Ramen with Chicken & Potato

Today I brown bagged my lunch for work. In my opinion, brown bagging shouldn't be confined to either a cold cut sandwich or last night's leftovers. That'd be a boring lunch. And a boring lunch should be a crime.

I didn’t have a lot of raw food ingredients to work with at home so I had to make do.

I basically started out with this.

First thing I did was to fish out the little MSG packet and toss it in then trash. Then I boiled the noodles according to the package directions. Then drained and rinsed the noodles (as you always should anyway because there’s an untold amount of preservatives and other body harming substances binded to the noodles). Tossed it with a bit of EVOO and soy sauce then put it in my container.

Next I took a good sized chicken breast and salted it slightly and fried it up in a skillet with a little EVOO. After it cooled off I cut it into chucks and smothered it with Old Bay seasoning and then tossed it all around to ensure an even coating. Set that aside. Don’t clean the skillet!

I boiled a small potato and after it cooled I peeled it, cut it into chucks and then threw it in the skillet with all the chickeny oil. Heated it slightly and tossed the chucks around and scraped off anything on the bottom.

Added the chicken and potato on top of the noodles to get this.

Minca

Minca
536 East 5th Street

New York, NY, 10009
(212) 505-8001

My girlfriend and I had a long awaited night out to dinner recently at Minca. The line for this little “ramen factory,” as they call themselves, was out the door. Not surprising either seeing as how Minca is one of the top ramen shops in the Big Apple.

While waiting outside, we took a look at the menu so we could save that extra bit of time before being able to eat. About twenty minutes after we arrived, we were finally seated. The clearly overworked waitress seated us and then ran off again to service another table. Moments later she returned with utensils and water for us and took out order.

For appetizers, we tried the Tofu and the Homemade Shrimp Gyoza. The Tofu came served with what looked like dried fish flakes and scallions. There was also ginger infused soy sauce for dipping. Seeing as how both my girlfriend and I are not too keen on the taste of ginger, this dish was only nominally appealing to us; but it was still the better of the two.

The Shrimp Gyoza was just bad. The gyoza consisted of ground pork with a grilled shrimp loosely wrapped around a gyoza wrapper. Three things to note about these gyoza. First off, as mentioned before, there was quite a lot of minced ginger mixed into the ground pork which was quite unappealing for us. Secondly, the shrimp was left whole and completely inside the gyoza wrapper; which is fine, except that they left on the shell from the last segment and the tail. I got a very unpleasant surprise when biting into it. And last but not least, if you look at the picture, you’ll see that the gyoza was quite badly burned. There was even a giant crust of burned stuff that was attached to all the pieces.

For our ramen, my girlfriend ordered the #2 – Minca Sio which was a mix of Pork and Chicken broth base flavored with salt and roasted garlic. I opted for the #4 – Shoyu which was a pork broth with soy sauce flavoring. Both orders got thin noodles. I have to admit, I really didn’t like the ramen too much either. The broth for the Minca Sio was overpoweringly garlicky. It just didn’t taste right. As for the Shoyu, it was kind of boring. Absolutely nothing to write home about there.

This was quite a disappointing meal for both of us. We had such high expectations for Minca, especially since it’s so highly rated and so well known.

Hahm Ji Bach

Hahm Ji Bach

41-08 149 Pl

Flushing, NY 11355

(718) 460-9289

Last night I had dinner with my girlfriend at Hahm Ji Bach in Flushing. I made a comment that not once have I ever been let down with Korean cuisine before. The experience last night was no different.

We were immediately greeted by the entire staff of waitresses and seated. A sweet old Korean waitress approached us and said something in Korean. After observing our blank stares she asked if we were Chinese. She then proceeded to speak to us in perfect Mandarin (which by the way I still didn’t understand a lick of). Luckily my beautiful, talented girlfriend was able to translate like a pro.

We placed our order and then out came the banchan (sides). LOTS and lots of banchan. There were at least 14 different little dishes of banchan. This is the most I’ve ever seen before. It was amazing! My favorites were the marinaded strips of bean curd and the seaweed.

They don’t set up the grill for you if you order only one item off the Korean BBQ menu; instead they grill it for you in the kitchen. This happened to us as we only ordered a Galbi Gui. I think it might have been better that they made it for us; it came out nicely sauced, and plenty of scallions mixed in. Somehow I doubt it would have come out looking so good if I had grilled it myself.

We also ordered items for ourselves. My girlfriend had the Galbi Dolsot which is actually a galbi bibimbap in a piping hot stone pot. I ordered myself the Soondooboo. While the Galbi Dolsot was good, I felt that (and my girlfriend disagrees 100%) the Soondooboo was much more delicious and satisfying. How can you go wrong with a slightly spicy broth, plenty of tofu, clams and shrimp whose flavors all melded together and a bowl of rice on the side?

Delicious!

Jamie Lynn's Kitchen

Jamie Lynn's Kitchen

1504 86 Street

Brooklyn, NY 11228

(718) 232-3327

Tonight I went to dinner with some friends at my new favorite local spot, Jamie Lynn’s Kitchen. Most of them had not come here before even though we all live in the area. It was great experience for everyone especially since they opened up the beautiful yard and sat us outside. The atmosphere was very calm and inviting. A great place to eat a good meal, sip some wine and catch up with dear friends.

My apologies for not including any pictures in this first post (they would have been awesome) but I was too hungry and scarfed down the appetizers and then my entrée without coming up for air. I ordered myself the Pork Chop with Apples and Bacon. It was good and all but next time I’ll stick with what I ordered last time, the NY Strip Steak with Grilled Mushrooms and Mashed Potatoes. Now that was a meal that would stick to your bones and be something to write home about.

My only complaint is that every time I’m here they run out of the Creamy Spinach & Artichoke Dip! That’s going to be my mission, to get here early enough to get that dip! Jamie Lynn’s is actually great with appetizers. The White Wine Mussels we had tonight were delicious. I even liked the Fried Calamari with 3 different dipping sauces (Marinara, Thai Chili and Lime Vinaigrette) and I’m the kind of person that’s completely disgusted and creeped out by squid and octopus.

A little out of the way for most people, but definitely worth a try for anyone in the area.