The adventures of an aspiring k-pop star
This week, Five Things I Ate is officially an Old because she hurt her neck trying to whip her hair in dance class. If you’re new, check out past posts here, and follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate (where you’ll find a video of the pajeon!).
Pajeon (Korean scallion pancakes) at my apartment
My kitchen, but why not yours, too?
My friend and I joined a k-pop dance class last week (has it only been a week?!) and it’s been a true delight. We stand in the back of the class in our yoga clothes and sensible sneakers like Olds and try our best to body roll our creaky bodies while we watch college students in crop tops and Timbs really break it down. As an added bonus, this k-pop dance class is located near K-town (no, not that K-town), which means that afterwards, I get to eat one of my favorite snacks, pajeon. I will always and forever be loyal to my mom’s scallion pancakes, which are a true work of art I will write about on another day, but pajeon is much easier to replicate at home. Unlike Chinese scallion pancakes, which require kneading and rolling a stiff dough of hot water and flour, pajeon is made of a simple pancake batter. Also, you get to crack an egg on top! I’ve been testing a bunch of recipes and I’m not perfectly satisfied with any of them yet, but I’ve been really liking this one*, mostly because the trick of sauteing the scallions in oil and a splash of soy sauce first is an absolute game-changer in terms of flavor.
*I apologize, it is a white dude
Pan-fried polenta at my apartment
My kitchen, but really, anywhere there’s a stove
Four score and seven lifetimes ago, I went on a date at a see-and-be-seen Italian restaurant in the Bowery, where I remember my very nice date ordered a basket of polenta fries for the table. These fries pretty much changed my concept of what fries could be, because they had all the crisp exterior of a potato fry while retaining a perfectly creamy interior. Sadly, because I was 20 years old and my only requirements for a significant other were that they should have no tenable job prospects whatsoever and also preferably own a motorcycle, this emotionally available guy who had a future in a well-paying industry did not make the cut. Still, sometimes I still think about those fries, and at the end of a long and rainy day, I like to cut up a tube of polenta (it’s something like $1.99 at Trader Joe’s) into matchsticks, heat up some olive oil in a pan, and fry the polenta with tons of garlic and salt and red chili flakes until they’re nice and crispy on the outside. It’s pretty good, even if it doesn’t come with outdoor seating.
Bramble rose cocktail at Lazy Point
310 Spring St, New York, NY 10013
When the last bit of slush has melted off the pavement in the streets, but before the ACs begin their relentless drip onto pedestrians below, Spring has sprung in New York. For a brief magical period of time, I’m filled with an un-ironic love for both pink fizzy drinks and the goodness of people’s hearts.* The bramble rose cocktail at Lazy Point, this oddly surf-shack themed bar near the Holland Tunnel, is pink and fizzy and pretty good for a happy hour cocktail. It has gin and rose jam and is decently strong (but not offensively so). At 10 dollars, that’s sadly a deal in New York.
*Which is only temporarily interrupted by the news that someone was stabbed on the subway station nearby.
Quaker rice crisps, cheddar cheese flavor at my office
At my desk, which I wiped down after I devoured the bag
Is it wrong to admit that I kinda like orange cheese powder more than actual cheese itself? I’m talking about the neon dust on cheese puffs and in Kraft pasta, the kind that sticks to your fingers and forms a desert at the bottom of the bag. These rice crisps are covered in it and that’s why I love them. There’s nothing remotely healthy about this, so let’s not pretend that “rice cake” means anything more than “carb covered in cheese,” which is what they gloriously are. Since attempting to cut dairy out of my life, I’m surprised to find that I don’t actually miss cheese much, but you can pry away these salty, unnaturally-colored cheese-flavored snacks from my cold, dead hands.
Shrimp rice roll with egg at Joe’s Steam Rice Roll
265 Canal St, New York, NY 10013
Rice rolls — and Joe’s Steam Rice Rolls in particular — are the reason that this newsletter exists. Last year, my friend took me on a food tour of Flushing, and I fell so in love with the warm fresh rice rolls (soft and wrinkly sheets of freshly ground rice hugging savory fillings that were nothing like the standard cheung fun at dim sum joints) at Joe’s that I couldn’t stop writing about the experience. That writing turned into a food guide to Flushing, which in turn came up in a conversation with newsletter queen Ruthie, who encouraged me to channel my writing into a weekly newsletter. Several months later, I’ve finally made it back to Joe’s Steam Rice Roll, checking out their new Manhattan location. I was afraid that being in the hipsterfied Canal Street Market would take away something from Joe’s, but it doesn’t. I don’t think anything can take away my love for Joe’s. The sheets of rice are still warm and fresh, the price is extremely good (pro-tip: Get the vegetarian version, with cilantro, corn, scallions and bean sprouts, and add an egg for a six dollar feast), and most of all, it still feels like a hug in food form, one that’s desperately needed at the end of a long week.
Food hugs,
Soph
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