Jap chae/Korean noodles (Bento 9)

Laptop lunch for dinner at work. I made jap chae after Wendy threw the surprise party with Korean food. I think hers tasted better but this was my first time making it so now I know how to improve my methods.

Jap chae, salad, red pepper, cucumber, goddess dressing, avocado and tomato “guac” (which got really brown and gross – didn’t end up eating this), and dove dark chocolate.

I asked Wendy for her recipe and she pointed me to Maangchi. I basically followed that recipe but approximated the vegetable amounts. Some tips from what I’ve learned: add salt to taste because the recipe didn’t call for salt but I feel like it needed it; don’t skip the step where she adds soy sauce to the spinach because my spinach was bland; definitely marinate the beef beforehand (soy sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine, sugar), overnight is best; and don’t forget the green onions like I did. Otherwise, quite a delicious and flavorful dish.

Burger night happy hour

Happy hour with friends = fun times and lots of girl chat. Got a hot rum apple cider at the Brass Monkey. They had a nice menu of bar type food but we wanted to try something else. French cuisine was way too expensive in the area so we went to Bill’s Burger which was very “economical” as my friend put it. We were SO full afterwards.

Fat cat burger with caramelized onions, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles on sesame seed bun.

In hindsight I should have just gotten a plain burger because I feel like a glutton now. I was so hungry I inhaled it without really tasting the onions or cheese. The beer battered onion rings were good. They were $5 while the burger was $7.

Tomorrow, another laptop lunch and korean noodle (jap chae) recipe!

Bento 7 & 8

Lack of time to update so two bentos for you this time. Laptop lunch was yesterday’s dinner at work and onigiri were for class today.

Quinoa pilaf with veggies, chicken and walnuts, salad with Trader Joe’s goddess dressing, cucumbers and tomatoes, veggie straws (rosemary), string cheese.

Wasabi mayo tuna onigiri with furikake. Nori on the side for wrapping. I didn’t expect to eat all three because I don’t usually eat that much rice but I was hungry and class was boring.

Surprise bday party! Tea recipe too.

My really good friends from high school threw a surprise birthday party for Eugene and I since our birthdays are close. My cousin, Wendy, cooked some incredible Korean food. I managed to only get pics of some of the food so there was more but everything was delicious.

Jap chae which is glass noodles with mixed veggies and beef.

Kalbi – delicious marinated beef short ribs.

A whole bunch of kimbap or Korean sushi from the store. There were beef, spicy tuna, california style with spinach and a veggie one.

Carol helped Wendy make this bean paste tofu dish which was really tasty.

Carol bought us a cheesecake with fruit.

We also had a whole bunch of traditional Korean appetizers and I brought a homemade Korean drink that’s sweet and spicy. I first had this drink at Kun Jip in Koreatown and fell in love with it ever since.

Chilled Cinnamon Ginger Tea (Soojong Gwa)
Serves around 8-10.

Ingredients:
1/2 gallon water (divided into 2 pots)
3 sticks cinnamon (about 3-4″ each), rinsed
2-3 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup brown sugar + more to taste
1/3 cup white sugar + more to taste
pinenuts (optional garnish)

Directions:
1. Boil 1/2 the water (4 cups) divided into two pots.
2. Add the cinnamon sticks to one pot and sliced ginger to the other. Simmer on low for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and discard cinnamon sticks and ginger. Combine the two liquids and add sugars. Stir until sugars are dissolved. Taste and add more sugar if necessary.
4. Chill until cold, preferably overnight. Serve cold garnished with pinenuts.

Note: You can boil the cinnamon and ginger in one pot but I’ve read that it’s better to do it in two.

Momofuku night

My sister treated me to a night of Momofuku goodness at the Noodle Bar and Milk Bar for my birthday. I haven’t had a lot of free time to post so things are piling up but here are some pictures. We had really good seats at the open kitchen bar so we watched the chefs and sous chefs make everything in front of use.

The one page menu. Options are very limited here but that’s okay because everything’s interesting. More options/specials on the walls and they have a four course prix fixe for $30.

The famous pork buns meet the hype. It’s a must try, really delicious.

We both got the Momofuku noodle bowl. Fresh noodles with pork, semi poached egg, scallion, nori, naruto, and bamboo? It was okay, a little better with siracha sauce but don’t add too much because it gets super spicy! I’ve had better ramen at other places.

Then we headed over to the Milk bar only a few blocks away (next to Ssam).

The fridge case with the cakes and pies.

Crack pie = sugary buttery gooey goodness in a crust. So good.

This is why it’s the milk bar, they serve cereal flavored milk. It’s pricey though so we didn’t try it. They also have soft serve (in cereal and other flavors) and smoothies made from soft serve.

Chocolate malt cake with marshmallows and malt balls inside. Gooey and dense chocolate goodness. I’m not a huge chocolate fan but my sister ordered this.

We also ordered the compost cookie, cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie and blueberry cream cookie. OMG these were great. My favorite was the blueberry cream cookie because it was like having a scone with milk in cookie form. No great picture of the cookies but there are lots if you google it. Martha Stewart also has the blueberry cookie recipe directly from the chef at Milk bar so I will have to test that out soon. Calls for glucose and European butter! Luckily I think Trader Joe’s has Irish butter but I’m not sure if I will be able to easily get glucose. Apparently Wilton’s makes it so hopefully the candy supply store near me (Choc-Oh-Lot Plus) will have it.