momofuku fried chicken dinner

So, when we were in NYC this past weekend, we went to Momofuku for their fried chicken dinner. And it was amazing. AMAZING. This was my second time having this meal and it was even better than I remembered. Good thing this isn't in Philly because I could seriously have this once a week. Which would not be good for my health or my figure. Remember when I raved about the Korean fried chicken at Meritage? Well, this is even better than that. This is what you get: two whole fried chickens, one southern style and one korean style, mu shu pancakes, long spicy peppers, baby carrots, red ball radishes, shiso leaves, bibb lettuce, four sauces and an herb basket. And all of that for $100. It's enough food for 8 people - we had 8 in our party and had leftovers! - so that's less than $13/person! What a bargain!! However, you always get the same amount of food whether you're a party of 8 (which is the max number of people you can have) or a party of 2. Though, I wouldn't complain about having to take chicken home because it's just as good leftover - even for breakfast:) If you guys are bigger eaters than us (I was a bit disappointed we couldn't finish the chicken - I expected more from our group!), there are plenty of other dishes you can order off the menu. Good thing we only ordered a pork belly bun for each of us...although at the time I wanted about 5 of them. Don't they look good:



I love pork belly. Some people complain that it's too fatty...but that's what makes it so good!! The star of this meal, though, was the chicken:



The Korean style chicken was on the left side of the plate and the southern style chicken was on the right. What makes it Korean or southern? The Korean chicken is coated with this delicious sweet and spicy Korean sauce and the southern chicken is seasoned with Old Bay. Both kinds are delicous but I couldn't get enough of that Korean sauce! I wish there was a bottle of it I could buy.

If you find yourself planning a trip to NYC, you really need to try this. The only thing is that you have to plan ahead. It is REALLY difficult to get reservations. Although you don't need reservations for Momofuku (by the way they only serve this at the Noodle Bar), you do need one if you want to do the fried chicken dinner. The first time we went, we could only get an 11:30 PM reservation. This time around, there were three of us that tried to get reservations and the earliest dinner timeslot we could get was at 10PM. Oh, and you need to make the reservation exactly a month in advance (all done online - you can do so here) and if you don't log onto the site at exactly 10AM to do so, you most likely won't get anything. Except for maybe a lunch reservation - they're less popular. Sounds crazy? A little. But totally worth it!

tampopo

When I lived in Rittenhouse, I probably ate at Tampopo at least once a week. Man do I miss those days. The food there is SOOO good and really affordable. I know they've raised their prices over the years (I think its been about 8 years since I lived in that area) but you can still get a meal there for less than $10. That's pretty rare these days. The food is a mix of Japanese and Korean and my favorite thing to get is their hot and spicy beef bento box. It comes with either white or brown rice (I love white rice so that's what I always get), edamame, and your choice of either broccoli, gyoza or egg cake. I've gotten the gyoza everytime but I just read a description of the egg cake and it sounds pretty delicious: a layered Japanese omelet seasoned with soy sauce and fish sauce. YUM. I know I've gotten some of their other dishes there - like the fresh tuna bi-bim-bob which is tasty - but almost every single time I've gone I've gotten the hot and spicy beef. When something is that good, it's hard for me to try something new! I do have to say that their steamed dumplings aren't that great (although the deep fried gyoza is very yummy) and I really didn't like their sushi that much - although I don't see the sushi anymore on their menu. But overall, I highly recommend this restaurant. Definitely worth a try!


hot and spicy beef bento box


hot and spicy tofu bento box - this is what Eric always gets since he doesn't eat beef and doesn't like their chicken as much

sampan

Sampan is one of several new restaurants that have opened up on 13th Street in the Gayborhood AKA Midtown Village in the past couple of years. The first time I tried it was during the Midtown Village Festival this past October (when I debuted my sumo wrestling skills) where I tried their pork belly banh mi that was delicious. I went back a couple months later for some drinks and some small plates and really enjoyed it, so I knew I wanted to go back for a full meal. I finally had a chance to do that a couple weekends ago with Karen and we had a great time! The space feels very hip and cool - something you'd find in NYC. I thought the decor was nice - nothing super special but it was nice to have a space like this in Philly. It felt different. And young.


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They also have an outdoor area in the back - called the grafitti bar - I will need to check it out when it gets warmer!


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Karen and I did the tasting menu which was only $35/person that night (because it was the night before Valentine's day - yep I had two Valentines this year, Karen AND Eric) but usually its $40/person which is still a fantastic deal. It was sooooo much food - you get to choose 6 plates (they're all small plates) from the menu plus dessert. We started with some drinks:



I can't remember what kind of cocktail Karen ordered, but I tried one of their sake flights. Loved it. Our first dish was the Korean short rib satay. Yum, it was one of my favorite dishes of the night.



We had meant to order the shrimp dumplings but somehow got the edamame dumplings, but I'm glad we did because they were soooo tasty:



Tuna rice cracker (I think that's what these were...):



Crab wonton taco:



Korean fried chicken - good but not as good as Meritage's or Momofuku's which I will be having again in a month!!!



Kim chee fried rice:



Broiled sea bass:



At this point I was STUFFED but I still ate all of my dessert:



Aren't they adorable? One was butterfinger flavored and the other was twizzler. Yummy.

pastoral

Okay, I promise this will be the last post about Korean food for a while! I just wanted to do a little write up for Pastoral because I love it and haven't really talked about it yet. Pastoral is a Korean restaurant located in the gayborhood at 205 S. 13th Street. I used to live only two blocks away and would go there about once a week and it was heaven. The food is awesome, the staff friendly, prices reasonable, and it's hardly ever crowded. The only thing lacking is the decor - it's just a bit dull, but it is clean. My friend Kat and I were craving Korean food (although when DON'T I crave Korean food..), so we decided to get some at Pastoral last night.

As per any good traditional Korean restaurant, we started out with complimentary banchan. Last night's included: kimchi, cucumber kimchi, spicy sliced cooked tofu with onions and jalepenos, spicy radish, cubed tofu in soy sauce, and a couple of egg-y omelette-y things. My favorite was the spicy sliced tofu.

Then came the Korean pancake - although they call it a Korean pizza. They had a few options and we decided to go with the one with kimchi, scallions and pork. Spicy and delicious!! Although, to be honest, I coudn't really taste the pork in it.

Then of course, the soon du bu. Kat got the one with pork, shrimp and veggies and I got one with mussels, shrimp, scallops and veggies. So hot and spicy and yummy - perfect for the weather we had yesterday (rainy and dreary). Does this meal sound familiar? I know it's pretty much identitical to the one I had at Jong Ka Jib Soft Tofu Restaurant about a month ago, but I can't help it. It's what I always want! I do sometimes try new things, but it's not often. If you are curious to see what else you can get, you can look at the menu here. I think I like the Soft Tofu Restaurant better, but this is a very close second. And the best part is that you don't have to drive 30 minutes to get there - I can hop on the bus and get there in 10 minutes!

korean tacos

Korean tacos have been all the craze lately - I love Mexican food and I love Korean food, so I knew I would love them. They have been really popular on the West Coast for a while now, but have recently made their way eastward and you can now find them in three restaurants in the city. And what better way to give them a try than to do a little taste test of all three places!

The first place I tried was Ladder 15. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the tacos, but for $11, I got one braised short rib taco and one pork belly taco. Pretty good deal considering they were pretty filling. However, they were only good - not great. I'm not sure if I would order them again.

Then there was Meritage - home of the Korean fried chicken...MMMMMM. I expected a lot from them considering how much I love their chicken - which by the way is still available though at least the end of the year! Yippee!! Well, let me tell you, I was definitley not disappointed by their version of the Korean taco. You get one taco for $5 and it's pork belly, special Korean bbq sauce, kimchi and other yummy ingredients that I can't remember. I orderded one, and it was so good that I had to order another. BIG thumbs up.

The third place I tried was Giwa. Giwa is almost like a Korean fast food place - but WAY better than any American fast food restaurant you've ever been to. Their kalbi is really good and so is their soon du bu. Their tacos, however, not so good. I knew I was in trouble when I saw that they were topped with cheese. I was tempted to ask for them without the cheese, but I thought, hey - maybe they know something I don't. But I was right:( Most times I love being right, but I was really hoping that these would be good! For $5, I got a chicken taco and a pork taco. So cheap! But I won't be getting these again...I don't think they would be that much better without the cheese...

Do you guys know of any other places with Korean tacos? Have you tried making them at home?

comfort food, korean style

I'm back! Sorry for my lack of posts - I spent all last week in bed watching reruns of Who's The Boss and 90210. And trying to get over a terrible cold. I finally no longer have to blow my nose every ten seconds or smell like vapor rub! Yay! And after a week of not being able to really enjoy food, the first thing I wanted was soon du bu. Soon du bu is a delicous Korean hot and spicy soft tofu soup that you eat with rice. Its the perfect thing to eat on a cool fall day.

My favorite Korean restaurant in the city is Jong Ka Jib Soft Tofu Restaurant in North Philly. I just wish it was closer! You can't get there by subway - so we drove which took us about 30 minutes. There are a few Korean restaurants downtown (my favorites are Giwa and Pastoral) but it's definitely worth the drive to go to Soft Tofu Restaurant. YUM YUM YUM.

It isn't a proper Korean meal without the banchan (side dishes). They gave us five different kinds - spicy cucumbers, soybeans (they were sweet but also savory), spicy radish, bean sprouts, and of course kimchi (the eggs were for the soon du bu). I think I would've been pretty satisfied with the banchan and some rice - everything was so good.



We also got the Korean pancake. Nothing like the pancakes you eat for breakfast - these pancakes are savory and often have scallions and other vegetables and seafood. Ours had scallions and squid:



And of course the soon du bu!! I got the seafood one - it had shrimp, clams and mussels and Eric got the mushroom one. MMM, I think I could eat this at least once a week.

I was also in the mood for kabli, but Eric doesn't eat beef - hard to imagine that a meat lover like myself could date someone who doesn't like beef right? It was tough at first, but after five years, I'm starting to get over it. So instead of getting kalbi which is the Korean version of bbq ribs, I ordered the bbq pork ribs. I have to say, the beef ribs are MUCH better.

Seems like a lot of food for two people? Well, you're right. But I love leftovers, so I'm not complaining!!

food challenge: 2 of 239

Last Thursday, Eric and I went to Meritage for dinner. I've walked by a million times and always comment about how cute it looks, but have never been until now. I'm so glad I finally decided to give it a try because it's now one of my favorite restaurants in the city!

The dish that was on the "list" were the dumplings. They were panned fried and stuffed with pork and shiitake mushrooms served with what tasted like a hoisin sauce. They were delicious, but I do have to say that they're not my favorite dumplings in the city. I personally love the dumplings at David's Mai Lai Wah in Chinatown - they come with this ginger sauce that is incredible.

We also got the scallops as an appetizer which were REALLY yummy. They were pan seared and came with sauteed Maitake mushrooms, bok choy and black truffle. They were perfectly cooked - Eric's favorite dish of our meal. I thought they were great, but my favorite part of the meal was....

...the Korean fried chicken dinner! Doesn't that picture make your mouth water? OMG, I want some right this second!! I've been telling everyone about it and can't stop having dreams about it! It's actually a dinner for two and includes six pieces of chicken, asian style cole slaw, sesame spinach, pickled carrots and daikon and an extra large can of Sapporo. And you get it all for $25 - that's only $12.50 per person! However, I probably wouldn't have been full if we hadn't also gotten the other dishes. But I can eat. A lot. So what makes the chicken so good? First off, its double fried so it's extra crispy. Then there's the sauce that I could probably eat by the spoonful - just kidding (maybe). It's this amazing combination of sweet and spicy - I was literally licking my fingers. This is not the first time I've had Korean fried chicken - I went with a few friends to Momofuku in NYC to try their fried chicken dinner which included Korean fried chicken as well as Old Bay seasoned frried chicken. I have to say that Meritage's chicken is just as good if not better! The downside is that this meal is only available on Thursday nights and its a summertime special and next week is the last week it will be offered:( So if you want to give this a try, make your reservation now! I did - I'm going back next week at 8!!

spinach w/pickled veggies

YUM

I got an email yesterday morning about the new burger at PYT: Korean BBQ Shortrib Burger.

We made an unbelievably juicy burger out of one hundred percent short ribs, marinated in Korean BBQ sauce. Topped with Kimchi and asian spicy mayo on the bun. The burger is served with fries & exra spicy mayo for dipping.

I love Korean food and I love love love Korean shortribs (kalbi). I can't wait to try this! In the meantime, I'm thinking that its time to make some kalbi at home using my favorite recipe:

YOON FAMILY KALBI
1 1/2 cups lite soy sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8-10 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed
6 large green onions, chopped roughly
4 pounds Korean-style short ribs *
Toasted sesame seeds
Combine the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and corn oil in a large mixing bowl. Add garlic and green onion and stir together. Put short ribs into large sealable freezer bag (you may need two). Pour marinade into bag and turn bag over several times to ensure all meat pieces are covered. Refrigerate for at least four hours, but preferably overnight. Turn bag at least once in the middle of the marinating process.
Heat grill to medium-high heat before adding the meat. Drain excess marinade off short ribs and grill them until medium, about 6-8 minutes. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onions. Serves 6.
* NOTE ON RIBS: Korean-style short ribs can be found at most Asian markets. The cut is called "flanken," a strange word that refers to a strip of beef cut across the bone from the chuck end of the short ribs. Most short rib recipes call for individual bones cut into thick pieces. Kalbi is unusual in that it calls for 3 ribs, cut lengthwise across the bones, so that you end up with a strip of meat about 8-10 inches long that has 3, 1/2-inch rib bones lining the top

**For those who live in Philly, you can find the short ribs in the frozen section in Hung Vuong Supermarket at 11th and Washington.