If your last name happens to be Yoo, Kim, or Choi, it's pretty often that you will get an unexpected text message (or perhaps it's expected by now) from me that may read something like this:
i was just thinkin bout haemul
pajeon and i swear there's a
drop of drool on my shirt..
or...
OMG im craving HAEMUL PA
JEON right now.. GAHHHHHH..
bring me some PAJEON!
or perhaps...
OMG OMG OMG HAEMUL
PAJEON!!!!! haemuuuull pa
jeeeeooonnn + kimchiiiii... i
need it NOW please, like
NOWWW... dies.
Last night Mr. Yoo helped me realized how utterly ridiculous it is for me to start texting anyone who is Korean in my phonebook everytime I get a craving for anything remotely Korean. It'd be like someone texting me about Taiwanese or Chinese food items just because that person was craving it at that specific moment. Those potential text messages may read something like this:
i cant sleep at night thinking
about taiwanese oyster pan
cake.. im dying thinking about
uh ah jzen.. oyster pancake
oyster pancake OYSTER PAN
CAAAAKE.
or...
i want some XIAOLONGBAO
right now! ohhhHhhHhHHhhhh...
DTF dumplings how i luuuuvvv
uuuuu
or perhaps...
BRAISED PORK RICE CAN
WE PLZZZZ get some lu rou
fan RIGHT NOWWWWW!!!
nom nom nom nom
Yeah, extreme ridiculousness. And if you're ever on the receiving end of those text messages (apologies to all surnamed Yoo, Kim, and Choi in my phonebook), that's pure randomness right there.
So thank you for that revelation, Mr. Yoo. I may stop myself from sending those texts out when I can't sleep at night... dreaming about haemul pajeon... but in honor of the possible termination of random text messages, I will dedicate a post to (no, not haemul pajeon because I've done that already) my newfound love... kalbi jjim.
See next post.
ML - 20100831
Showing posts with label seafood pancake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seafood pancake. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Post 30.2: San Francisco - Smorgasbord
Ahhh... to finish off the grubbin' in San Francisco, I've compiled a smorgasbord of all the remaining meals here and meals there into one post. Meals such as dim sum didn't make it here because our stomachs were too hungry to wait for the picture-taking process. Similar to my flashback of May 2009, here's a look at the weekend's smorgasbord in San Francisco:
Late-night grub @ Playground (SF: Japantown)
Playground is a Korean restaurant in the middle of Japantown. Why it's there? I'm not quite sure. But what I am sure about is that this restaurant-turned-bar/karaoke-house at night serves some damn good haemul pajeon. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Ohhhh... haemul pajeon, you are my faaavorite.
Add some OB or Hite into the mix, and I'm one happy camper. There's nothing like grilled meat (we had some kalbi too), fried carbs, and spicy food (we had some dukbukgi too) to pair with beer on a late Friday night. Nothing.
Afternoon snack @ Stelladoro (SF: Western Addition/NOPA)
After a romp around Haight & Ashbury for piercings and tattoos, we ventured down Divisadero St. to look for more piercing and tattoos. And since piercing and tattoos aren't really for me, I went to look for something to munch on while the posse pondered about the proportions of their proposed permanent body paint. Eek.
Luckily, I found Stelladoro, a Chinese-owned pizza hole-in-the-wall, hidden in the midst of multi-colored (like purple, turquoise and pink) hippie houses and tattoo parlors. Even luckier for me... a slice of pizza was about $2, and it was amazing-delicious. Only in San Francisco would a Chinese man open a pizza shop, have good pizza, and have the shop continue standing through the years. This perfect-size portion of pizza held me over until dinner. Score.
Brunch @ Cafe Divine (SF: North Beach)
Sunday morning means Sunday brunch, so I suggested that we all meander down the Mason St. hill to one of my favorite spots to eat and peoplewatch. Even if you aren't sitting on the patio (AKA the sidewalk), the large, square windows at the restaurant allow the bright sunshine to shine in, which means that peoplewatching is a piece of cake here. (I've never encountered a foggy moment here).
Breakfast here never disappoints. The quiches are good; their egg scrambles are the best. Alex mentioned that he wished that they used smoked salmon rather than the cooked salmon in their Bennies from Heaven (eggs benedict). I agree. But no matter. The water is served in wine bottles, and that is pretty cool.
Dessert @ Cavalli Cafe (SF: North Beach)
I was first introduced to Cavalli Cafe last summer when Connie made a pit-stop here for some free wi-fi. While she plopped her laptop down and set up shop, the shopkeeper introduced me to Cavalli's tiramisu. (He says he makes it himself everyday.) My heart melted when I met the square block of sweet desset. Well, hello, tiramisu, hello.
Ever since my first bite of that decadent dessert, I've had it on my mind. And on my cell phone. I've chosen it to be the screensaver on my cell phone just to remind me of the introduction to Italian incredibleness from just over a year ago. Constantly seeing that slice of tiramisu on my cell means I can easily text the kids in SF with, "I want tiramisu from that place on Columbus next to BOAAAAA... NOOWWW..."
The layers are so light and airy that if you take a sniff close enough to the tiramisu, some of that dusty cocoa powder may just fly up into your nose. Wow, what heavenly crack. And the first layer of marscarpone is so creamy that... as your fork presses into the slice, you're tempted just to give the marscarpone a little swirl as you pick it up. Yesssss. Just because you can. And the lady fingers... oh, the lady fingers. What lady fingers? Too late. All gone. Mmmmm...
Fuck cannoli. This tiramisu blows other desserts out of the water.
Playground, Divine, and Cavalli are all fast-becoming my regular places. Or... as regular as I can be if I live in southern California. But if I'm in SF, you'd better bet that at some point during my trip, I'm going to be at any one of these places.
I'm going on writing hiatus until my trip to New York over Labor Day weekend. Keep cool in the summer heat. And until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.
ML - 20100825/20100723-25
Late-night grub @ Playground (SF: Japantown)
Playground is a Korean restaurant in the middle of Japantown. Why it's there? I'm not quite sure. But what I am sure about is that this restaurant-turned-bar/karaoke-house at night serves some damn good haemul pajeon. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Ohhhh... haemul pajeon, you are my faaavorite.
Add some OB or Hite into the mix, and I'm one happy camper. There's nothing like grilled meat (we had some kalbi too), fried carbs, and spicy food (we had some dukbukgi too) to pair with beer on a late Friday night. Nothing.
Afternoon snack @ Stelladoro (SF: Western Addition/NOPA)
After a romp around Haight & Ashbury for piercings and tattoos, we ventured down Divisadero St. to look for more piercing and tattoos. And since piercing and tattoos aren't really for me, I went to look for something to munch on while the posse pondered about the proportions of their proposed permanent body paint. Eek.
Luckily, I found Stelladoro, a Chinese-owned pizza hole-in-the-wall, hidden in the midst of multi-colored (like purple, turquoise and pink) hippie houses and tattoo parlors. Even luckier for me... a slice of pizza was about $2, and it was amazing-delicious. Only in San Francisco would a Chinese man open a pizza shop, have good pizza, and have the shop continue standing through the years. This perfect-size portion of pizza held me over until dinner. Score.
Brunch @ Cafe Divine (SF: North Beach)
Sunday morning means Sunday brunch, so I suggested that we all meander down the Mason St. hill to one of my favorite spots to eat and peoplewatch. Even if you aren't sitting on the patio (AKA the sidewalk), the large, square windows at the restaurant allow the bright sunshine to shine in, which means that peoplewatching is a piece of cake here. (I've never encountered a foggy moment here).
Breakfast here never disappoints. The quiches are good; their egg scrambles are the best. Alex mentioned that he wished that they used smoked salmon rather than the cooked salmon in their Bennies from Heaven (eggs benedict). I agree. But no matter. The water is served in wine bottles, and that is pretty cool.
Dessert @ Cavalli Cafe (SF: North Beach)
I was first introduced to Cavalli Cafe last summer when Connie made a pit-stop here for some free wi-fi. While she plopped her laptop down and set up shop, the shopkeeper introduced me to Cavalli's tiramisu. (He says he makes it himself everyday.) My heart melted when I met the square block of sweet desset. Well, hello, tiramisu, hello.
Ever since my first bite of that decadent dessert, I've had it on my mind. And on my cell phone. I've chosen it to be the screensaver on my cell phone just to remind me of the introduction to Italian incredibleness from just over a year ago. Constantly seeing that slice of tiramisu on my cell means I can easily text the kids in SF with, "I want tiramisu from that place on Columbus next to BOAAAAA... NOOWWW..."
The layers are so light and airy that if you take a sniff close enough to the tiramisu, some of that dusty cocoa powder may just fly up into your nose. Wow, what heavenly crack. And the first layer of marscarpone is so creamy that... as your fork presses into the slice, you're tempted just to give the marscarpone a little swirl as you pick it up. Yesssss. Just because you can. And the lady fingers... oh, the lady fingers. What lady fingers? Too late. All gone. Mmmmm...
Fuck cannoli. This tiramisu blows other desserts out of the water.
Playground, Divine, and Cavalli are all fast-becoming my regular places. Or... as regular as I can be if I live in southern California. But if I'm in SF, you'd better bet that at some point during my trip, I'm going to be at any one of these places.
I'm going on writing hiatus until my trip to New York over Labor Day weekend. Keep cool in the summer heat. And until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.
ML - 20100825/20100723-25
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Post 18: The Crunch and Crackle of Haemul Pajeon
The Korean seafood pancake (haemul pajeon) has a crunch unlike any other crunch. It's unique. It's special. It's... hard to describe.
The crunch and crackle from Corner Place in Cerritos.
Are there even different types of crunches? Do they actually sound different? Most definitely. Let's see... there's the crunch you get when you bite into a ridged Ruffles potato chip. That type of crunch is more like a snap... it makes cacophonous echoes in the caves of your mouth with every mouthy movement. There's also the crunch you get when you bite into an Extra Crispy from KFC. That crunch is deep. It's got muscle. It's a force to be reckoned with. The crunch of a Korean seafood pancake is different. It's more like a crackle. It's not noisy... but it's not weak either. The pancake is crispy... yet it caves in with more pressure...
Koreans say that the best time to eat haemul pajeon is on rainy days because the pitter patter of the raindrops hitting the ground reminds them of the same crackle of the pancake. In some sort of strange cinematic imagery, I can just see a beautiful (pale as hell) hopeless romantic (Korean) sitting by the window sill with her face pressed against the cold, foggy glass... she is peering out at the grayish storm clouds (don't forget the pale blue hue cast upon her porcelain white skin) and thinking in anguish about her long, lost love (haemul pajeon). But rain or shine, anyday is a great day for seafood pancake. No need to wait for the downpour.
I swoon for the pajeon at Soowon Galbi in LA's Koreatown.
This is one of the few food items that I crave on a consistent basis. If it's been too long of a time without haemul pajeon, it's hard for me to fall asleep. I count slices of pajeon to fall asleep the same way some people (absolutely no one) count sheep at night. (Seriously, does anyone actually count sheep?) Images of the flaky, golden outer shell play through my mind over and over again. I want to embody the tunnels of leggy green onions trapped within the pajeon batter. It'd even be kinda cool to hang out with the octopus tentacles. If the pajeon batter was quicksand, well, let me sink.
Just writing about this is causing a pool of drool to form on my keyboard. Wipe, wipe. Korean food is now on the agenda tomorrow. I can't stare at these pornographic pajeon pictures any longer. Until you hear the crackle of the pancake, let's get S.O.F.A.T.
Kimchi is a suitable complement for a spicy kick and an extra crunch.
Just writing about this is causing a pool of drool to form on my keyboard. Wipe, wipe. Korean food is now on the agenda tomorrow. I can't stare at these pornographic pajeon pictures any longer. Until you hear the crackle of the pancake, let's get S.O.F.A.T.
ML - 20100515
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