posted by: justbee

Restaurant Review: D’or Ahn

Last night was date night for Mr. Bee and I so we decided to check out D’or Ahn – a new Korean fusion restaurant in West Chelsea.  Normally I’m anti fusion anything, but the Korean owner/chef is an alum of Per Se and Alain Ducasse (which I’ve never been to but know of by reputation) so we decided to give it a try.  The decor is very modern, minimalist, made of concrete.  Ambience is nice and it was pretty packed at 8:30 last night.  So let’s get to the food…

Rice crackers dipped in soy sauce.  They were good, sweet.  Double happiness chopstick rest.  Complimentary seaweed appetizer.

Appetizers.  We ordered the Pork onion broth soup.  There were 2 ravioli stuffed with pork cheek and quail egg inside.  Very light and good – bisque like.  We also had the oysters with cucumber gazpacho, uni, and kimchi.  I liked the kimshi oysters best, Mr. Bee liked the cucumber.  Who knew – kimchi and oysters!

For our main entrees, Mr. Bee had the Spicy Poached Black Cod with mustard bread pudding and braised daikon.  I had the bean paste braided pork belly.  The cod and the bread pudding were both excellent, but the pork was definitely the best dish of the night.

Here’s a close-up of the pork belly over millet risotto topped with white kimchi.  Melt in your mouth, fatty, and good.

For dessert we ordered the Korean pear upside down cake with chili flavored ice cream and the blue cheese grilled sandwiches.  If you’re a fan of strong flavored cheeses, you’ll love this sandwich – it was delicious!  The pear cake was also light, delectable.  The chili flavored ice cream reminded me of these mexican chili candies I used to buy from the ice cream truck.  I really enjoyed it.

The food, style, presentation was much more French with Korean accents than the other way around.  You could hardly call this Korean food.  Portions are very small and it is a bit pricey.  Because I’m a greedy pig, I rarely go back to any place that has small portions.  Still everything we tried was very good.

Dinner total for 1 bottle of wine, 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts: $140.89 pre tip.

posted by: justbee

Golbengee Muchim (Seasoned Bai Top Shell)

Ingredients:

1 can golbengee
2 cucumbers, bias cut (I love cucumbers)
1/2 carrot, bias cut
2 green onions, bias cut (or the ones sliced really thinly that they sell in Korean markets)
1 onion, sliced
2 tb sugar
2 tb rice vinegar (or any Korean vinegar – I used apple vinegar)
2 tb soy sauce
1 tb gochugaru (red pepper flakes) 
1 tb gochujang (red pepper paste)
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame oil
salt & pepper to taste
1 jalapeno (optional if you like it super spicy)

* you might need to add a little bit more gochugaru.  I’ve been using this good stuff my aunt brought from Korea that’s super duper spicy and have had to adjust my cooking to account for it.

**excellent suggestion from heidi_c – add ggeneep (perilla leaves) or sookgaht (chrysanthemum leaves).

Directions:

Drain the can of golbengee.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Serve.  Excellent anjoo with beer!

posted by: justbee

These are my favorite “weird” Korean foods:

1. soondae (blood pork sausage).  I love the gahn (liver) that comes with it but I can’t eat the other stuff.

2. gobchang (intestine).  Grilled or in a jungol (stew).  My dad introduced a lot of these foods to me when I was young.  When you grow up eating them, they don’t seem weird.

3. dak ddongjeeb (chicken gizzard).  I love it as anjoo!  Imagine an ice cold beer and eating one of these wrapped in ggeneep w/ that grilled garlic on top.  Yum!!

4. gohlbeng-ee.  Muchim or raw w/ tabasco

5. sola (some kind of sea snail).  I just like snails in general – golbengee, sola, escargot…

I cannot eat or stand the smell of bbundehgee (chrysalis).  One time my dad was cooking this at home and I took a picture of it.  He said, “You’re not going to post that on xanga are you?!  They’re going to think I’m an animal!”  lol.

Oddly I’ve never tried jok bal (pig’s feet) though my dad eats it all the time.  I bet I’d like it.

What are the weirdest Korean foods you like?  And don’t say dog. 

posted by: justbee

I found a website with videoclips about the streetfood of Korea.  I randomly find these things when I’m searching for images of food.  It’s seriously impossible to be hungry when you’re walking down the streets of Korea because these street vendors are everywhere tempting you with their yummilicious food.

Ojinguh, jeepo, and ddukboki

     Ggochi (kebabs), odeng, and ho dduk

  Bbundehgee (chrysalis), Sola (shells), Bahm (chestnuts)

Fries, chips, odeng corn dogs

corn dogs, sae woo and boong uh bbang (shrimp and fish shaped red bean bread)

     Mandoo, Buchim, Soju

Paht jook (red bean porridge), hobak jook (pumpkin porridge), gooksoo (noodles)

    More gooksoos and kimbab

    

Corn Dogs and Nakji (Octopus) 

                  

Korean ajummahs

       

Damn I’m hungry.

posted by: justbee

I found an awesome site with pretty much every single Korean recipe in existence – from banchans to jjigaes to jooks to myuns to bokeums and so much more!  There are tons of recipes from around the world too (Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, Indian, etc). 

There are even recipes and instructions on how to arrange lunchboxes!  This is bulgogi, sandwich and mini kimbap pictured above.

There are funny categories like “salary man breakfast” (dubu tweegeem), “husband stamina cuisine” (ggori gomtang), and “Korea Nobleman Cuisine” (galbi jjim).

Tons of pictures.  The only downside?  Everything is in Korean.   It takes me a long time just to read at the table of contents and I don’t understand a lot of the directions.  I shouldn’t have dropped out of Korean school in 4th grade!

posted by: justbee

Kongnamool Muchim (Seasoned Soy Bean Sprouts)

Ingredients:

1/2 pound kongnamool
1 tsp salt
pot of water
1 stalk green onion, chopped
2 tb sesame oil
1 tb soy sauce
1/2 tb gochoogaru (red pepper flakes)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp sesame seeds
salt to taste

Directions:

Wash bean sprouts.  Fill a pot with water and add 1 tsp salt and kongnamul.  Cook for 15 minutes with the lid on.  Drain and transfer to a bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and mix in.  Add salt to taste.  Serve.  You can omit the red pepper flakes if you like.  Enjoy!

posted by: justbee

I found the cutest pictures on this guy’s site.  He uploaded the images but they’re actually done by this Korean artist who photoshops faces and words onto food and everyday objects.  Many more cute pictures on his site – check it out!

Translations are being requested, but some of the words/meanings get lost in translation.  For instance the teabag below is saying, “Ahhh… she-won-ha-da.”  That means warm, refreshing, soothing… but there is no exact English word for it.  It’s used most commonly in reference to soups/broths. 

Around him it says, “Warm, warm, warm.”

Too hard to explain.

This is a green m&m giving himself a pep talk.  “Fighting!”  Which is a cheer, victory call, wish of luck.

“Move!”  “Save me!”  And more sounds of sae-woo-ggang (shrimp chips) struggling.  The one on the bottom is dead.

“Ahhhhh save me!!!” says the mandoo (dumpling).

“It’s ok… It’s going to be ok.”

“Hey dummy!  You’re going to starve to death like that!  Just eat!”  “I can’t… I have to lose 3 more kg.”

A kimbap is crying and telling his friend that he’s going to die; he’s sorry… it’s too hard; he doesn’t want to live anymore.  His kimbap friend says, “No Chung Kim!  Come down right now”  And then he jumps, splatters, and dies.

posted by: cherryballz

Gamja Bokeum

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized potatoes
  
• 3-4 tablespoon of olive oil (depending on how good and fattening you like it)
  
• small onion
  
• two scallions
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Peel/wash/cut the potatoes like french fries but slightly thicker.  Peel/wash/cut your onion in half and slice it vertical.  Cut your scallion in long diagonal way.  Prepare: 1. drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil on medium heated pan and add in potatoes. add in rest of olive oil and sautee it for 4-5 minutes. 3. add in onions. 4. test to see how soft it is. it shouldn’t be TOO soft. if you think it’s almost done, add in scallions. 5. 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper should do the rest. best part is making a shitload and eating it as banchan for few days. it’s even good cold.

posted by: justbee

I just found a new online store that sells refrigerated items like dduk, danmoojee, kimchi, and jutgal.

Check out Koamart!

posted by: justbee

Friday Fun with Korean beverages!

   

Old School drinks.  I used to love bacchus when I was growing up but my parents wouldn’t let me drink it often because they said it was bad for me.  Why did they change it from Bacchus D to Bacchus F?  These days it’s touted as an energy drink and I frequently see it in 7-11′s.  I call it the og, better tasting Red Bull.

I remember when Mccol came out many many years ago.  There was this huge ad campaign and it was really popular for awhile.  It replaced a drink called boritan (which I tried to find a picture of but couldn’t).  If you remember boritan you’re soooooooo old school.   


Galamandeun sa-gwa (apple), bok-soong-ah (peach), ddal gee (strawberry) and beh (pear).  Pear is my favorite! 



These days CocoPalm (drinks with pieces of fruit in them) is popular but before it came out…


There was bonbon.

                  

But the OG fruit drink is Sac Sac!



Carbonated beverages Milkis, Pocari Sweat, Chilsung Cider (basically 7-up), and Demi Soda Apple.  Everytime I drink Pocari Sweat, I think that it taste like sweat.



The traditional stuff: yulmucha, wondomill, and yoojacha (citrus tea that’s good cold or hot!) 



I looooooove shikhye (sweet rice) but not a big fan of soojunggwa or deh choo.

Doo yoo (soy milk).  My parents used to buy boxes of these and make me drink one every single day.

Yo-geu-leu-teu, and aloe.  I used to freeze these yogurts and eat them like 10 at a time every single day during the summer.  I kinda like this aloe drink - tastes healthy and good for you.


 
Ee peulo (2%).  The Korean version of Gatorade.  I drank a ton of this when I was in Korea. 

And finally by request…. ba-na-na oo-yoo (milk)!

Korean drinks are the best – if only they weren’t so tiny.  I need at least 3 to satiate this American appetite of mine.