It's All About the Food

Whenever I'm downtown at night, I like to try a new restaurant because there is always a new place I haven't tried, and if I want to eat the same-old, same-old I can stay at home. Last night it was Miran at 2034 Chestnut after a massage at Total Serenity at 2108 Walnut. The atmosphere is "take out," but he food is better than that.

Miran's a BYOB, and, because I don't usually have a B tucked in my bag, I had the hot tea, which was probably Hyeonmi cha, Korean roasted brown rice tea. It was a wonderful antidote to January in Philly.

I started with the pork and kimchee steamed dumplings, then had the squid bokum &emdash; squid and veggies in a hot-sweet sauce. The dumpling filling and squid might have benefited from a minute less time cooking; the dumplings were not as juicy as I like, and the squid a bit more chewy. However, the flavor was good.

Most dinner entrees are served with "rice and side dishes," meaning short-grained rice and four or five small bowls of kimchee and a small bowl of iceberg lettuce, a slice of a tired tomato, covered in Russian dressing.

Service was casual (the waitress wore jeans and a McNabb jersey &emdash; I though the Eagles were out of consideration?), efficient (I was in and out in half an hour) and friendly (we both like su do ku). As I was finishing dinner about 6:30, the dining room started to fill up and my table was cleared immediately to seat the customers who had just walked in.

Squid bokum has become my favorite dish at Korean restaurants. As happy as I am that I can find something so good (and familiar) wherever I eat, it's disturbing to see Korean cuisine shoe-horned into American expectations of "these are the 20 dishes that $COUNTRY eats." That should have gone out of style with chop suey. If you wanted to define American food, you'd be hard pressed to limit it to 20 dishes. Of course, steak-house menus don't reflect that, do they?

Will I go back? Yes, Miran does at-table barbecue, and I'm sure my husband and son would love it.

Posted by SusieJ at 03:06 PM | Permalink

I'll admit it — I make up song parodies for my toddler son. They are badly sung, badly rhymed, with a strong theme of "mommy's going crazy now, so listen to the nice song." But he enjoys them.

Tonight's Grammy-winner was inspired by leftover Käsespätzle and the Village People (to the tune of "Macho Man"):

Spatze Spatze Man!
I've got to be, a Spatze Man!

My husband assures me that being there makes it no funnier.

However, the Käsespätzle were delicious. People — well, chefs and food wanks, not people — claim Spätzle are Alsatian or Swiss to make them sound upscale, but I'm telling you, this is southwest German peasant food.

Käsespätzle (German cheese-noodle casserole)

• 5 c flour (700g)
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/4 c water (275 ml)
• nutmeg to taste
• 8 ounces Emmental or Gruyere cheese, grated (225g)

Boil at least 5 quarts (5 liters) very heavily salted water. Butter a large casserole dish. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees (160 C).

While waiting for the water to boil, measure the flour and a bit of grated nutmeg into a large bowl, and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into the center, and pour in the water. With a fork, mix the eggs and water together, then mix in the flour. You'll have a very stiff batter, but not a dough. If you have dough that you would like to put through a pasta maker, add a few tablespoons water. Mix until smoothish.

Spoon/plop a quarter of the batter into your Spätzle press, press into the rapidly boiling water, and boil until the noodles float. I prefer thinner noodles. If the noodles are thick, either add a tablespoon or two more water to the batter, or hold the press higher, so that gravity stretches the noodles more. My press is the kind that looks like a giant garlic press, not the kind that looks like a food grater with a sliding handle thing on it.

When the noodles float, fish them out with a large slotted spoon, or strainer, or pasta spoon, or whatever works. Spread noodles evenly on the bottom of the casserole, and sprinkle a quarter of the grated cheese over them. Pop the casserole into the oven.

Repeat the cooking of the noodles, and the sprinkling of the cheese three more times, until all the batter is cooked and all the cheese used. The cheese will melt nicely in the oven.

Posted by SusieJ at 08:19 PM | Permalink