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Seaweed: Beyond Sushi and Salad

I grew up eating seaweed in soups and as snacks but rarely did I treat it as a “sea vegetable.” Last week, I had the unique opportunity to produce an event at the De Gustibus cooking school about seaweed, or gim (Korean dried seaweed). The panelists – the charismatic chef/owner of Miya’s Sushi, Bun Lai; FreshDirect’s corporate nutritionist, Maggie Moon, joined by world renowned experts from UConn, Dr. Charles Yarish and Dr. Jang Kyun Kim, enlightened a group of chefs, academia and food writers about the merits of seaweed.

Sushi: Beyond Sushi and Salad

Truly on the cusp of popularity in the United States, we saw that seaweed is not only an excellent and inexpensive source of nutrients, sustainable (it can grow several feet in a day!), but also helps in reversing the degradation of marine environment caused by coastal fish farming.  Myself, I’ve always known seaweed to be a good source of iodine, but never realized the amount of vitamins and proteins it contains. Even our moderator, Andrea Beaman, proclaimed a seaweed diet cured her goiter.

Among the culinary trendsetters attending the session were Hugue Dufour & Sarah Obraitis of M. Wells (and upcoming Dinette at PS1), and seafood enthusiasts, Kerry Heffernan of Southgate, Toni Robertson of Mandarin Oriental, Joe DiStefano of World’s Fare, Jamie Tiampo of Seefood Media and Kian Lam Kho of Redcook.net.

Sushi: Beyond Sushi and Salad

The host of the event, Korea Agro-Trade New York, announced their collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America on developing a recipe book using gim as an everyday ingredient – which will be published later this year. Chef Phillip Crispo, from the CIA, even provided us with a demo and tasting of delightful seaweed dishes. Ht truly took gim to a different direction – using it creatively in stuffed pork loin, spanokopita and tortellini. It made sense, since seaweed is a sea vegetable, which can easily substitute other ingredients such as spinach! My favorites were, surprisingly, the gim popcorn, gim ice cream and my goodness, the gim brittle in my goodie bag. I could not get enough of that!

And now, I leave you with one of the dishes served at the tasting, simple enough to make for yourself at home.

seaweed popcorn

Gim-Dressed Popcorn
Courtesy of Fabulous and Flavorful Gim: A Collection of Korean Seaweed Recipes developed by Faculty Chefs from the Culinary Institute of America

Serves 6

Ingredients:

5 sheets gim (Korean dried seaweed)
4 oz / 113 g butter
2 Tbsp / 30 ml canola oil
2.8 oz / 79 g unpopped corn kernels

1. Place the gim in a spice grinder and grind until it is finely ground.

2. Place the ground gim and the butter in a small bowl or pot and melt, either in a microwave for 30 to 45 seconds or on the stovetop over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed sautoir over medium-high heat. Add the corn kernels and cover the pan with a lid. Gently shake the pan on the burner for the duration of the cooking time and listening for popping kernels to cease popping. Once the kernels stop popping, after 4 to 5 minutes, remove the foil and transfer the popcorn to a large mixing bowl.

4. Combine the gim butter with the popcorn and cover the bowl tightly with foil. Shake the bowl well to evenly coat the popcorn with the butter. Remove the foil, and serve.

This post was guest-written by Wendy Chan.

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Woks & Lox Menu

The countdown begins!

4 days until Christmas Eve.

3 more tickets left for the Woks & Lox dinner.

If you can’t join us for dinner, come to the nosh party – we’ve got plenty party tickets still up for grabs.

Just check out our menu (sponsored by our friends at TMI):

Dinner

Shiitake Ginger Matzoh Ball Soup
Garlic Dill Asian Pickles
Potato and Scallion Wonton Pierogies
Matzoh Encrusted Pan-Fried Tofu with General Tso’s Sauce
Ginger Sriracha Wok-Fried Bagel Strips
Sichuan Peppercorn Latkes
Kasha Varnishkes tossed in Scallion Oil
Roasted Vegetables with Chili and Sesame Soy

Dessert

Spring Roll Blintzes filled with Schmear and Chinese Jujubes
Sweet Red Bean Rugelach

Nosh Party Noshes

Potato and Scallion Wonton Pierogies
Ginger Sriracha Wok-Fried Bagel Strips
Sichuan Peppercorn Latkes
Spring Roll Blintzes filled with Schmear and Chinese Jujubes

And if that doesn’t get you excited enough, check out these wallets I made. We’ll be Chinese auctioning off a pair on Saturday!

Woks and Lox

Saturday, Dec 24th, Christmas Eve
Dinner: 5-7pm, ticket includes Nosh party
Nosh Party: 7-9pm
at The Queens Kickshaw (40-17 Broadway  Astoria)

You must buy tickets in advance through:
http://www.indiegogo.com/WoksandLox

Tickets to Dinner ($59), include Chichi Wang’s Jewish-Asian dinner mash-up from 5-7pm2 free drink tickets, and admission to the Nosh Party from 7-9pm.

Tickets to the Nosh Party ($28), include the Nosh Party from 7-9pm and 1 free drink ticket.

Tickets must be claimed by Friday, 12/23 @ midnight on IndieGoGo: http://www.indiegogo.com/WoksandLox
Official site: http://woksandlox.com/

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Woks & Lox

I moved to New York when I was 13. I left a suburban town in Los Angeles that was almost entirely Chinese for a very similar suburban town in New York — with the exception that it was almost entirely all Jewish.

I won’t lie, being a new kid in 7th grade was a trying time, and at times it really sucked a lot.  It took a while for me to adjust, but looking back at my childhood, I don’t regret it at all.  If anything, I’m grateful that I’ve had a chance to have grown up in a Jewish community and be immersed in Jewish culture, which I’ve found to have many similarities and connections to my Chinese upbringing.

Even in Los Angeles, we never had a Christmas tree at my house, and I probably never will. This Christmas Eve, I won’t be crying about my treeless apartment- the only tears I’ll be shedding will be tears of joy.  I’ll be celebrating the bond between Jews and Asians by co-hosting Woks and Lox at the Queens Kickshaw with my Jewish co-producer, Jeff Orlick, and we’d love for you to come too.


Of course any celebration, Jewish or Asian, can’t be without food and drink. So, our good friend and talented chef Chichi Wang will be preparing a sit-down dinner for 20 followed by a party of 40 more, complete with Sino-semitic noshes.

The fun doesn’t end there. Aside from dinner and noshes, we’ll have entertainment ranging from adaptations of Chinese wedding games to barmitzvah festivities and mah jong, as well as a Chinese auction with prizes donated by some of our favorite small businesses and companies.

Some of our prizes and giveaways include He’Brew, The Chosen Beer, Queens Historian Jack Eichenbaum‘s Tour along the 7 train, Fresh Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost, special Woks & Lox wallets from Hail the Right Brain made by yours truly, and Jeff will be giving away tickets to his infamous Midnight Street Food tour too.

That’s just the beginning – we’ll also have JoJu’s Modern Vietnamese, and many pizza giveaways from Louie’s Pizzeria in Elmhurst to Roebling Pizza in Williamsburg, in addition to tickets to Scott’s Pizza tour, and of course Jeff’s Real Pizza of New York iPhone app. More to come in a following post!

Last but not least, we’re doing it at one of our favorite places in our home borough of Queens,  The Queens Kickshaw.  We couldn’t do this without Kickshaw owners Ben Sandler and Jen Lim, two of our very first supporters of Woks & Lox and not-so-coincidentally also a Jewish and Asian duo, who have generously offered to host us and even be there personally to mix special drinks just for this special Christmas evening.

Christmas Eve is a tough date to make, but even if you can’t come, we don’t want you to feel left out – so we’re making holiday cards, money holders, and party t0-go packs from me and Jeff at Woks & Lox HQ (aka my apartment) – all for sale on IndieGoGo alongside the tickets to the event.  It’s going to be fun, and I hope you can be a part of it.  If you can’t, please help us to spread the word and make our Christmas wish come true.

WOKS & LOX
Saturday, Dec 24th, Christmas Eve
Dinner: 5-7pm (includes Nosh party)
Nosh Party: 7-9pm
at The Queens Kickshaw (40-17 Broadway, Astoria, Queens)

You must buy tickets in advance through:
http://www.indiegogo.com/WoksandLox

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Positive Feedback

“My wife challenged me to cook, 5 mins later someone tweeted or blogged about [Gojee] and … BAM! I’ve done two dishes already, and I have never cooked in my life before :O Great job guys!”

It’s emails like these that makes me feel like we’re making big changes with Gojee. We’re converting people into home cooks, one recipe at a time.

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A First Encounter with Garlic Scapes

It was my mom’s birthday this past weekend, so I took it upon myself to explore the farmer’s market that morning to find some culinary inspiration for dinner that night.  Strolling through the stalls in Jackson Heights, I found myself drawn to a plastic carton spilling with curly garlic scapes.  I had never cooked with scapes before, but before I could second guess myself, I impulsively purchased two big handfuls and was on my way home.

While garlic scapes closely resemble beans or scallions, they’re actually shoots of the garlic plant.  As for their taste, they have a milder, sweeter garlic flavor than garlic itself.  If you eat it raw, you may get a minor case of garlic breath that lasts until the next morning, but it’s a small price to pay for a unique taste that is only in season for a short time.

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The Social Kitchen

During last week’s “The Social Kitchen” panel at Food 2.0, Amanda Hesser of Food 52 said something that really stuck to me:

“Technology is knocking down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room”


Left to Right: Mike Lee (Studio Feast), Amanda Hesser (Food 52), Mike LaValle (Gojee), Sarah Maine (RecipeRelay), Will Turnage (Ratio Bread App & R/GA)

I never really thought about it before, but in some ways it’s true — while the act of eating together and breaking bread has always been an inherently social activity, cooking has conventionally been more of a solitary act confined to the kitchen. If you think about it, a traditional kitchen has almost always been walled off from the dining room, and in a way, that separation also dictates our interactions in both spaces.

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Laphet Thote: Burmese Tea Leaf Salad

Burmese Tea Leaf Salad
Tea leaf salad in a traditional Burmese container

My first encounter with Laphet Thote, tea leaf salad, was at the Burmese restaurant Village Mingala in the East Village.  There’s something about the sharp zing and pronounced flavor of fermentation that really speaks to me.  While the namesake tea leaves were the star of the show, the roasted peanuts, along with a smattering of nuts and seeds stirred into the dish, played a strong supporting role, offering a rounded, nutty contrast to the sharp, pronounced flavor of fermented tea leaves.  But before I could return to Village Mingala for a second taste, I was sad to learn that the restaurant had closed down.

Eaten the authentic Burmese way, Laphet Thote challenges the conventional concept of salad. The first thing that comes to mind when you think “salad” is some sort of leafy green.  Well, in a Laphet Thote, there are none.  The laphet, the Burmese word for these fermented tea leaves, is served in the center of the a dish with other assorted ingredients, which differ according to your preference, encircle the star of the dish.

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A Spring Update

strawberry blossoms
Strawberry blossoms

Just like there are plants blossoming in my garden right now (above), there are some equally exciting new developments figuratively in bloom here at World to Table that I thought I’d share with everyone.

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Black Cod Skin and Tails

The fish skin and tails are oftentimes the forgotten parts of the fish. Usually the first to get sliced off and tossed into the trash, they rarely make it past the chopping block and are scarcely ever seen on the dinner table.

I was excited to see that Chef Shirley Cheng, professor at the Culinary Institute of America, chose to use black cod skin and tails as her main ingredient for her winning recipe this past Saturday at the Japanese Ingredient Culinary Challenge at the Restaurant Show.


Shirley Cheng demoing her Black Cod Skin and Tails alongside emcees Ron Hsu and Jenna Zimmerman

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Inside Talisa’s Yellow Kitchen

As much as I love to take on a challenge and cook an exciting new recipe, it’s also a hassle to break my routine and invest in a new set of ingredients.  On top of that, I haven’t had much time to do much grocery shopping for myself, which is ironic since I work for a company that is all about grocery shopping.

Instead of looking for recipes, I’m looking to explore new ingredients and versatile ways to use them. I’ll be poking around other people’s kitchens and asking what they do with their staple ingredients.   Why am I doing this?  Hopefully to draw some culinary inspiration, change up my usual shopping list and ultimately, to expand my cooking repertoire.

This is the first of a series of Wunderkammer Interviews.  The concept behind the name Wunderkammer, or “cabinet of curiosities”, being that everyone has their own individual cabinet(s) of curiosities.  Just look in your kitchen.


My first victim, Talisa.

4. kitchen
And her kitchen in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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