Archive for the ‘korean’ Category
arirang, liang seah street
Friday night started off questionably since neither myself nor Steph had any good ideas of what to eat. I was slaving away at work while Steph was drying herself off after having lost a battle with one of Singapore’s rainstorms (that of the sideways rain variety). Undaunted by or indecisiveness, I suggested Liang Seah Street which Steph had never been to and has tons of places to choose from.
After one quick promenade up and down to survey the scene, we decided on Korean food and had two choices: Arirang or Mario’s. We choose Arirang. Why? Do you know a Korean person named Mario? I don’t. Also, Mario’s was pretty empty while Arirang was bustling with people. We set our sights on the bbq buffet which costs about SGD23 per person. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
We started off with the requisited banchan parade which I forget how much I miss. These banchan paled in comparison to that of the Korean restos (or even groceries) in the Bay Area but they were not half bad. My faves were the kimchi and the bean sprouts. The squash (foreground) and the radish (towards the front right) were lacking in the heat department and that mound of green stuff was steamed but lacked any real flavor.
modern toilet, taipei
Woot woot! It’s Taipei week here at ze food blog. I’m fighting some major sleepies to bring you a post tonight. Without further ado, let’s explain the rather not-food-friendly title, shall we?
Everyone loves a good theme restaurant right?
I had heard of the toilet themed restaurant before but didn’t think there’d be enough time to hit it up during my short jaunt to Taiwan. Plus, it’s kind of weird to want to go to this kind of restaurant. Luckily, Jess and Julia were both down to give it a shot (or should I say flush?).
singapore hits and misses: vol 2
Told you I had a backlog. Second verse, same as the first.
HIT: This was one of my first lunches at the office. Crazy monkey rain kept us indoors so we joined about 3000 of our closest friends under the labyrinth of halls, restaurants, and food stalls that make up the Singapore MRT system. Easy, fast, cheap food with no worries of raindrops. This was surprisingly good – lemon chicken with Thai sauce. Despite the color, it’s not as spicy as it looks and the chicken was very, very lemony. Comes with a side of mashed potatoes (yum), apples drenched in mayo (pass), and a fried hard boiled egg with some cream sauce (yes that’s right, it’s hard boiled, breaded, and then fried… weird but not bad).
99 chicken, santa clara, ca
Finally! A new addition to the eating rotation.
99 Chicken meets all the requirements to be added to the weekly ‘eating out after work’ restaurant mix. Close by. Affordable. GOOD. Let it be known that I’m not a believer of greaseless, healthy fried chicken. I am, however, a believer that fried chicken is damn good.
korean bbq house, milpitas, ca
JenLui wants to eat at Santa Ramen (and so do I) but we never quite make it all the way up to San Mateo to check it out. This weekend was no different. I hijacked her lunch invitation and asked for Korean bbq instead. Partly because I was craving Korean food but mostly because I was dreading another trek up the peninsula (it would have been my third trip this weekend). We considered Palace BBQ Buffet but decided on the restaurant that Jane’s family frequents – Korean BBQ House (I know, real creative guys) in Milpitas.
the sequels
My very first post ever was on quickie arrozcaldo that I made in a flash. The rain this weekend made me crave it again but the REAL kind this time. After work on Saturday (yes, I had work on Saturday) I committed to the hour plus prep work for *real* arrozcaldo. The recipe below made me about 3 servings.
Ingredients
- 1/4 lb of chicken (I used boneless, skinless thigh meat)
- 1/2 a medium onion, sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 5-6 discs of peeled ginger
- 1 cup of uncooked jasmine rice
- salt
- oil
- green onion (optional)
- lemon juice (optional)
- black pepper (optional)
- fish sauce (optional)
Method
- Fill a pot 2/3 full with water and bring to a boil.
- Add half of the sliced onions, the chicken, and salt to taste (you’re making a broth here so season it as you like it, I prefer mine saltier)
- When the chicken has cooked thoroughly take it out of the broth.
- In a bowl, shred the chicken. You can use your hands OR you can use two forks.
- In another pot heat enough oil to coat the bottom.
- Saute the garlic, onions, and ginger (letting each cook for a few minutes before adding the next).
- Add the shredded chicken and mix thoroughly. Throw in the cup of rice.
- Fill the pot with liquid until it’s about 2/3rds full again – use a 50/50 mix of water and the chicken broth.
- Put on medium heat and boil.
- Be patient! If the liquid runs low, add more water or broth. (More water if you want to keep it lighter, more broth if you want a richer flavor.)
- Wait for the rice to ‘pop’ -you’ll have a super thick soup. The rice kernels will be less distinct.
- Garnish with green onion, lemon juice, fresh cracked black pepper, and fish sauce – all optional.
This really hit the spot during the rainy weekend. Buuuut, the title of the post is ‘the sequels’ – PLURAL. I hadn’t planned on it but I ended up making bibimbap again earlier this week. The results were tasty and the second time around was much faster than the first. I made a few modifications by omitting the sesame oil and green onion for the bean sprouts and boiling the bok choy instead of stir frying it. I also added some toasted seaweed and left out the sesame seeds from the gochuchang sauce.
bibimwhat?
Looks pretty good eh? So I *almost* invested in a stone pot but came to my senses because other than the random bibimbap what other use do I have or a freakin’ stone pot? Shockingly, I got the recipe for this one on Food Network. Apparently, courtesy of Bobby Flay. As usual, I used the recipe as more of a guideline and ventured off into other parts unknown (read: using whatever veggies I already had on hand). Here are all the parts of my masterpiece.
black bean noodles
Black bean noodles have intrigued me since I watched Witch Yoo Hee a few months ago. Yes, that’s a Korean drama. Anyway, they slurped up these noodles all the freakin time and it looked so GOOD.
tofu house, palo alto, ca
If we’re friends I probably have made you eat at Tofu House. (It goes hand and hand with my love for kdramas.) This time I dragged the other Joann, Lizzie, and Julia. Well, not dragged. Joann asked – PVH or Tofu House? Seeing as that I was the only one that voted… I won! One of the best things about Korean places is the banchan. In this case we got mung bean sprouts, sugary potatoes, regular ol’ kimchi, seaweed with hot sauce, and chapchae. At this particular TH you get purple rice with beans (in the metal bowl). You can also ask for regular rice if you like to keep things simple.
fil-kor fried rice
I was actually craving sopas tonight but was too tired to do tons of choppin’. As always, I had plenty of veggies and other ingredients plus some day old rice from the weekend. Of course, rice + randomness = fried rice.
