The Korean Grill in Toronto

As my old friend JP says, "At the Korean Grill House, it's all about the meat!"

Last weekend I was in Toronto again for work and I saw JP. We lived together when we were in university and she was the best cook in the house. And as you can see, we had platters and platters of meat, from fish to pork to beef.

We ordered the unlimited Korean BBQ with unlimited lettuce and condiments and it only cost us $20 each. Now this is my kind of eating! You cook the meats on the sunken BBQ in the middle of the table. Then you take a lettuce leaf, smear it with chili sauce, add some barbecued meat or fish, top with condiments - kimchi, a pickled cabbage that is an aquired taste but then becomes addictive, bean sprouts and fried tofu, among other tasties - and wrap it up into a bundle and pop it in your mouth. We even tried some tongue.

Cooking the food before you eat it forces you to take it slow. Another great thing is, since the food arrives on many plates and needs to be assembled, you'll never know how much you are eating. Therefore one has no excuse to feel like a greedy pig at the Korean Grill. We went to the one at Yonge and Bloor, but there are other locations at Yonge and Dundas, and Queen and University. It's probably wise to make a reservation before you go because it's really popular.

My only complaint is that when they find out it's someone's birthday, they bang this great gong at the front and everybody yells "Happy Birthday," which is kind of irritating when you are trying to talk to someone. But I really recommend this place. The prices are great and the BBQ is just fantastic!

Korean Grill House
754 Yonge St. (corner Bloor)
Toronto, ON
416.922.3328

Chicken Stock

Whenever I am sick, I just crave soups. Nutritious, brothy, spicy ones, like a lemony dhal or a hot and sour Thai soup (like the one at Siam Bistro, yum). Sometimes I make a chicken stock from scratch, which takes almost all day, and make soup with it the next day. I usually buy four pounds of chicken bones from my butcher, freeze half of it and use the remaining two pounds for a stock-making session. There are lots of ways to make stock, but I always follow the recipe from the Joy of Cooking.

(makes 5-6 cups)

2 lb. chicken bones
cold water to cover

Cover the bones with cold water, put the lid on the pan and slowly bring to a boil. When the water boils, immediately turn down the heat to a barely-there simmer. For this next half hour it's important to constanty skim off the heavy scum that will form. If you don't, all those impurities will become incorporated into the stock and it will be cloudy instead of clear.

1 onion, unpeeled and quartered
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
1 leek, white part only
1 bouquet garni - half a bay leaf, two sprigs of thyme and a few sprigs of parsely
2 cloves
8 whole black peppercorns

Add these other ingredients after the half hour of skimming. Continue to simmer and skim. You'll need to skim less often now. Cook this way for three to four hours. Sieve the liquid and throw out the solids. Let the stock cool on the counter for a while. Keep it overnight in the fridge. The next day, spoon off the layer of fat that has accumulated. You should have five or six cups of stock. I always end up with lots more than that, so I simmer the sieved stock down again the next day until I have the right amount.

A good tip from Nigella Lawson - buy a bunch of plastic measuring cups and line them with plastic baggies. Then pour one cup of stock into each measuring cup and freeze. When the liquid has frozen you can just pop off the cup and the baggie will contain one measured cup, ready for use whenever you need it.

Update on the Fearsome Bean-Wielder

I cannot let it rest. I am obsessed. It makes me helpless with laughter. If you share my immature glee in this story, you have to read this article in the Guardian. I mean, if it was anything other than beans it just wouldn't have the same effect ...

Food In the News

Beans Are Not Just a Musical Fruit
Oh, happy day! Hugh Grant found another way to embarrass himself, this time by pioneering another use for baked beans. They are apparently his weapons of choice for attacking pesky photographers. Here is a wonderful photo of him about to mount an attack. Unfortunately, beFOODled was unable to ascertain whether Grant was successful in his attempt to soil the photographer with the much-loved breakfast legume.

Are You a Cucumber or a Banana?
Better hope that you are a cuke. In Singapore, a pharmaceutical firm and the Society for Men's Health are measuring erectile dysfunction by asking men to arbitrarily rate their hardness on a scale inspired by produce - cucumber :), unpeeled banana, peeled banana or tofu :(. Not surprisingly, the medical authorities are not endorsing this subjective - albeit creative - study.

Soak Up the Sunshine Vitamin
Studies by American scientists are showing that sunshine for 10 to 15 minutes a day may cut your chances of getting some cancers (breast, colon, prostate) by about 50 per cent. Canadians are especially challenged because, when it comes to adequate Vitamin D production, it's all about latitude. If you live near the equator you're laughing, but from October to March the sunlight is just too feeble in Canada for good Vit D synthesis. And it looks like it's better to sun oneself than get it from food. Food amounts are piddly compared to what your skin makes after a dose of sunshine - you'd have to drink about three litres of milk a day, according to the Globe and Mail. As much as I love the stuff, that's just not possible. Now, I just hope that the fake and bakes (tanning salons) will not decide to use this an advertising line.

Rack of Lamb with Couscous

S made this wonderful rack of lamb and couscous over the weekend. We got two dinners out of this meal.

For the lamb:
2 full racks of lamb (2 x 8 ribs)
salt
pepper

Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side of the racks. Place the racks in a saucepan on medium heat and, using tongs, sear the outsides, but keep the insides raw. You just want a thin layer of cooked meat on all sides.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Prepare the breadcrumb crust.

For the breadcrumb crust:
Panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs
melted butter
olive oil
dried basil
chili flakes

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. You want the breadcrumbs to be moist but still flaky. Press the crust onto the seared racks of lamb so that the breadcrumbs adhere. Interlock the two racks together into a tent shape with the bones in the air. Stand them upright in a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Let rest for 10.

Couscous:
onions, chopped
mushrooms, sliced
olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
salt
raisins
1 C water or stock
1 C couscous

Fry the onions and mushrooms in olive oil. Add some salt. Add the raisins when the other ingredients start to brown. As soon as the raisins plump up, add the butter and water. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat. Mix in the couscous. Cover for 5 minutes. Fluff and serve.

Cut the racks into ribs and serve on a bed of couscous.

Spicy Slaw

A spicy dish! This super-easy recipe gives a boring bag of cabbage an exotic makeover. My Dad made it for our Easter dinner. He started by frying ginger, red onions and spring onions in oil, along with some bits of bell pepper that were escapees of a previous dish. Then he added some spices - this time it was cumin, turmeric, paprika, curry powder, chili powder, whole cloves and some cayenne. After a couple of minutes, he added some salt, lime juice and a full bag of store-bought coleslaw. And after another five minutes or so, we garnished it with chopped tomatoes and some fresh coriander. Et voila! A very spicy slaw.

Crispy Nori Chicken and 300

Crispy nori chicken on Flickr by beFOODled.

A few weeks ago, we had our friends Calimocho and a newly-coiffed Squeaky - who has insisted on some star exposure in beFOODled - over for a Japanese-themed evening. The plan was to eat tasty Japanese food and then rent an anime movie, but in actual fact, we finished up in Greece that night, as we all saw 300. A little aside before the food details: I really liked this movie, for the simple reason that it is full of hot abs! (Unfortunately they were all painted-on virtu-abs. Sigh.) Squeaky's favourite line: "THIS IS SPARTA!" 300 has revived my interest in classical civilizations and has led to my discovery of the ROME miniseries, to which I am obsessively addicted. Abs aside, the cinemetography in 300 was great - comic colours all washed over in sepia. I was not expecting an historically accurate epic documentary, so I wasn't disappointed. But S made an intelligent observation that some of the phrases uttered, such as "Freedom doesn't come for free" were obviously pro-Republican propaganda just when the Bush Administration needed it the most. I've since read that the Iranians are angry about the way 300 portrays the Persians. All good points, but I liked it all the same.

And now back to Japan. To start, we had instant miso soup, and for the main course, some crispy nori chicken. I served this with rice bowls, honey-soy carrots and a mint and zucchini salad.

Crispy Nori Chicken
Adapted from Jane Lawson's Yoshoku
Serves 4

1 kg chicken thighs, cut into two-bite pieces
vegetable oil for frying (only a thin layer as this is not a deep-fried dish)
sesame oil

Marinade for chicken:
60 ml soy sauce
60 ml mirin
1 Tbsp sake
2 tsp grated ginger
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Dusting mixture:
1/2 C corn starch
2 Tbsp crushed nori flakes
1/8 tsp Japanese pepper

Marinate the chicken pieces for an hour. Fill a large saucepan with a thin layer - on the order of millimetres - of vegetable oil and add about 80 ml of sesame oil. Heat to 180 C (350 F).

Lightly coat the chicken pieces in the starch mixture. Fry in batches for 6-7 minutes until golden. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Serve with lemon wedges.