Orientalian: Supreme Service and Food

Mom and I found a little gem in Myoungdong that not only serves delicious, healthy food, but also caters to the diner's need and provides great service.

Orientalian offers Asian and Italian fusion food that ranges from hot noodle soup to fried rice to pasta, most of which are cooked in an unconventional, fusion style.

Before we even settled on the menu, the waitress brought us sweetened black rice porridge. The porridge was sticky from the glutinous rice and a bit too sweet, but it was nice to sip on something while deciding from the restaurant's extensive menu.

Shortly after we finished the porridge, the waitress came back with another surprise! The four pieces of california roll was topped with something fried (I'm not quite sure what it was) and scallions. No where on the menu does it indicate that a bowl of porridge and sushi rolls accompany all dish, so these were certainly a nice surprise.

The sushi had a white and a black sauce drizzled on top. The white sauce was probably some kind of mayonnaise-based sauce, while the black sauce tasted like teriyaki sauce.

Inside the roll were ingredients in a typical California roll: sliced cucumber and imitation crab with mayonnaise. It's interesting how the rice has a purplish hue. Perhaps it's from the healthy black grain that they added?

I really loved that the fried thing on top added crunchiness to the sushi roll. The california roll tasted very simple yet delicious. I would be happy to have this as a main dish, even!

Our first main dish was called "Five Grains with Shrimp and Vegetable." When the dish first came to the table, I thought, "What is this? Where is the food? How do I eat this?" Certainly, it was a curious-looking dish!

I took the photos from a different angle, yet the dish was a mystery. I couldn't see anything from the vegetables on top!

Not just green leaves, there were also carrots, shrimp, and thin slices of scallop on top, as well as sliced mini tomatoes on the side.

The greens were so fresh!

Finally, you can sort of see the grains at the bottom. More than 10 different types of grains (according to the menu...I don't know why it's called Five Grains then) were seasoned in soy sauce and made into rice balls about the size of a baby's fist.

It's impossible to eat the whole thing in one bite unless your mouth is huge. The rice ball was seasoned perfectly with soy sauce and sesame seeds. Eating just the rice itself tasted so good! All the different grains added rich flavors. Eating the rice itself was very savory, but eating it with the vegetables on top added a new dimension of freshness.

Next was the dish that we debated on for nearly 15 minutes...the Sweet Pumpkin Pasta!

Normally I would have ordered anything "Squash" or "Pumpkin" at a heartbeat, but I was a bit hesitant about this dish because the waitress told me the sauce was cream-based. I asked if it would be possible to get it without cream, and she said they use the pumpkin puree and cream to get the flavors so she wasn't so sure. But I really didn't want to lose my chance at eating delicious pumpkin/squash. After a while, the waitress came back with great news that the chef would cook it specially for me! But she warned, "We can't guarantee that it will have the same creamy flavor." No problem for me! I don't like creamy stuff anyways.

When the dish came out, I was nervous that it would taste awful. But worry no more! The first bite blew me away. Instead of cream, the chef added honey for the similar sweet, thick flavor. The pumpkin was very sweet by itself, too.

Inside the half-bowl of squash were different types of pasta that was slightly undercooked, which is perfect because the pasta cooks by itself from the heat while it's in the bowl.

There were also mushroom, bell pepper, and other vegetables that were grilled beforehand for the extra savorniess, as well as black olives and fresh greens sprinkled on top.

Taking a bite of this dish was like being in heaven. So flavorful! Because there was no cream added to the dish, I didn't feel nauseous and my stomach didn't growl at me afterwards. Wow, I wish I could eat this dish all the time. I really loved the service at Orientalian, and how the chef was willing to modify his dish to cater to the diner's taste. And the result was very, very successful :)

A Banquet at a Wedding

The Korean food I had for lunch at the first wedding I have been to was quite a disappointment, but Mom told me to expect much less so I wasn't too surprised. It sure is hard to cook well for a mass.

I was served a bowl of galbi-tang, or braised short-rib soup, as I sat on the table. The beef in the soup was surprisingly tender, while the rib had chewier texture from the tendon. It tasted great with a piece of kimchi. I am personally a huge fan of scallions, so I liked the big, chopped pieces floating on top as well as the long mushroom. The soup was seasoned slightly salty, but the plain white rice balanced out the saltiness.

The shrimp was pre-peeled for convenience, and had sweet chili sauce on top. The shrimp didn't taste super fresh, and the top part tasted a bit fishy.

The galbijim, or braised short-rib marinated in soy sauce, wasn't cooked enough because the sauce is supposed to be thicker from boiling for a long time. The meat was extremely fatty to the point I only took a tiny bite and all the other parts were fat.

Abalones are expensive, but I really don't find them that appealing. These had very bland flavor, if any. Maybe people just like that jerky texture?

Smoked duck, which I didn't try because it looked greasy and scary.

Other banchans included smoked salmon (pretty decent), japchae, raw beef, and other red spicy stuff. The pineapples were very sweet! Haven't had them in a while :)

Korean BBQ and Vegetables at "Tea Story"

Because I blog about food myself, I also enjoy reading other people's food blog and visiting restaurants that they have featured to get my own take on the food. Tea Story restaurant in Insadong, a neighborhood with lots of traditional Korean flavors, is a place that I have found out about through food blogs.

The restaurant's name is definitely a misnomer because it's not a tea place/cafe, but a restaurant. Like most restaurants in Insadong, the exterior was made with wood. The wooden door was quite heavy, if I remember correctly (or maybe I was just famished and didn't have much strength?)

Before we even ordered, the waitress brought us different types of vegetables. All these have their unique flavors: some are bitter, some bland, while others are sour and coarse. But they all taste very natural.

The banchans tasted very simple, but the mushroom in sesame oil was too greasy for my liking.

Ssamjang on the left is bean curd paste with seeds that you put in wrapped rice and meat with vegetables. It has a very strong flavor and curd-y texture. The kimchi was also tasty.

The spicy squid tastes great with steaming bowl of white rice. The pickled radish tasted plain.

I didn't eat the fried tofu on top. The mook, which has jelly-like texture, doesn't really heavy any flavor besides the soy sauce on top. The greens in chili sauce on the left tasted similar to kimchi, but slightly more bitter.

I understand a little bit why the restaurant is called "Tea Story." Apparently they cook the rice in green tea instead of in plain water to bring out the rich, green tea flavor in the rice. The rice was served in a bamboo shoot.

Underneath the cover is the green tea rice with jujube, beans, dates, and other flavorings and seasonings.

The highlight is probably the meat. Koreans love to eat meat barbecued right on the table. We ordered bulgogi and galbi meat. The meat tastes a lot tastier when cooked right in front of you because it retains its warmness, freshness, and juiciness.

The meat cooked rare is the best or else you don't taste the meat itself! The galbi meat was slightly fatty (which probably made it juicier and more tender).

Meat and vegetables wrapped together with a piece of kimchi and a dash of ssamjang!

Korean food always look like such a feast when laid out on a table.

Food On Air: Exploring Different World Cuisines at the Incheon Airport

For someone who appreciates food as much as I do, airline food is like the Jersey Shore of all TV shows: Trashy.

I went to the airport with Mom to say good-bye to DJ, and we had surprisingly delicious (and extremely filling) late lunch at a restaurant in the airport. Even though there were only three of us, we ordered four dishes because "Since the airline food is disgusting, I need to fill up my stomach so that I can go on without food for 13 hours," DJ said.

The place we found was called Food On Air. Incheon Airport is like a backyard to us since we have been there so many time, but for some reason this was our first encounter with Food On Air. The restaurant featured five different cuisines, featuring dishes from Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and Italian.

It was definitely a challenge to choose what I wanted from the extensive menu! Each cuisine seemed to have been named after the cook: Mr. Kim for Korean, Mr. Takenashi for Japanese, Ms. Huong for Thai, Ms. Pham for Vietnamese, and Mr. Toscani (?) for Italian.

Mom's Korean dish (spicy soft tofu soup and seafood stew with rice) was the first to grace the table. Different banchans (kimchi, seasoned squash, spicy squid, mushroom & quali eggs in soy sauce, and pan-fried fish) accompanied the soft tofu soup. The soup was made with broth from clam, oyster, and other sea creatures.

The seafood flavor was very rich, but the spicy chili oil in the stew balanced out the taste. The soup was a bit too oily and spicy for me because I personally enjoy the soft tofu soup plain white without any chili sauce.

DJ also ordered from the Korean cuisine. His cabbage and short-rib soup had the same banchans as the soft tofu soup.

There were big pieces of short-rib in the soup. Inevitably, they were fatty but the meat was quite tender and juicy. It's so interesting how vegetables that usually don't have any flavor taste...sweet when they are cooked, just like the cabbage in the soup. The cabbage was also very soft.

I had to wait forever for my dish, Thai-styler red crab meat fried rice, probably because I asked for minimum oil. The dish had pickled radish, carrot, and cucumber, sour cream sauce, two pieces of thin pita chips, and miso soup.

Typically, when you cook fried rice, you pour greasy oil. They must have cleaned the wok to get rid of every last bit of the grease...just for me!

I was very happy that the fried rice had abundant red crab meat. That's right, not those gross imitation crab meats, but the real stuff. I would have preferred a bit more seasoning in the fried rice, but at least it wasn't overly greasy or salty. In one word, the fried rice tasted healthy.

I really enjoyed that sour cream sauce! It had tiny carrot bits for the crunchy texture. The pita chip was plain--nothing too interesting about it.

We also ordered a cold soba and roll combo set from the Japanese corner. It had quite a pleasant presentation, with the unexpected squid, squash, and potato tempura, salad, and picked radishes.

The shrimp tempura roll looked a bit messy because of too much flying fish roe and tempura crumbs on the side.

I didn't taste the roll, but DJ, who doesn't like seafood, said he really liked it, so it must have tasted sort of artificial. Haha.

The cold soba was very refreshing. The broth was too sweet though.

We added grounded radish to make the broth taste "cooler." The soba noodle is apparently a lot healthier than other types of noodle. Anyways, it was a satisfying meal and hopefully DJ will be able to endure 13 foodless hours on the airplane!

Nothing Beats Home-Cooked Meals

Because we eat out so much in Korea (Dad doesn't want Mom to be too tired while prepping the food), I don't appreciate Mom's cooking enough. But mind you, she is a phenomenal cook. I only hope I have endowed at least some of her good cooking gene...haha.

For our last supper as a whole family this month, we decided to forego dining at a fancy steakhouse for a good, healthy home-cooked meal. Mom made so many different delicious banchans that I thought the dining table was going to break!

Her "Tofu jorim," or sliced tofu cooked in a pan with chili paste, garlic, scallions, onion, and beef, is to die for. It tastes similar to mapo tofu except without MSG, much less sodium, and not as liquidy. Also the tofu is sliced bigger rather than into tiny cubes that just disappears in your mouth. Mom lightly pan-fried the tofu beforehand for that crispy surface. The tofu is als sprinkled with chili powder, which added extra spice to the dish. The tofu was a bit too salty to eat by itself, but it made a stupendous banchan with rice. Nom nom nom. I must remember to ask her to cook this again before I leave!

This is sort of a "specialized" dish that only a few people (i.e. someone like me with odd diet/appetite) would enjoy. In fact, Mom modified the original recipe to cate to my taste. These are different vegetables marinated in soy sauce. Clockwise from top are onions, peppers, mushroom, garlic, and lotus root. Traditionally, Koreans add beef to the dish, called "Jangjorim," and put lots of sugar to the lotus root to make it sweeter. But I am not a fan of beef or sweet stuff. The lotus root is crunchy and I love that texture. The mushroom is chewy, while the onion and the garlic have been marinated in soy sauce so they lost their bitter/spicy flavors when eaten raw and instead has somewhat of a sweet taste.

Mom also oven-baked mackerel, which Dad said was too dry, kimchi, and other "red" dishes. Thanks Mom for the wonderful dinner!