It's Food Related...Kinda.

One of my favorite trashy shows is Bridezillas on WE. It's basically a reality show of Brides who've gone completely bonkers trying to plan their "big" day. I think I love it because as insane as life makes me, I'd never act the way these ladies do. But gosh darn it, sometimes I really wish I could let go and just go bonkers too!

I've watched many episodes over the years but his is perhaps the best scene I've ever seen and yes it does involve food ;)

Enjoy!

Bon Chon Chicken is Chicken CRACK!

If it's not already apparent, I'm fairly proud of being Korean American. E sometimes teases me and calls me more "white" then she is. Mainly because I was adopted by a white family and well my name is certainly not Korean sounding at all. There were times when I was growing up and I hated being so different from everyone else in my family. I didn't grow up around many Koreans or many Asians for that matter. And well, as a result all of the things I know about Korean American culture or Korean culture I've had to find it on my own. But there are many things about me that I've been told are very "Korean" without me having to search for it. My fiery temper and fierce sense of pride and loyalty are things I've always been kinda proud of; I've been told often that those very traits are unbelievably Korean. I'm sure that if you look for a connection to any culture you'll find it and so my traits aren't necessarily all that "Korean" but hey, growing up apart from Korean culture means I'll take any connection I can get!

So besides my inherit (good looks, kidding) Korean qualities, I wanted to connect a bit more. My forays into speaking Korean were squash long ago. Korean is hard to learn, dudes! But one of the first things I connect with is food and finding my "roots" via Korean food was a good place to start. It was thru Korean food that I discovered that my love, scratch that, obsession with anything pickled, pungent, spicy and salty was fine, normal even. And so it was that I discovered a new sense of pride in being Korean. Many Koreans love intensely flavored food and as a result many Korean dishes are a big wallop of spice and flavor. No meek wallflower dishes here! I'm so proud to be a part of any culture/race where kimchee is involved. No seriously, I really am!

Another huge source of pride for me is Korean's love of fried chicken. When I started reading about Koreans absolutely loving fried chicken wings and eating them as bar food in Korea as well as places in LA or NYC, I pumped my little fists again in pride, "my peeps rock!".

I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN and I love my friend chicken fried HARD! Usually that means a thick batter but lately I've calmed that need down (especially after learning that triple batter isn't always the answer). But I like a very crisp skin or batter on my chicken. One that shatters or crackles when you bite into it. It's not always the easiest to achieve or find so when I learned that Bon Chon Chicken was coming to Boston, I did a little jig of happy.

Part of my reading included Bon Chon Chicken and how, despite the savory wing glaze that the chicken is coated in, the skin is very crisp and crunchy. I remember thinking, "but how?". Most chicken wings are fried and then coated in wing sauce but what happens is the skin completely softens up. It's still tasty and good but no crackle or crunch. According to the article I read, it's not that Bon Chon double fries their chicken wings rather they fry them at such a low temperature that the fat in the skin is rendered out. So the result is a skin that seems like it's been battered in something but isn't and also retains its crunch. The other fantastic thing about Korean chicken wings is that they are usually served with a side of pickled turnips. YUM! So let me get this straight? I get fried chicken and pickles all at the same time?!? Oh hell, yes!!!

In Boston, if you want Bon Chon Chicken, you have to go to this nightclub called Privus. They're only open for dinner and you can do take out too. It's sorta this amusing set up. I mean, one night we went and had dinner only to leave as the girls in trashy club dresses sauntered pass. The club techno music in full effect. I know, it sounds really odd, but trust me, it's worth the visit!

This Bon Chon franchise has only two flavors for sauce: spicy or soy garlic. The spicy is really, really, really spicy! So be careful. I can usually only eat 1 or 2 pieces of the spicy comfortably and then have to switch to soy garlic. The pickled turnip helps to cut the spice but not a lot. So again, be careful. But also be careful because this chicken is super addictive too. I swear to God, you will be thinking about it constantly. Wonder when you get go and get your next chicken fix. And if you have to get take out or have leftovers, you can throw them in the fridge and not worry about them getting soggy overnight! I've had Bon Chon chicken leftovers cold for lunch the next day and the chicken is still crunchy on the outside! It's like freaking magic or crack, I'm not entirely sure which one yet.

Bon Chon Chicken might just be my favorite fried chicken, ever! I can't help but gush when people asked about it. I wonder if part of my gushing is Korean Pride, who really knows. All I know is that Bon Chon is seriously yummy!

Cheese Gromit Cheese!

I think that people close to me, as well as not close to me, know that I love India Quality restaurant in Kenmore. I often get IQ for lunch when I'm working at Jean Therapy. I always order the came thing. I think I don't get anything different because I've tried to deviate before and, while it was good, it wasn't exactly what I really wanted. I always get the saag paneer. I love the taste of curry with the texture of the creamy spinach/greens and the chewy, sorta spongey, cheese! It's a wonderful dish full of comfort and complexity for me.

So when I saw a recipe on-line a while back for making paneer cheese at home, I cut and paste the recipe to an email, sent it to myself and archived it. What I cut and pasted is below this post. I'm sooo sorry to the blog where I found the recipe because I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.

In any event, it's a very simple recipe and I was kinda excited to be able to say, "I made my own homemade cheese". So how did I do? Well, for such an easy recipe, I managed to mess it up. A couple of suggestions, so you can learn from my mistakes:

1.) Use a cheesecloth and not a kitchen towel.
2.) Wait until the curds have cooled a bit to dump them into the cheesecloth in the colander.
3.) Wait until the curds have really cooled off to start squeezing out the liquid. E and I were so excited over making cheese that right after dumping the hot curds into the kitchen towel in the colander, she started squeezing out the liquid. This resulted in most of the hot cheese sticking to my kitchen towel.
4.) Make the cheese ahead of the sag. This will give you time to really press it and get the liquid out before you attempt to fry it.

Will I make cheese again? Sure, but it won't be a staple in my kitchen that's for sure. I don't think I was born to become a cheese maker anytime soon. A cheese eater on the other hand, well, that's another story entirely! Also, the sag recipe I got off the Internet somewhere (again can't remember where) wasn't quite right. It called for yogurt and didn't have the creamy mouth feel I was use to. So if anyone has a fairly foolproof recipe for saag, please share!!!!

Basic Paneer

This comes from my oft-consulted copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian.

You’ll need:

• 2 litres whole milk
• 3-4 tblsps white vinegar

You’ll also need:

• A large, heavy saucepan in which to boil the milk, plus a colander and tea-towel for straining.

The Steps:

• Place your colander in the sink and line with a clean tea-towel or few layers of muslin.
• Put the milk in a large heavy saucepan over a medium-high heat.
• Stir the milk occasionally while it’s heating, otherwise you’re likely to end up with burnt milk residue on the base of the pot (at least that’s what happens to me!)
• When the milk is just beginning to boil, turn the heat to low and add 3 tblsps of vinegar. The milk should curdle and separate into solid white curds and a thin greenish liquid, the whey.
• The curdling should start happening right after the vinegar is added. If it doesn’t, add another tblsp of vinegar.
• Once the milk is separated (which won’t take long, maybe a minute or so) remove from the heat and pour the contents into your lined colander. Most of the whey will drain out.
• Now, you can either just let the curds sit and drain for 5-10 minutes and use them as soft curds (as you might use ricotta) or you can press them into a solid patty.
• To press into a patty, gather up the ends of the tea-towel, twist and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
• Then take your little cloth bundle, flatten it into your desired patty shape and leave the top firmly twisted. Sit it on a board in the sink and top with another board and weight it down for about 3-4 minutes. The weight (a heavy pot, say, or a combination of pots) should weigh at least 2.25kg.
• The paneer is now ready. It can be sliced and fried or cut into cubes and used in any number of Indian recipes.

The Variations:

• Having read Jenni’s post on the world of dairy infusion, I thought, hey, ho, I could add something into the milk to impart some flavour while it boils. So far I have tried adding a piece of cinnamon stick and ended up with lovely, mildly cinnamon-flavoured curds. There are lots of other things you could try adding, like bay leaves, cloves or other whole spices, depending on how you want the curds to taste.
• If you’re going to press the paneer, you can mix herbs or spices into the curds just before you press them. For Indian dishes I like to add 1 tsp of toasted cumin seeds and a couple of twists of black pepper to the paneer but you can choose the flavouring to suit whatever dish you’re making.

The Results:

• Approx. 250g of paneer

Quit Punching Me in the Stomach, Thank You Very Much!

I'm still here! I've been remembering to take pictures of food I've been eating but just not finding the time to post about what I've eaten. Such is life. I'm going to try and do a few posts over the next few days so I can bring you semi up to speed on my food life. Just to highlight: I (very badly) made cheese and discovered a new useful kitchen tool.

But the latest food news in my life is that I recently discovered that I have some weird reaction to wheat. Ok, so I'm not 100% ready to called it an allergy just yet. As someone who once dated somebody who had a wheat/gluten allergy where if he had some he'd do into anaphylactic shock, well I'm not ready to call what happens to me an allergy. It feels disrespectful to those who truly are allergic to such things.

What I have noticed is that if I eat too much wheat stuff I feel really bad; I get stomach gas that feels like someone is punching me over and over again. I also get a lovely rash on my arms and legs (I say this as I itchy my leg, reaction to wheat in the batter of some fish tacos I had on Tuesday, I think).

So being 34 years old and learning that you can no longer eat, with abandonment, the foods you love and grew up with is a big life change. At least, it has been for me. Let me tell you I love wheat so very much. I love pizza, pie, cake, bagels, donuts, bread and so many other lovely wheaty things and have been really bummed to have to let those foods go for the most part. Thru the recent loss of these carby loves I've noticed a few things:

The first thing is that wheat is a damn hard thing to avoid if you try. On Sunday I went to brunch with some friend to a place called the "Friendly Toast". I heard that they made good huevos rancheros and I knew that they also made a lot of vegetarian friendly dishes so I thought that the wheat issue wouldn't be an problem, despite the name of the place being "The Friendly Toast". No so. Everything came with bread and I mean everything! Including the huevos rancheros. They didn't come on top of corn tortillas as I would expect, no they came in top of a big slice of wheat bread. Ok, fine, I won't get the bread but when everyone else's brunch dishes came with thick fluffy slices of toasted cheese or wheat bread, I started to feel a bit like a second class citizen. Clearly toast was a big deal here and I feel like I really missed out not being able to partake.

The second thing is that wheat is super easy to forget about. On Tuesday I went to La Verdad for tacos with E and our friend R. It was a lot of fun and in the heat of the moment I decided I wanted fish for dinner thus ordered the fish tacos. R also has a gluten allergy and was going to say something to me but she figured I knew already that there was most likely wheat flour in the batter encasing the fish (duh!). E completely forgot about my allergy and for a few hours so did I. I ate the tacos without even thinking. Once I got home, I was greeted with stomach pains so bad that I had to get into bed in the fetal position or weakly walk over to the bathroom. Oy vey, it was really bad. In the past, this would occasionally happen to me and I would wonder if I needed to be taken to the hospital because the gas pain was so unbearably painful. And just as quickly as it hit me, it would go away as well. It's really great that I now understand what was happening to me but not great when I forget about it.

Slowly, I'm learning how to manage without as much wheat in my diet. I've become a big fan of corn tortillas in place of bread at home and have found that I can buy a big stack at Shaws for $2.50 and it lasts a long time. I've also discovered Lara bars too! I had to admit I was skeptical of yet another "power" bar but Lara bars are different. They're all natural and taste great. They remind me a lot of the date nut cookies from Archway that my Dad enjoys for dessert after dinner. Lara bars are very tasty but you have to know that they won't really actually taste like "pecan pie" or "cherry pie" or whatever but are tasty in their own way.

And E has promised to come up with a wheat free cake recipe and pizza crust recipe that will knock my socks off. So life after wheat might not be so bad after all.

Gourmet Dumpling House

I make no bones that I love a good, cheap meal! As much as I adore fine dining and an excuse to get dressed up and put on some make-up, I love a meal that is down and dirty and just delicious. So Chinatown is a section of the city I often find myself wandering towards. My faves use to include Taiwan Cafe and Hong Kong Cafe. But lately, I've noticed the quality of the dishes at both places going a bit south. It made me a little sad and I found myself in need of a new place to fill in the gap. This is how Gourmet Dumpling House came to be near and dear in my heart. Elizabeth and I passed by it a few times and often said we'd stop on and try it soon. But E's not a huge fan of Chinese food and I was a little worried about her not enjoying her meal if we tried a new Chinese joint. But the place got rave reviews from my friend W and so we had to try it out.

First of all, the menu is huge! For such a little place, it's got one of the biggest menus I've seen. And don't let the name fool you. Dumplings are not the only thing they serve. However, the dumplings are very good. I especially like the long, pan fried Taiwanese style ones. They take longer to arrive but they're worth the wait. One dumpling dish I wouldn't order again from them would be the soup dumplings. They were a little dried out and not as soupy on the inside as I'd hoped. For soup dumplings I'd stick to Taiwan Cafe.

Among the other things they seem to do well is seafood! Recently, I had the crabs with ginger and scallion and the clams with black bean and basil sauce. Both were excellent. The portion on the crab was insane while the portion on the clams was a little less insane, it was still a very generous serving.

My standard favorite of watercress with garlic is hard to mess up but sometimes it comes out of places and is kinda not good. This is not the case with this place! Everytime I've ordered it, it's fantastic. Crunchy stems and soft leaves with sweet slivers of garlic.

And if you like that old standby, scallion pancake, definitely order it here. It's really flaky and good.

Like most places in Chinatown, the space and the decor leave a lot to be desired. The space is small and the family that runs really packs it in. Take for example, the picture up above. This was my seat one night. I was by myself and got the table that was jammed next to the fish/seafood tanks (literally the table ledge was jutting over the lower tanks). I swear they were staring at me the entire time I was eating. It was a bit creepy but with so much yummy food, I soon got over it. It was also the table in the corner next to a very dirty broom/dust bin and so led me to believe that perhaps it was the staff dining table. But on other occasions I've seen them seat other couples at that table so clearly it's used by other diners as well. I will note that all of them and me aren't Chinese, hmmm....jk. The service isn't the most pleasant and they don't mind bumping into you, shoving you aside to get by but given the space and the number of people vying for a table, I actually don't fault the servers too much. Plus I've had one of the owners just seat me when I was waiting for another person in my party and as I apologized and said I'd just go ahead and order while I wait, he waved his hand and said there was no need. I appreciated that he tried to go the extra step in courtesy.

Overall, this place rocks. And as word has gotten out, it's become busy as f-ck but I'm sure it will kinda die down soon. It was like this for Taiwan Cafe as well; when it first opened, it was literally mobbed every weekend. Overall, this just affirms that the best, cheapest meals are to be found in Chinatown. And if you ever want to find me during the week, just wait for me at the Dumpling House. Chances are I'll show up before too long!

How We Do Leftovers at 184 B-

Lately, Elizabeth and I have been trying to economize and eat out a bit less. We try to be careful with our limited funds, but even still we enjoy eating well. Since we both had Monday off, we decided it would be nice to try the $17.50 lunch at Sel de la Terre. I love Sel de la Terre. I had never been to the new Back Bay location but I was familiar with the waterfront locale. My friend, Beth, enjoyed the food there and so we'd sometimes go for dinner, splitting the fries and loving the in-house made bread. I had fond memories of the first Sel de la Terre but only ever went for dinner, never went for lunch and thought it'd be fun to try.

Elizabeth and I walked from our apartment, one of the perks of city living, and found the day to be beautiful but really chilly. The next day it was 93*! Oh Boston! What a strange spring you have. Anyway, we opted to sit at the bar. The bartender was nice and competent enough. Elizabeth was able to get her sazerac and I tried something from the bar menu called "London Calling" it's a gin based cocktail that was light and refreshing. We both decided on the $17.50 prix fixe lunch. It changes everyday but when we were there it was a starter of salmon croquettes and then duck meatballs with harricot verts and potato puree. We also opted for a side of french frieds. Yum!

The bread from Sel de la Terre is really good. My favorite bread in the bread basket was the olive bread. It had a chewy crust and the flavor of olive was very prominent.

The salmon croquettes came and were clearly made ahead of time, taken out of the fridge and seared on each side for a nice crust. They did arrive a bit on the cold side, which I was cool with, but E wasn't so certain she was down with it. The little side salad that came with the croquettes are lovely. It wasn't your usual mixed green salad and included flowers and pea shoot leaves. It was nicely dressed and I really appreciated that they treated the salad as important as the croquettes. I really enjoyed the first dish because they took me back to the days of my Grandma E's salmon croquettes (her's will always be tops in my book!!).

I was pretty much full after the first dish but we still had duck meatballs and french fries coming! The meatballs were very good and came with an accompany compote of some sort. It looked like a bit of caramelized onion and since E doesn't do onions, she handed hers over to me. I prompted ate it and realized it was onion but citrus of some sort. Elizabeth tasted some and realized it was blood orange, her favorite fruit! She was crushed that she didn't know. It was a lovely accompany to the rich meal. The pureed potatoes were really just a pool of butter with a bit of starch for show. The french fries were wonderful. Hot and not too skinny for me but still skinny enough for Elizabeth.

All in all, it was a HUGE lunch. Both of us were stuffed and only finished half of the meatballs on our plates. We decided to take it home and do something fun with the leftovers.

I was hankering for some Greek food as I often do and thought the meatballs would be really good in a sorta gyro sandwich. I mentioned my craving to Elizabeth and told her I was thinking soft flat bread with a yogurt and cucumber sauce. Pita bread wouldn't cut it. How about naan? But would the grocery store even have anything like naan?

So last night E and I took a trip to the Shaws across the street in search of ingredients. And guess what? They did have naan. Elizabeth spotted it in the fresh bread/bakery section and it was the last one too! I was really impressed that they had it at all and that it was the last package. We also got some Greek yogurt (again so happy but so shocked that they had it at Shaws).

Elizabeth put together the sandwiches which consisted of the leftover meatballs and beans. These she put on the naan and threw into the oven. On top she put shredded carrot, roast red pepper and oil cured olives. She chopped some mint and cucumber and mixed it into the yogurt and when the meatball topped naan had warmed thru, she put everything on top.

It was a delicious meal and a great way to use the leftovers. I was so happy that I mentioned my idea to Elizabeth because it truly was a very yummy dinner. It was so yummy that I was 1/3 of the way thru and then took the picture. Sorry! (burp)

So if you're stuck with leftovers, don't ever be sad! Just think about something you're craving and see where that takes you.

Oatmeal with Soy Sauce

Given the fact that I've eaten this dish non-stop for two days it is a little sad that I don't have proper picture. But trust me when I say that this is a good, dare I say great, little dish.

A little while back Mark Bittman made mention of adding scallions and soy sauce to oatmeal. Little did he know that he'd started off a sh_tstorm. The comments all over the internet came pouring in. Some were curious, even supportive but the majority of people found it strange and gross to put soy sauce in a good associated with milk, brown sugar and raisins.

I admit to being very intrigued but never really followed up on the idea. I had grown up on oatmeal for breakfast as a child and actually never really cared for it. No amount of brown sugar or raisins made it sweet enough for me and it would often sit in front me getting cold and going uneaten. My mom, trying to get me to eat a proper breakfast, would often threaten that if I didn't eat the oatmeal that it would reappear for my dinner. And lo and behold, it would. For dinner I'd sometimes be faced with the very oatmeal I had not eaten for breakfast. Only this time, it was cold from the fridge. Bad childhood food memories indeed.

Oatmeal had a place in my kitchen but only as an ingredient in oatmeal cookies and it sat beside the sugar and flour in my pantry. But again, my curiosity got the best of me and I found myself hungry after a workout. I didn't have anything in the kitchen worth fixing before I had to scoot to work but I was tired of my usual pumpernickel bagel. Ahh, now seemed like a good time to try the Mark Bittman oatmeal trick.

I cooked the oatmeal according to the instructions but without milk and when it was finished I added a handful of chopped scallions and about three spoonfuls of soy sauce. I stirred it in and tasted. It tasted familiar and comforting. Infact, it was delicious! It was like rice congee but without the rice! The scallions added crunch as well as flavor. How could something so simple be so good or so controversial?

I went to work but thought about the dish all day. That evening after it had cooked I added a bit of sesame oil and another handful of chopped spinach. The sesame oil didn't really add much and provided a lesson in keeping things simple but the spinach added a bit more green crunch and was lovely. I imagine asparagus would be great as well. Later, I added a chunk of herbed goat cheese and some oil brined olives; it was wonderful as well. Not as good as the soy sauce version but different and still really tasty.

Not convinced? I say, "try it!". Considering how cheap oatmeal is, you have nothing to lose if you don't like it. Plus, if oatmeal isn't really your thing, you can just make some cookies with the leftover oats.

Leah's Riff on Mark Bittman's Savory Oatmeal Idea:
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups water
dash of salt
(cook oatmeal, water and salt as directed)

1 cup fresh chopped spinach
2 stalks of scallions
4 teaspoons of soy sauce (more if you're a salt fiend like me)

Once the oatmeal is cooked and still hot add the spinach, scallions and soy sauce. Stir like crazy and eat.


Leah's Second Try:
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups water
dash of salt
(cook oatmeal, water and salt as directed)

1 good sized nub of goatcheese
6 oil brined olives pitted and chopped (or if you're like me, ripped apart with your fingers).

Once the oatmeal is cooked and still hot add the goat cheese and olives. Stir like crazy and eat.

I'm still a big fan of the soy sauce version but if you're a goat cheese fan, the second version will probably win you over.