grover

Now I can add 'Ratatouille' and 'Julie and Julia' to my list.

Pardon me, people if I misled. It is from a cultural difference. There is always a sort of public ceremony whether a deceased person is buried or cremated in my former country. I wish I could see his last passage.

There still is another chance. Hopefully the funeral ceremony will be announced soon.

I really appreciated the members who came and spent the time with us including StephenB's lifetime friends.

We shared foods, drinks and episodes about StephenB.

Dean and Kaye, Thank you very much.

To Stephen Banker, who loved eating..

What can you say about Stephen Banker?

That he was bright. And brilliant. That he loved Music and Poetry. And foods. And women.

The last thing I did for him was delivering Soon-doo-boo (Korean Spicy Tofu stew) and a half gallon of orange juice.

He sent me a note below:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: SBANKER@aol.com [mailto:SBANKER@aol.com]

Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 2:34 PM

To: Choi, Yoon-Hee

Subject: tofu

DL,

Thank you so much for the tofu stew. It is the tastiest thing I've had in a week (when I started feeling sick).

I am resting today and trying to regain strength.

MrB

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wish I could have done more for him but he didn't wait for me.

Bye, Stephen. My Mr. Banker.

DL

I already miss him tremendously....

The soup itself reminded me of a thicker yuk gae jang and I could recognize mustard seeds on top of the broth, plus a big sprig of dandelion greens on top. It was a rich soup, almost stew-like (No, I'm not going to call it a 'stoup'.)

I've noticed that the older gentleman who used to always be in the glass kitchen hasn't been there the past few times, and also that the kimchee is no longer cut at the table.

Were the seeds black and a bit rounder than sesame seeds? I believed that it might be wild sesame seeds in order to get rid of the smell from the meat.

A couple of month ago, I overheard that the soup master had a neck surgery (neck disc problem) so he can't work in the kitchen any more. On the lunar new year day, I saw him seating at the table talking to the staff.

Neng Myun is usually a summertime dish, isn't it? That was the reason I was given to dissuade me from ordering it once in the winter.

If you were born in a Northern Korean region, you would eat it in Wintertime.

A lady in NYC I know brought me, my mom and my cousin to Ippudo in late October. It was a rainy day and we waited for more than an hour to be seated. She told us that Ippudo is a good ramen place but Setagaya is more famous in Japan. However, I was told that she doesn't understand that people in NY seem to prefer this place to Setagaya and there is always a long waiting line. We ordered steamed buns stuffed with roasted porkbelly, cucumber salad and ramens. All of them were very tasty. I didn't try Momofuku's yet but did Menchanko's. Ippudo's ramen is more delicious to me. the soup has deeper flavor and the noodle has better texture. I don't remember the exact price but it is worth to try if you are in the city and please be there before 11:30 AM.

I liked their mini bingsu. There are some yogurt places around but hard to find a bingsu place for my favorite style.

I had a good Escargot at La Bergerie in Old Town Alexandria.

Please add Yo Fruit to closings.

If you like eating Ramen, try Ippudo at 65 4th Ave. It is always crowded so good to go there a bit early.

You can see these at the Restaurant Dino.

The main difference is the presence or absence of a 'cup' at the bottom for catching the grinds. If it were a rocket, we'd be talking about the first stage. A pepper mill is designed to grind directly into the food instead. This photo shows four coffee/spice mills, plus a fifth one at front-center which has been separated so you can see what I mean.

Note the position of the two screw heads protruding from the sides of the mills (think Frankenstein's neck bolts); these are the retention screws for the stationary burr plate. If you see a photo of a mill with the screws well up the body of the mill (pic above), the plain lower portion is probably the catch cup, and it's suitable for coffee or spices. If the screws are close to the base of the mill (pic below), you're looking at a pepper mill.

These, for instance, are pepper mills.

These photos came from the website of this vendor. I have no experience with them; my mill came from the former Simit & Kabob, when they had a market in Fairfax. Also note that some mills may have a longer, two-piece folding arm to provide more leverage.

I'll be there.

I was waiting to have a Korean $20 Tuesday at Han Gang Restaurant because blowfish season is coming soon. I just called the restaurant and found out that they will not have a blowfish dish this year. The person who answered the phone said that they are having trouble getting good quality blowfish. I am so disappointed.

Please count me in. Thanks.

DaRiv18,

The assorted BBQ you ordered is not supposed to be marinated. I just looked at the menu on the website and found out that it is assorted roasted beef. Koreans call it as 'roasted beef' but it is a different concept because they don't use oven so a big chunk of beef has to be sliced and cooked on the grill. It could be more like pieces of steak.

Speaking of the grilled watermelon, Chef Will told us that he dreamed of grilling watermelon. It is like Tartini's 'Devil's Trill'.

Is Eventide (3165 WILSON BLVD ARLINGTON, VA) too far away from the Courthouse? I think they are doing business pretty well and the food is excellent.

Both this guy and another knowledgeable person on the other side of me raved about a spicy seafood soup that can be had here, but at very few other places for whatever reason. Anyone know what this dish is? A quick tiptoe through Wikipedia indicates it might be Maeuntang, and if so, any experts on Korean food care to comment?

We went there to find out what the spicy soup Kibee meant. There are three different spicy soups: Menu #1 Spicy beef Soup, Menu #4 Soon Dooboo (Spicy tofu and seafood soup) and Menu #11/12 Jjam Pong (Chinese style spicy seafood noodle soup - #12 has extra seafood). If they didn't changed the menu, it is definitely not a Maeuntang. Anyway, these are very common in any Korean restaurant. We paid a little over $20 and the food was very delicious.

I can make it. I will be there with Bon Chon chicken and Cheogadjib chicken (both mild and hot flavors).

Two of us went to Han Gang after returning from a trip to Cape May. It was Mother's Day so I expected it to be crowded so we went there around 5:30. Even at that hour, it was 75% full already. We decided to visit to see what the restaurants foods was like. We went with high expectation because Tom Sietsema and Joe H praised it. We ordered Seafood pancake ($15) as usual for benchmarking. My verdict was that it was a B. The reason for that is that there was not enough seafood. Not even a single shrimp. There were some squid legs and clams but not as much as To Sok Jip's pancake. For some reason, the chef added onion to the pancake but it was overkill because scallions are there already. I talked to our server about it and she told me that it will be improved next time. Maybe the chef was very busy, I thought.

The next order was the Seafood stew (a better description would be braised seafood - $35). This is slightly different from the seafood hotpot. It doesn't have much soup at the bottom. Two lobster tails, two medium shrimps, some sea squirts, mussels, clams, baby and mother octopi, some pieces of squid, bean sprouts, Shanghai bok-choy and chili sauce. I seconded what Escoffier mentioned. The bok-choy made the taste a bit bitter. It might be a colorful addition but could have been better with Napa cabbage.

The abalone dish ($25) came after the stew. According to the description in the menu, it was 'Stir-fried abalone and mushroom'. I suspect that the chef used canned abalone because the dish contained a lot of juices and the abalone was more beige then the bright white that fresh or frozen abalone normally is. Once again Shanghai bok-choy was included as well as King oyster mushrooms, sugar snap peas and red peppers. It's possible that the bok-choy and mushrooms contributed some of juices but not as much as was in the dish. As you know, it takes time to make abalone tender and this had no chewiness at all. I wasn't impressed.

I am going to visit again so that I can taste their BBQ and cold noodles which are typical Korean dishes.

It could cost more for three or four people to eat at Han Gang than other restaurants in Annandale. The total tab was $78.75 including tax but excluding tip.

Not at all. Blowfish stew is very safe if it is handled by a licensed chef. All of the organ is removed and its blood is completely washed before it is cooked. I didn't see the show but the sashimi shouldn't make the eater's mouth numb.

Tetrodotoxin is 14 times stronger than cynide. If you take 0.5 mg of it, you will die.