momofuku love

I’m a little late on the train, but the Momofuku empire has had a huge following for years. The brilliant chef, David Chang, started the Momofuku brand in 2003 with the ‘Momofuku Noodle Bar’ in the East Village of Manhattan. Since then, he’s added Momofuku Ssäm Bar (2006), Momofuku Ko (early 2008) and Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar (late 2008). Then in 2009 he released a cookbook that became an instant must-have.

Over those years, he has managed to create menus at each respective establishment that reflect his culinary background and viewpoint: simple dishes delivering profound flavors.

I’ve read about the chef and his brand from many different sources - New York Times, The New Yorker, and of course hundreds of blogs. I’ve wanted to try his recipes, and of course eat his food.

While I have yet to be brave enough to try his fried chicken recipe that I constantly google search, I did get to try his food.

During the last weekend in August ’09, my sister, 2 girlfriends and I had a food-filled weekend in Manhattan. We had a few places on our list to try, and while I had Momofuku in the back of my mind, I didn’t think we’d actually get a table. Low and behold, we gave it a shot and walked over to Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village late that Saturday afternoon for a “snack”. We managed to snack a 4-top at the bar-styled seating. We were tired from walking and shopping, but definitely excited for our surprise snack. Our “snack” consisted of 4 glasses of soju slushies (we tried each flavor available), the fluke appetizer, pork belly steamed buns, and a bowl of ramen.

The soju slushies were a refreshing and had good flavor combinations. We all loved the watermelon one though, so it was the first one finished, and is also the only one I can accurately remember.

The fluke appetizer was delicious, light and showed the true quality of the fish itself. We liked the little rice puffs that added texture to the otherwise melt-in-your-mouth fluke.

I’ll leave the pork belly steamed buns for last and skip onto the ramen. Well, it was good. Maybe it would’ve been great if it were hotter? Either way though, the broth was rich and the noodles were cooked perfectly. It was still a comforting bowl of ramen and while there’s nothing I can say I would add, it didn’t hit me as spectacular.

HOWEVER.

If we want to talk about spectacular, let’s talk about those pork belly steamed buns.

They were heavenly. The buns were steamed perfectly - not chewy, not too soft. The pork belly was like pork butter. You laugh, but I’m serious. It melted like butter and left this delicious pork glaze almost. The cucumbers added a nice crunch, and the scallions added a nice bite. The accompanying sauce wasn’t overpowering and really just accenting the bun as a whole.

Personally, when I tasted that pork bun, it was as if I found a new taste bud. As a matter of fact, it really was something like I’d never tasted before. We barely had words to say to each other to explain how much we loved that little appetizer!

It was a flavor-epiphany.

So, I will say that even though I have only tried the tip of the iceberg of Chang’s offerings, I am now a huge fan.

Maybe I’ll try out his recipes sometime… or more likely, I’ll go back to his restaurants and try as much as I can.cPe 2008

refresh

wow, i had abandoned this blog. i started a new one but forgot about writing about my own food. i still peruse other food bloggers sites, and constantly read the dining section of the nytimes... but i guess i got lazy.

well, that laziness came to an end yesterday, when i received an email from foodbuzz letting me know that due to me "inactive" status, i would have to be dropped as a featured publisher. nooooooo... i wrote back saying that if i could renew that membership, i would certainly jump back on the food blogging train! thankfully, they agreed. :)

so here we are, over a year later... missed my second blog anniversary... but ready to start again. i have tons of photos of food i've made since then, and will begin posting this week. am i excited? yes. just as i was when i first started.

cPe 2008

1 year!

happy blog anniversary

to me

it's been one year since my first blog post stating my intention of writing about and photographing my adventures in the kitchen. since then, i've posted as often as i can... and since october 08, my life has been so busy and the days just fly by. it's been difficult to keep up with blogging, but i certainly haven't slowed down the eating and cooking part! hehe. my goal this next year is to keep up with posting at least once a week, improving my photographs and experimenting with new cuisines and ingredients.
thanks to all for the comments over the past year! i love reading all of your blogs and sharing recipes!

cPe 2008

farmerie 58

farmerie 58 is a new-ish restaurant just off the mag mile in chicago. e and i visited the restaurant during it's first week back in october (or what seemed to be its first day!) and it was sooo quiet. we actually didn't know it was open, and were caught staring at the menu in the window by the host of the place. he explained a bit about the nature of the restaurant, and also let us know that their sushi chef/creator was in the kitchen that day, so we should check it out. sustainable food, sushi, gracious host. we were sold. plus the burgers on the menu sounded delicious. the decor is cute, the colors have a really organic appeal, and the bar in the center is beautiful.

now, on to the food! we ordered a traditional salmon roll as an appetizer and it was so fresh, the rice was warm. mmmm. we devoured it before the server came back to get our lunch order!
so we put our order in - i got the bistro burger and erwin got the andouille burger with an egg. i think it was a special, because it's not on the menu at the moment. the burgers were either served with spicy sweet potato chips or shoe-string fries.
while we waited for our food, they brought out 2 kinds of bread and creamy butter for us to snack on in silence. lol, we were so hungry we were eating in silence almost. :)
i love burgers, and for the most part, unless they're absolutely crappy, i'm usually pretty happy with them in general. the bistro burger at farmerie 58 is outstanding. it may be the whole sustainable ingredients part, but whatever it is, it was juicy, perfectly cooked and perfectly assembled. delicious! the hubby's burger was so so so good as well. the andouille gave it a yummy saltiness; topped with a fried egg... what could be better.
i got the spicy sweet potato chips which i could snack on forever, and e got the shoe-string fries which were good as well.

so overall, please try this place. the restaurateur is really trying a new approach to food in chicago and the outcome is delicious food.
cPe 2008

dutch baby

it's pretty evident from my posts that i love breakfast, specifically sweet breakfast. this is definitely one breakfast food that i thought would only be a menu item for me to order. it looked and sounded too complicated to replicate at home.
one day i decided to look up a few recipes for the dutch baby and found one that seemed easy to follow. trust alton brown to show me how. :)
the thin baked pancake with a light dusting of powdered sugar and a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice is such a good combination - you must try it if you haven't. and if you have a cast iron skillet, please put it to use and try the dutch baby!

Dutch Baby
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2008, Good Eats
ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
2 3/8 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 1/2 cup
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar, plus extra for serving (i used regular sugar)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
Lemon wedges

steps:
preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
place 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a 10-inch cast iron skillet and place in the oven. Set the remaining tablespoon of melted butter aside to cool slightly. wait 10 minutes before assembling the other ingredients.
place the flour, vanilla sugar, salt, milk, eggs and remaining tablespoon of melted butter into the bowl of a food processor or blender and process for 30 seconds. carefully pour the batter into the preheated skillet. bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown. sprinkle with additional vanilla sugar (i used powdered sugar) and serve with lemon wedges.

cPe 2008