Posted by manda on June 25th, 2009 [Click image to show Gallery]
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(May I just add that these photos were taken with our brand spankin’ new iPhone 3G Ss… I don’t know how you would plural-ize that. -Rob)
For Father’s Day weekend, Robo and I went home to celebrate with our dads. We took them to Bob’s Noodle 66 which is a great Taiwanese-Chinese restaurant off of 355. Be warned though: this place is always packed, doesn’t take credit cards, and offers stinky tofu (the smells of which will inevitably waft to your table if some other table orders it). Other than that, this place is awesome!
We started with the hot and sour soup, which was served in a huge bowl; delicious and slightly glutinous. Next we had the oyster and egg omelette which was a thick, fluffy egg omelette with whole oyseters (no shell) over a bed of vegetables and covered with an oyster/soy sauce mix. Then we had the clams, “dragon whiskers” (stir-fried sea plants with chicken), and fried stinky tofu with spicy cabbage. For the dragon whiskers, I’m not sure what type of sea plant it was but it was sort of aesthetically displeasing…the veggies themselves reminded me of squishy dark green tubes, but the dish tasted ok and was seasoned very well. And then talk about displeasing: stinky tofu has this distinctly odious smell that is ruinous to your appetite. That being said, if you can overcome the smell, stinky tofu (from what Robo tells me) tastes great. The cabbage served on the side was spicy hothothot! After that we had the hot plate shrimp with onions (not pictured) which were big fresh shrimp, de-shelled and deveined (score no mess!), served on a bed of onions with lots of pepper. Same style as pepper steak, but with shrimp!
And then my favorite: sanbeiji, aka three cup chicken. The legend behind the dish is that to make it, you need a cup of each of soy sauce, wine, and sesame oil. However, we couldn’t taste a whole lot of sesame so we think that here at Bob’s they use one cup each of soy sauce, wine, and sugar, along with some vegetable/canola cooking oil. This dish also incorporates looots of basil (love it!) and big slices of ginger. For the chicken they chop up chicken quarters (we think) into hearty chunks. I think if we try to make it ourselves, we’ll use chicken thighs, which has more meat per bone ratio.
For dessert, you must have the bao bing, taiwanese shaved ice. It’s very simple to make (if you have an ice shaving machine): take a mound of shaved ice, pour over sugar syrup and (sweetened?) condensed milk, and then top with sweet mung beans, red beans, lychee, taro, peanuts, and kidney beans. They also gave us a bowl of tapioca pearls and grass jelly. This dessert is super sweet and a great summertime dish, even though we’ve ordered it in the dead of winter before. The one pictured is the largest size and we split it among our party of 7 easily
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Posted by manda on June 1st, 2009 [Click image to show Gallery]
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Mmm spicayy! Seoul Garden is THE place to go for Korean food. We go there mainly for their kickin’ soondobu – which is a spicy Korean soft tofu stew served in a boiling hot claypot filled to the brim with seafood, meat, or both. (You can ask for varying levels of spiciness, but we find that no matter what level we ask for, it always seems to be spicier!)
I love eating out at a Korean restaurant for the panchan, little appetizers, as part of your meal. Most of the dishes are pickled or peppery but sometimes this place’ll have something completely out-of-the-blue, like potato salad or macaroni(!). Standard panchan dishes include fresh kimchee, spicy pickled cucumbers, marinated mung bean sprouts, ddukboki (sweet and spicy sticky rice cakes), fish cakes, and more. If you’re lucky, sometimes they’ll serve steamed scallion eggs in a claypot – also an appetizer! If you want to try something on the menu, get the seafood pancake, which reminds me of a biiig cong you bing (chinese scallion pancake) but with whole pieces of scallion, chunks of squid and mussles, and is flatter and chewier, served with a soy and black vinegar sauce with sesame seeds and scallions. If you’re hungry and you like beef, get #45 (Soondobu and Kalbi) – their kalbi is served on a hot plate on a bed of onions. It’s not as juicy or meaty as you’d get at a Korean bbq joint but for $3 more, it’s so worth it =)
Now, for the soondobu. They have combination, seafood, beef, or vegetarian options but I like to stick with the seafood since the beef isn’t a great cut and they use so little in the combination. Seafood usually includes mussels, squid, and shrimp. When served, the rice comes out in a small metal bowl, along with a raw egg, and the claypot of heavenly goodness. The egg is to be eaten with your stew and the trick is to crack the egg into your pot as soon as you can, so the egg can cook thru in the still-boiling stew. Make sure to cover up the egg and submerge it underneath the other ingredients! A friend taught us the proper way to eat and I think it goes: rice bowl always to the left of the pot, scoop a little rice into your metal spoon, submerge it into your pot and scoop up some soup, tofu, and meat
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Posted by manda on April 16th, 2009 [Click image to show Gallery]
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Disclaimer: Not your typical Tuesday! My parents came into town for business, so before their client rendevous, we got to spend a rare weekday afternoon together shopping, eating, chatting, and enjoying ourselves. We hit up our favorite splurge spot, La Maison du Chocolat at Rockefeller Center, and were treated to macaroons, truffles, and cups of rich caracas (dark) and guayaquil (milk) hot chocolate. Afterward, we shopped and returned to the hotel to prep up for the main (food) event – Basso56 on W 56th St. It was one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in NYC – great service, cozy, not too pretentious, and oh yeah, amazing italian food! We started off with a great bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo red wine, olives and bruscetta, fried calamari, and steamed mussels. For our entrees, we ordered the specials: seafood risotto, mushroom ravioli, swordfish, and roasted duck with figs. Everything was delicious and perfectly cooked, except maybe the duck which was a little rare. Notice how these dishes almost exactly match the dishes from Maggiano’s – Robo and I looove italian seafood dishes
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My Mom also baked some cherry chocolate chip cupcakes with homemade vanilla frosting. They were AMAZING! Better than any cupcake you can find at the chic boutique bakeries like Magnolia’s or Chickalicious because 1) they’re moister 2) the frosting is made with marshmallow fluff and who can resist that? and 3) they’re homemade =) I’ll put up the recipe for
Continue reading Basso56 and a little bit of home
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