Seoul 11.12 - Myeongdong Kyoja

We were a little hungry after arriving at Myeongdong, so we headed over to Myeongdong Kyoja (Myeongdong Dumplings) to have some early dinner/snack.

Myeongdong Kyoja has two locations within the Myeongdong shopping district. I'm not quite sure which one we ended up going in to, but it was the one I saw first!


We were seated at the second floor. The shop was busy! The server lady dropped off the menu and returned very quickly to take our orders and payment. Very efficient!

The condiments were on the table.

And the utensils were in the drawers under the table.

This was silly, but when the kimchi and soups came John and I wondered why the lady didn't bring us the utensils. We asked for chopsticks (using hand gestures) and the lady looked surprised (or shocked?) and pulled out the drawer right next to me.

So that was where the chopsticks and spoons were.

We got the steamed mandu (steamed dumplings) and bibimguksu (spicy cold noodles). They were delicious!

The steamed mandu.

The bibimguksu.

The steamed mandu was filled with juicy ground pork and vegetables, and the skin was thin and delicious, too!

And for the bibimguksu, the boy that brought the dish asked if we wanted to have it cut, and we said yes, so he cut the "pile" of noodles into four sections for easy-eating. The noodles were cooked well and their texture was QQ - soft yet "al dente". I really liked them!

The kimchi at Myeongdong Kyoja was also some of our favorite during this trip... very garlic-y! Yum.

mmm Myeongdong Kyoja!

spinach

I love spinach. I was a picky eater as a child, and there weren't that many kinds of vegetables that I liked; however, spinach was always delicious to me!

I don't like to eat raw spinach. At home my mom would stir-fry it and simply seasoned it with some salt and chopped garlic, and this has been what I like to do with spinach all these years that I've been cooking for John and myself.

These days I also like to put spinach on many other dishes!



In a Korean-inspired ramyeon and tteok soup.



In yakisoba.

Mmmmm... spinach.

korean jajangmyeon kit

The other day I was at the Korean market I spotted a Jajangmyeon kit. It looked very inviting, and I had been reading about it, so I thought I'd give it a try.

There were four packets in the kit - two packets of the noodles, and two packets of the sauce. The cooking instruction was simple and easy to understand:

One thing I did different from the instructions was that I boiled the sauce pouch first, and after that I used the same pot of boiling water to cook the noodles (because then I didn't have to wait for another pot of water to boil!)

The finished jajangmyeon was actually quite good!

Mmmmm. 

Since this I had also tried making jajangmyeon from scratch, but I had not yet made it even comparable to these store-bought kits. Hopefully I can make decent jajangmyeon soon and post about this fun adventure!

SCAA 2011 Houston - Day 2.3

After the SCAA shows John and I walked to the old(er) China Town area to try to find this little pho shop, but when we got there we saw it was not open, so we wondered over to the other side of the street and saw a bunch of cars in a parking lot of a restaurant, so we stopped in.

The place was called Kim Son. I believed it was a Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant.

We each had a bowl of pho, and shared a seafood pot.


Pho at Kim Son. Pleasant.


"Seafood in hot pot." I was slightly intrigued by the fact that the hot pot was a Korean-style stone pot, but I liked it.

The walk back to the hotel was pleasant. A bit too warm for us but pleasant. We saw something that looked dangerous on the way:


Maybe this was due to the big wind? Hope the cables stay attached.

curry udon with roasted chicken

I have been loving and eating Japanese curry these days. I brought back a big bag of curry flakes from Tokyo and just barely opened it about a month ago. It's like the curry squares that come in small boxes, but shaved into little flakes!

These little flakes are amazing! They melt and mix in with whatever I'm making and delicious curry is simple and convenient to make.

I've also found a lazy way of making curry noodles.

I boil the noodles for the desired time, and instead of straining them after they are done, I pour out excessive water (while the noodles are still in the pot and save some water,) and add the curry flakes to make curry sauce or soup right in the same pot.

The other night John made some rotisserie chicken thighs (marinated the chicken thigh pieces with a little bit of olive oil, chopped garlic, soy sauce, and rice wine,) so we placed the chicken on top of the curry udon noodles. Very tasty!


and of course there had to be some shichimi on the noodles!

asian meat sauce for noodles

I made some Asian meat sauce for noodles in the slow cooker (crock pot). It's really easy I think it's really tasty on noodles or rice.


OK I think I put a little bit too much meat sauce on my noodles.

Asian Meat Sauce for Noodles

1 lb. ground pork
1 package hard tofu (the "pressed" kind that's brown on the outside), cubed
2 T miso
2 T sweet flour sauce (optional - substitute with 2 T miso)
2 T chopped garlic
2 t Asian chili paste/sauce/oil
1/4 C rock sugar (crystals or chunks) or white sugar
1/4 C soy sauce
fresh ground pepper
enough water to just cover all ingredients in the slow cooker

I mixed everything in the slow cooker and cook it on high for 4 hours and it's done!

It's really yummy on noodles by itself. I also tried to boil some frozen broccoli while cooking the noodles and place it on the noodles before pouring on some meat sauce and it was really tasty, too.

spaghetti

John makes awesome spaghetti!

I'd not say John is a great cook, but he does make certain food really, really good. So far I've noticed he makes super delish lasagna, spaghetti, garlic burgers, and nachos.


Hmmm... yummy spaghetti with meat sauce.

corn noodles

Here's a quick meal idea:

Heat a can of cream style corn, then add salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste. Mix the cream of corn with cooked Chinese/Japanese noodles. Fast and yummy!

[Tokyo Fall 2008] Ikebukuro: Mutekiya Ramen

After we arrived in Tokyo, we took Narita Express (JR) and got to Ikebukuro. We checked into our hotel and decided to go to Mutekiya to have ramen.

I did some research and found that Mutekiya probably had the best ramen in Ikebukuro, and off we went. According to their web site, Mutekiya is about a 3-minute walk away from the east exit of the Ikebukuro station. I don't quite remember how long we walked when we got to the shop, but it was definitely more than 3 minutes.

We walked along Meji Dori and arrived at Mutekiya.


"Mutekiya" in kanji.

While we were in line I had to take pictures!


Mutekiya's famous "ramen bowl/wok" sign, where the ingredients of the ramen were illustrated.


After a few minutes wait, a girl from the shop brought us the menu, and took our order. Both John and I ordered their signature ramen (the one on the top right of the page), and I got a side bamboo shoots and "soft center" egg (each for 100yen).

We were able to get seated pretty soon after the girl took our order. We were guided to the seats at the bar that's facing the kitchen.


There are a few pitchers of jasmin tea concentrate (on the right side of the photo) and iced water, where customers can mix the two and make yummy iced teas to their desired strength. I drank a few glasses.


My ramen and sides. Yay!

Mutekiya's ramen was delicious. John and I thought their pork slices were probably the thickest and had the best textures and flavors among all the ramen we had on this trip. Yumminess.


There were also spicy pickles and "no-stink" garlic on the counter.


It was fun to watch and listen to people enjoy their ramen! Notice you can see John's open mouth in the photo. hahaha.

Mutekiya's ramen definitely gave our trip a great start!

P.S. These photos were taken with our Sony camcorder.

quick super noodle-y soup

One quick lunch/dinner options to me these days has been a small cooked bundle of Somen noodles inside a canned soup. It's super noodle-y and I love it!


I like the cream-based chicken soups with my noodles.

The best thing is that Somen usually cooks in 2-3 minutes. I'd boil the water, start heating the soup in the microwave, and then put the uncooked noodles into the boiling water. Both are done about the same time! Ahh I'm such a lazy home cook.


It's ultra yummy with some fresh ground black pepper!

spicy sate beef noodle soup

Joyce and I went to La-Cai Noodle House. I was going to have pho, but decided to try the spicy sate beef noodle soup with rice noodles instead. It was delicious and reminded me of this "fish noodle" dish from a small shop in Taiwan.



We also shared some spring rolls (in rice paper wrappers) with peanut sauce. Yummy. Joyce had a big platter of grilled pork on rice. I was surprised she finished all her food! (She's tiny!)

La-Cai Noodle House
961 South State Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 322-3590

OSAKA: golden dragon ramen

John told me he had started looking for tickets for our trip to Japan later this year, and I realized that I really have to eventually finish up writing about the "Kansai, Japan 07/08" trip soon, or I would probably forget all about it.

With that being said, I'm going write about the "Golden Dragon Ramen" on the famous food/market street Doutonbori in Osaka where we visted one day.



We've passed this ramen shop several times in the past. From what I undersood there were two other sub-locations on Doutonbori, and the one we went to was the main and original shop.


There's almost always a line of people in front of this corner shop. You have to stay in line in front of a ticket vending machine to get your ramen ticket. There were not that many choices... in fact there were two: original ramen, and ramen with extra grilled pork. Simple as that. After you get your ticket a guy would greet you, take your tickets, and show (point) you your seats.

These "seats" and the little tables are on tatamis (that are on platforms). I think you have the options of taking off your shoes or not. I noticed that if a girl was wearing a skirt, chances were that she didn't even get her legs onto the tatatmi, but to just sit side-ways off the tatami platform.

After you are seated you can walk up to the self-service counter to grab water, kimchi, other sorts of pickles, and spices. John got some kimchi and water for us. I saw a lady got a whole bowl-ful of chopped green onions to go with her ramen soup. Interesting.


I think we got the "original" bowls of ramen.

The soup base Golden Dragon was a pork-bone base. Thick and delicious. The pork in the soup was thinly sliced and flavorful. Yummy!

We sat, ate, enjoyed the crowded shop and street, and tried not to look at the people who are waiting in line to buy their ramen tickets, staring at us.

simple stir fried noodles "chow-mien"

I still haven't made more dumplings, or gyoza, with the rest of the meat/cabbage filling. I decided to stir fry the already-chopped-up meat and vegetables with some noodles and made simple chow mien.



Simple Chow Mien

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon oilve oil for frying (optional)
1 cup dumpling/gyoza filling
Asian noodles, cooked (for 2)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon white pepper

Cook the Asian noodles according to package instructions. (I use dry Taiwanese yellow noodles... cooked and drained.) Heat the oil and stir-fry the gyoza filling until the meat looks pretty much cooked. Push the meat and vegetables to the side to make a circle in the center of the pan. Add sesame oil and the cooked noodles and stir together the meat/vegetables and noodles until hot. Add soy sauce and white pepper to taste.

This Chow Mien tasted so good, and it reminded me of the Chow Mien from this little noodle stand in Taiwan. I think the sesame oil, soy sauce, combined with the white pepper did the trick.