – Honolulu

08.18.10 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Lots of plate lunches were had in Honolulu (some good, some bad, all humongous), but my favorite plate lunch was at Monarch Seafoods with Yummy Korean B-B-Q coming in at a close second. Monarch was great for incredibly fresh seafood, and Yummy Korean B-B-Q for surprisingly good galbi (갈비, Korean beef ribs, also spelled kalbi) from a fast food court. MORE »

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Bought mussels and monkfish instead. Dinner was quinoa and seafood in white wine and garlic sauce. Key was butter & basil at the end.

The Archives

Home Cooking, Palisades Park

Happy 2011!

K-Town, Restaurants

Oyster Soondubu & Galbi at BCD Tofu House – NYC

Palisades Park, Restaurants

Squid & Pork Belly Stir-Fry at Chung Dam Dong – Palisades Park

Events, Flushing

Best Bites at Asian Feastival 2010 – NYC

Fast Food, Hawaii, Oahu, Small Shops

More Plate Lunches – Honolulu

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