New Wonjo Restaurant

We were around K-town, and wanted to try a new K-town restaurant. New Wonjo was chosen on Yelp reviews. The food was pretty good, but the ambiance was possibly dangerous. We sat downstairs...

Next to this interesting thing. I don't know what was in it, but it sure didn't look like the restaurant needed it much. Maybe it was a really old fire extinguisher... but that wouldn't make me feel any safer.

The banchan was above average: kimchi, sliced hotdogs (??), some really old vegetable that looked like grass but tasted like chives, mushrooms, potato salad, and on the far right, tofu and pickled radishes.

We found out that the best part about the banchan was that they gave you refills. Except for the tofu and the mushrooms, which were my favorites. Oh well. We ate the hot dogs to be polite and the refills came all too soon.

I got the galbi tang, which was short rib soup in clear broth.

Someone came and furiously cut the meat off the bone.

I really liked the soup... I really need to learn to make it. The vermicelli, eggs, and turnips on the bottom were good as well. But overall, I think this is a dish that I can learn to make at home with practice.

My bf got this soondubu jjigae beef and tofu spicy soup. The soup was almost tangy. He thought it was great and started dipping my short ribs in it, but I found the soup a little overwhelming. It tasted too much like a bowl of kimchi.

Their seafood pajeon was better than any pajeon I've ever made! It was so cripy on the edges and soft in the middle! I could eat an entire pancake if it were the only thing that I ordered. I think it was fried in peanut oil.

They served us this chilled dessert soup at the end. It was very sweet and almost tasted like edong makgeolli (fermented rice soup), but had a distinctly herbal aftertaste. It was a great palate cleanser.

I'll end my post with this.

Of all the weird stuff lying around, why wouldn't they use this one? What a shame. Maybe all the taps already have flags on them.

Three Cups Chicken

I cook this more like 6 or maybe 9 cups chicken. I often eat a pound of chicken by accident because this recipe's so delicious.

We had extra chicken thighs from the crazy paella weekend, which I cubed and marinated a little in corn starch, soy sauce, and mirin.

I then sauteed the chicken with some ginger and green onion until the outside is cooked.

Chicken stock was added to the pot so that it just covered the chicken. I actually put in more stock than I needed.

The mixture was simmered partially covered it until the stock thickened into goo. Usually during the simmering I'm off doing something else... but make sure you know the water level so you don't burn your pot and your dinner!

Btw I don't usually add salt to this recipe. The stock and soy sauce usually has enough salt.

I added some sesame oil at the end to make it really fragrant. It makes a huge difference. I normally eat this over white rice... but we had some left over paella, so why not! It was flavor overload!

Steamed Mussels and Creamed Spinach & Corn

I had about 1.5 pounds of extra mussels from the paella dinner that I iced and refrigerated to keep alive.

I cooked some shallots and celery in butter, threw the mussels on top, and doused them in the leftover white wine from last night. They opened up and were ready to eat in 5 minutes. The wine didn't completely evaporate from the celery and made them quite delicious and interesting.

And then I made some creamed corn. It was very good, but *so* heavy. I don't think that I'll be making this at home very often. I've gotten used to just shucking and boiling corn for 8 minutes. It's simple and guiltless.

My favorite creamed spinach is from Wolfgang's Steak House, and I tried to follow his recipe, but this was way too creamy as well. I think I'll make some garlic mashed potatoes, and just use the already creamed spinach and corn instead of adding cream.

Seafood Paella with Squid Ink

Recently I decided to switch away from teflon pots and pans.

So I bought this 12in stainless steel pan with aluminum interior from Calphalon.

We had to christen it properly, and my bf suggested paella. It looked a little complicated at first, and given how much we love authentic paella, it seemed doomed for dissatisfaction.

A few videos in Spanish later, we decided to give it a shot.

First, we put in the ingredients that would form the flavor base: olive oil, garlic, and onions. Then we added the meats that would take longer to cook: chicken, chorizo, and calamari.

Whole Foods left some spine in the calamari, so I had to go and pull those out... it screwed up our well orchestrated schedule a little bit.

We then added rice, crushed tomatoes, paprika, tumeric, and chicken stock. We cheated with the rice by just using yellow rice in a bag because we couldn't find saffron. Next time I will use arborio rice and cook it in olive oil, white wine, and stock first as if making risotto. We also cheated on the spices. It turned out the Lawry's seasoning salt had all the ingredients that we needed.

Squid ink! I just happen to have this stuff lying around, and it makes the dish smell all the more seafood-y.

A little squid ink goes a long way.

Once the rice was 10 minutes from being done and nice and puffy, we added in some peas, and it's time to decorate! You don't want to stir the rice anymore from here because you want the hard crust (socarrat) to form on the bottom.

Mussels are so pretty. They were farm raised, so I just rinsed and jostled them a little.

They popped open with the eagerness of something destined to be eaten.

Umm I forgot to leave room for the shrimp.

No matter, we shoved them into the rice (careful not to disturb the bottom), and they cooked within minutes.

Time to eat with fresh lemon! My bf had the brilliant idea of cooking some snow peas to eat with the paella. They added the fresh green color and the extra crunch! We had 2.5 helpings each and still had at least 4 servings left over. It was a 10 out of 10 - probably not quite good as Siete Portes or Con Mas, but pretty darn good for this side of the Ocean.

Btw I ate it with a fork. I don't know what the chopsticks were doing back there.

Red Barn Bakery

I was sent an amazing spread of goodies from Red Barn Bakery the other day. Their foods are all organic. Here are my favorites:

This simple muffin reminds me of the delicious moist muffins that some really nice restaurants hand you on the way out. It was so spongy that it was almost like a cake, but it did not crumble. I could eat all day. It needed no accessories.

Breakfast cookie! It was a mix of seeds, nuts, and some of the best granola ingredients ever... cooked into a cookie! I thought the idea was brilliant. The portions were a little aggressive. I ate it over the course of 4 breakfasts.

A close 3rd was the American macaroons in the upper right hand corner. They're airy yet full of coconut.

We also had iced molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and biscotti. I liked all three, but they did not blow me away. The molasses cookies were too sweet. I personally prefer my chocolate chip cookies chewy, and the biscotti were too crumbly.

Then there was this loaf of bread. It was much more monstrous than the picture looks. I will have to dig into it tomorrow and update the blog.

Overall I think that the bakery has some really great desserts. The flavors lean towards brown sugar and cinnamon, but even from my spread, there was something for everyone in taste and texture.

Tang Yuan - Chinese Dessert

Chinese Dessert Soup Balls.

I'm convinced that this is one of those foods that will be served in a lot more restaurants one day. It uses very few ingredients, are simple to make, and can be so elegant. There is also a lot of room for innovation.

Tang Yuan are sticky rice balls, often with red bean inside. They can be served in a sweet soup, alcoholic soup, soup with eggs, milk, or really anything you want.

My mother used to make plain ones without the red bean, but I think that if you can find red bean paste, it's worth the extra work.

You only need 2-3 ingredients:

Glutinous rice flour: Buy the GREEN bag, not the RED bag. They look very similar.
And if you want red bean filling, you can probably find red bean paste in your local asian grocery store.

Mix the flour with a little water. This flour absorbs water amazingly well, so make sure to mix a while before deciding if you have the right consistency. It's too liquid in this picture, and I had to add more flour. Non-Newtonian liquids are fun!

Glutinous rice flour dough is extremely forgiving. I like it dry enough so that the extra dough unsticks from my fingers. You can make it slightly dryer so that is easier to make roll the dough into balls in your palm, but stop once it's easy to make a ball (and it stays a ball - remember - non-newtonian).

Here are some tips if you want to add filling.
- Freeze the ones with filling. they sag if you cook them right away
- Dust a pan with corn starch or rub red bean on it to prevent sticking in the freezer.
- Use the red bean while cold so that it doesn't stick to your fingers
- Because of the forgiving nature of the dough, you don't have to make a "wrapper". I just make a flat piece and as long as you can gather the dough around the paste, you're fine. Try it a few times- it's easier than you think. If there's a hole, you can easily patch it up with more dough.
- I made them about 1 inch in diameter. You can do whatever you like.

To cook, just drop them in boiling water. Boil on medium heat until the balls float. I eat them in their own soup with lots of sugar. My bf eats them in milk.

The Nomad Rooftop - New Menu

When someone asks you if you want to go to the NoMad for an awesome dinner on the rooftop in the summer air.... your response would probably be "yeah sure."

This time, we were sitting right outside of the cupola.

It was about 90 degrees when we started, so we got some refreshing drinks.

I got the Mai Tai, and finally got to try the Paint it Black. I didn't go nuts though... not because I was "teetotaling" but because last night got a little crazy.

First course was same as last time. It's a little better than I remember actually - they have toned down the citrus, and the lime ice had a lot more impact at 90 degrees than the comfortable 70 degrees inside the cupola. I listened this time: the ceviche was of little neck clams, smoked sturgeon, and smoked salmon.

This is where we found out that the theme for the night was "tomato." This was a tomato soda that, as one of our friends noted, should be served as a shot. It was very interesting at first... It captured the essence of a tomato extremely well, and even had the aftertaste. But then it was all downhill. I mean how much tomato can you drink?

Tomato bread with cherry tomatoes, basil, and parmesan. The cherry tomatoes were dried *whole* not halved, so they exploded in burning hot blisters all over the white marble table (and possibly your shirt). I miss the zucchini bread...

The meal improved with this lovely assortment of different tomatoes, some grilled, and some raw.

Underneath this bread-like cracker was a beautiful poached quail egg on top of a piece of fennel. I thought serving the egg on the fennel was a little strange, but it fits the tomato/wild plants theme.

Black bass in a tomato based sauce. It was very light! The assortment of squash was extremely enjoyable. I was surprisingly not sick of tomato yet (probably because I stopped drinking the soda), but I was reaching my limit.

Brief intermission - it's now nighttime, and the Empire State Building was lit up behind the cupola.

Wow. This was some great ribeye. The pickled radishes were squint-your-eyes sour, but everything else worked in such harmony! The yellow thing was actually some kind of sauce, not mashed potatoes. The sauces were salty, the radishes were sour, and the corn was sweet... and everything paired well with the steak. Everyone else finished their radishes, so maybe my sourness taste buds were just going haywire.

Same amazing dessert as last time with the pistachio sponge cake, mascarpone ice cream, cherry sorbet, random crackers, nuts, and cherries. It's so fun to eat with all the different textures and flavors. They made one change and dipped the pistachio sponge cake on top in dry ice so that it arrived smoking.

End of meal palate cleaner - NoMad lime, coconut, and strawberry shaved ice.

The meal was even better than I remember, and that just shows what a great restaurant NoMad is. Next time I would either like to go to a themed dinner on the rooftop, or try the famous chicken downstairs... hopefully in the library.