Pai Men Miyake

I don't even think I need to explain what's going on here at Pai Men Miyake, located at 188 State Street in Portland, Maine--the photos really say it all. 

Featured here are two must haves while dining at Pai Men Miyake--pork buns and ramen. The pork buns come with braised pork belly with gouchujang mayo and pepper relish nestled between two perfect pillowey buns. It is like a fluffy dough cloud with pork belly inside--what could be better? 

All the ramen is plentiful with pork belly as well. I believe what we're looking at here is the Tonkotsu-Shoyu Ramen (pork broth with soy egg, ginger root, mushrooms, scallion, pork belly, and nori) and the Miso Ramen (pork, chicken, and fish broth topped with pork belly, soy-marinated egg, scallion, and nori).

For some reason I associate eating Japanese ramen on rainy days. Escaping into Pai Men Miyake from a rainy Portland afternoon and slurping up noodles and pork broth sounds pretty ideal right now. If you find yourself in Portland craving authentic ramen or just need a pork bun fix, this is a great place to satisfy your desire. Enjoy!

A Rooklicious Thanksgiving Feast

This year's Thanksgiving was one of the best. It's truly one of my favorite holidays--good food, warm fires, conversation and laughter, and eating, eating, eating. I'm still full from Thursday.

Seriously.

This year we started off in the afternoon with bowls of mulligatawny soup, meat, cheese, crackers, shrimp, and veggies as the fragrance of roast turkey and mulled wine filled the air.

When dinner was served we indulged in fennel salad, cranberry sauce with pears and oranges, ambrosia, rosemary and garlic smanging mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts with walnuts and garlic, and stuffing muffins.  

The turkey was one of my best yet--I think I've really perfected my technique. The skin of the turkey was golden and crispy after being coated in butter, sage, rosemary, and thyme (cue singing now), and the flavors of apples, onions, garlic, celery, and carrots flavored the turkey from the inside out. I also made a killer gravy from the buttery drippings to accompany the turkey.

And of course no meal is complete without a nice glass of wine. Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year. Cheers!

Woo Chon

If you’re looking for delicious Korean barbeque in New York City then you’ll definitely want to check out Woo Chon, located in Midtown at 8 West 36th Street. We had quite a crew that night, and Woo Chon was a great place for family-style dining. We ordered a ton of food, and left stuffed and satisfied.

First the servers brought out an array of Korean vegetable dishes. These included kim chi, bean sprouts, egg plant, radish, and dried seaweed. Just look at that spread—there was something for everyone. 

 

And then the appetizers started filling up the table. First up was the Seafood Pajun—an incredible scallion pancake with mussels, squid, oysters, and mushrooms. It arrived at the table nice and crispy on the outside, fluffy and light on the inside, and simply exploding with seafood.

Next came the Mandoo Gui. These dumplings stuffed with beef, pork, tofu, and vegetables and fried until crispy were excellent, like little pockets of perfection that were great for sharing.

The server also brought over some Haemul Sun Tofu soup on the house. This spicy soup was prepared with seafood and soft tofu. There was lots of different types of seafood in the soup, and I was happy to discover some tasty tentacles.

I insisted on ordering grilled baby back ribs, which were flame broiled with a spicy marinade. These ribs were out of this world with their spicy and sweet sauce. One of the reasons I love ribs is tearing the meat off the bone—it makes me feel primitive (in a good way).

The Korean-style barbeque was one of the main reasons we decided to hit up Woo Chon. At each table there is a burner. The server turns it on and allows a metal grill plate to heat up. After it’s hot enough the meat is placed on the grill and allowed to cook through. We ordered Galbi (prime rib filleted off the bone) and Saewoo Gui (filleted shrimps). Both were served in the Woo Chon marinade and tasted awesome.

When the meat was ready we wrapped the pieces up in lettuce and a dollop of spicy sauce (next time I'll definitely be saving those assorted vegetables to wrap up the barbequed meat!).

 

We also ordered two types of Bibimbap. Bibimbap is a very popular Korean dish—it is often a mixture rice, vegetables, and meat served sizzling in a hot stone bowl. The ingredients are then mixed together in the bowl at the table. I don’t remember exactly what was in each of the bibimbaps that we ordered, but they were delicious. Bibimbap is great to eat, but it's also a lot of fun to say.

For drinks to accompany our meal I ordered some cold house sake while everyone else opted for the Korean OB beer.

 

Woo Chon was a great place to devour tasty Korean barbecue. There’s so much to choose from that you simply can’t go wrong. I recommend going with a large group so you can try lots of these delicious dishes!

Land Thai Kitchen

Looking for some good Thai delivery in the city? Land Thai Kitchen has an awesome prix fixe lunch with a ton of tasty options. For eight bucks you get a choice of appetizer and entree. On the West Side they deliver from Central Park West to Riverside Drive and West 69th Street to West 96th Street; on the East Side they deliver from East End Avenue to Fifth Avenue and East 56th Street to East 98th Street.

Here's a sampling of the delicious lunch we had delivered from Land Thai Kitchen:

Steamed Chicken Dumplings with Green Peas, Water Chestnuts, Ginger, and Chili Soy Sauce

 

Root Vegetable Spring Rolls

with Parsnip, Carrot, Beet, Lotus Root, Glass Noodles, and Plum Sauce

Spicy Beef Salad:

Grilled Skirt Steak, Watercress, Green Apple, Dried Chili, Toasted Rice, and Lime Juice

 Pea Tendrils:

Stir-Fried Snow Pea Shoots and Roasted Garlic Sauce

 Shrimp Lemongrass Soup

with Shrimp-Lemongrass Broth, Kaffir Lime Leaf, and Wild Mushrooms

 Wok Basil with Beef:

Long Bean, Long Hot Chili, Onion, Chili-Garlic Puree, and Thai Basil Sauce

Drunken Noodle with Chicken:

Wheat Noodle, Tomato, Thai Basil, Snow Peas, Water Chestnut, Bok Choy, and Chili Puree

Pad Thai Noodle with Shrimp:

Thin Rice Noodle, Egg, Bean Sprout, Scallion, Tofu, Chopped Peanut, and Tamarind Sauce