A few weeks ago I got an email from Jennifer inviting me to a dinner with Underground Kitchen, a pop-up supper club that originated in Richmond, VA but has since expanded to DC. I excitedly accepted, having heard great things about them from the Post and my friend Marcella who attended a dinner in Richmond a few months ago. This particular supper club is very secretive; you don’t receive the details of the dinner until it’s a few days before and after you’ve purchased a ticket for a certain date and seating time (which usually sell out in minutes). An email arrived with the location and a copy of the menu. After reviewing the lengthy and detailed menu, I realized I was in for a real treat. The menu called for five courses with appetizers beforehand and a dessert afterwards. Each course was paired with wine. Besides these details, I didn’t really know what to expect.
Archives for March 2015
Orange Spatchcocked Chicken
A roasted whole chicken is the ultimate comfort food for many people. To be honest, chicken is my least favorite kind of poultry after turkey (it’s so dry!) and well seasoned and/or crispy skin makes or breaks poultry for me. This is why I usually love double-fried KFC (Korean fried chicken). It’s all about the skin. I’m ashamed to say that at Thanksgiving, I’m only eating a bit of dark meat and mostly skin. It kind of reminds me of that scene in South Park when Cartman eats all the crispy skin off the fried chicken in a bucket and leaves only the meat behind. None of his poor friends get to enjoy a single bite hearing that beautiful crunch and Kenny is reduced to tears. Cartman is a jerk but in this case I can sympathize with his actions. Most chicken isn’t worth eating unless it’s encased with breading….
Cardamom Dutch Baby with Whipped Coconut Cream and Blackberries
Yesterday over a groggy brunch with some girlfriends weekend plans were shared. There was talk of getting nails done, some shopping and then I added in my plans of working on a recipe for my blog. They asked me what I would be creating this time.
“I’m going to cook a Dutch baby.”
Silence and a few looks of horror and confusion came from the other side of the table. I was slow to respond because I was still suffering the consequences of a Friday night happy hour that lasted a little too long.
“Oh no! A Dutch baby is a pancake you bake in the oven in a skillet. It gets puffy and then deflates when you take it out, kind of like a popover.”
We laughed and I realized that I need to work on my delivery and not assume that everyone knows what I’m talking about. Not everyone obsessively reads food blogs and does endless Google searches on recipes. Some people like leaving their homes and interacting with other human beings outside of social media.
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Crispy Korean Tofu Bites
A big snowstorm hit the DC area yesterday. It was a large storm that affected large parts of the country- from 100 cars being stranded on a Kentucky highway to a plane skidding off the runway at La Guardia Airport. Everything was covered in up to 8 inches of snow where I live (a lot for this area) and since the office was closed I stayed home most of the day except to go out and buy flour from the grocery store next door and to go to the gym which is thankfully only a block away.
The last time I had walked around in snow like this was about two years ago in Seoul. I had been in France for most of December, and when I returned to Seoul on Christmas Eve, I discovered that the city had been experiencing record snowfalls. The streets and alleyways had turned to sheets of ice, and snow just kept falling and falling. Despite that, I spent what I knew to be my last Christmas Eve in Seoul out with my friend Rosemary, doing what we always did- wandering the streets of Hongdae, which was where I lived during my last few years in Korea….