Korean BBQ Break

I have 3 beautiful words for you: Korean Barbecue Buffet.  I want to share more about my trip to Bermuda but here's a little side post about my Monday excursion with the lovely Liz of Liz King Events.  

When I saw this post from Serious Eats I just had to grab someone and go, and Liz was kind enough to pick me up and drive us out to Flushing, Queens.

To start, the side dishes were many and many were tasty.  Even the bok choy, which is usually something I don't like, had some nice seasoning and I grabbed some jap chae (thin glass noodles with vegetables), mandu (dumplings) and scallion pancakes.

But...it's really all about the meat here, such a great bargain!  My dear vegetarian friends, please look away (sorry, Angela...)

Now let's grab some galbi (ribs) and go!!

Liz was our bbq chef since I have so little cooking skill, and she did a great job.

The waitress came over and snipped the pieces apart neatly with scissors.

And then it was browning away as we started in on the accompaniments.

We realized part way through that we were filling up on, well, fillers, when the galbi was the star of the show!

You wrap it in lettuce leaves with sweet bean paste, or spicy chili paste, whole garlic cloves, sliced chilies and scallions to your taste.  And it was seriously tasty. We'll be back!

A Week of Foodie-ness

Some people object to the term "foodie", but how else can I explain my obsession that has led me to start cooking and baking again?  That's a mesclun salad with blackberries, raspberries and fingerling potatoes with lemon sesame soy dressing.

More berries for triple berry muffins and Lemon Berry Pitcher Punch from 101 Sangrias & Pitcher Drinks by Kim Haasarud of Liquid Architecture.

Food Bloggers: I commend your ability to take gorgeous shots while you're in the middle of everything: I'm either too messy, or forget, so here's a Chocolate Carmalua cake from a recipe by Mrs. Fields cooling by the window, but without the caramel sauce.

I finally found the cord to my rice cooker and made some Korean namool: sesame seasoned spinach, shiitakes and zucchini.

Koru Kate and I had a lovely dinner by the water at Trinity in Hoboken: here's the chicken pot pie and a Panda's Dream cocktail. 

Louise and I had a WONDERFUL dinner at Kin Shop with a delicious menu by Chef Harold Dieterie: my fave was the Warm Sliced Snap Peas with Diver Sea Scallops, Crispy Shallots, Pea Greens & Toasted Coconut. We also had Aquatic Vegetables, Fried Pork & Crispy Oyster Salad, Stir Fried Rice Flakes with Rock Shrimp, Massaman Braised Goat, fabulous cocktails made with house-infused ginger mekhong, guava nectar, thai basil and rum, and tasty Galangal Ice Cream and Calamansi Sorbet...amazing...

Next day I prepped for a lunch for my aunt and her husband.  You can see Mila being very helpful in the background.

No time to iron the tablecloth!

We started with tomato, basil and mozzarella with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I tried my hand at some huge scallops from The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook.  No pic here of the smoked chili cream, but it was quite tasty.

And we finished with Lepore's Home Made Chocolates.

Since I was being a hostess I didn't make it to my parents' trip to Valley Shepherd Creamery but my Dad sent me some pics of baby sheep, alpacas...

and some very nice looking wool.  I want to go back and take one of their cheesemaking classes!

At the end of the day there were some leftovers for me.

And my aunt brought me some pink pasta and a pink spatula she won at a raffle for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Wonder what I'll make with these...we'll see.

A Big One

This Saturday I worked on the grandest birthday party I've done so far -- only a few hundred guests, but a grand space with a lot of build-out, beautiful food, special wines, dozens of waitstaff and a slew of custom flatware, linens, trays, etc....so I started with powering up on Korean buffet at Woorijip -- always reliable for a quick, cheap, yummy stop.

Then on to the setup!  The first crew had started the night before, but by the time I came there were 7 hours to go.  

The staff all had their hair, makeup, nails and wardrobe done -- including me!  

Rachael organized all of the suits, overcoats, ties, dresses, stockings, sparkly flats and pretty, pink jeweled headbands.

When we posed with this huge bottle of wine the sommeliers reminded us not to knock over the pricey bottles behind it.

There were towers of plateau de fruits de mer, a.k.a. lobster tails, shrimp and oysters on the half shell.

And plenty of lovely Champagne.

Including a few jeroboams (that's 5 liters!)

It was great to see the client's happy face as rang in his 70th year dancing the night away with his friends and family.  Sunday was recovery day with a breakfast of Lauren Chattman's Sticky Toffee Banana Pudding from the new issue of Bon Appétit, yum...seriously, make this now, it was incredibly easy and so delicious.

And the recharge continued with a California burger with bacon, sprouts, avocado and swiss.  This is the 2nd time I've been to this restaurant and the person who sat down next to me ordered the same thing.  It definitely required a nice, long walk afterwards but it was a pretty nice, sort of warm day for a change.

Phew...busy weekend, but I have a day off today, so time to relax.

Craftiness Is Cooking Now

Happy 2011!  

I hope everyone's holidays were beautiful and delicious.  I was so inspired this year when I met Shauna, a.k.a. Gluten-Free Girl and read her book all about learning to cook while falling in love with her husband that I thought maybe I could do it too.  I made it #4 on my holiday prep list and here's my New Year's mandu -- Korean dumplings that my family makes on this day every year.

For Christmas I was busy too: my, that was a lot of spinach.

It was for Peggy Fallon's Emerald Spinach Fondue from her book, Great Party Fondues.

Then, Brie with Pesto and Pine Nuts and Cannellini Bean Dip from Great Party Dips, also by Peggy Fallon, and some Pointsettia Champagne Cocktails.

Of course we had eggnog and I love these Pottery Barn glasses with one for each of Santa's reindeer, sad that they're no longer available in the store!

And then today was Korean dinner day.

The filling is just shredded cabbage and zucchini, beef, breadcrumbs, onions, sesame oil and seasonings and I got a little fancy with the crimping this time.

I used 2 packages of wrappers so there were a lot!

They were being eaten just about as fast as I could fry them.  I'm by no means much of a cook (yet!), but I find it best to just deep fry a few at a time so they don't get crowded and stuck together and the oil temperature doesn't drop.

So, there we go, just a few simple recipes for the holidays.  And what of Shauna's book that inspired me in the 1st place?  I unfortunately didn't have it with me at my parents' house, but more to come in the New Year!