Posted by Tam Ngo, October 1, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Photograph from Pabo76 on Flickr
New York's first annual Korean Restaurant Week is now underway. Participating restaurants include several along the 32nd to 35th Street stretch of Koreatown, as well as restaurants Midtown and Downtown.
This year's theme entrée, bibimbap, represents a combination of flavors endemic to Korean cuisine: meat, pickled vegetables, egg, and hot pepper paste, all mixed together in a bowl of rice. In honor of the event, bibimbap is being offered for $7 a la carte or for $15 as part of a 3-course prix-fixe at participating restaurants. Plus, free bibimbap will be served from a giant pot holding 500 portions (Saturday 2 p.m., at 32nd Street and Broadway).
Here is the menu and a list of participating restaurants.
Posted by Zach Brooks, September 22, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Ever since I read about the bulgogi topped hot dog on Eating in Translation, I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of New York Hot Dog and Coffee, a Korean chain opening its first U.S. location in the West Village. When word came that it had opened, you better believe we were first in line to sample the goods.
You have a number of different hot dog choices: a premium (whatever that means) beef hot dog topped with bulgogi or chili and cheese, a grilled chicken sausage topped with Korean marinated chicken, plus frozen yogurt (of course), waffles (really?), soft serve, flagels (flat bagels anyone?) and coffee.
So how is it? We only sampled the bulgogi hot dog and the chicken topped chicken dog, and all in all they were pretty amazing‐although if I'm being completely honest, I am a big fan of this concept in general. Hot dog + Korean barbecued meat = automatic deliciousness. They really would have had to screw things up for me to be disappointed. The bulgogi is not the greatest of all time, and neither is the hot dog‐but together it's a magical creation.
Serious Eats Grand Poobah Ed Levine, on the other hand, is a hot dog aficionado. No Korean topped hot dog gimmick is going to easily sway him.
His thoughts, plus photos of the hot dogs in all their glory, after the jump...
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, September 17, 2008 at 3:45 PM
New Jersey’s Mitsuwa is to Japanese food what Flushing's Assi Plaza is to Korean cuisine. Both are Wal-Mart sized megastores that sell all manner of dry goods, fruit, vegetables, meats, fish, condiments, and cooking equipment, and it even boasts a restaurant. The exterior of the sprawling Assi Plaza reads “Oriental Food Cash & Carry.” Last night I paid visit to a section of store that I like to call the banchan bonanza. There are literally dozens of types of the small side dishes you'll see served at every Korean restaurant, ranging from more common items to bizarre specialties. Which brings us to today’s subject: bahnggae jorim, or seasoned small crab.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, August 13, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Despite my seriously adventurous tastes, there’s one area I haven’t explored much: raw meat. Until very recently the only uncooked animal flesh I’ve ever partaken in has been liver sashimi and Ethiopian kitfo. The liver was sort of slimy though not so bad when doctored up with salt, grated ginger and sesame oil. The chunks of beefy kitfo were very tasty, but their chewy texture left much to be desired; I took the remainder home and cooked it up in a cast iron skillet. Recently a friend raved about the Korean raw beef dish known as yuk hwe, and I was ashamed to admit that I’d never tried it. I immediately atoned for this sin of omnivorous omission and made a solo trip to San Soo Kap San to expand my raw meat horizons.
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Posted by Kathy YL Chan, July 21, 2008 at 6:00 PM
For a spin on the typical doughnut twist, head to Koryodang Bakery in K-Town. The flavor and texture of a classic yeasted takes a turn with this aptly named "Sweet Rice Twist" in which mochi flour gets used in both the dough and in the mix sprinkled over the fried pastry. Couple that with high-gluten All Trumps flour and the end result is a subtly sweet, chewy doughnut that never comes close to embodying the word "fluffy" but bears a slightly nutty charm all its own. It's the one doughnut you can have for breakfast without suffering a sugar high.
Koryodang Bakery
31 W 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001 (nr. Broadway; map)
212-967-9661
Posted by Emily Koh, July 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Last week we read a great post on the site New York Daily Photo about Sunrise Mart, a relatively hidden Japanese grocery store above St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village. NYDP called it "the real deal" and it got us thinking about some of the other great Asian markets in the area where you can get boxes of Japanese curry or satisfy that strawberry Pocky addiction.
JAS Mart
Tucked away between the countless, cramped Japanese izakaya on St. Marks, JAS Mart boasts the Italian Tomato café on the first floor (there's nothing Italian about it, though), complete with small cakes, pastries and the standard Asian bakery offerings. There are also sandwiches, sushi, and hot food in the back, which you can microwave to your heart's content. But downstairs is where the real fun starts, with aisles of everything from rice, relatively cheap produce, Japanese snacks, and frozen food, to noodles, rice cookers, and even beauty products.
Good For: A quick bite or lunch, as there's seating in the café. Precooked frozen fish packages that I haven't seen in the other marts (check the far right aisle downstairs). Deals on snacks, rice and condiments from time to time.
Not So Good For: The quality of the meat is hit or miss. Premade food runs out fast. There's almost nothing left if you come here around early evening.
35 St. Marks Place, New York NY 10003; (nr. 2nd Avenue; map); 212-420-6370
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, June 30, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Ever since T.J.’s Pizzeria in Flushing closed I’ve mourned the loss of kimchi pizza. So when I heard that My Favorite CheoGaJip Chicken was slinging several kinds of Korean pizza, including one topped with bulgogi, I had to try it. Korean barbeque and pizza both rank high on my list, so even though CheoGaJip didn’t have kimchi pizza, I was pretty excited. Since T.J.’s pizza was more of a standard-issue New York City slice topped with fiery preserved cabbage, I never really thought of it as Korean. I envisioned CheoGaJip’s pizza as a tastier, more Korean pie; living halfway between paejun and a standard New York ’za. Sadly all my hopes for mouthwatering Korean pizza were in vain. The only good thing about CheoGaJip was the fried chicken, and while we don't normally like to write about things on Serious Eats New York unless they are delicious– some things just have to be shared.
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Posted by BrianYarvin, June 13, 2008 at 12:00 PM
I judge Korean restaurants entirely by those little dishes called panchan. Anything less than six is a disappointment.
For me, the Korean world of Bergen County represents the most intimidating of challenges. The few people I know who speak and/or read the language all have superb excuses for not joining me; they live in Manhattan and don´t consider Bergen County far enough away to be a "real" adventure, they live in Edison but don´t really eat out and can buy most of what they need without a forty mile drive through crushing traffic, or they just don´t want to escort gringos through the labyrinth of chilies, fermentation, and raw seafood that they otherwise might call home.
This has led me to ask the question; "What happens if a lone non-Korean speaking guy showed up and started poking around?" I drove over, pumped some quarters in the parking meter, and set off to find out.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 27, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Outside of Organic Tofu House, a bowl of pork tofu stew, kimchi banchan, and marinated beef
Ridgewood, New Jersey has always been the place to go to for dinner while I was growing up in nearby Franklin Lakes. You'll come across a little bit of everything just by walking around the small downtown area: Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Italian, pizza, steak, burgers, and more. However, one cuisine that was noticeably missing to me was Korean. Bergen County is full of Koreans; why wasn't there more Korean food action in Ridgewood?
When my mom told me in the beginning of the year that one of the many Japanese restaurants (seriously, there's at least four within walking distance of each other) located in the shopping center next to the Whole Foods was replaced by a restaurant called Organic Tofu House, I was overjoyed. No, not because I have a burning love for organic tofu, but because I knew that this had to be a place that specialized in Korean tofu stew, aka my favorite tofu dish. Now it's one of my favorite places to go for dinner.
What's Good
The egg doesn't stay raw for long!
Everything!
Well, obviously you need to get a bubbling pot of spicy Korean tofu stew, or soon dubu jigae. If you're against eating anything with tofu as the central ingredient, now is the time to get over it. What's not to love in a spoonful of super soft, jiggly tofu plops in a red pepper-laden soup mixed with your choice of a non-tofu accompaniment (including soybean, mushroom, seafood, beef, kimchi, oyster, clam or pork)? As long as you're not allergic to soy or adverse to spicy foods, you should be content with this dish (and if you're anything like me, it'll become one of your favorite "comfort foods"). Organic Tofu House serves their stew with steamed rice and a raw egg for you to crack into the boiling mini-cauldron. Don't worry; it'll cook.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Clockwise from top left: Exterior of Kofoo, eel dup bop, assorted kimbap, duk bok gi.
The Serious Eats office isn't located in the most depressing of culinary wastelands, but there's little in the way of gastronomic delight to be had in this part of Chelsea, which I think would make a good candidate for the title of "The Butt of New York City." However, we do have one shining star just around the corner from our building: Kofoo, a cheap, fresh, fast, and reliable Korean take-out that is easily the place I've eaten at the most in all of New York City.
What's Good?
Spicy tuna kimbap and barbecue chicken kimbap with brown rice.
Having eaten most of the items on the menu, I'd say everything is good, depending on what you're craving. Bibimbap, bulbogi, japchae, and more; they've got most of your favorite basic Korean dishes.
My favorite is the spicy tuna kimbap—like sushi on steroids, filled with dangerously mouth-tinglingly spicy canned tuna—although if I'm hungrier, I'll go for an assortment of kimbap that includes one piece of each of their ten types.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 9, 2008 at 4:00 PM
The somewhat non-existent sign outside the restaurant, and the interior.
Do you have any idea how many times I wished I could eat a dinner in which i could alternate mouthfuls of fried chicken with bites of spicy, kimchi-laden tofu? More than you can imagine.
So thank god for Forte Baden Baden. While this restaurant in Korea Town is meant to resembles a German beer hall (it takes its name from the German town Baden-Baden), the food is just about all Korean. Either that, or fried. Don't be put off by the dirty hallway and odd smelling stairway that leads to this easy-to-miss second story restaurant. It's a small hurdle to get over in order to reach the feast of chicken within.
Fried chicken + fried potato = glorious.
A large order of the fried chicken—which is actually a whole deep-fried rotisserie chicken, putting the chicken's flavor somewhere between "rotisserie" and "deep fried"—was enough to feed my party of five. (Don't worry; it also comes in a smaller size, although a smaller size that's probably still hefty.) Granted, it was accompanied/smothered by a carbohydrate bomb in the form of a mountain of fries. Not just any fries though; these crisp babies, perhaps just a bit thicker than the McDonald's variety, had a slightly rough texture on the outer crust that gave it extra "oomph" in the crunchiness department, making them dangerously irresistible. The chicken wasn't to die for, but the meat was moist enough and blanketed by a crispy, fatty layer of skin. Beneath the chicken were a few slices of vegetables that seemed out of place, and some puddingly-soft, whole roasted cloves of garlic.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 22, 2006 at 7:36 AM
"SOME COOKS ONLY KNOW HOW TO COOK DELICIOUS FOOD"
Momofuku's David Chang and his talented crew of cooks are folks that seem to only know how to cook delicious food. So it should be no surprise that the brand new Momofuku Ssam Bar (there's supposed to be two dots, an umlaut, over the a in Ssam, but I can't figure out how to put it in), opening tomorrow (Wed.) at noon, serves food I would happily eat every day if it were in my neighborhood. A ssam translates in Korean into wrapped food of any kind. So what kind of wrap did I try last night? Black beans flavored with ham hocks, kimchee puree that didn't taste like any fermented cabbage salad I'd ever had before, whipped tofu that was as creamy as sour cream, rice, and toothsome Berkshire roast pork. It was the ultimate Korean burrito. I also had phenomenal chicken and pork buns, similar to the ones you get at Momofuku, but made with braised and shredded meat instead, and a vegetarian salad with roasted mushrooms that had me believing there was meat in there somewhere as I wrapped it in a whole lettuce leaf . Think of Momofuku Ssam Bar as a Korean-American version of a Chipotle Grill (and that's a compliment). And unlike Momofuku there's even a few tables for those of us old fogies who like to eat facing one another.
207 Second Avenue at 13th St. 212-254-3500.
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