STIR THE POTS

Kunjip Restaurant

Korea town in Manhattan is a small stretch of restaurants, bookstores, and groceries surrounded by the huge mega stores like Macy's the Herald Square shops, Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
My wife was having me schlepp bags for her and my reward was an offer of lunch at KunJip! Since my only favorite restaurant Dae Dong in my neighborhood in Sunnyside burned down years ago I don't really find any worth visiting that still remain! There were the barbecue ranges right in the tables, the private back rooms for business types and a really great array of dishes on the menu! All lost, until we unexpectedly  one day just found this really down to earth temple of fresh tasting Korean food! Our first visit had us waiting out the door with several people as this busy restaurant made room for waiting and departing guests! The host handed us menus as we put in our order standing in line, I used my food savvy mind to easily pick barbecue for her and a cool looking Kimchi and pork dish for me! Never as adventurous my wife could pick the same dish a million times over and over again! I think it's  a squeamish uncertainty of ingredients, but since I interviewed Anthony Bourdain I have emboldened my palate and said "give it to me!" Kimchi is so good here, though I noticed my palate is either desensitized or it just wasn't as hot as I recalled? (yeah right!) I want to go with another foodie one day and just go all out and chow, guess that'll have to be my brother who is most certainly not offended by the likes of menu choices that say intestines or some other non western friendly thing and makes the feint hearted want to cringe!
If your in the Big Apple come to this spot, it's fresh the service is friendly and they were laughing a lot when I snapped between bites of kimchi and this strange dried fish that was to die for!

Bread Only!

Ok so I can be obsessive about bread......but there isn't anything finer then some fresh baked bread and a challenge of making two doughs at 4 am especially after a long work week in the kitchen and stressing out on how long my levain had been fermenting without me because I was stuck with an extra shift! So much for following a schedule to bake!
I had a ciabatta bread and baguette on the brain and was trying a new ciabatta posted at Dan Lepards site by excel spreadsheet maker extraordinaire  Gavin's post. The other the ever mysterious but most common loaf, le baguette! This formula was found on the French baking site with some lovely classics.
Nothing better than a little butter, jam and cheese on either one of these lovely loaves!

Retro-Foie

Today I made a retro-reproduction of a dish I had seen years ago when I worked at the Drake Hotel. This was one of the dishes made at the Lafayette, the home of no other than Jean-George Vongerichten. His original was with dried duck breast, mine on the other hand was with Serrano ham and foie gras mousse. I still have a set of cook’s notes for mise en place for his various dishes served at that once illustrious temple of gastronomy!
When I used to work in the pastry shop on Saturdays I would ask Jean-George if I could watch his photo shoots for Art Culinaire and other magazines, he obliged me, I think it was all his pilfering the dessert cart for some tarts or the breakfast I bribed him and Kerry Simon with, hoping for a place on his crew!
I recall when a cook friend, Tom, would be rolling up these packages of shear luxury and jokingly tell me that it's  "100% fat free!"
Tonight was a particularly important event and I had recalled talking about foie gras with Anthony Bourdain, and how he said, "enjoy it now while you still can!"