Best Return of the Eating V: School Night

Last night (Tuesday night) I ate with Mom, Dad and Cory at Lure. I did not take a single picture. I did not have the burger. I had a fish.

Then I went with Dad and saw Der Rosenkavalier at the Met. I don't know so much about the opera, but I've seen a good handful and this one seemed awful good to me. It took me a while to realize it, but it was quite silly/funny and in the third act there's all this singing and I had this epiphany moment: "Whoa...this music, it's coming out of people's mouths." Is fine opera singing one of the most disciplined and impressive things that can be done with the human body? As mind boggling as winning a gang of gold medals or Tour de Frances? My answer is: "Why not?"

Also, it was nearly 12:30 when the opera got out. I don't think I've been out this late with a parent since the time we all saw a 10pm screening of Forrest Gump.

Return of the Eating IV: Sunday Dinner

Just a little trip out to Williamsburg to take care of a three-year craving to return.

Appetizers: Tomato & Onion Salad (what? you don't eat tomato and onion salad?) and shrimp cocktail.

This, dear reader, is a real piece of bacon.

And here, my favorite murder scene:

A battle of deliciousness



On to dessert

I am starting a new blog, it is a blog of me asking people if they focused the camera

And another blog called "Don't worry Brig, I can focus a camera" dot blogspot dot com...No! Dot Tumblr!

Satisfied customers.

Mom and Johnny

Look, Johnny likes it here.

And to end the evening, a little walk across the Williamsburg bridge.


Additional Reading: First Luger Dinner.

Return of the Eating III: Revenge of the Ssam

I've got visitors, Mom and Dad. They are my visitors.

They met me at work Saturday afternoon and we grabbed some street meat from my favorite cart.

And I forced them to engage in an obligatory tourist photo tradition.

That evening I met up with them at Momofuku.

Along with my cousin Mike and his wife Jen (not yet picture, but you remember them from Valentine's, right?)

and my Uncle Greg & Aunt Diane

Once again: This is my Dad.

This is my Mom.
We had some pork buns,

Some bread and butter,

S0me pickles,

The soft boiled egg and beans,

Uhm, a dozen oysters...

Some lettuce and sauces (can you guess where this is headed?)

And the Bo Ssam. Word.



A squad of 7 doesn't wreck a pig butt quite like an army of 10.

For our first dessert, the mind-boggling beet & lime ganace with goat's milk frozen yogurt and pistachios. Trust me, this is GOOD.

The reckoning...

And dessert 2: banana cake, rice pudding pie, the horchata softserve with banana caramel and samples of the cereal milk, watermelon, and salty cucumber softserves.

We headed for the streets of the East Village for a bit of a walk and some brother time.

Mobbed a bakery


Ran into a tough customer at the Bowery Hotel

Bond Street
The grown ups talked about stuff, stuff like remodeling bathrooms and such.





What a fine night of dining, what a pleasant appetizer for Sunday's dinner...come back for that tomorrow.

Additional Reading: My first Bo Ssam.

Best Regarding the News Today

I just don't know how anyone can look at Barack Obama and tell me "This man has done as much for humanity as Al Gore."

Hollywood, I Thought of This First: Week IV

"Vampire Dentist Office."

Best From the Permanent Collection

Some think my good attitude and behavior is a recent development. Those people don't know me.

The funny thing is I was just thinking about that puddle.

Return of the Eating II: BLT at the Chat n Chew

Tuesday night went out and grabbed a bite to celebrate Niall and Mitch being in town (Yeah, you read right: Niall and Mitch are in town. From England. Where they live. And Tuesday was their anniversary!) We went to the Chat n Chew, a totally unassuming place.

I felt like taking it easy, just ordered myself a little BLT to end the day with. Didn't really expect any surprises.

Hey BLT, are you cool? Is everything okay?

Guys, this isn't a pastrami sandwich, this isn't a roastbeef sandwich. This is a BLT with probably a pound of bacon on it. All of that stuff, it's all bacon. I only ate half of it. That's how much bacon there was. Man alive. My dinner is always trying to kill me, no matter where I go.

Also: Good job if you noticed my side: not fries but carrots and broccoli. Because I like to be healthy.

Return of the Eating I: Momofuku Noodle Bar Fried Chicken Dinner

We're not easing into Return of the Eating, we're getting right down to business. Tonight we went to the Noodle Bar and enjoyed their fried chicken dinner, their down-the-street response to the Ssam Bar's absolutely merciless Bo Ssam. This dinner was the most difficult reservation I've ever secured. Of the five times I've tried to get Ko reservations, I've succeeded 4 times (but I've only used one). I was clicking on the fried chicken website every morning for a few weeks before I got tonight's spot about a month ago.

We started the meal off with a few small plates, here's the chili pesto cauliflower with little fishes, back on the menu and I couldn't be happier.

Something new, fingerling potatoes with bacon and a poached egg and a bit of some sort of broth. Very delicious, we wished for spoons to finish this one off.

And the Noodle Bar spicy roasted rice cakes, so good.

Then the pieces of our main course began to arrive: here's the Basket of Plenty, filled to overflowing with lettuce, a variety of herbs, peppers, radishes, and carrots.

And our four sauces: jalepeño-garlic (so good, definitely the best), hoisin, ginger scallion (like I made for my noodles yesterday) and bibim.

And here's the chicken!

What you see here are two whole chickens, on the left, the Korean Style, thrice-fried in bibim sauce and on the right the Southern style ("American" as I called it) spiced with Old Bay and cayenne pepper.
To battle!

The idea, I suppose, is to assemble the perfect collection of vegetables to go with your chicken and wrap it all up in a Mu Shu pancake.

These would be examples of proper chicken dinner wraps.

Some of my innovations: American chicken wrapped in Korean skin (please note the carefully selected bit of herb...I wasn't just throwing whatever chicken I saw together, I was thinking!)

Or a cone of American skin stuffed with Korean chicken and herbs (this mouthful was epic).

Chowing.

One last wrap innovation: Korean skin, American skin, Mu Shu pancake.

After much gorging (and we finished it ALL) this is what we had to show for ourselves (minus a few bones that never made it to the bowl):

For dessert: Angel food cake and strawberry lemonade softserve with cinammon toast crumbles.

Our brown paper wasteland.

But from the wreckage new life springs.

In conclusion: The chicken was very good, but even better, this is a superfun meal. Just nothing but chicken-induced laughter and levity all around the table. Definitely worth all the logging in and clicking. I encourage you to battle for a reservation of your own.

Additional Facts: The chicken dinner is $100 for up to 8 people, it was the perfect amount of chicken for us, it seems we each had around 3 pieces. You get unlimited replenishings of sauce, pancakes, and vegetables. I asked our server "What about the chicken?" (because I'm hilarious) he responded "You won't need more."

Here's a more polished review of the Fried Chicken Dinner that you may enjoy.