maxwell turns one

Last Friday Maxwell turned one. To celebrate we threw him a small party with family. We kept things pretty simple. Platters of sushi and sashimi, some Korean and Filipino appetizers, and a homemade banana layer cake.

Mundoo, in honour of Maxwell's newborn nickname (Korean dumplings):

My mom made the Filipino lumpia (springrolls) and empanadas:

I baked the banana layer cake the night before. In the background are two go im towers (used to decorate the food table) that I made out of candy and beans. The one has Maxwell's Korean middle name written in Korean.

A platter of Korean rice cakes called tteok:

The highlight of a traditional Korean dol (first birthday celebration) is the future-predicting ceremony. Basically, a bunch of objects are placed in front of Maxwell and whatever one he reaches for first determines his future. A roll of string represents a long life, a pencil means he'll be a scholar, money equals wealth, a brush means he'll be an artist, and a bowl of food means he'll never go hungry. These days you can also add more objects, but we kept it simple. So what did he choose?

The food! 

I can't believe Maxwell is one already! He's crazy about food (surprise), walking up a storm, and turning into a pretty swell dude. I feel like I'm still learning the ropes at this parenting thing, but it's fun to watch him change and grow each month. 

100 days old

Over the weekend, Maxwell turned 100 days old. And because he's half Korean, we decided to throw him a baek-il party. You can read about this Korean tradition here, but basically it's a celebration of a baby surviving its first 100 days (back in the day a lot of babies didn't make it to 100 days, so it was a reason to celebrate). We weren't planning on marking this milestone, but then I thought about how great of a memory it would be for Maxwell, so we rushed around and got everything the day before. It was a sweet little party for three! 

The table included Korean Shingo pears and a baby watermelon (there's always fruit on a Korean celebration table), Asian snacks, sticky rice cakes, and the requisite baby photos.

The sweet Korean rice cakes (tteok)are a must. I like the really soft and chewy ones stuffed with red beans (the tan, white and brown ones). The shiny green, red and pink ones have a liquid honey centre. The cake-like multi-colour slices are much drier, not very sweet at all and even though they look mighty pretty, they're definitely my least favourite.

We also had a very non-traditional (but delicious) ice cream cake with two kinds of ice cream inside: cookies and cream and gold medal ribbon. 

The party continued the next day thanks to Maxwell's halmoni and halabujee (grandma and grandpa in Korean). They brought even more rice cakes, fruit, kimbap, and two cakes.

Halmoni made a traditional steamed rice cake that says "100 day celebration" in Korean lettering made out of dates.

We love you not-so-little Mundoo! You make us smile and laugh every day!

roll house

Korean-Chinese food is one of those things that I crave on a regular basis. Especially tang su yuk and ja jang myun. It's the perfect combination. The problem is finding Korean-Chinese food. I stumbled upon Roll House in Koreatown a few weeks ago. I originally thought it was a sushi place, but noticed that the menu had all of the usual Korean-Chinese dishes. And the Korean name of the restaurant is actually House of Ja Jang Myun.  

You can get individual combos of one dish plus ja jang myun. I chose the tang su yuk and Joe got the fried mandoo (Korean dumplings). We had no complaints about the mandoo and tang su yuk. 

The ja jang myun, however, was mediocre. The noodles weren't chewy enough and the sauce was a little bland. Oh well, at least I crossed another Koreatown restaurant off the list.

Roll House (House of Ja Jang Myun)

648 Bloor St. W

sariwon

The tough thing about not having a backyard—especially in the summertime—is not being able to have a bbq. Especially a Korean bbq. Joe and I usually head to my mom's one or twice in the summer to get our grilling fix, but this summer seems to be flying past and we've been just too busy. So we did the next best thing: head to a Korean bbq restaurant. I'd heard good things about Sariwon at Yonge and Steeles (quite a trek from downtown) and decided to give it a try. For bbq, we had the marinated kalbi (Korean beef ribs). This was some good quality meat! Tender and flavourful—almost as good as my recipe. Almost. When the waitress started laying out all of the complimentary banchan (customary Korean side dishes like kimchi) my eyes grew with excitement. I love banchan!

Making ssam (lettuce wraps): Take a piece of lettuce, smear it with some salty-sweet bean paste, add some rice and meat and wrap it all up. Lettuce makes it healthy, right?

We foolishly ordered a bowl of spicy soon dubu chigae (soft tofu and seafood stew) too, not knowing that the bbq came with a bowl of doenjang chigae (soy bean paste stew). Both were really good, but we obviously had way too much food for just two people.

Luckily we were hungry because we may have also ordered a broiled mackerel...our eyes are definitely bigger than our stomachs. Surprisingly (or not) we actually polished off almost all of this feast. There's something about delicious Korean food that makes it so irresistible.

Sariwon

7388 Yonge St.

Thornhill

banh mi boys

Banh Mi Boys has quickly become one of my favourite places for lunch, dinner or a mid-afternoon snack. Not gonna lie, I was a bit skeptical at first about the mixing of Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and Mexican cuisine, but after my first bite I was hooked. 

Let's start with the kimchi fries. Kimchi and fries may not sound like a good combo, but somehow it works. The crispy fries topped with pulled pork, mayo, chopped green onions and a good helping of kimchi were amazing. Every bite had so many textures and complementing flavours—very addictive. 

The banh mi here are a higher end version of the classic mystery meat banh mi sold on Spadina (which are also tasty in their own way). The lemongrass pork banh mi comes stuffed with juicy grilled pork, pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber and cilantro. It's topped with their Asian bbq sauce and the bun is slightly toasted so it has a nice, crisp exterior.

The kalbi beef taco layers Korean grilled short ribs with Asian slaw, kimchi, pickled carrot and daikon, and cilantro all in an Indian paratha-like shell. This bad boy is pretty messy, but equally satisfying. I like the chewiness of the bread and the meat is perfectly sweet and savoury.

When I first pictured the steamed bao, I thought they would be small two-bite buns, but they're not. The braised beef cheek bao is filled with a good helping of tender beef cheek topped with a sweet and tangy onion chutney and more of the obligatory pickled carrot, daikon, cucumber and cilantro. The bao itself is pillowy soft and hefty enough to hold all that filling.

The restaurant space is pretty small and there's no table service here: you need to order and wait for your food. I suggest going with a friend who can snag a table while you grab the eats. Line-ups are common, but the service is fast and efficient. So glad that Banh Mi Boys is a short walk from my house.

Banh Mi Boys

392 Queen St. W.

kimbap

The hot weather these days has got me wanting to be anywhere but in front of a hot oven. A staple dinner (and lunch) over here has been Korean kimbap. It requires minimal cooking and is filling enough to be a complete meal. Kimbap is sorta like sushi, except the rice isn't seasoned (usually) and there's no raw fish involved. Fillings include everything from cooked bulgogi (marinated Korean beef), crab stick and even canned tuna, plus sauteed spinach and carrots, fried egg and yellow pickled radish called danmuji. Here's my kimbap pre-roll:

Once rolled, it totally resembles a maki roll:

Some of my rolls had bulgogi and crab stick.

I find that kimbap is best served fresh, when the rice is still warm. Next day kimbap is ok, but the rice gets a bit hard and the seaweed goes soggy. I've heard a solution is a quick dip in some egg and a light fry in a pan, but that means more time in the kitchen.

sunny dragon korean chinese

I'm on a bit of a Korean kick these days and decided to try out a new restaurant, Sunny Dragon which specializes in Korean Chinese food. I'm not sure how to define Korean Chinese cuisine, but the most popular dishes are ja jang myun (chewy noodles in a rich black bean sauce), tang su yuk (crispy sweet and sour pork), jjamppong (spicy noodle and seafood soup) and kkhanpunggi (spicy-sweet crispy fried chicken). My usual order includes ja jang myun and tang su yuk, but I'm pretty excited to go back and try out some new dishes from their extensive menu.

Here are the side dishes: kimchi, yellow pickled radish which is perfect in between bites of noodles, and raw sweet onion that you dip in the dark brown black bean paste on the far right.

The tang su yuk was really good. Unlike Chinese sweet and sour pork, the sauce isn't as gloopy and leans more on the tangy side rather than sweet. 

Then came the jajangmyun. Step 1: Mix it all up!

Now, it's ready to eat. Almost every table had some form of this dish—apparently there are a few versions including one with seafood and another that uses rice instead of noodles. 

Sunny Dragon

398 Steeles Ave. W.

Thornhill

korean cold noodles

Last Sunday I woke up craving mul naeng myun (Korean cold noodles in slushy broth) and made Joe take me all the way to Markham to Cho Sun Ok. They seriously have the best naeng myun. The broth is slushy, cool and so refreshing; the noodles thin and chewy. The toppings include vinegary ribbons of Korean radish, a thick slice of juicy and sweet Korean pear, strips of cucumbers, half a boiled egg and some spicy sauce. It's the perfect summer meal in my books (though I've craved this mid-winter too). 

Since the mul naeng myun doesn't contain meat, Joe had his with a side of kalbi:

I went for a side of crispy mandoo (gyoza-style dumplings):

Cho Sun Ok

7353 Yonge St.

fried rice, fried chicken

This recent night dinner started out sorta healthy enough: fried rice and Asian-style cucumber salad...

But then I decided to attempt making homemade Korean fried chicken. Second weekend in a row of fried chicken! 

I think it's time to go on a bit of a hiatus (even though I think it's obvious that I love fried chicken in all forms).

korean fried chicken

The Korean fried chicken at the Galleria Korean supermarket is awesome. It comes steaming hot, is mega crispy and the meat is so juicy. You do have to wait almost 30 minutes from when you order it (or in our case an hour, because the cashier forgot to actually place our order with the kitchen), but they at least give you a buzzer that tells you when your order is up so you can grocery shop while you wait. We got a half order of traditional Mom's fried chicken:

There's also a seasoned version that comes tossed in a sweet-spicy sauce. Along with the chicken you get a small container of tangy cubed pickled radish. 

Because of the extra long wait, Joe and I also shared an order of jjangmyun (noodles in black bean sauce) pre-chicken:

Galleria Supermarket

865 York Mills Rd.