Tag: kimchi

Categories
asian

Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong NYC for Lunch

I’ve been hearing that this place is packed at night and celebrity chefs like Anthony Bourdain and David Chang eat here. But every time I walk by during lunch, it doesn’t look too crowded. And apparently, this place is a chain restaurant founded by a Korean TV personality …which doesn’t sound like it would be good, but apparently, they use really good ingredients.

It took about five minutes for me to get a table around 1:30pm on a weekday. Around 2pm, there were plenty of empty tables. The menu is the same as the dinner menu, including the prices.

The BBQ is supposedly what you go here for. But since it’s pretty expensive and I’m all by myself, I opted for the $11.99 Beef Brisket Soybean Paste Stew. It came out boiling and pretty tasty once I let it cool down. The Beef in it was just okay though.

My favorite part was the complimentary salad, tofu, pickled radishes and kimchi. That made for a good meal right there. And it came out pretty cheap for me.

There were two small Asian girls next to me that ordered so much food. Three BBQ Meats, a Kimchi Stew, a Lunch Box and I think a few other small things, along with their complimentary banchan. I don’t know how they ate it all. They even asked for more eggs and tofu. I think they must’ve spent around $200 for their meal. And they didn’t even take photos of their food! I don’t understand what was their point if they weren’t going to food blog it. I kept imagining that it was their last meal before they fly off to join ISIS.

Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong – 1 E 32nd St (b/t 5th Ave & Madison Ave) New York, NY 10016

Categories
chinese

Kimchi Fried Rice?

I made Kimchi Fried Rice by mixing Kimchi and Fried Rice. How-to video coming soon!

Categories
product

Gourmet Guild Williamsburg

After our nice brunch at Marlow & Sons, we passed by this new grocery –Gourmet Guild Williamsburg inside a new building. The sign said “Free Demo”. We checked it out because I didn’t know what that meant.

They had free samples –smoked sausage, bacon, pizza, kimchi, hot sauce, soap, granola, raw milk cheese. All really good and are made locally. That’s their deal –local products.

I liked the pizza and the smoked meats. At first I thought I ate raw bacon, because I don’t think before I put stuff in my mouth. Luckily it was smoked/cooked.

Dang those smoked meats are so good, I took home some bacon, chorizo sausage and jar of kimchi. I slightly pan fried the bacon and dipped it in sunny-side up egg yolk when I got home. Dang.

Gourmet Guild Williamsburg – 110 Broadway (btwn Bedford & Berry), Brooklyn NY 11211

Categories
lunch

H Mart’s Korean Lunch Box Meal

I was strolling back and forth on 32nd Street trying to decide on which Korean restaurant. Only thing was that I didn’t want to sit down to eat …wanted it to go. Main option seemed like Woorijip, but it was packed.

I walked into H Mart (Hanahreum Supermarket), thinking I was just going to get a container of kimchi …but they had some prepared food in there. Looked like some omelets and this lunch box I got for only $3.99. It’s like the complimentary sides you get when you eat at a Korean restaurant. Sometimes when I dine in, that’s really the only thing I want to eat.

The box had kimchi, greens, ham & green beans, and pollock fish. All good and spicy. Fish had them bones. I should have taken photos of that, because it looked cool.

Surprisingly, I was stuffed. I didn’t think I would be. Nice lunch for $4 …with none of the hassle.

H Mart – 25 W 32nd St (btwn 5th Ave & Broadway) New York, NY 10001

Categories
chinese lunch

Muk Eun Ji & Son Ja Jang Restaurant

I didn’t realize this place was two restaurants in one when I ate there. Muk Eun Ji Korean Restaurant and Son Ja Jang Chinese Handpulled Noodles. I picked this place because it wasn’t packed like the other places in K-town. I needed my kimchi.

I wanted another one of those Soju bottles with the hot chick on it, but the waitress suggested I get the Bek Se Ju Korean Ginseng Wine. The waitress said if I drink it, the bottle says I’ll live to 100 years old. I don’t know if that’s what I need, but the wine was pretty tasty with that Ginseng flavor.

I got the Handpulled Noodles with Spicy Seafood Soup lunch special $8.99. Big bowl. I was taking photos of it and the waitress came over to show me how to take a photo …taking my chopsticks and pulling out a giant glob of the noodles from the bowl. Even after four years of food blogging, I still have things to learn.

I liked the broth. The noodles may not have been too impressive, although this long video of how they pull the noodles is. It puts me in a trance like watching my hard drive defragment.

I also got complimentary Kimchi, Onion and Pickled Radish that I dipped into Korean Bean Paste. I couldn’t believe how good the raw onion tasted with that bean paste.

The walls of the restaurant were big advertisements for Jinan Maisan aged kimchi. The restaurant also posted this video on Youtube…


1:08 –Me So Hungry!

They gave me a little Yogurt drink at the end. I think this meal left me with some good stomach bacteria for my probiotic diet.

Muk Eun Ji & Son Ja Jang Restaurant – 34 W 32nd St (btwn 5th Ave & Broadway) New York, NY 10001

Categories
interesting lunch

Sik Gaek Korean Restaurant – $5.99 Lunch Special

I had recent dermatitis skin flare ups. So I looked online to see what helps diet-wise. I’ve suffered most of my adult life with dermatitis, so I’m surprised I’ve just looked it up. A found a lot of sites recommending fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut for their probiotic (good bacteria) benefits. So with my week off, I took the bus in front of my apartment towards Woodside, Queens to try this Korean spot I found on Yelp –Sik Gaek.

Cool looking place. Kinda reminds me of the Japanese spots on St Marks like Kenka.

Once they sat me down, they started the gas stove at my table. It confused me because I hadn’t ordered. But then soon brought over a pan and cracked an egg on it. Brought over complementary kimchi, rice noodles with hard boiled egg and a glass of hot water/rice. Can someone tell me if I’m supposed to drink that? Or what do I do with it? It tastes like hot water with rice. The kimchi was good and crunchy.

They got a several dishes on the $5.99 lunch special. A really good price. I went with the Doenjang Soup (fermented soybean paste with mixed seafood), which should also be good for the flareups. Dang, awesome soup! It had shrimp, clam, mussel, squid and a little baby octopus. The broth tasted great.

I had my food with a Coors light. But kept staring at the Soju posters all over the place. So I rang the service buzzer on my table for the bottle with the hot chick on it. The waitress said it was the lightest one. Shit. It still had 19.5% alcohol and was the size of my Coors light. This soju was easy going down. I was a big boy and finished it all.

A table of five sat next to me and ordered the Fresh Lobster Seafood Hot Pot. A huge plate of clams and seafood came out with a fresh lobster cut in half on top. The fucking lobster was still moving …both halves. The top half crawled off the plate onto the table. That was the most awesomely bizarre food thing I’ve seen in person. When it was all cooked, one of the claws was clamped onto some of the squid.

I read on Yelp, they do the same thing with Fresh Octopus. It comes out squirming while it’s cooking in front of you on your table. I want to do that.

I really like this place. The food was great. They gave me extra kimchi at no charge (…that shit is like $5-7 for a small container at my local vegetable store). Also complementary cucumber juice at the end of my meal.

Sik Gaek – 49-11 Roosevelt Ave. Woodside, NY 11377