Deep Fried & Frosted

And if I was ready to travel roughly 800 miles for a bowl of noodles, pork buns and some fried chicken, it better be awesome. 

It kind of was.

Simple and easy tableclothes: paper. 

In order to get the chicken, we had to make a reservation in advance. Normally, the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, but they will for their korean fried chicken (and it has to be with at least four people). Naturally, we ordered extra food in addition to the roughly 2.5 whole fried chickens we were about to consume.

No biggie. We came to eat and we were going to eat. 

Pork buns:

These babies are famous. So famous, that I felt the need to make them to see just how hard it might be. 12 hours later (includes marinating time for the pork belly), I had fairly successfully replicated them. But it certainly was so much easier to just head to the restaurant and order them. 

Thick-sliced pork belly + marinated cucumbers + green onions + hoisin + sriracha + warm, chewy bun = heaven in a bite. It’s sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy, chewy and unctuous all in one mouthful. That’s hard to find.

Mussels with a Thai Coconut Broth:

I’m pretty sure my mom said on more than two occasions, something along the lines of: “I could drink this stuff!” referring to the broth. 

Ramen:

This, and the pork buns, is what David Chang is probably most famous for. The broth takes half a day to make and requires quite a range of ingredients — chicken bones, pork bones, smoked bacon, konbu, shiitake mushrooms and onions (ironically? stupidly? I, too, have attempted this broth and it was no where near as good).

The noodles are homemade, the pork belly and pork shoulder are homemade, the egg is slow poached — ramen doesn’t get any better. While the broth was a touch on the salty side, everything else was really well done. Not to mention the size of the bowl; it was probably large enough to give a bath to a small dog. 

And of course, why we really went there to eat: the korean fried chicken:

When the waiter brought the chicken to the table, I had another “Oh my God, why are we doing this?” moment. 

The left half of the platter is korean sweet/spicy chicken. The right is just regular buttermilk fried, but with a slight kick to the brining/marinating process — they add vodka to the mix. 

Bring it on. We had four sauces, some veggies to make wraps if we wanted to and another bathtub for the bones. 

Have you ever eaten so much that thinking becomes laborious? 

I’m not kidding. The number of times I could eat tacos in a week is every day. Multiple meals. All day, every day. I’m not really sure what it is about tacos either. They aren’t particularly gourmet, though they do have the capability of being so. Maybe it’s the simplicity. It literally is meat wrapped in carbs with a bit of veggie and spice. That, is what it takes to be a winner. 

I love them so much, I decided to make them on a whim — tortillas included (but I didn’t have masa, so these are flour. pffffft).

My tortillas before pan cooking (no deep frying here!):

Annnnd, after:

Next up is the meat! I had leftover chicken breast (which I normally NEVER eat. Dark meat 100%) and I just re-seasoned it with some cumin and a few other things:

Then you eat it with onions and cilantro and call it a day! I definitely ate these for lunch and then later again for dinner. They’re addictive to the point of danger. 

Of the whole bone marrow/pasta meal, this one turned out the best surprisingly. Guess that means I should wing it more often. 

I marinated the chicken overnight in some herbs, olive oil, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper and lemon juice (in a ziploc bag. There’s no better way!). 

Then I just cooked the chicken and made sort of a cream sauce with some of the marinade and half & half and mixed it with some spinach and the pasta. I got the “make it again” approval from Alex. 

As for the salad, my portion-sizing was a liiiittle off….

But it worked out because I ended up bagging the salad and using it for eggs, steak and some other food. 

My dinky little toast points from my failed bone marrow attempt also got used as croutons:

Besides the bone marrow part of this dinner, it was successful. I tossed the salad in a warm apple cider vinegar dressing which helped cut the richness of the pasta, and the pasta was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. 

Super Shroomy Risotto with Scallops and a slice of baguette with Robiola Cheese:

Grilled Flatbreads with Steak, Green Garlic Pesto and Caramelized Onions:

Grilled Whole Chicken with “Potatoes” (secret Mom recipe):

It’s definitely great not having to cook when I go home! Most of the time.