Lunch Week 44: Jap Chae

So every Sunday, I head over to the kitchen to whip up a big batch of food for lunch the next week. Yes, I brown bag. And I almost always do it every week unless I become too busy to even buy cold cuts from the deli. I do it for several reasons being health, finance, and laziness. Now, you may think that spending hours on a day off to prep and cook five meals at once is hardly lazy. But let me remind you, I hate it when the time comes to decide what to eat for lunch every day. I work in Midtown so the choices are endless. My problem, the more choices, the harder it is for me. So it's much easier for me to have my lunch ready and already decided.



So my lunch for the week: Jap Chae



The holidays are coming up and I wanted to get a head start on eating well. People, myself included, tend to go all out during these times of the year and end up regretting the over eating. So to offset that gluttony, I've decided to try to be better during the week. So this week, I made vegan jap chae which is a Korean sweet potato noodle dish with various vegetables.

Not only is this dish vegan but it also turns out of be gluten free too (if you're into that). So it's pretty healthy but it's certainly not devoid of flavor nor texture. Oh, it's quite the opposite. Of course, you can add meat or eggs to the dish if you please. Strips of beef like bulgogi or chicken would work really nice here. And even thinly cut strips of egg pancakes would be delicious here. Want protein but not meat? Try tofu. That would be wonderful as well. It's quite versatile actually.

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Picnic Garden

I really enjoy introducing people to new foods. As long as they are curious enough to try, I'm willing to show them. On this chilly night, a few friends, Mr. M&P, and I drove over to the Picnic Garden in Edison, NJ. There we enjoyed in the delights of all you can eat Korean barbecue dinner for about $30+ per person. That includes a buffet of meats and seafood for the grill and a variety of cooked appetizers, rice, soups, and ice cream. It also includes traditional banchan like tofu, kimchi, pickled cucumbers, etc. It's really a great deal. And what's best is that they have these huge vents above every grill allowing the smoke and odors quickly get sucked up instead of into your clothes. Oh and have I mentioned it's BYOB? Oh yeah, bring your own booze. Does that sound enticing enough for you?

We started the night with some appetizers. I usually like to choose some lighter more vegetable based fare to offset all the meat we would be eating that night. Above, I had some jap chare, watercress salad, spicy cucumbers, pajeon, and mandoo.

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Lunch Week 28: Bibimbop

So every Sunday, I head over to the kitchen to whip up a big batch of food for lunch the next week. Yes, I brown bag. And I almost always do it every week unless I become too busy to even buy cold cuts from the deli. I do it for several reasons being health, finance, and laziness. Now, you may think that spending hours on a day off to prep and cook five meals at once is hardly lazy. But let me remind you, I hate it when the time comes to decide what to eat for lunch every day. I work in Midtown so the choices are endless. My problem, the more choices, the harder it is for me. So it's much easier for me to have my lunch ready and already decided.



So my lunch for the week: Bibimbop



I really enjoy making bibimbop for lunch. The mixture of different vegetables, hot sauce, and rice makes a happy mouth. This time, I changed up the ingredients a bit. I omitted the egg for some marinated bulgogi. I also added more of spinach, carrots, zucchini, and scallions while leaving out the fern brake (I didn't have any) and bean sprouts. The great thing about this dish is that you can mix and match the ingredients as you please. It's really versatile!

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Tuesday Nights: Barn Joo

Towards the end of one year, my friends thought that we weren't hanging out enough. It's true, we weren't. So they started Tuesday night get-togethers. Every Tuesday, we'll pick a bar to drink, eat, and hang out for a couple of hours. Whoever can make it will attend. If you're busy, it's okay. There's always next week. So this is Tuesday Nights on Tasty Eating where you will find bars that serve food and how we like them.



On this recent Tuesday Night, we headed out to: Barn Joo



On man, this post goes way back. Way back to February. Yes, it's that old. I though about not posting it but the food was really good so I wanted to give Barn Joo the mention.

On this night, we had quite a large group. This meant good food sharing at this gastropub. We ordered from the menu with a frenzy and then the food began to rain onto our table. First the fried oysters. These plump morsels of briny, creamy oysters fried until crunchy were really nice. The garnishes on top gave it just enough of freshness and spicy kick to cut through the oyster itself. I would definitely order this again. Unfortunately, these tasty things aren't on the menu anymore. Maybe it's a special now.

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