Recently I blogged about finding treasures at Woorijip well I found another one! This wasn’t as good as the spare ribs but it suuuuuuuuuuuureee made me feel guilty. A whole box of sliced pork belly stir fried with Chinese chives. Afterwards I quickly drank 2 cups of hot oolong tea.

- Woorijip 12 West 32nd Street New York

Woorijip has been my to-go place for years when I want some Korean food. The food is affordable and good but not great. Their kimbaps are good and great if you add a miso soup for $1 but my friend was right when she said their kimbaps tasted old. Once in a while you’ll find a random gem. My most recent trip to Woorijip I had no idea what I wanted to eat so I walked up and down the hot food section. Nothing really stood out for me and so I ended up getting the pork spare ribs since it was the only thing I haven’t tried before. For $5.50, not including tax, you get a container of spare ribs and a small steamed rice.
I took it back to work, sat down at my desk and opened the container not having too much hope for it. I was thinking it’s going to be just okay with the spare ribs a little tough to chew. I took a bite of the pork and was BLEW AWAY by how freakin’ awesome it was! It was super tender and delicious. The sauce was equally good but couldn’t figure out what went into the sauce besides the very obvious ginger flavor. I poured all the sauce into my container of rice, mixed it and it was heeeaaavveeeeennn.

Thanks Woorijip for totally surprising me.

- Woorijip 12 West 32nd Street New York

For my birthday my friends Jeff and Eva gave me a gift certificate to the kitchen supply store Broadway Panhandler. I decided to grab lunch near the store, since I was going to be in the city anyway. I did a quick Google Maps search and noticed a place with the simple name 8 St. Kitchen just a few blocks away. I did a little research and found that 8 St. Kitchen is a relatively new Korean restaurant (open just seven months, according to my server), and that they have a reasonably priced lunch menu.

The restaurant has windows open on to W 8th St, letting in a ton of natural light onto the wooden benches and tables. I got the “Sizzling Hot Stone Bibimbap” with “crispy tofu” for $8. First they brought out two small plates of banchan, little Korean appetizers: kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage) and a sweet pickled radish. They also brought me a bowl of miso soup, but it was a little too fishy for my taste. My bibimbap came out not long after my second round of banchan; bibimbap is a large, heated stone bowl filled with rice, mushrooms, vegetables, and (in my case) tofu, all topped with an egg yolk. “Do you know how to eat it?” asked my server. It’s not complicated, basically you mix everything up together with the Korean barbecue sauce they provide, and the heat of the bowl cooks everything together. This was superb — fresh, well seasoned, simple food; the barely cooked yolk giving richness to everything and the rice getting crispy at the bottom for a nice crunchy treat. It was refreshing to get good Korean food without having to travel to K-Town, and not having to put up with a modern fusion take on Korean.

8 St. Kitchen — 22 W 8th St.

Got an email from the guys at Big Gay Ice Cream asking if I wanted to help them at the Luckyrice David Chang Night Market. I replied “OF COURSE ANYTHING FOR YOU GUYS!” I don’t think I really typed in all CAPS but I definitely had all CAPS in my mind when I replied to them. I had heard about this Night Market thing but when I went to the website it was already sold out. But hey-yo! Thanks to Doug and Bryan I got to go even though my main job was to help them pass out samples and snap photos for them.

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Pulled pork sandwich from Mooncake

Midtown South sucks! There I said it. Its not really Midtown and its not Chelsea, what is it then?! I go on Menupages a lot always looking for lunch spots. Midtown South has its advantages its close enough to Chelsea and Ktown. When you click, in menupages, the link to Chelsea/Midtown South most of the food spots are in Chelsea. Sometimes, actually most of the time, I don’t feel like walking 10 blocks for lunch and sometimes I’m too lazy to walk over to Ktown. There are tons of food blog coverage for Chelsea and Midtown, like Midtown Lunch but what about Midtown South? Hm..? So here is my list of food places to try if you’re in the area. AND if you have any other places that I should try please let me know! Thanks!
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Let’s just go straight to the point: Korean bbq! What’s not to like about Korean bbq? Though I still prefer all-you-can but this will do for now. My friend J knows every restaurant in Ktown so I trusted her when she recommended Kunjip.

Click to continue the adventure…