Of cold noodles and celery salads 🥗

Keeping it short and sweet this week with bbq, mock palomas, and more long weekend foods.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week we keep it cool, because my air conditioner broke lol. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.  

Naengmyeon at Kunjip

32 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001

Over the (very hot) weekend, my AC broke. As we all know I suffer from an apartment curse, which will continue until the spell is broken. I also was outdoors performing for approximately five hours under the hot sun for the Dance Parade, which meant that come evening all I wanted to eat was a huge bowl of Korean cold noodles, or naengmyeon. If I may say something heretic, I believe that naengmyeon is the best cold noodle in all cuisines, because it is the coldest and lightest noodle of all. It turns out that everyone feels the same way because by the time we got to Koreatown at 8:30PM, all the cold noodles were sold out at Five Senses, my usual spot. So we ended up eating at Kunjip, which was a mistake. The noodles were lukewarm so I ended up putting the ice from my cup into the broth. I still ate it all, though.

Chinese celery and tomato salad at home

Is it really considered a recipe if you just season everything to taste?

I am not usually a fan of celery, but I could eat a literal bucket of this cold Chinese celery and tomato salad. It’s as addictive as the classic smashed cucumber (scroll to the bottom of this post) but IMO it might even be a little better, because celery is the ultimate crunchy food. Usually celery has a very strong medicinal flavor to me, but the vinegar and sugar neutralizes its flavor, so you’re just left with refreshing crisp coolness. To make it, slice a whole damn head of celery (leaves and all) on the diagonal into 1-inch chunks. Then slice 3-4 small tomatoes (or 1 big one). Toss with a scant drizzle of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a pinch of white sugar and a smattering of ground white pepper. For extra protein, add baked tofu, thinly sliced on the diagonal. For extra flair, add cilantro. Serve with cold noodles and delight. (The best part is the tomato juice that pools at the bottom, which you slurp up at the end.)

Mock palomas at home

Spindrift is available at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and some other grocery stores.

Last week I declared that the mango orange Spindrift is the only one worth drinking, but this week I am revising that view because I found the perfect use for the grapefruit flavor: Mock palomas. Palomas are a highly underrated summer cocktail IMO. The combination of grapefruit, fresh lime, and salt cannot be beat, and using a can of grapefruit Spindrift, poured over ice stacked high in the cup with a salt rim, topped off with a fresh squeeze of lime, makes a wonderful refreshing mocktail.

Jerk Pork Spare Ribs at Miss Lilly’s 

109 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009 plus other locations.

I eat bbq ribs about once every three years, not for any reason except that good ribs are hard to find. It’s absolutely glorious when I finally get to eat them, though. The jerk pork spare ribs at Miss Lily’s are divine. I was worried that I would be missing out because the restaurant is more known for their jerk chicken, but no. The ribs had the perfect amount of both char and sauce, without being either too dry or too gloopy. The rice and beans that it comes with is super flavorful as well. I am an introvert, but I will sit through the loud party vibes at Miss Lily’s for the food.

Koala's March Tezukuri Kit - Magic Kingdom at TESO Life

Here’s the kit.

I am embarrassed to admit I fully lacked the patience to assemble this charming March of the Koala’s candy kit, which I thoughtfully picked up for my inner child from my favorite megastore, TESO Life. It turns out, my inner child has not deviated from when I was actually a child, and she remains highly impatient. Maybe you’ll have better luck than me? If you do complete this kit, pls send me a picture.  

Have a nice long weekend,

Soph

P.S. Some housekeeping: I’ll be on vacation next week so there’ll be no newsletter. Travel eats to follow the weekend after!

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