For all of y’all who are reading this blog from the other side of the Pacific, Seoul Eats just released it’s 2010 burger list. Smokey Saloon, as featured on this blog two years ago, is nowhere to be found, and I suppose with good reason.
Happy Burger eating in the year ahead.
Last week, I wandered out of my new office space with a solid 8.6 out of 10 on the hunger scale. Onya seemed like a viable option, but 47th Street was a bit far from the new spot on 54th. However, noodles sounded like a good option that would be decently filling without being too unhealthy or pricey.
I then remembered back to OBAO, which opened late last year. I hadn’t read too much about it except for ML’s early look of it, and I was definitely down for some pho. That said, I walked in with only limited knowledge of what I was going to be eating, except for Michael Huynh’s break-neck speed of expansion and his strong reputation from Baogette and Barbao (both of which are on the BG duo’s list, and the latter of which will be a part of the eUWS project).
So, I walked down to the former bunchberries space on 53rd street. Since it was a relatively slow day at the office, I decided to eat in. The place was not too crowded, although people were still around. Hopefully it will become more crowded as it stays open longer. I sat down in a bright table at the front of the place so that I had something to look at, since I hadn’t planned on eating at a table alone.
The menu is pretty extensive, with a collection of Vietnamese and Thai inspired dishes, including noodle and rice dishes, and of course, some soups. Since I only had pho on my mind, I went straight for the Pho Bo, which has thinly sliced beef and a beef ginger sauce, and of course the noodles.
A few minutes after ordering, I was presented with the main event.
The pho came with a side bowl with bean sprouts, thai basil, and some sliced jalepenos. The pho itself was chock full of meat that was still cooking in the hot broth, which was laden with thinly sliced red onions and scallions. I took a quick taste and found the broth to be a bit too delicate for my palate, although I was definitely catching the beef and ginger flavor. I added a splash of sriracha and the whole lot of basil and jalepenos, and a tiny dash of soy, to try to increase the richness of the broth. You can even see in the picture that the broth is not super rich in color, even after I had doctored it up a little bit.
The beef and noodles themselves were good, but after having been to Onya so many times now, I was left wanting more richness and depth of flavor. Even with the addition of the salty umami-bombs, I wasn’t quite getting the pho to its full potential. Even so, at $9, I wasn’t complaining. All in all, it’s a great addition to the neighborhood when I’m looking for a quick Asian fix and am too lazy to walk seven blocks. I might branch out within the menu though, based on some of the pics from ML.
Obao 53rd St. off Third Ave.
Three things today for all of you guys:
1) First of all, I have only recently discovered the joy of the sunchoke, or jerusalem artichoke. These little tubers are delightful. Roasted plain, they are delicious. They are like an artichoke heart, but better. I cannot believe that it’s taken me this long to discover these little guys at the farmer’s market.
Get yourself some and try them for yourself. They are delicious. Just cut them in half and roast them up with some oil, salt, and pepper.
2) Num Pang. 12th St. and University. Get there.
The place opened up last year in March, but somehow escaped my realm of cognizance. But not any more. They have a few sandwiches, but I can only speak to the pork and skirt steak sandwiches. They arrive with some cucumber, carrots, and cilantro, on a toasted piece of bread with a spicy mayo. A few squirts of sriracha, and we were good to go. The pork is fatty and smoky, and as the picture above illustrates, it’s as tender as can be. The softness of the meat is offset by the toasty crunch of the bun. Just load up on napkins, it’s juicy.
There’s another shot. Just because.
On another occasion, I had the skirt steak. It’s more or less the same, but features some freshly griddled skirt steak. It takes a little longer than the pork, which is already prepared, so be ready for a little bit of a wait. The steak showed up with a lovely crust on the outside, but was just a little too medium for my taste. I actually prefer my skirt steak cooked all the way through, especially when it’s been marinated, but this was still pretty good. I still prefer the pork, but the steak was pretty good, too. They have some other stuff, too, and I think they will soon be tried.
3) Monsanto gets named Forbes company of the year. Quite a recovery from all of the negative press and the slamming in Food, Inc. I haven’t read the article yet, but it definitely piqued BB’s interest.
It’s been too long, I know. Based on all of y’all who end up on my site after searching for “silky (or any variant of spelling) chicken,” I figured it was time at long last to cook the darn thing.
As you will recall, I bought some chickens from bo bo chicken farm, based out of upstate New York. They are not organic, as mentioned, but raised locally, so that’s still better than nothing. I roasted that regular young chicken ’till he was GB&D (golden brown and delicious), to steal from Ming Tsai (what’s that guy up to, anyway?).
Now, it was time for his silkier cousin to get cooked up. There are a lot of choices for chicken, but I knew that black chicken would be a special case. When I was sold the chicken, they tried to push some baggie of sticks and stuff that was the base for a soup. Silky chicken tonic soup, they call it (here). At the time, I wanted to roast the thing, just to see what it tastes like by itself. But when I pulled the little guy out of the freezer, I didn’t think that was such a great idea.
There were other braising recipes, like one from Patricia Yeo, but again, the ingredient list consisted of too many items that I would have to travel to get and/or require some sort of special translation. I decided to make something up. The only thing I knew I wanted to include was star anise. That was pretty much my only requirement.
So I pulled a few items out of the spice cabinet.
I was making this thing up, so I figured I could use as many ingredients as I wanted. The basics were: star anise, cinnamon, lemongrass, soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, juniper berries, pink peppercorns, red wine, vegetable oil, rice wine vinegar, and these wasabi sesame seeds that my stepmom gave to me (re-gift from her bro). I also had diced carrots and onions. I wanted it all in there.
I started out by butchering the chicken. I realized one thing about the silky chicken: not a lot of meat. As in, REALLY not a lot of meat. Practically none. It’s just a mass of grey flesh and grey bones and purple skin. Maybe the one I got in particular was particularly devoid of breast meat, but there was nothin. Tiny little breasts and decently sized thighs, although nothing to write home about. I also couldn’t figure out where everything was, it was all just a little bit different from a normal bird.
Anyway, I probably mutilated the thing, but it’s all good. This was all in the name of science.
After that, I went about my way with pretty standard braising steps. Browned the chicken.
Now, if you will notice, when the breast is cooked, it still turns white. This is because it has less myoglobin, which apparently is what makes meat dark or light when cooked. More myoglobin= darker when cooked (also means that it was a slow-twitch muscle, like legs, shoulders, etc). Anyway, this was kind of disappointing, since I wanted the flesh to be grey, even when cooked. Also, in case you were wondering, the blood is still red, too. Can you say “disappointment?”
After browning it up, I took the chicken out and sautéed the veg in the fat (there wasn’t much) and then threw all of that stuff into the pot after deglazing with a combination of rice wine vinegar and red wine. Everybody went into the pool. Then, I cooked it down for about 45 minutes or so. That was it! Roasted some fingerlings on the side, and cooked up some baby bok choi in butter and sesame oil, and Bob’s your uncle!
As you can see, it looks kinda like chicken. And, sorry to disappoint, but it also tastes… like chicken. It really didn’t taste much different than the other Bo Bo chicken. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I was hoping it would taste like, well, something else. Anyway, enjoy, and try to get one if you can. Buy local!
Speaking of local, I got some Milk Thistle farm chocolate milk. Quite tasty. Ronny has competition.
Also speaking of local again, got some R-brook Vanilla ice cream. And I put chestnut purée on it. That was delightlful. See if you can get some of that stuff, too. The purée is from France, but I’ll allow it.
