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nakji

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Everything posted by nakji

  1. nakji

    Halifax

    Hmm. If they're up by that cemetary, it's a long haul from Cambridge Suites to Bayers road. Maybe 40 minutes walking? At least? With nothing particularly interesting along the way, I'd say. Taxis would be fairly expensive - probably 8 or 9 dollars one way for that distance. Buses....well, the Number 1 goes straight up Spring Garden road, and would take you to Halifax Shopping Centre, which would probably be about 10 minutes walk from your Aunties. Doable, as long as you don't mind hauling a stroller onto the bus. And unlike most of the buses in Halifax, that bus runs at fairly decent intervals - maybe every ten or 15 minutes. Bud the Spud is a great place to stop and have a coke and fries! I second that recommendation. If Steve-o-Reno's cafe is still there, they make some decent coffee, although the food is hippie-ish. Lots of granola and whole grains, not a lot of taste. I forgot to mention Opa!, a slightly upscale Greek place on Argyle. Especially good for lunch, they have a sunny glassed-in patio. On Quinpool, the King Wah has been serving solid Cantonese and Szechuan style food for as long as I can remember. Not a place to find soup dumplings and the like, but pretty good for Halifax. Avoid "pizza corner" for their pizza, but their Lebanese dishes were usually fresh and good. Bish, Fid, and Chives all have really good reputations - of them, I've only eaten at Chives, and it was fantastic! Not sure how kid friendly they are, though.
  2. Perhaps the recipes you found were for Jeonju style bibimbap, and not dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap? Jeonju style bibimbap calls for the already cooked ingredients to be presented in a bowl (usually stainless steel at the places I ate!) and mixed with no further cooking. With Dolsot bibimbap, the stone pot continues to cook the ingredients after they've been put in. But every place I ever ate it, they heated the stone pot up on a gas ring - I never saw an oven in a traditional Korean restaurant - and when they thought it was hot enough, added the cooked rice, sauteed veg, and already cooked beef. My favourite place used to top it all with a raw egg, but this was fairly uncommon. I'm not sure if it was for food safety reasons or not, but most places served it with a fried egg. This could be why most recipes get you to cook the beef first. If you get your stone pot hot enough, though, I don't see a reason why you couldn't use good quality thinly sliced beef, and let the pot cook it. This strikes me as something my Korean cooking mentor Mrs. Lee would have done to save dishes and time. (She also added soy sauce to her japchae cooking water - another great tip!) If you remember how they did it, why not just try doing it that way and see what happens?
  3. I like tonkatsu better than any other breaded meat I've ever tried. Hands down. It's the panko. And that magic brown sauce.
  4. nakji

    Holiday Treats

    Homemade jams, sundae sauces, powdered hot chocolate mixes. Spiced nuts, flavoured popcorn. How hot a climate are we talking?
  5. nakji

    Halifax

    I can suggest "My Other Brother Darrell's" It's on Fenwick st., right across from Fenwick Tower. You can't miss Fenwick Tower, it's one of the tallest buildings in town. Your hotel will be able to give you directions, if you're staying on the peninsula. It's actually a university hangout, but really friendly service. I strongly recommend the pita sub club, and the peanut butter burger. They make great shakes as well. Reasonably priced. Seating is booths, not sure if they have any high chairs. Downstairs is a laundromat, so they don't really stand on ceremony, though. The Ardmore, on Quinpool st, is a classic diner. Great pancakes. There's a lot of really good high-end dining in Halifax, I can't recommend any, since I was a poor student when I lived there. Don't miss the Saturday market at the brewery - the Mary's Breadbasket cinnamon bun is a must try. Go early, as the line gets long. try and score a cup of "Just Us" fair trade coffee from one of the vendors. It's fresh roasted and some of the best coffee in a town awash with Tim Hortons. Where do your aunties live? It's hard to get around Halifax without a car. If they live on the peninsula, it's mostly walkable. If she lives in Dartmouth or Clayton Park, however, you'll want a car to get around.
  6. nakji

    Dash and Dine

    I get home at 9:30 or 10:00 pm each night, and I haven't eaten since 3 or so. So quick meals are important for me. I can usually get a take-out fried pho or what-have-you from across the street, but sometimes I like to cook for myself. My answer to this dilemma? Kimchi Bokkumbap. I always have eggs, onion, ham, and kimchi in the fridge. The only picky thing is cold rice, but I often have some hanging around from leftovers. The ham can be anything - bacon, sandwich meat - I usually have smoked tenderloin slices. In Korea, it's usually made with cubed Spam. As you will. Fry up onions, ham product in sesame oil. When it's cooked down, add kimchi, which has been cut into small slices (I often use scissors for this task, and do it in the bag to reserve precious kimchi juice.) along with kimchi juice. Cook briefly, and add rice. Fry until rice is a happy fried rice texture. Pop it all in a bowl, and fry up an egg in the pan. Keep the yolk runny! Serve with the egg on top of the rice; pierce the yolk so it runs over the rice and cooks slightly. Top with toasted sesame seeds, if you're feeling festive. An excellent way to use up the end of a really old head of kimchi. Omelettes are an old standby, and my husband has been known to make Chicken Marsala. Not exactly healthy, but great with a loaf of bread.
  7. Please forgive this question if it seems stupid; I've eaten peaches, but never foie gras. Is foie gras similar in texture or taste to peaches? I see the presentation of the seared peach looks like a classical presentation of seared foie gras, but is there another connection? Otherwise, all dishes look incredibly scrumptious. I must have been out of North America for too long, I was surprised to see "Holy Shit" on a public sign. I don't want to sound like a prude, but is that no longer considered...er...(this sounds so lame) cursing? No, don't get up, I'll check myself into a nursing home.
  8. This is one of the bestest tastes in the world. It makes your tongue curl up like a particularly well seasoned salt-and-vinegar chip. MMMMMMmmmmm. We used to go to a great pork place in the back alleys of Sinchon, and the adjumma there made seriously killer kimchi - like, her own homemade stuff, none of that Chinese stuff that a lot of the cheaper places tried to pass off. She didn't use a lot of brine shrimp, to keep the cost down, she said, and she aged it 6 months before serving it. It had a lovely, almost cider vinegary taste. She would pack it up in bags for me to take home, and would never take a cent for it. She thought it was crazy that this waeguk girl loved her kimchi so much. My bosses' wife made great kimchi as well. She used to use more ginger (which a lot of Koreans admitted to me that they didn't like!) and she had thick strips of radish stuffed in each leaf which we would all fight for when we went over for dinner. Yum The commercially made kimchi, in my opinion - you know the kind that comes in the green bag - ? Was always too...salty? for me. Homemade was best, because every family had a different way that they liked it. Much the way traditional Western pickles would be, I guess. A lot of my older female students admitted to not having time to make their kimchi every November, and relied on Mothers-in-law and grandmothers to do it. I thought that was really sad - what would happen when they were all gone? But of course, totally understandable, because kimchi making, like putting up any pickles, is time-consuming business. I remember every October and November, newspapers would publish cabbage and radish prices, and everybody would lament how expensive they were these days. Now I buy Ehwa Kimchi - "Lee Hoa" in Vietnamese. It's okay...it's slightly sweet, which I enjoy plain with rice. But it's not nearly juicy enough for proper kimchi bokkumbap. There's no red juice at the bottom of the pack at all. Sacrilege! Jason, your pictures look lip-smacking. Have you ever tried mul-kimchi? It's a cold kimchi soup served with many grilled dishes. It's made with sliced cucumbers, cabbage, some carrots and green onion, all floating in a semi-frozen chili broth. Very refreshing!
  9. The UK? Nova Scotia has always gone on about how good the lobster there is, but never having tried any other kind, I'm not sure if it holds up. If someone is willing to airfreight me two live lobsters, one from Maine and one from Nova Scotia, I'll be happy to do a tasting. On another note, I was surprised to learn from Anthony Bourdain's show on New York that top-quality smoked salmon is called "Nova", after Nova Scotia. I think all of the wild salmon have been fished out of the rivers there. Growing up in Nova Scotia, I never noticed smoked salmon being touted as a regional specialty!
  10. I agree with this. I lived in Korea for almost four years, which by no means makes me an expert. That being said, I had to force myself to eat kimchi for my first year until I began to actually like it. I buy it even now that I'm in Vietnam, although I must confess I prefer the Vietnamese version, which is slightly sweet and a lot less fishy. Why did I force myself to eat it? I felt like I was missing out on the culture by not trying to embrace the (some would argue) most fundamental part of it. But many foreigners I knew in Korea avoided the majority of Korean foods, with perhaps the exception of dolsot bibimbap or galbi. Because they didn't like the taste of it. Despite the expense and difficulty of finding foreign food, many would go out of their way to avoid Korean food. We often went out for Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai food. Despite being surrounded by good, nutritious Korean food, they would opt for one or two Korean dishes and almost any other cuisine. Were these people unadventurous? I don't think so...I mean, they're the sort of people who would up and move around the world to live and work in a different culture. But they didn't like the food. My husband HATED Korean food. I cooked almost exclusively western style at home, except for the weekend, when he would cheerfully go out for grilled meat. When my parents visited, they were happy to eat bibimbap and grilled meat. Now, my father grew up in Southeast Asia in the early sixties, so he's a pretty adventurous eater. Saturday night was "cooking night" at my house, when we would all work together on a special meal - curries with handground and toasted spices, handmade pork dumplings..I tell you this to assure you that they're not your average eaters. But I brought the kimchi out and they just about keeled over. They forbid me from opening it in the house again...Now this was pure, handmade kimchi, made by my boss's wife - aged six months and perfectly balanced (I thought). They wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, not even to try it. Of course, Korean food is not just kimchi, but the fermented aspect is a strong part of the essence of the cuisine. I also found that the first thing Koreans asked me in Korea was about the food. "Do you like kimchi? It's not too spicy for you?" I could never tell if they wanted me to love it or to hate it, to share the deliciousness; or to satisfy their preconceived notions of how foreigners perceive Korean food. (And let me tell you, what foreigners think of Korean food is MUCH discussed in Korea - there's always an article in the paper about how scientists in China have found that Kimchi prevents SARS; or that Kimchi sales have risen 30% in Japan over the past two years, etc. etc.) I always said, "Yes, I like kimchi, but I didn't at first. Many foreigners don't like the fermented taste, as well as the spiciness." I had a friend from Idaho who almost would fly into a rage when presented with this question for the eighthundredth time, "I grew up eating Mexican food! KOREAN FOOD IS NOT SPICY!!!" he would usually vent as we walked away. I had a friend who was American-Indian - I remember him archly replying to someone who had unwittingly asked him the same question, "Sir. I am Indian. Please do not question my ability to eat spicy food." What am I trying to say here....there's a kind of dichotomy from Koreans (in Korea) as well that kind of is like, "Our food is the best! Our food is the best! Kimchi is the healthiest thing you can eat!" and on the same hand "Foreigners hate our food because it's too spicy!" And then were kind of proud ...of both of those things? Does that make sense? So maybe some of the old-school Korean places in the US haven't tried to market Korean food because they think it wouldn't be appreciated? But then.... I can think of lots of Korean foods that I have cooked for people (mainly the stuff that didn't include kimchi) that they loved....pajeon, japchae, bibimbap. We took a friend out for samgyeobsal a couple of weeks ago, and she described the spread of panchan like "asian tapas". And loved it. But we were there to explain it all, and how to eat it... So I don't know... I mean, all I can say is that if you put a bowl of pho and a bowl of deonjangjigae in front of me, I'd go for the pho every single time. Hands down. That's my preference. And I've eaten a lot of food, across Asia - I think I'm a pretty well-rounded eater. If there are a lot of people like me...well then, that could be a reason why it's not as popular. That being said (and I've rambled a lot here, I apologize) I think that if Korean food was presented well and explained properly, it has the potential to be very popular...with time. I mean, how long did sushi take to catch on? Did that make any sense? Yikes...
  11. nakji

    Best Panini Recipes

    You could roast some veggies in the oven with olive oil and garlic - eggplant, mushroom and red pepper, say - and then serve it with a schmear of pesto or some melted cheese. Or both. Sun-dried tomatoes, chicken and provolone. Parma Ham and Arugula. ...now I'm hungry.
  12. Oh wow. This was brilliant. The tasting party at the end brought it all together. *slow clap* I never knew sausage was a big part of barbecue tradition. Is this true only in Texas? Or do other regions also feature sausage? I'm looking forward to the taqueria thread.
  13. In my defense, that description was my roommate's, not mine! Those look incredibly delicious and I cannot say how glad I am they are not available for my consumption (at 200 calories a pop). Yes, I know what you mean about eating differently. I shop differently, too. Now I shop daily or for one or two days in advance. Kiosks were all over Korea as well, in the winter the vendors wear parkas and have little portable heaters. I always assumed they proliferated due to low overhead and not needing to be properly registered businesses. Of course, here in Hanoi, they take it to new levels by carrying whole restaurants - burners and all- in baskets, so they can up and run when the police come round to check! Thanks for sharing so much of Moscow with us - I'd like to try your plov recipe. There were a few Kyrgyztani restaurants in Seoul I never got around to trying. I always wanted to go, as random Korean people were always asking me if I was from Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan, which seemed like a rather random question. If I looked like these people; and it's fair to say I'm a little plump; then surely their food must be delicious! Right?
  14. I've noticed this to be true across Asia as well. It's a much more sensible way to drink when you think about it. All that food cushions the booze! Although I do eat more this way!! I've seen baked milk like that here in Vietnam as well. I just assumed it was UHT milk that had changed colour. It has a really unique taste. I sometimes miss fresh milk. Do you miss anything from the U.S.? Mukki: Yes! My roommate said they were smallish squares...are they the same thing?
  15. Hey! As a person of Inuit origin, I object to that name! Kidding. Are they the same things as the American "Eskimo Pie"? Because if they were originally an American product encountered by my Canadian roommate in Russia - who then assumed they were Russian - well that could be kind of humourous. I guess it's one thing to hear in the news, "Russia's economy is expanding and becoming more westernized" and then another thing to see it in photos. It's so rare to get a glimpse of people in other countries' day-to-day lives...that's what makes reading these food blogs such a treat, I guess. Also, if you've ever been to a place once, and then never returned - well, your mind tends to freeze it in that one time. I remember visiting the UK with my father in the late eighties. He left in the late sixties and couldn't get over how it had changed. He kept counting the McDonalds out loud.
  16. Wow, everything looks so surprising! Being Canadian, I also miss the late summer sunshine! The sun goes down at 6:30 where I am now. When I was in University, my roommate was a Russian language major. She spent a lot of time in St. Petersburg, and couldn't stop raving about ice cream bars that she described as "frozen cream cheese covered in chocolate". Which sounds extraordinarily delicious. Have you tried anything like that? It's very interesting for me to see the MacDonalds and other trappings of modern life in Moscow. I've travelled in China as well, and know how much they love their western chains! But stubborn old Hanoi refuses to join in. (One of the many reasons I love it here). They only recently gave permission to open the first Kentucky Fried Chicken. (Unlike decadent Ho Chi Minh City, which has many). But all over town, you can still see traces of the Russian (Soviet?) influence. There are still some of the old buses that came from Russia used as military transport buses, and one of the most popular items purchased at my corner store - Hanoi Vodka! Is vodka popular even in the summer in Moscow, or is it more of a winter drink?
  17. Oh boy, thanks for the pics. Of course, Loblaws are called "Real Atlantic Superstores" in my old neck of the woods, but they're the same. I love and miss muffins with a passion I can't fully express via an internet message board. Tell me...were there any blueberry muffins there? I love blueberry muffins. Every once and a while, the bakery at The Hilton or the Press Club will make muffins, but they aren't the cakey ones I remember from home.
  18. This is embarrassing. I don't think I could cobble anything together, based on what's in my house. I have to buy everything fresh from scratch everyday, otherwise the ants get it. And they don't seem to spray fruit or veg with preservatives here, so if I buy a banana or a custard apple today, I have to eat it today. There's no sitting around in the tropics. My fridge consists of 3 Halida beer, a mostly empty bottle of sun-dried tomatoes, some eggs so old I've been meaning to throw them out, and a shriveled eggplant (see previous). My fridge freezer holds my rice and a small bag of muesli, and a ziploc baggie of individually frozen cubes of tomato paste. Next to my stove, I have a bottle of olive oil, corn oil, and sesame oil. I also have a bottle of scotch (Glenfiddich, 12 year) and a bottle of Jim Beam. Maybe I could bring drinks? The upside of this paucity is that as long as I'm willing to shop between the hours of 6am to 6pm, I can get anything I want off the street where I live. I usually disturb three fruit ladies taking a break on my stoop when I open the gate on my way to work everyday. So I can pick up my daily pineapple that way. There's a dry-good store across the street from me, where I always get my water. They have an assortment of any noodle I could imagine (including baskets of pre-soaked rice noodles wrapped in banana leaves), peanuts, beer, Vietnamese vodka, yogurt, UHT milk, Chocopies...all the necessities of life. And when I get to work, there's a man who usually butchers a pig daily at 2pm on the street outside my office, so if I want pork, I know it's fresh. There's a lady next to him who sells herbs and veg, so whatever I need is at my fingertips. It's a living pantry out there.
  19. I think it's Turkey, or possibly a former Soviet republic. But based on the kebabs and the pomegranates, I'm going with Turkey. But I don't know who posts from Turkey. (edited for misidentifying some objects)
  20. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I like beans. I like dessert. But I do not like beans in my dessert. They make a similar dessert here in Vietnam, but they call it che, and it comes in so many varieties. I like fruit and ice with coconut cream myself, but the bean ones are really popular as well.
  21. Yay! That's exactly the hat! I've ordered him one. Maybe he'll lose this one in Laos, or something equally dramatic. Thanks for the pictures of Ribfest. I had a friend from Brampton when I lived in Korea. He always used to compare "meat street" in Ilsan (near Seoul) to Ribfest - the major difference between the two being that "meat street" was a permanent thing. Just shop after shop of whole pigs being roasted on the spit. But instead of sweet sauce and potato salad, there was kimchi and....well, they also served potato salad, now that I think of it. We didn't have ribfest in Nova Scotia, but we do have lobster dinners, so I guess it all works out. $12 for two ice cream cones? Is that normal?! That's insane. What's so special about it? Things I miss seeing? Shots of President Choice brand anything, Swiss Chalet (I know, I know), No Name....they all remind me of home.
  22. At the cooking class at Casa Luna, it wasn't really hands-on. We just watched as the staff prepared most of the dishes. There was some perfunctory paste grinding by the guests, but almost everything else was done by the staff. I like to actually, you know, cook, during cooking classes. Call me crazy. I would refer to that more as a cooking presentation than a class. The resulting food was quite delicious but I felt like I didn't come away knowing much more about Balinese food. Except that if you ate 3 nutmegs, you'd die. I learned that.
  23. Was that the one in Apsley? I've been there. Nothing says "class" like buying booze in a trailer. Well, my internet has been down for several days now, and it's been a real treat to get back on e-gullets and read this thread. As a Canadian who hasn't been home in years, this thread has made me sniffle in nostalgia. The Tim Hortons sign and the donut display? Priceless. And I hated their coffee. The picture of the Keith's made my husband whimper. He still hasn't gotten over the fact that he lost his precious green Keith's cap off the back of a motorcycle taxi a couple months back. His parents scoured Halifax for another one for him, but said they don't make them anymore. /misses Canada
  24. I'm eating some right now! It's delicious. thinner and sweeter than I'm used to, but I expect because it's made with full fat milk and doesn't have any gelatine.
  25. Having lived and eaten in Korea for four years, I can say that Korean food is certainly not to my taste. I always wanted the kimchi to be sweeter! Even after having eaten (I must admit) really great galbi in various places throughout Korea, the typical Korean meal; that is, rice, kimchi, and soup, just never called to me. I have eaten really great deonjangjigae. I have eaten home cooked meals, and restaurant meals. But nothing ever jumped out at me and said, "I could eat this happily for every single day for the rest of my life." Which is how I feel about Banana Flower salad, or rice in shrimp paper. If it came down to it, and you offered me the choice between a Thai, a Vietnamese, and Korean restaurant, I would go for the Thai and the Vietnamese every time. Except maybe if I were feeling nostalgic! It just was never suited to my palate. And I consider myself a pretty adventurous eater.
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