catching up on june eatings

Fort Lee, NJ: Somyun in homemade dashi, with zucchini and a semi-poached semi-scrambled egg. You add spoonfuls of a sauce of soy, sesame and chilies to taste. I can be heavy handed with this condiment.

Palisades Park, NJ: Pile of veggies and fishcakes ready to get Shabu Shabu'ed at Pho 32.

Hot tub time for a piece of napa cabbage, a clump of enoki mushrooms and a fishball.

Thinly sliced beef ready for dunking.

Park Slope, Brooklyn: The house omelet at Moim is filled with kimchi, steak, onions and mozzarella cheese and partially bathed in a sort of demi-glace sauce you'd find in a yoshoku style restaurant. The home fries were perfect - super crisp on the outside without a trace of wetness, soft and warm on the inside. And most importantly, they were well-seasoned.

Inside view of the omelet. I'd definitely get this again, but would probably ask for it without the cheese.

Fort Greene, Brooklyn: The fruits of a quick trip to the Brooklyn Flea. Even with the chili pepper on the label, these are a lot spicier than you'd think.

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn: A pre-bocce dinner at Hibino started off so positively, with this duo of obanzai. The chicken meatballs were moist and had a pleasing char. The eel croquettes were like arancini with a decidedly Japanese twist (panko breading, tonkatsu-style sauce drizzled over). Unfortunately, our main dishes took nearly an hour to arrive and one of our orders didn't even make it from notepad to kitchen. We had to rush and were late to the start of the game And we wound up losing.

Edgewater, NJ: Gyoza and congee combo from China Table Tokyo Hanten at Mitsuwa. I almost always opt for ramen here but was in the mood to expand my horizons. This was yummy, but not as satisfying as a bowl of noodles. I did really like the mug of consommé.

Fort Greene, Brooklyn: Pupusas (whoops, I've been spelling these with two As) from a Red Hook ball field vendor at today's Brooklyn Flea! Brought home a bean and cheese and zucchini and cheese a little before it started pouring. Only $4.50!

The bean and cheese pupusa was dry and seemed like it may have been sitting on the griddle for some time, but the zucchini was wonderful. Maybe the water content of the zucchinis helped to keep it moist? By the time I got home, some of the sour cream had melted and mixed in with the salsa to create a delicious cream sauce. Pickles make everything better, and in this case, it was pickled cabbage.

lunch at momofuku ssam bar

The funny thing is that I ordered the pork bibimbop but they brought me the chicken. I had a couple bites before I even remembered I had ordered pork. Anyway, I forgot to retake photos but decided to post these because they are so mouth-watering. The lunch special also includes a side of your choice, pickles and a drink. It's pricey, but the leftovers made for a tasty dinner.

Lunch at tHe BistrO (aka the HBO cafeteria)

A friend of mine recently started working at HBO and invited me over for lunch at their employee cafeteria. Despite its silly name, I was psyched.


Sensing my arrival, the featured cuisine was Korean! Thanks, guys. By the way, $0.30 an ounce is not a typo.


Even though I didn't like they way they spelled kimchi, I thought it was very bold of the HBO cafeteria workers to serve it for lunch. As much as I love to eat the food of my people, it makes me paranoid as hell. It's so pungent and the smells really freak people out. Even though Korean food is I guess a bit trendy these days, I am scarred for life from all the times that people made fun of me or made a big stink (no pun intended).

I had a little bit of both kinds: cucumber and carrots to the left, cabbage and of all things, water chestnuts on the right. Both were tasty! I'm going to guess they had a ringer on hand or imported the goods from a Korean market.


For the main portion of my lunch, I opted for the hanger steak special.


A very generous portion of steak, potato wedges and roasted cauliflower for $5.99! I had enough left over for lunch the next day. You know what $5.99 gets you in midtown? Not much! I'll scoop some beets onto my plate at Dishes and it's going to cost me $5.99! $5.99 barely gets you a medium soup at Hale & Hearty. THe BistrO is a dream come true. I also had a huge rice krispie treat and a Tea's Tea that, ironically, cost almost as much as my entree!


Lindsey had the salmon burger as a platter, with a trio of salads. One was jicama and some other stuff. I think it cost fifty-five cents. I wonder if Omar's eaten here.

Paris

Chocolate and salted caramel macarons from Pierre Herme (72, rue Bonaparte).


The plat du jour at bistrot Le Troisieme Chinon (56, rue des Archives) on March 18 was a steak bernaise.


Close-up of the crisp and delicious potatoes.


Korean in Paris! Japchae and plump mandoo, washed down with Hite at L'Arbre de sel (138, rue de Vaugirard)




Bulgogi for Dan and dolsot bibimbop for me. I had to request the kochujang! Dan's bulgogi could've used more garlic and sesame oil, but I guess you have to adapt a bit for a culture not accustomed to such spice and pungency.


Kimchi pancakes sound so exotic when written in French.


A beautiful and delicious roasted veggie salad from Il Croccantino (139, rue de Vaugirard), a tiny traiteur we sought refuge at on our rainy, last evening in Paris.


Pizza with parma ham made in the oven at the back of the store and served piping hot. We had the salad, pizza, a large piece of lasagna (nothing notable), three drinks and a couple cookies for 32 Euro, not bad at all even with the crummy exchange rate.


Birra makes DMR a happy man. So does making iMovies about Paris.

SXSW - Day Four and Five

March 14
Las Manitas - Trip 3

chilquiles verdes


chilaquiles verdes shot 2, with cantaloupe aguas frescas and cinnamon coffee

High Places @ Emo's


Iron Cactus

queso! sadly, this was cold and watery.

Koriente

tofu bibimbop with lots of fresh, crunchy vegetables. the kkochujang was surprisingly fiery.

Best Wurst Stand

a bratwurst with onions and kraut after the kill rock stars showcase signals the end of my sxsw.

March 15
Salt Lick Annex at Bergstrom International Airport

my flight was delayed a couple hours due to mechanical failure. i ate half a brisket sandwich.


brisket sandwich (view 2)

Noo Na First Taste

I've been avoiding NooNa. The review were not the best when it first opened about a year and a half ago and so we've stayed away. Plus we've got a Korean place Sushi Okdol down the street that does the job for the most part. But my last meal there was really disappointing and sometimes a girl just needs her kimchi, so NooNa got the delivery call.

I ordered the duk mandoo guk - a really homey soup of beef dumplings and rice cake slices. Did I mention I was suffering from the worst cold ever that last like three weeks?

The dumplings were obviously homemade, which was nice to see since so many places rely on frozen product. There were three rather large, plump mandoos and a nice portion of duk. However, the meat filling in the dumplings was way too sweet. This is apparently a trend here. Also, I like to toss kimchi pieces into the soup to slightly cook them and also spice up the broth since this is one of the tamer Korean dishes you'll find. Very bummed to find no banchan included with the delivery order. Come on guys, throw me a plastic container of the stuff!

Dan got a mini hamburger topped with kimchi and some kimchi fried rice.


I had a bite of the burger and the meat once again was overly sweet. The bits of bulgogi that dotted the kimchi friend rice suffered from the same mis-seasoning. Otherwise it was a pleasant meal that pretty much it the spot. I doubt we'll be doing delivery from here again any time soon since the bill came out to be about double what we normally spend.

We move out of Park Slope and a Korean restaurant finally moves in

When I lived in Park Slope, I dreamed about the day that a nice bakery or Korean restaurant would finally open in our neighborhood. It was just my luck that both moved in when Dan and I were on our way to Clinton Hill!

The Korean place I refer to is Moim, a very modernly designed restaurant housed on the ground floor of a Garfield Place brownstone. Moim, which means gathering in Korean, is owned by a Park Slope family who in 1991 made the real estate decision we all wish we had. They purchased a full brownstone for less than the price of what a 500-600 square foot 1-BR apartment in the same area goes for these days.

Dan and I got to Moim a little early so we sat at the bar and had a drink. I was delighted to see they had Hite on tap. Hite is a Korean lager that's not really great, but I love it nonetheless. It's pretty similar to OB, which is like the Bud of Korea. Anyway, Hite reminds me of being in Korea last summer with my best guy. Christy and Carl arrived and we were seated at a table towards the back of the restaurant. We noticed a lovely, renovated outdoor space that was empty and pondered its function.

I had read that banchan was not really served here (a big pet peeve of mine with newer, more Westernized Korean restaurant) so I suggested we order the namul (seasoned vegetable) trio to start. But we did get served a trio of house banchan, so more to eat for everyone. There were little black beans (콩) in a sweet, sticky soy glaze, a favorite from my childhood, some kimchi, marinated beansprouts and tangy shreds of snow-white radish.

The rest of our meal was highlighted by how many dishes with kimchi we could order. To start we shared the stir-fried kimchi with pork and tofu, and the kimchi dumplings stuffed with our favorite fermented spicy cabbage and even more ground pork and tofu. The dumplings came five to an order and we let Carl have the extra one - he was psyched!

Our entire table opted for the dolsot bibimbop, but then we decided to order a fifth entree of kimchi fried rice for everyone to share. I love fifth entrees!

The bibimbop is served very regally here, with the stone bowl sitting atop a pedestal.


I was a little wary because I had also read the bibimbop came pre-sauced and that the bowl wasn't hot enough to create the much desired rice crust at the bottom. The former turned out to be true - the kitchen places a dollop of red pepper paste atop your rice. I think this is really ill-advised. There's nothing wrong with offering it up in a side dish, where the diner can add and adjust to their desired level of spiciness. My rice was a little spicier than I normally like it to be. The latter turned out to be a false alarm - it couldn't have been further from the truth. My dolsot bibimbop created one of the best crusts I've ever had for this dish and I've had plenty in my life. There was a period when I was in my pre-teens where I probably ate this practically every Saturday or Sunday, as I accompanied my parents to dinner, or at lunch after church.


The portions are smaller than what you'd find in Koreatown so the fifth entree was a wise choice. I think the fried rice came with shrimp, but I don't remember eating any.


For desert we shared some green tea ice cream and a tangerine (or was it orange?) chocolate cake, which Christy astutely pointed out smelled just like Froot Loops!

I'm hoping this place will succeed. It's got charm, the food is good and I don't think the prices are out of line with what the rest of Park Slope charges. Moim doesn't offer a take-out option yet but they should consider it for the items on the menu that could travel ok. If I still lived in the neighborhood, I'd probably be calling in for a pick up once a week.

Three delicious meals sans photos because the camera stopped working or I just forgot: Momofuku Ssam Bar, Brio, Snack Taverna

Snack Taverna: This is the slightly fancier older sibling to Snack, a tiny Greek inspired place in Soho. It's not much bigger than Snack either. Our table ordered a two small plates to begin: Pikilia, a trio of melitzanosalata, taramosalata and tzatziki served with warm pita and dolmades, and the pan cried cod cakes.

I never pronounce it correctly, but wow, do I love taramosalata. There's a jarred version that's sold in stores in case you can't get to a Greek joint. I usually say, "taramotsola" or "taramasala" by accident. Whoops. I love the way the tiny beads of roe feel against your tongue. They are like some ancient, piscine version of pop rocks. Pita arrived cut in quarters and warm, as promised. We quickly polished off the first basket and asked for a refill. I could eat warm pita and dips all day long. The cod cakes were pretty good but didn't blow me away. I did especially liked the tangy dressing that accompanied the greens the two cakes sat atop.

For our mains, DMR had the pastitsio, which came in an individual crock making it look like a gigantic french onion soup. Nils ordered the roast pork tenderloin with orzo in a spicy avgolemono sauce. I had the enormous whole roasted branzino filet served with an equally large portion of roasted fingerling potatoes, mizuna and two roasted tomato halves. The potatoes were a little bland, but the tomatoes were bursting with sweetness and, I don't know how better to describe it, but intense tomato flavor. As I had filled up on bread, as usual, so I was not able to finish my fish. Actually, I put up a really weak showing, which was unfortunate because it was perfectly seasoned and cooked.

Momofuku Ssam Bar: Can I tell you how excited I was to eat here and take photos? This is the night my camera died. It refused to take a single photo. This is the story of my life. Anyway, this was a dinner with a bunch of work people, including super special guest star Emma C. all the way from the UK.

I think David Chang is awesome. He's kind of the first celebrity chef of Korean heritage, right? I guess there's Edward Lee who used to own Clay in Noho, before moving to Louisville to start Magnolia, but he's not nearly the household name that Chang is. I love his first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar, even though it's cramped and sometimes the a/c is on so high it cools down your soup way too quickly. I don't care. I love that he doesn't cook Korean cuisine but inputs lots of Korean personality and history into his food.

We ordered a whole mess of plates for everyone to share, with the exception of Molly, the lone vegetarian, who managed to find an heirloom tomato and tofu dish she could eat. The pickle plate was a rainbow of colors and tastes featuring shitake mushrooms, cucumbers, hot and spicy radish and cabbage kimchi, carrots, beets, tangy fennel, celery and even some pickled melon! Edward's Wigwam smoked ham from Virginia was served in paper thin slices, a la prosciutto, and along with a little dish of what our server called a red eye gravy. It was not your typical red eye gravy. In the dark light of Momofuku, it looked like a mustard, but it was actually mayo based. It sounds gross, but the combo of coffee, drippings and Kewpie created this savory butterscotch flavor which I became I addicted to. The ham came with two warm pieces of bread and we immediately asked for more and to that we were told we could order the bread and butter dish. Well, they told us. Their bread plate was basically a warmed baguette with two types of butter: sea salt from Vermont and St. Helen's Farms goat butter from England that definitely tasted like it came from a goat. I preferred the salty butter. A plate of cured hamachi featured nearly translucent pieces of one of my favorite fishies in the world. We were informed it was one of the house specialties and it did not disappoint. Toasted seawood, edamame and wasabi sauce rounded out the plate. There were also these round, pale yellow, circular mystery crunchy bits. I have no idea what they were, maybe from a furikake mixture? These too were pop rockish and I hope I wasn't being too rude as I picked them off the plate. To meet our vegetable quotient, we also got the roasted cauliflower, with came sprinkled with toasted puffed rice and bathed in a light fish sauce. I've become a recent convert to cauliflower. I had no idea it could taste this good.

Then came the mains, three porcine variations: spare ribs, steamed buns and saam. I'll start with the steamed buns, because this is the homerun dish at both Momofukus. A hunk of braised Berkshire pork belly with glistening fat that melts in your mouth is tucked into a white, slightly sweet bun. It gets dressed with a little hoisin and cucumber slices add a necessary crunch. It is a magical combination that sadly disappears in like two bites. Onto the pork ribs, a pile of meaty bones slathered in a subtly, spicy sauce that recalled the kochujang (red chili pepper paste) based concoction my mom would slather on her ribs, which she'd cook on an aluminum foil covered pan in the oven. Did I mention the ribs were sprinkled with toasted shallots, which is another one of my favorite things in the world? The ribs came with a small dish of pickled green tomatoes and a creamy potato salad.

The third dish was probably my least favorite, but still tasty. Eating this variation of ssam is like eating Vietnamese spring rolls, but instead of a spring roll, slabs of coarse ground pork sausage (kinda in the shape of SPAM, no less!) served as the centerpiece. You could pack your piece of bibb lettuce with pork, pickled carrots and radish and then dip into the fish sauce based dressing. To drink, a couple bottles of Hitachino Nest Ale for me, of course. Just like its sister space, Momofuku Ssam bar is loud and crowded. They cram in too many seats and you don't have any leg or elbow room. But it also serves some of the tastiest food ever.

Brio - We were served an enormous amount of cheese, including two plates of burrata, which I had never had before and now can't stop thinking about. There was also a plate of sopressata, prosciutto, and bresoala. For my main, I got the parpadelle with sausage, cherry tomatoes and cremini mushrooms. But since I had stuffed my face with burrata and Parmigiano-Reggiano, I barely made a dent. I managed to rally to try the assortment of desserts: ricotta cheesecake, panna cotta with balsamic, tiramisu and an addictive Napolean cake.

Lotsa Eating, Little Writing

Some meals of late:

Taro Sushi - Jim popped his sashimi cherry this night, while Beth and I tried the omakase here for the first time. I went with the sushi and sashimi combo, while Beth was sashimi all the way. We started with an appetizer of monkfish liver atop a ponzu dressed sunomono. The liver had a really interesting texture. It was denser than I thought and reminded me of a smooth version of mentaiko, which I ate a lot of when I was younger. Anyway, everything tastes great with ponzu, IMHO. Next came the fish parade, including sardine, mackerel, butterfish, hamachi and a red-skinned whitefish which I think was called kinmae. Following that was a fatty tuna roll and a California roll made with real crab. But there was still so much more to be had, including variations on tuna such as bonito, which I love and some uni, which is not really a favorite. The uni nigiri was composed of two small orange oblong pieces atop the seasoned rice and I ate one of the pieces but left the other. I was incredibly stuffed after the meal, which I feel does not happen often when eating sushi.

Jim tried many new tastes and I think hamachi and mackerel came out on top as favorites. Hooray for Jim for trying new tastes!

Kushi Q - I discovered this futuristic hole in the wall Japanese place the other week when I had to stop by a friend's office to drop off Mets tickets. Though only half a block from Oms/B, where I go for lunch from time to time, I'd never noticed it before.

I ordered a atsuage tofu bento set with salad (you can also choose rice) and miso soup for $6.50. There was a trio of sticks, each with three cubes of battered tofu. Underneath the light and crispy shell was soft, creamy tofu. The salad was basic, composed of chopped romaine, carrots and corn, but filled me up nonetheless. I'd like to go back and try the butabara (bacon) and so-se-ji (little Berkshire sausages with pineapple). I've read some complaints about the portions not being big enough, but I felt more than satisfied.



Hibino - I did a bunch of small plates with the CLC and Dani before heading over to Floyd for bocce practice. The presentation on the fresh tofu is so cute, it's hard to pass up. It's amazing how rich and nutty tofu can taste. On this night, it was like eating a custard. It's also difficult to pass up the beef kakuni, a big hunk of braised short rib sitting atop a round of daikon. I rounded out the meal with one of the special daily obanzai - shitake and shisito pepper tempura, which unfortunately came sitting in sauce. I prefer to keep the tempura as dry as possible to maintain crispiness and do my own saucing.



Brio - I had lunch at this Upper East Side restaurant on Thursday with my coworkers Molly and Kendel to celebrate the latter's birthday. Molly knows the family who owns it, so we got treated to some lovely surprises, like a bottle of Prosecco and these two ginormous portions of tiramisu for dessert. To begin we noshed (am I allowed to say that to describe an Italian restaurant?) on a cheese plate and carciofi fritti, pan-fried baby artichokes. The cheese plate featured aged provolone, parmegiano and a deliciously milky salted fresh mozzarella. Kendel and I then shared the garganelli in salsa aurora rivista, which was a tomato-bechamel sauce, green peas, prosciutto and porcini. It was super rich, so a half-portion was the perfect amount. Then I wanted to take a nap, but I had to go back to work. Boo.

Sura - This Korean restaurant has undergone a bit of a makeover since I've last been. The setting seems a lot more serious and mature as the servers now dress in hanboks. The food was just as tasty as I remembered. Heidi and I shared the "pear and pork delight" to begin with. Layers of barbequed pork alternated with slices of Asian pear to create a nice contrast in textures. I just wish the kitchen was a little stingier with the sauce, which was a mixture of chili miso, raspberry and soy. It was too much and too gloppy. A light brushing of one of those flavors would have been more than sufficient. My main, the doobu kimchi bokeum suffered from the same over saucing but otherwise it was pretty damn tasty. The kimchi was gently sauteed with discs of rice cakes and surrounded by wedges of plain, steamed tofu. It was served with a small ping pong sized ball of mashed potatoes with cubes of Asian pear, what I guess is one of their trademark touches. It sounds weird, but provides a nice, cooling crunch in between bites of spicy.

Last Night's Dinner: The Good Fork

Well, that's one down on the to-eat list. I wasn't expecting to be able to cross off The Good Fork any time soon but DMR and I found ourselves at this newish Red Hook restaurant last night with Handbags and Gladragss (aka D. Nelson, Esq.) and Oda. The rain started soon after we sat down at our table in the scruffy covered back patio area (wait, is that a mean thing to say? I'm not trying to be mean, but the patio seemed like a work in progress, not that anyone minded. I was just happy we didn't have to wait.) and the percussive drops against the roof set a nice tone for the evening.

The chef at the Good Fork is Korean-American and so along with dishes like farm-raised chicken with potato-parsnip mash and parpadelle with lamb ragu, the diner can order steak and eggs "Korean-style" which is just brilliant. Koreans have known for a long time that kimchi goes really well with lots of things. The "Korean-style" in this case refers to the kimchi fried rice that adorns the plate alongside a perfectly cooked skirt steak (medium in my case) with a soy (or perhaps balsamic?) reduction and fried egg with a brilliant yellow yolk. Not only is this picture terrible because I took it without the flash on, but the plate was also turned so you can barely see the rice. Around 11 o'clock if you're wondering.

Kimchi fried rice is one of my favorite foods and like any good Korean, I think my mother's version is the best. On visits home back in the day, it's one of three things I'd want to eat (her kimchi jigae and Callahan's being the other two). Nowadays we just eat out whenever we visit so a homecooked plate of kimchi fried rice is rare. This version was a pretty good substitute. It could have used more kimchi pieces in the rice but overall it was really flavorful as the house-made kimchi was at a perfect state of ripeness. But I am getting way ahead of myself because before the entrees, we got some really tasty starters beginning with the bread!

I'm curious to know what bakery the Good Fork gets their bread from. Our first helping was soft and chewy; Dave likened it to a Portuguese roll while it reminded me of a potato roll. The second batch (we devoured the first really, really fast) crusty and a little saltier, but equally tasty. One small detail which I liked a lot: the butter was soft and easily spreadable. What's the point of serving butter if you can't get your knife into it? Dan and I shared the special salad of bitter greens, halved figs, blue cheese and candied walnuts in a lemon vinaigrette and for the entire table we ordered a plate of pork and chive dumplings and the special potato dumplings with braised oxtails. The former came five to an order, encased in a wrapper so thin you could see the filling through it, and accompanied by a small dish of dipping sauce, in which I could have liked a little more vinegar. They brought back memories of the handmade dumplings the Korean PTA ladies at my elementary school would make to sell at fundraisers. The gnocchi could have perhaps benefited from a tad more salt, but overall it was a hearty, stick to your ribs perfect for a rainy day dish that would make a great addition to the menu as an entree. I'd order it with a side of kimchi fried rice. Starch city!

For our mains, Jen also got the steak and eggs K-style, while Dan and Dave both ordered the burger, Dan with cheddar on his. The menu says 8 ounces, but it looked and felt heftier than that. The patty was nestled in between halves of a sturdy but not too dense bun. The bun top reminded me of a portobello mushroom and maybe in a funny way, this as well. Come to think of it, Dave maybe have referred to this bread as Portuguese roll-like. It was definitely spongier than you would have imagined from looking at it. The tangle of divine tempura'ed onion rings that accompany the burger will make you forget about french fries - at least for a little bit. They were gobbled up in minutes so we got an extra side order for the table, which arrived as a heaping mass in a white bowl.

The dessert menu super cute - the size of an oversized ticket folder in half, with "mmm" written on the front. Along with a selection of digestifs were the following three options: Steve's key lime pie, a flourless chocolate cake with creme anglais and rasberry sauce and an apple tart with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. We went with the chocolate cake and apple tart, under the logic of the pie not being house-made and available at Fairway and other points throughout the city. Armed with our spoons, neither dessert had a fighting chance.

We got really friendly service throughout the night and co-owner even followed us out the door to thank us. We'll be back.