Adventures in Korean Food: DoSirak

DoSirak
13 E. 13th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 366-9299

JEANIE AND JEFF were in the mood for Korean food, and I could hardly complain. This modest kitchen just below Union Square turned out a tasty dolsut bibimbap with grilled eel and addictive kimchi pajeon, spicy pickled cabbage in a rice flour pancake. But getting back to the bibimbap, the mashup of spouts, zucchini, carrots, egg and hot sauce is easily enough reproduced, but I really need to get me a proper stone pot to cook me up some crispy rice at home. So tasty.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Union Square can be suspiciously void of good food at times--DoSirak is absolutely worth a visit.

Adventures in Korean Food: Pa Jun, Take 1

AN ODD COMBINATION of Jeanie and Becky conspired to foster my newfound love for Korean food. A few years ago, it was Jeanie's office-talk of kim chee. Becky then returned from Seoul raving about bi bim bop. After recently having enjoyed the latter, I joined Jeanie in Koreatown for the former, and my obsession was complete. Jeanie's mother sent me the Cha family recipe for pa jun the next morning:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour
5 green onions
Water
Black pepper
Vegetable oil

"The secret to this recipe," wrote Jeanie's mom, "is to use very cold water," for a super-crispy texture. With this in mind, I put a chunk of ice in a glass of water and left it in my freezer while I sifted the flours and sliced the green onions (diagonally, into 1 1/2-inch pieces), then stirred all throughly with my super-cold water and pepper. Um, how much water?

On this matter, Mama Cha instructs to add water, "until the mixture is the consistency of thin pancake batter." This takes some fine-tuning, which is why this post is titled "Adventures in Korean Food" and not "RECIPE! Pa Jun." I used one cup of cold water. I felt this produced a "thin pancake batter" consistency. Of course, there's yet the matter of cooking the pa jun, so we're not out of the woods just yet.

Cooking is simple enough. Use enough vegetable oil to "thinly cover" the surface of your frying pan, heat the pan on medium-high, and drop in half the batter. Cook to golden brown; flip and cook other side accordingly. Keep the heat low to prevent burning. If this sounds familiar, the informally translated name for pa jun, "Korean pancake," suggests why.

My pancakes turned out a tad bland and a little too sticky. The first of these concerns was expected--I used no salt, seasonings, or the more traditional kim chee (spicy fermented cabbage) or marinated seafood on my first try; I tried a little garlic powder, salt, white pepper, and red pepper in the batter and the fried the second of my two attempted pancakes with a little sesame oil to boost its flavor.

As for the "too sticky," it seems to me that I need to use more water. I'll notch up my almost-frozen liquid content to 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 cups next time and see how that works. After that, all I need to do is chop some cabbage, buy some glass jars, and pickle me some kim chee. But that's an adventure for another day.

Dinner And A Movie: Burger Joint & "Ratatoullie"

Burger Joint
118 W. 57th Street,
in Le Parker Meridien Hotel
New York, NY 10019
(212) 245-5000
www.parkermeridien.com

Half the fun of Burger Join is finding it. So, rather than give you a direct link, click above and follow along:

Obviously, first, you'll want to select Le Parker Meridien New York. Next, perched on the left side of the resulting page, immediately below "rooms," find and choose: "eat." Now, three food options are featured when the page refreshes--Norma's, Seppi's, and Room Service; you want none of these. Look a little further to the right where in small, lowercase, gray letters "burgers" is tacked on as an afterthought. There you are, click on that.

Welcome to the internet home of Burger Joint, as meticulously hidden in plain sight as the real-life burger counter it represents. I could surely give directions to the real Burger Joint, but you should do the detective work yourself. Just know it involves a four-star hotel, a curtain, a neon sign, wood paneling, and brownies, in that order.

On one hand, you want to give the hotel property serious credit for fostering and strong-holding such a tradition as honest, cheap eats in a city plagued by puffed up plates and prices; on the other hand, it says something about the city itself (or perhaps just Midtown) that it takes a four-star hotel to keep $6.50 hamburgers in existence. Regardless, you'll want both of your hands to take care of that burger and fries.

Or, in my case, a gorgeous grilled cheese sandwich--two halves of a toasted bun stuffed with as much cheese as others are gifted greasy, grilled meat. The fries are crisp and salty; the beer is cold and poured in plastic cups ($4.50 draught, $13 pitcher). This is decidedly not a bad way to blow $15 on dinner--cheeseburger, fries and a pint of Sam Adams--unless your considering cholesterol.

This particular Burger outing with Jeanie, Jeff, and Sir Aaron Hitchcock was the result of a spur-of-the-moment suggestion, this inspired mostly by hunger, this the result of almost 120 minutes of food-watching: "Ratatoullie." That computer generated images of food can make one's mouth water and stomach grumble being quite a testament to the film. Indeed, the meticulous visual design of "Ratatoullie" is stunning, but its characters have equal the richness in depth. Easily the best movie I've seen yet this year. Perhaps not the funniest.

One last stop...

Finally, I ducked into the Grand Central Market on my way home, the brightly-lit hall of seafood, spices, fresh-baked bread, fresh-made pasta, fresh-cut meat, and every other type of food you might want in some form or the other. Somehow, it's even reasonably priced. I found a vegetable pot pie ($7.50) with black beans, potatoes, and an awesomely flaky crust. I bought it home, ate half, and saved the rest for lunch tomorrow.

It's true, great food abounds in this city. Some of it is just easier to find.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Sure, I like grilled cheese sandwiches; stopping into GCM reminded me what good seafood it has--perhaps it's time to make some paella...

Korean Barbeque: the March of Little White Plates

Shilla Korean Barbecue House

37 W. 32nd Street
New York, NY 10001
(212) 967-1880
www.shillanyc.com

HAVING NO PLANS is frequently the best plan. At first, Jeanie just wanted to perhaps grab lunch. Then, both of us running late with our errands, we thought we might just meet up for dinner. I eventually proposed a Korean spot in Williamsburg; Jeanie countered with Koreatown. I agreed, happily, as Mint and Jeff were now dragged into the plot, a time was chosen, and the restaurant left to be determined as Jeanie saw fit. As I climbed up out of the subway onto Sixth Avenue my cell phone buzzed: Shilla on 32nd St. And so it was.

Two flights of stairs later, Mint and I found Jeanie and Jeff tucked into a third-floor corner overlooking 32nd St. and the lights of Koreatown; construction work outside looks to promise a balcony that might sit over the district. Jeanie had already scoured the menu and made a few selections: wild mushrooms and barbecue pork belly to be grilled at the table, a plate of clear rice noodles with beef and vegetables, and a scallion pancake with seafood. Mint and I acquiesced to her choices, quietly wondering if it would be enough food for the four of us. Then came the little plates.

When the waiters had finished, it quite looked like a tapas bar had exploded on our table. Little white dish after little white dish displayed a selection of kim chee, seaweed, bean sprouts, crispy squid, barbecue squid, stuffed clams, marinated radish, raw garlic, and spicy cucumbers. There was probably more. I lost track. We ate all of it. The grill was fired up and the mushrooms thrown on.

We ate those, still smoking from the grill, and heaped on the pork belly and onions. We passed around the plate of noodles and forked over slice after slice of Korean pancake stuffed with thick cuts of squid and whole green onions. When the pork belly was crispy, that too was eaten right off the grill, though Jeff was happy to wrap his in lettuce with rice. I'm not sure I've ever eaten so much food so quickly and so completely. Stuffed, we slowed, but picked at whatever was left on the grill and in our multitude of little white dishes until everything was gone. Satisfied? You bet.

Mint and Jeff, in the aftermath of Korean barbecue

The outing wasn't exactly keeping with a strict budget, I'll admit, but at $27 per person, including our tip, I can certainly say I've spent far more of far less satisfying food and drink, especially with a group of people when the bill can run amok. It's not an outing you pull off every week, but in the spirit of celebration, why the hell not? And what were we celebrating tonight?

Having no plans. Cheers!

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Yeah, and he asked Jeanie to get the recipe for Korean scallion pancakes from her mom. You can bet that one's coming soon. Unless Jeanie's mom hits MEF! with a cease and desist order on publishing the family recipe. We shall see...

The Beer Garden: Reason No. 1 to Visit Astoria, Queens

The Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden
29-19 24th Avenue
Astoria, NY 11102
(718) 274-4925
www.bohemianhall.com

THE BEER GARDEN is one of the only reasons I visit Queens. No offense to Ms. Cha and fiance Mr. Blakeman, or to Chef Giacchino, but while the G-train to 7-train to N-train sequence is not the worst of all possible triple-transfers, it's not one I seek out often. Unless, of course, the Beer Garden beckons.

Do not be fooled by other NYC bars that promise such green pastures for pouring pitcher after pitcher. The only authentic beer garden in the five boroughs, built in 1910 and surviving near on a century later, is the Bohemian Hall. It not only remains a mecca for Czech culture but has become a destination point for those who desire to gather in the great outdoors. And get smashed.

Ms. Jeanie Cha, responsible for arranging this particular gathering of former work friends and assorted other individuals, provided the games; the Bohemian Hall provided the eats: huge piles of potato pirogies heaped on sauerkraut, enormous potato pancakes with both applesauce and sour cream provided, and lengths of kielbasas sliced and grilled to delicious. All of this is washed down with glass after glass of the draught beer of your choosing, all them a mere $14 per pitcher at the bar. Drink up!

It was such a good time that Mint and I passed up the chance to go watch Real Madrid stage a 'heart-stopping' comeback against Mallorca to win the team's first Spanish league title in four years. But when Brian and Sophie are attempting to figure out the best way to drink a triple shot of Jager, why would anyone leave?

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Yes, and perhaps drink a little less? Nah.

101 Posts and Eating Strong

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU, the loyal reader, for making your way to MikeEatsFood! Post no. 101. It's certainly a milestone, I'll grant myself that. I suppose I should have celebrated yesterday at no. 100, if it hadn't been The Menu, but you can't win 'em all. Or, I can't win 'em all.

Today's call time wasn't all that early--8:00 a.m.--but after driving a cube truck around lower Manhattan (and into a couple standing objects) for three hours, I'd missed my chance at grabbing a morning meal. My own fault, really, and I paid the price: a screaming headache to remind me that caffeine is, yes, necessary for life functions.

And at the end of the day that's the moral of the story and all this celebratory post is going to cover (since tempeh sandwiches are not exactly alluring topics for elaboration.) Which is fitting--101 entries and I'm celebrating by eating everyday food and posting about self-serving bullshit that only serves to further the unnecessary propose of this blog, as Jeanie so dutifully noted yesterday.

Congratulations to me!