E-Mo

I don’t oftentimes get the opportunity to venture out too far for lunch, but I was getting a check-up earlier this week and found myself very close to Koreatown. My coworker, Joon, introduced me Kim Bab, a popular dish that resembles Japanese sushi – rice and lots of veggies or proteins wrapped in seaweed. Joon brought back kim bab with squid one day and said that the best place to buy it in Koreatown E-Mo. He also mentioned that the place was incredibly tiny and was only good for to-go (basically, standing room only). I got my act together on Sunday and managed to head all the way up to Koreatown, only to find out they weren’t open on Sundays. When I found out my check-up was near K-town, my first thought was to schedule it close enough to lunch so I could make my way over to E-mo and buy some kim bab after my appointment. The store is near Mandoo Bar (where I ended up the Sunday I tried to get E-Mo):

E-Mo is literally run by a husband and wife team; when I arrived, the wife was preparing for the lunchtime rush by cooking rice, setting up the vegetables, and making sure everything was ready for the assembly line while her husband was in the storage area picking up more materials:

There are ten different types of kim bab you can order:

I was very pleased with the squid kim bab Joon gave me the last time I had E-mo, so I ordered one serving of squid kim bab. The owner immediately began putting together my kim bab:

The squid is marinated in the traditional Korean red sauce and is placed with vegetables, including pickled radishes and shiso leaves. The roll is squirted with a little sesame oil and then expertly cut up into twelve pieces and placed into a to-go container:

An individual piece:

The squid kim bab is absolutely amazing; there are a lot of different textures and tastes in one bite since the squid is slightly chewy, some of the vegetables are fresh, and some of the veggies are pickled. Everything is quickly made to order and is definitely an awesome place to get Korean for lunch. One roll is only $6 and is definitely enough to feed a person at lunchtime (I was satisfied but not stuffed after one roll). E-Mo is one of my favorite restaurants on 32nd Street and is definitely worth a visit!

Masa

Did you really think someone took me to Masa in the Time Warner Center so early in the year?! I wish 🙂 While I was in Boston, I found the Boston Masa with a great brunch deal – 2 courses and a coffee/tea for $7.95. Since Masa was super cheap and pretty close to our hotel, we walked there on Saturday morning:

By the way, I think Boston is a fun city but it is 1. not close to NYC AT ALL and 2. not a good city for walking; I was crossing highways or something super dangerous! Masa has a long wait if you don’t make reservations, but luckily, people in Boston don’t take advantage of opentable.com; I quickly made a reservation before heading out for our brisk walk from the hotel and we bypassed the huge line waiting outside and were seated right away.

We sat down and the waitress brought along some cornbread and spreads:

The spreads were apricot (very good), cinnamon butter (not that great), and a prune jame or something (incredibly bad…so bad I had to spit it out):

There are two menus at Masa – the $7.95 special with two courses or the regular menu (a lot of the regular menu items are also on the $7.95 menu, so there really isn’t a reason for people to order from the more expensive regular menu). I started with the empanada stuffed with plaintains:

There’s also a sour cream-like spread underneath:

The empanada was dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar and was very crisp. Sweet but not too sweet and it seemed like it would be better fitted at the end of the meal rather than the beginning. It was also a tad small, but since the main course was coming, I wasn’t worried about the size of my starter.

For my main course, I ordered the eggs benedict with potatoes:

The dish was actually really good…EXCEPT for the fact that they used a biscuit instead of an English muffin. The biscuit was too buttery and distracted from the avocado cream and hollandaise. The hollandaise was slightly spicy and was quite tasty with the diced tomatoes on the side.

Lou ordered the huevos rancheros with black beans:

The eggs tasted like they had been sitting out for a while (and the picture also makes it look like the eggs are stale). The torillas were fresh and were more like quesadillas because they were stuffed with cheese (and because I moved the eggs aside).

The brunch was very popular and was definitely really cheap (two people for less than $25 for brunch? that’s pretty impossible in the city) They have some other good dishes on their brunch menu, including a stuffed French toast that sounded (and looked) pretty delicious.

Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinner: Coconut Chicken and Rice

My mom is a fantastic cook and comes up with great recipes all the time. She told me about this dish and made it for me one day over Thanksgiving break – it’s so delicious that I recreated it last night and I’m sharing the recipe with you. I’m slowly becoming a fan of coconut (I hated the flavor, texture, and taste when I was a kid) and this dish really makes me love aromatic coconut milk. Complex carbohydrates from the wild rice, millet, and quinoa, lots of vegetables, and protein from chicken drumsticks make this dish healthy, filling, and very delicious. I hope you enjoy eating this as much as I did – it’s all made in one pot so there’s little clean up involved and it’s perfect for a weeknight dinner!

Ingredients for the Coconut Chicken and Rice:

1/2 large yellow onion (or 1 small onion)
1 large carrot
1 bag edamame (shelled)
Chicken drumsticks
LOTS of turmeric
1 container coconut milk
Canola oil
Basil (optional)
Millet, quinoa, wild rice, brown rice

First, place all of the grains together in a pot (or rice cooker), rinse a couple of times with cold water, and add water:

Simmer the rice while you’re making the chicken (for 3 people, we used about 1.5 cups of grains total and 3 cups of water. Your water to rice ratio may differ based on whether or not you’re using a rice cooker, how you like your rice cooked, etc).

While the rice is simmering on a back burner, start chopping up your onion:

A rough chop is fine:

And place into a pan with some canola oil over medium heat:

While the onions are cooking, start chopping up your carrots into little cubes and set them aside:

Once the onions become slightly translucent, place the drumsticks in the pot:

With a very heavy hand, sprinkle some turmeric on one side of the chicken:

Once the chicken is seared on one side, turn the drumsticks around:

And add more turmeric:

After the other side has been seared, add in the carrots:

Then add in the frozen edamame (no need to defrost them):

And finally, add in the coconut milk:

Fill the coconut milk halfway with water and add it to the pot (this dilutes the coconut milk a little and makes the sauce a little less thick):

Next add the basil (not necessary, but coconut and basil go really well together):

Let the sauce thicken over a medium heat:

After about 20 minutes, the rice should be done (keep an eye on it while you’re making the coconut chicken if you make the rice over the stove instead of a rice maker. Create a bed of rice and then add the sauce and chicken drumsticks over the rice:

The dish is very healthy; coconut milk can help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, digestive problems, skin cancer and blemishes, the fatty acids in coconut milk (lauric acid) help boost the immune system, and even though there is saturated fat in coconut milk, it’s made of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids that the body quickly turns into energy instead of storing as fat. Turmeric, the spice used in the dish, is also extremely good for us; it’s a natural liver detoxifier and is well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties. It’s also extremely delicious and perfect for a weeknight meal.

Cost Breakdown:

1/2 large yellow onion (or 1 small onion) – $0.40
1 large carrot – $0.40
1 bag edamame (shelled) – $1.79
Chicken drumsticks – $2.23
LOTS of turmeric – $0.50
1 container coconut milk – $0.99
Canola oil – marginal
Basil (optional) – free
Millet, quinoa, wild rice, brown rice – $1.50 for all four

Total: $7.81

Global Kitchen: The Silk Road Through Spices

Next Tuesday, December 8th, I will be attending another Global Kitchen event at the Museum of Natural History. The last event I attended, The Magic of Pickling, was informative and VERY fun (I ate so many pickles I thought I would burst!). The next Global Kitchen event is December 8th – the museum has given me a free ticket to attend the event to learn more from Nirmala Narine about the traditional uses, tastes, and smells of spices, as well as how to incorporate various flavors into their own cooking.

If you’re interested in tickets, you can either call 212.769.5200 or visit amnh.org. The Global Kitchen events take place in a small auditorium and they’re always fun and you get to meet a lot of cool people. If you’re going, let me know and we can sit together, too!

Holiday Gift Idea — Breads for City Dwellers — Baking Class!

Happy December! There are 24 more days until Christmas and 11 days until Hanukkah, so in addition to restaurant reviews/product reviews/recipe ideas, I’ll be posting some gift ideas for the holidays. Today, we’ll start off with a bread making class (a delayed gift since the class isn’t until March next year). In New York, the class will be in March (I’m attending; Artisan has graciously given me a free spot in the class) and you’ll learn how to bake all different types of breads – after the class, maybe I’ll have enough courage to finally make the rosemary olive sourdough bread that I love! You can sign up online at www.artisan-bread-school.com. Carl during one of his classes:

(photo credit: Leslie J. Yerman)

In 2010, ABS founder Carl Shavitz, makes his third visit to the United States, teaching classes in four cities, including New York City — Breads for City Dwellers — on March 30. The New York class is hosted by Miele USA.

Breads for City Dwellers is a one-day class offering basic techniques, working with yeast, sponges and sourdough, and breads suitable for city home baking (including a 90-minute wonder).
The class will be March 30 at the Míele Manhattan Gallery, The Architects & Designers Building, 150 East 58th Street (Between Lexington & 3rd), 9th Floor, Suite 951.

Other US classes hosted by Miele USA will take place in Princeton, NJ and Boca Raton, FL. Shavitz will also be teaching a five-day course in Olympia, WA.

UK Course

Shavitz will be offering a five-day intensive course (February 1-5) at the newly established School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire.

Italian Classes

Artisan Bread School’s fourth season in Tuscany will be at a new location — the four-star Fattoria degli Usignoli resort, 28 km (17.4 miles) from Florence. ABS will offer two five-day classes on from May 3–7 and May 10 – 14 at the resort’s cookery school.

Carl Shavitz is the ultimate boutique baker. Every loaf of bread he makes is 100 percent handmade without use of mixers or machines. Demand for his breads outstrips supply.
Originally from New York City, Shavitz settled in England as a Fulbright Scholar and had a 20-year career performing around the world as a lutanist. Shavitz later became a producer, working with WDUQ (NPR in Pittsburgh) and consultant to the UK’s major commercial classical music station.

Then, he decided to become a chef.

Shavitz trained at The Village Bakery in Melmerby Cumbria and Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland. Once he started bread-making, he was hooked.

Five years ago, Shavitz established the Artisan Bread School, where he teaches classes for one month every spring. Demand for his classes in the United States resulted in an invitation from Miele USA to teach at several of its facilities. In 2010, he will be making his third trip to the US, as well as teaching at the UK’s new School of Artisan Food.