Long Weekend in Charleston

Big fan of Charleston. The food there is awesome.

I get out there quite a bit since I have a couple of college buddies that live there. One of them recently had a kid so I drove out there this past weekend to pay little "Cal" (pictured above) a visit.

Here's what my friends and I ate:

As soon as I got there Friday evening we popped into Pearlz (West Ashley location) real quick so I can get my oyster fix. We quickly threw back a dozen and made our way downtown for dinner.

FIG. Stellar as always. Pictured is their "Crispy Caw Caw Creek Pork Trotters served with a Sunny Side Up Farm Egg and Endives with Mustard Vinaigrette." That was our favorite of the evening. Below that was my friends sauteed Virginia Flounder entrée which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

We also had a starter of the Sheeps Milk Ricotta Gnocchi Bolognese and I had the Waygu beef entrée but both pics did not make the cut. Everything was executed real well and tasted delicious. There's a reason the chef won the James Beard.

The next morning we met a crew for brunch at one of my regional favorites Glass Onion. I got their whole fried quail (sans head unfortunately) with a couple of over-easy eggs and a fluffy biscuit topped with their sausage gravy. Delicious.

If it's obvious, I generally will not go to Charleston and not go to FIG or Glass Onion. To me they just can't be replicated.

On Saturday night, my friends and I headed out to an early dinner at McCrady's. I've heard a lot about this place from Atlanta peeps and was excited to check it out. The main entrance to this good looking restaurant is off to a side alley and already struck an intriguing vibe with me.

The first couple of things we ordered was a pork terrine appetizer that almost made us fall out of our chairs. I also got their garden salad with buttermilk dressing and fried... Ok, frankly I can't remember what those fried balls were because I was getting quite blotto'd at this point.

My friends went with their 3-course tasting as it was Restaurant Week in Charleston and one of the things that was unapologetically delicious was their shrimp and oyster stew. It was hearty without being too heavy and the shrimp and oysters had the perfect bite.

As entrées my friends got their tenderloin that had the texture of silk and taste of subtle meaty umami enhanced by the shallow pool of sauce it waded in. It was also served with a soft-boiled farm egg.

My main course was their "Wadmalaw Island Poulet Rouge Chicken wrapped in Bacon" which in print sounded excellent but sadly just didn't do it for me. I'm pretty confident that this sat under a heat lamp or in the warmer for awhile until my friends' main courses were ready.

Resultingly, the poulet rouge was dry and rubbery and the sauce was already kind of gelatinizing around the upper rim of my dish. I also thought the overall taste was pretty mild. In hindsight, I probably should have sent this back but didn't think to at the time.

I'm sure this was probably a slight misfire in an otherwise splendid dinner and restaurant. I would go again.

The next morning was rough. I keep telling myself not to mix different drinks together but we forget so quickly when in the throes of fun socializing and dining.

My friend and I woke up and gathered ourselves pretty slowly. But then we finally got in a car and drove around metro Charleston for about an hour from hot brunch spot to hot brunch spot that were already forming mass lines by then.

So my friend asked, "what are you craving right this instant? I mean what could you eat right now other than Asian food?"

"Cheesesteak", I quickly responded. In my hangover pain, I just thought of the next best alternative to a Korean soup or Vietnamese pho. I wanted a greasy cheesesteak filled with griddled onions, gooey cheese and chopped meat all stuffed into a spongy bread roll.

Mission accomplished. We popped into DB's in James Island and my hangover started turning an about face almost immediately. Albeit slowly.

That's it.

Taiwanese Buns, Korean Filling

So as promised, here's the "recipe" succeeding the "Pork and Kimchi" post. As I stated then, big fan of pork and kimchi and I really wanted to attempt to do something novel utilizing these ingredients.

Peking duck or David Chang's braised pork belly with cucumber are all fine fillings but being Korean, I could use something with a bit more punch. I wanted something that reminded me of Ippudo's spicy shrimp hirata buns in New York.

What better to use than Korean ingredients then? We love spice. We've got a never-ending list of interesting dishes that makes all foodies proud and mix with a little bit of my Korean cooking wherewithal (albeit limited), well, read on...

Initially it all seemed simple to me. First, figure out how to make the buns. Ok got a working version for now. Although let me add that I'm not completely satisfied with it. But it'll do for right now.

So the next question was what I wanted to put in it although I already had an idea all along. It would be pork belly seasoned/marinaded Korean style and kimchi. I've been using my own kimchi although my posted recipe needs an update as I've refined it a bit more. Regardless, store bought works fine here as well.

Lastly, how would I prepare and cook the pork? Well, that part actually was the easiest because I've been making a version of it using baby back ribs for a while now. I just applied the same process and marinade to big ol' chunks of pork belly rather than bone-in ribs.

Take skinless chunks of pork belly, douse in spicy marinade, cover or seal in a ziploc and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

When you are ready to cook, set the oven at 350 degrees, and then cook entirely for 40 minutes flipping it over after 20 minutes or half the cooking time. At my house, I find that it's more convenient to cook this in a toaster oven. The oven reaches the temperature in an instant and it's less of a production as well.

Note - if you don't want the pork cooking and commingling in its own rendered fat, rack it or place on a slotted tray that fits onto a pan.

Ten minutes into the cooking, I'll usually apply a bit more of the marinade to the cooking pork with the sauce to get some of the flavor going and also to caramelize the outside a bit. And when I flip the belly over halfway through cooking, I also give it another marinade application.

Forty minutes later remove the pork from heat and, voilà, spicy succulent heaven.

I let the pork rest for a few minutes to let it continue cooking and then slice it semi-thin and stuff it into my bao bread with some kimchi and scallions.

Since this isn't technically an actual dish (as far as I know), I think I'll call them Daegu Spicy Pork Buns, after my parents' hometown in South Korea :)

Recipe:

3-4 chunks of skinless pork belly

For marinade:

1/2 cup of dark soy sauce
4-5 Tbsp of gochujang paste (more to achieve thick consistency if needed)
6 Tbsp of sugar or brown sugar
1 tsp of ground black pepper
5 Tbsp of sesame oil
6 cloves of garlic, grated/minced
2-3 nobs of ginger, grated/minced
1/2 of Asian or Korean pear, processed
1/2 of sweet onion, processed
2 Tbsp of Shaoxing wine (red wine or sherry can be substituted)

(1) Mix all marinade ingredients together
(2) Add a liberal coating of the marinade to the pork bellies in a container or ziploc bag reserving some of the marinade for coating/brushing during cooking
(3) Marinate the pork in a covered or sealed container in the refrigerator overnight. If you are using a ziploc, place in a bowl or shallow pan to prevent any spillage that might occur
(4) For cooking, preheat an oven to 350 degrees
(5) When the oven is ready, cook on upper-middle rack for 10 minutes then apply a coating of the marinade to the pork.
(6) Continue cooking for 10 more minutes
(7) After the full 20 minutes, flip the pork over and coat it again with the marinade
(8) Cook for 20 minutes
(9) Remove from the heat and let rest for a few minutes
(10) Slice and serve with other ingredients below

Again:
Bao recipe
Kimchi recipe, or just go buy a jar..

This concludes my two part Pork and Kimchi series.

Christiane Lauterbach and I Talk Korean

Sundae - Korean Blood & Rice Sausage

Pick up January's Atlanta Magazine and in it you'll find an article where food writer/ Knife and Fork's Christiane Lauterbach discusses Korean cuisine with yours truly.

She made a list of local Korean restaurants, I checked it twice, and some are naughty and some quite nice. And by "naughty" I mean that there are some Korean restaurants around town where there's a substantial presence of the less mainstream type of fare (Korean barbecue, soon dubu).

This lesser known type of Korean food can be offal, and in some instances ingredients such as black goat, raw marinated crab or monkfish. Atlanta Magazine's Bill Addison delved a bit into it recently around Duluth. Read about it here.

A while ago Christiane, my wife and I met at one of these places on her list that actually turned out to be pretty good. It's a relatively new place called Mirak located OTP on Buford Highway, sharing the same shopping center as the dreamy Bakery Cafe Maum (just the breads & desserts are good, coffee blows).

Pictured at the very top of this post is their sundae which is a wonderful steamed blood, rice and noodle sausage served with liver, tripe and saeujeot (shrimp dipping sauce). Not for everyone (including my wife) but I love this stuff.

We also got an order of japchae which is a dry cellophane noodle dish mixed with sesame oil, beef and vegetables. When I was a kid I HATED this dish. It was mostly because of the prevalence of sesame oil but I have gotten used to it and actually really love this now.

The dish above is agwijjim, which is a spicy serving of monkfish and bean sprouts. To me monkfish is typically not tasty on its own. Here it's drowned in a lot of spice and serving of sprouts. Its liver is a prized delicacy especially in Japanese cuisine (ankimo) and in able hands can be pretty heavenly.

Lastly, we got a large order of their haemul jeongol which is a seafood stew with all sorts of sea creatures such as shrimp, mussels, squid, and clams and then typically topped with fresh raw veggies such as enoki mushrooms, scallions and chrysanthemum leaves as you see here.

Jengols at restaurants around Atlanta are usually cooked tableside in large wide cauldrons and also have a nice surprise of noodles slathering about underneath everything else. Simmer everything until the vegetables just turn limp or blanched and it's good to go.

Food Near Snellville paid a recent visit to Mirak. As you can see from his post, you can get some other good things there if blood sausage or tripe isn't your thing.

Pork and Kimchi..

Pork & Kimchi Stir Fry

Pork and Kimchi. In my opinion, the two most lethally delicious food items discovered by our ancestors.

The first (at least the cooked version) probably by accident. Maybe a pig was caught unlucky on the fringe of a forest fire thus omitting a wondrous smell to our hungry ancient ancestors lucky enough to stumble upon it. Hence pork, the other "white meat" was born. The belly - heavily marbled, wonderfully gamey and when cured with salt and smoke, bacon and a worldwide addiction followed.

Early men left their markings on cave walls, pottery or sculptures - illustrating their hunt and hints of reverence for the wild boar - the pig. Sus Scrofa.

(image from commons.wikimedia.org)

Kimchi, originated out of necessity to preserve in more rural times. Started out as something simpler I imagine. Just some vegetables, seasoned with salt to relax and preserve, and a bit of tang emerged.

Eventually the recipe was honed. Garlic and crushed fiery peppers were added resulting in the birth of a wonder food for a nation. From everyone's first bite, love it or hate it the impression will never be forgotten. Its taste, pungency and funk will forever linger in the limbic system of one's brain.

Together, pork and kimchi are a deadly rebel force. A dish certain to induce cravings, satisfy the insatiable, and forge a cult-like devotion. I almost always order a variation of this pairing whenever I am at an Asian restaurant.

Most of the time, items made with both pork and kimchi can only be found in Korean restaurants. Kimchi jjigae, budae jjigae, kimchi bokum bap, samgyeopsal or just a simple stir fry of kimchi with pork

Kimchi Jjigae

At Atlanta's Shoya Izakaya, there is a stir-fried pork with kimchi dish - buta kimchi. On one occasion, I was eating with a friend who ate reservedly all meal long until this came out. His tempered dining all of a sudden turned into something resembling hungry sharks feeding on chum.

On another Shoya outing, a friend said that the stir-fried kimchi with pork was his favorite thing out of the twelve dishes that were had that night, besting the popular and hedonistic okonomi-yaki

Shoya's Pork & Kimchi

It's just impossible to ignore the perfect yin-yang arrangement they have with each other. One more mellow but rife of meaty flavor, sinewy in texture and generously laden with fat. The other having a crispy bite, spright in taste and wonderfully refreshing to the palate.

Together, they are better for us to be eaten. The kimchi will speed up the pork's digestion and cut down on the amount of saturated fat that our bodies will absorb from it. It's as if God purposely enabled us to discover that these two foods were meant for each other. Frick and frack.. Abbott and Costello.. Lennon/McCartney.

Pork and kimchi can sum up the reason foodies are obsessed about food. It's the perfect song. It's an item on the menu that would be a deal-closer for anyone wanting to impress their friend with their exotic ordering prowess.

Go taste this. It will communicate to you a great deal about why I love food. You may get it but you may not. But if you do, welcome to my food obsession.

A recipe to follow...

Good Riddance 2009, Hello 2010

Here's to an economic recovery and prosperous 2010 for everyone.

My next post will be in the new year and I hope to start it all off with a bang.

Until then have a safe and wonderful holidays.

- Eat, Drink, Man...

Bao, Taiwanese Style Buns

I made bao. Specifically, sandwich style bao popular in Taiwanese gua bao.

I initially tried David Chang's recipe but it was unsuccessful. I could not figure out the right flour and the yeast ratio didn't rise/activate the entire mound of dough. From what I read, his Momofuku empire supposedly doesn't make their own bao for his infamous pork belly buns and his published recipe was a rushed response for his cookbook.

Then I stumbled on author Andrea Nguyen's LA Times article inclusive of a bao recipe and was in business. Although, I had to adapt her recipe a bit to get desired results.

First the flour. Gold Medal Self-Rising works best according to Andrea. I agree. The "cake" flour David Chang mentioned in his recipe just didn't cut it for me.

I added 3 cups of flour, 2 Tbsp of sugar and 2 tsp of baking powder to my KitchenAid mixer and gently mixed all this together.

I then add one and a half tsp of instant dry yeast and a pinch of sugar to 1 cup of warm water (105-115°F) and gently whisk. About a minute later I add about 2 Tbsp of liquefied pork lard and mix. Andrea's recipe calls for canola oil instead of pork fat but I read somewhere that pork fat was better for taste.

I have made this bao recipe with canola oil and after using pork fat I can confirm a major improvement in taste. The canola oil route made the taste of the dough overpowering and didn't allow my other ingredients to stand out.

After about 5 minutes, the yeast starts foaming in the mixture and that fermented smell should also be detectable. I then slowly add this to the flour mixture while my KitchenAid is stirring at its lowest cycles.

I know enough liquid has been added when the dough becomes one single form and there are no remnants left in the bowl.

The dough then becomes this soft pliable porous mesh and then I form into a circular mound. As Andrea's recipe states, "..it should be tacky but not stick to your fingers." I then lightly coat the mound with canola oil and cover with plastic wrap in a bowl and leave it alone for an hour at warm room temperature.

After which, the mound should enlarge in size and is ready to be formed into bao.

I've been fooling around with the size I want my buns/finished product to be and I find that if you tear away enough dough to form something resembling the size of golf balls, then that seems sufficient to me. But by all means, if you prefer smaller or larger then that's completely up to you.

After I roll the dough pieces into spherical shapes, I then flour down a cutting board or clean surface area and start rolling out a circular oblong shape about a 1/4 inch in thickness. You will have to flour down both sides of the buns from time to time so they won't stick to the rolling pin.

Before I place the buns in the steamer, I lightly coat half the inside of the buns with canola oil, and place on pre-cut parchment paper squares.

At this point, I start heating up a wok with a shallow pool of water on the stove and start placing my buns in a dual level Asian bamboo steamer. It's important to use a wooden/bamboo steamer so the steam that travels through it sort of seeps into the wood as opposed to drip onto your buns.

I recommend that before you place the steamer in the wok, bring the water to a boil and reduce to medium heat. Then place the covered steamer in the wok, ensuring the water does not make contact with the first level, and steam for 10 minutes.

Now, what to put inside the buns? Find out in the new year...

Recipe (Makes about 16 medium buns):

You will need -
Rolling pin
Large mixing bowl
Measuring cup
Thermometer
Asian bamboo steamer
Parchment or Wax paper (will keep the buns from sticking to the steamer)
KitchenAid Mixer (optional)

For the dough -
3 cups of self-rising flour, recommend Gold Medal
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking Powder

For the yeast -
1 cup of warm water (b/w 105-115°F)
1 1/2 tsp of instant dry yeast
2 Tbsp of liquid pork fat
Pinch of sugar

1) Combine all dough ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix all together then set aside.
2) Fill a measuring cup with 1 cup of warm water and with a thermometer, gauge the temperature.
3) Once the water temperature falls between 105-115°F, add the yeast and a pinch of sugar and gently stir.
4) A minute later, add 2 Tbsp of liquid pork fat and whisk.
5) The yeast mixture should start foaming and emit a slight fermented odor.
6) After 5 minutes or so, slowly add this to the dough/flour mixture and knead and fold all together. If you have an electric mixer like I luckily do, add the yeast mixture slowly to the dough on a low setting.
7) After another 5 minutes of manually kneading or electronically mixing, form the dough into a circular mound.
8) Lightly coat the dough everywhere with canola oil and place into a large bowl.
9) Wrap the dough surface with plastic wrap, careful not to leave any of it exposed.
10) Leave at room temperature for 1 hour.
11) After an hour or so, the dough should expand considerably in size. If it doesn't, your yeast must not have activated or was killed somewhere in the process. If so, you will have to start over.
12) Tear golf ball size portions from the dough and roll in your hands to form spherical shapes. This will make medium sized buns.
13) Lightly dust a cutting board or surface area and the pieces of dough with flour so it doesn't stick to the surface, hands or rolling pin.
14) With a rolling pin, flatten the pieces of dough into 1/4 inch oblong or circular disks.
15) Brush half of the bun with canola oil and place onto a 3"x2" cut out of parchment or wax paper. This will keep the folded parts from sticking to each other during steaming.
16) Place as many buns including parchment/wax paper in a bamboo steamer.
17) Bring a wok with a shallow pool of water to a boil then reduce the heat to medium.
18) Place covered steamer in the wok and steam buns for about 10 minutes.
19) Serve immediately with your favorite fillings.

Craving...

Making Soba Noodles at Matsugen from Zagat Buzz on Vimeo.