Big thanks to Kian for a beautiful meal, Jeff for organizing, and Talisa for this recap of the rooftop Hot Pot Ambassador Dinner.  Oh boy, I’m getting hungry again.
- Veronica

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When Jeff’s email blast arrived in my inbox announcing the next Ambassador Dinner — an evening of traditional Asian hot pot dining with Kian Lam Kho — it took me about fifteen seconds to send in my RSVP.

I love hot pot. It’s something I grew up doing with my family at home (somewhat infrequently, but with zest — usually in conjunction with a slew of sweet and savory fondue nights, the better to make use of the cooking equipment needed for such endeavors).

The concept of Hot Pot is simple: a pot of hot broth sits in the center of the table on a burner which keeps the broth simmering. Everyone at the table partakes in adding a variety of uncooked items (like veggies, meat, seafood, dumplings, and noodles), and fishing them out as they’re ready to eat. Since most of the ingredients aren’t seasoned, additional flavor is added via the broth during cooking, as well as with dipping sauces after cooking. At the end, everyone slurps up the remaining broth, which has been infused with the flavors of everything that’s been cooked in it throughout the night.

For me, Hot Pot embodies some of my favorite aspects of food: it’s engaging, it’s interactive, it’s social, and it’s a group effort, where everyone gets to be part of the cooking process, play with their food, and eat for hours and hours. And, if the chef on duty happens to be Kian, a master of traditional Chinese Cooking, it’s really, exceptionally delicious.

Kian and his partner, Warren prepared a magical night for the 25 lucky RSVP’ers, on Veronica’s rooftop in Long Island City, Queens. All the ingredients were freshly prepared and thoughtfully presented on beautiful tableware.

Kian

Menus! And delicious snacks of pickled vegetables, boiled peanuts, and ginko nuts. We were so spoiled.

Before the dinner, Kian prepped in the kitchen and held a cooking demonstration: making Southern-style egg dumplings. Kian had already prepared a batter of egg and cornstarch, which he then cooked and filled with a mixture of pork, scallions, and sesame oil, and sealed with finesse. According to Kian, the egg dumplings, which are often served in soup, are a common item at Taiwanese Chinese New Year Celebrations because of their golden color.

We onlookers also gave it a shot, with mixed results. Kian makes it look so easy! Apparently they are traditionally made in a shallow ladle over a flame — we definitely would have failed.

Egg dumpling action

Ta-da! No problem.

Veronica’s Attempt

Deborah

Jeff, under Kian’s watchful eye.

Okay, okay. Enough with the teasers. Time for dinner!

Before digging in, we each made our own personal dipping sauce, a combination of wet ingredients: peanut sauce, sesame paste, sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, black vinegar, and chili paste, as well as additional goodies: toasted sesame seeds, fresh garlic, fried garlic, scallions, cilantro, pickled peppers, and fermented tofu.

Dipping Sauce Spread

My first sauce attempt. Peanut-y, sesame-y, and spicy. YUM.

Then, we divided ourselves up into tables, each one with a pot divided in half to accomodate two broths: one Szechuan-infused, and one Chrysanthemum-infused. I know, I know. Aren’t you jealous already?

Prepping the spicy Szechuan soup stock

Hot Pot Stocks

Then it was time to get cooking!

Assorted Greens and Shrooms

Vegetable and Crab Dumplings

Rib-eye, chicken, and lamb

Fried Tofu Skins

Veronica with more shrooms and tofus!

Shrimp and Crab

Crab wonderment. Gary, Jeff, and Veronica

How can so many good things be in one pot?

Kian put fish paste into pastry bags. Pipe into simmering broth et voila! Fish Noodles! Here, Jim executes for the table.

Fish paste noodles! Airy and delicious.

Similar to the fish paste, we spooned shrimp paste into the broth and out came magical, squishy shrimp balls!

Hot pot means business.

Chowing Down.

NOODLES? There are noodles?! Two kinds?! This night keeps getting better.

And to finish… the best fruit platter you’ve ever had. Rambutan, starfruit, apple, longan, and dragonfruit.

Thank you to Jeff, for organizing, Veronica, for hosting, and especially Kian, for sharing such an amazing night with us and stuffing us with such delicious morsels. It truly was an experience. I can’t wait to go home for the holidays and have hot pot with my family.

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See all the photos from the World to Table flickr set here.

About the Ambassador Program: The Ambassador Program has one expert of a cuisine lead a group of people for their dream meal in their favorite eating environment. The menu is entirely chosen by the ambassador. Guests pay for the ambassador’s portion and the results are written up somewhere on the internet. Everyone wins.

About Me: I like stories, science, and snacks. You can find me on the interwebs at Rocketships, Jellyfish.

This is going to be my third time in Van Gogh Is Bipolar in the span of three weeks. My cousin Ashley introduced me to this small, beautiful hole in the wall when I was down in the dumps some two weeks ago, and the cafe’s pebbly courtyard, the violet fairy lights and a perfect cup of tea was the best defiance to a thoroughly rough day.

photo: Regina Belmonte

photo: Regina Belmonte

Located in 154 Maginhawa St. (a lovely street dotted with interesting cafes, antique shops, kitschy stores and small eateries), Van Gogh Is Bipolar is the brainchild – or in this case, the love child of Jetro – photographer, artist, and now cook and restaurant owner. Lovely how this amalgamation of things root themselves in the heart of the person- art and food, they are sensual things, but more importantly they are essential things.

The cafe is not meant for big crowds or loud crowds, for that matter. While it presents itself in a casual, laid back way (one must slip off their shoes at the doorway and pad around in their socked or bare feet) you can tell that this is a place where the gleam and glint of life come to nestle themselves between potent conversations.

Amidst art-work laden walls (this month it is Jason Moss’ figurations from the period before “he killed his passion for hate”), warm wooden floors, and a shamelessly ornate chandelier, there are stories to be told. It was just some time ago when a man proposed to a woman within the walls of the place.

So why ‘Van Gogh Is Bipolar’? It is undeniable how suggestive a title like this can be. Drawing from art and the psychological, one could go on for hours and hours sifting through the principle and philosophies (because there are things to be talked about) behind cerebral, sometimes abstract, things and their power to put more meaning into the concrete and simple, in this case, food.

The menu of Van Gogh is perplexing yet magnetic, there are little blurbs and stories to be read about the principle behind being bipolar, and the names of the dishes are a delight to read. Interestingly, all the names used to title Van Gogh’s dishes are bipolar people in real life.

I recently got to taste the President Clinton’s Manic Depressive Meal (Australian Lamb Chops with Black Mountain Rice and a garden salad for 255 PHP, roughly 6 USD ). Jetro had put in a special chili-kick when he asked me if I liked things ma-anghang (translation: spicy- I love anything spicy). The lamb was served atop a mound of black rice which was on top lettuce leaves, apple and tomato discs with chili powder. On the side were two sauces, a fish sauce to flavor the rice if desired, and a sweet, dark salty sauce to accompany the lamb. The salad was drizzled with honey and really brought the kaleidoscope of flavors together.

The lamb was nicely cooked and my favorite part was that the fat was not bland, and was in fact very very flavorful. I also liked that despite possessing a number of flavor layers in the dish (spicy, salty, sweet), it did not overwhelm the taste of the lamb – I like biting into a piece of lamb and actually tasting lamb and not just the seasonings and marinades used. The dish was satisfying in every sense, however I could not get enough of that sweet sauce and the black mountain rice!

It is good to end a meal at Van Gogh with a dessert (Mel Gibson’s Darkest Sin- a vodka shooter w honey, dark chocolate, an almond and other yummy, sexy things or sinful homemade silvanas). BUT. It is also highly recommendable to end it with a cup of tea. I find that a trip to Van Gogh is never complete without a hot cup of tea.

photo: Regina Belmonte

photo: Regina Belmonte

Van Gogh’s gem (amidst other gems) are their teas – at least it is the thing that most attracted me, being a self professed tea fiend. There’s something seductive and clandestine about tea. Perhaps it is in the slowness of the process, the steeping and extraction of things we can’t see with a naked eye and then allowing such mystery to enter into our bodies and interact with our make up.

The teas served revolve around the same idea the cafe is built upon – moods. The ingredients (which are all organic!) used in every dish on the menu is made to balance out the chemicals in the body to translate the individual’s mood into something positive through a dash of dopamine, serotonin or perhaps a teaspoon or two of endorphins? The teas (which are all locally grown in a farm in Isabel) are prime illustrations of this.

Each tea in the Van Gogh collection falls into a certain mood category- extra upper (my favorite), upper, light chill, happy chill, soothing and extra calming. I am partial to excitability and giddiness, so I have always chosen the Spanish Plum tea which is sour and pungent in a gorgeous amber color. In addition to the personalization of your tea, you get to pick a teapot of your choice. I am bad with choosing from a plethora of pretty things – I could take hours looking at Jethro’s teapots and examining them one by one, waiting for a certain teapot to spark out at me. But I don’t do this, I figure Van Gogh is a place I will frequent enough that perhaps I will be able to share some time with each one of them.

Once Jetro and the rest of the Van Gogh staff finish steeping your tea, it is brought out to you (whether you are in the courtyard or inside the cafe), complete with a miniscule goblet of wild golden Palawan honey (to eliminate anxiety!) and inside the cup is a singular, perfect fresh mint leaf, grown especially in Jethro’s herb garden. The Spanish Plum tea is a beautiful complement to the dark sweetness of the honey and the slight cool surprise of the mint leaf. Next time, I am hoping to try their Banana tea. I have long had a penchant for a good banana smoothie and I think it is high-time I try the counterpart.

Bringing together a contemporary Filipino conscience to gourmet food and art, Van Gogh poses a stark innovative streak in Filipino cuisine and the concept of a space for creative dynamics to move in different tangible yet intimate ways:

it is through the steam rising from a hot cup of tea, the secret messages written on that lit red wall, the sketches of somber old men, the purple fairy lights by the window, the silent cat that ambles Van Gogh’s floors, and you — drinking it all in.

Van Gogh is Bipolar
154 H Maginhawa Street
Sikatuna Village, Quezon City
The Philippines
(02) 394.0188
0922.824.3051
0922.824.3052

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photo: Triccie Baquiran

Rachel Yang, Akira Back, Youngsun Lee, Andrew Chang, and Tommy Lee

Don’t let her sweet demeanor deceive you, Rachel Yang makes some serious food.  She and her husband Seif own Joule Restaurant in Wallingford, Washington, where seasonal ingredients, French techniques, and Korean flavors take center stage, coming together harmoniously to create magical tastes that transcend cultural boundaries.

The first bite of Rachel’s smoked tofu with Honshimeiji confit and wild sesame seeds delivered a powerful smoky flavor, bearing close resemblance —in both taste and texture—to smoked mozzarella.  The smoky tofu slab was topped with a bed of Honshimeiji mushroom confit, then sprinkled with a chiffonade of basil, wild sesame seeds, and a drizzle of tart soy truffle vinegarette.

A trio of pickled beef tongue, braised kohlrabi and quail egg was shuffled into small wooden boats and quickly swept away by the hungry masses.  Pickling was a especially interesting way to prepare beef tongue, an ingredient commonly found stuffed into tacos or sliced like deli meat and stacked inside sandwiches.

Rum raisin and chestnut honey sweet rice fruit cake was a deliciously sticky orgy of glutinous rice, rum raisins, diced jujubes, and nuts topped with a dash of course sea salt and microgreens for embellishment, then generously drizzled with chestnut honey.

Previously a professional snowboarder shredding the slopes in Colorado, Akira Back now tears it up in Las Vegas, where he helms the kitchen and wields the sushi knives at Yellowtail Restaurant and Lounge in the Bellagio Hotel and Resort.  You can usually find him slicing up fat blue fin tunas freshly shipped from Japan in his army pants and bright blue Etnies kicks and mixing things up, often times throwing in ingredients on his menu that are probably more familiar at a Korean restaurant.

Kwang Eo with caviar and Gochujang sauce were meticulously laid out onto each plate beneath a delicate bed of micro cilantro and micro bulls blood beet greens.  Although this dish seemed fairly simple to make,  sake, mirin, and 7up were all stirred in with gochujang, a fermented Korean chili paste, to create a spicy effervescent concoction.

Youngsun Lee stays true to Korean flavors and culinary techniques in his cooking.  When asked by MC Vivian Lee why he chose cooking as his profession, he explained his mission to educate more people about Korean cuisine and culture.  Previously the chef and owner of Persimmon in the East Village, he is now teaches at the Institute of Culinary Education, his alma mater.

A sliver of braised pork belly “bo ssam”, moo woo kimchi, salted napa cabbage and baby shrimp.  The salty pork belly and spicy and tart kimchi are a winning combination.

A mild and creamy concoction of eggplant with tofu dressing, or “ga ji neng jo rim” in Korean, consists of slow-cooked eggplant, silken tofu and black sesame counterbalanced with crunchy black and white bits of fried rice cake.

Braised until tender, the grilled octopus salad, or “moon eo goo yi”, is paired with water chestnut, shallot, and pickled Asian plums.

Andrew Chang was born and raised in New York and is the newly appointed sous chef at the Central Park Boathouse.  He is Korean by heritage but 100% New York at heart — with a downright fierce devotion to the Yankees and a sleeve full of witty remarks.  Founder and president of the Global Culinary Society at his alma mater, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, it is apparent that New York’s global culinary landscape is a major source of his inspiration.

Andrew’s pumpkin porridge with dried jujube, pumpkin seed oil, and roasted chestnuts had the texture and viscosity of a hearty butternut squash soup.  The bits of dried jujube and roasted chestnuts bring a nice sweetness to the soup when mixed together.

Having gone to Vietnam with Andrew and other student chefs for a culinary tour over four years ago, I still have vivid memories of all the delicious food we had while we were there.  Seeing a summer roll reinterpreted with Korean ingredients and flavors brought back nostalgic Vietnam moments and was a very welcome surprise.  Andrew’s version of summer rolls were filled with bulgogi in a shallow pool of spicy pineapple ginger dipping sauce.

Last but not least was Tommy Lee of Battery Gardens in New York.  Accustomed to catering to dignitaries and top political figures, he veered away from his usual repertoire and turned to his Korean roots for some inspiration.

Miniature pork and kimchi raviolis were a perfect mouth-popping size.

photo by Kathy YL Chan
More mini raviolis; these sweet versions are filled with red bean paste over a dollop of whipped cream, topped with crystallized ginger and a sprig of cilantro.

photo by Kathy YL Chan
Lollypop-sized Korean style barbecue lamb chops.

At the end of the night, while everyone was cleaning and packing up their belongings, Rachel approached me and asked, “Veronica, what should I do with this bucket of beef tongue?  This can keep for a while, since it’s pickled, and I would hate to throw it away.”  And just like that, I went home with a bucket of tongue.