Food 1

[walleye]

Hi everyone! Been a while. Here I talk about food I like a lot, because I'm hungry (a lot). Note that I originally wrote this in April 2020, and I'm editing in November 2020, hence the random notes.

Korean Tofu Soup

I really really really love KTS (as many of you may know)! At first I was thought...well maybe I like this because I associate this with the banchans and having all those things together is what propels this meal to the top of my list. But no....I don’t think it’s really that because I could eat a whole soup w/o really many banchans anyways! I used to not be a soup person for a while, and still don’t really like western soups that much. Right now, I can’t list a western soup that I like. But KTS is always comforting, whether on a cold rainy day when you need something to heat you up, or on a hot day to help you sweat out all the sweat that was gonna come out one way or another. My favorite part is leaving the egg yolk to the very end so you can have a bite of rice soaked in highly egg-saturated soup - so flavorful! I haven’t had this in a while :( My favorite place to eat this is: Korean Tofu House

If this place ever closes down I will be so sad!! I've tried to recreate it at home but I'm missing out on SOMETHING. Will have to try again soon as it's getting colder. My favorite banchans for this are the sweet potatos and the green onion pancake. And kimchi!

 

^ I think this picture is from Kong Tofu House, 2nd place in my book (though I like how they have mushrooms and broccoli in their soup!)

^ From the queen herself...look at the color!!
 

Chaat

What else need say??? Sour, spicy, sweet, savory. It’s got everything you need. Incredibly refreshing on a summer day. I think Mom’s chaat is best of course (my favorite being papdi chaat, but I also do love chaat on Salsita’s when I’m feeling adventurous, or dahi vada when I want something more comfort food-y, or pani puri when I am willing to be patient with my food). In terms of restaurants, I really like Chaat House and their raj kachori chaat...the daal in it is for the experienced big boys though. Plus chaat is basically all assembly so quite the easy recipe! The textures in this are also so, so fun.

 

^ This photo was taken in 2015. Now you can understand the aesthetic 17-year old me was trying to go for at the time, hence the fishman in the corner.

 

Mushroom Hot Pot

I don’t know if coronavirus is making me go crazy (yes), because I can’t stop thinking about this even though I only had it once. I guess I have a soft spot for spicy asian soups to begin with but only if they are hearty! The first time I went to Boiling Point, they had this vegetarian soup that was just...all vegetables...and like...I don’t know about you guys but boiled vegetables are not that great. So when I heard they’d revamped their menu with a new and improved HEARTY MUSHROOM HOT POT I was so excited! And when I had it, it did not disappoint! Except for the part where you couldn’t change the spice level of the broth, which is dumb because...just make it spicy??? But it’s fine because they have condiments on the table so I made it incredibly spicy. There were so many mushrooms in there..some I had never even heard of. It was hearty, delicious, I overate, there’s free tea at Boiling Point at lunch so I was wired as well, and like, yeah. Wanting to puke from stuffing yourself is a sign of a good meal, and I cannot wait to go back when the pandemic is over :). A win for vegetarians...
 

Ice Cream

Note: I'm including popsicles in this too. How can anyone hate ice cream??? Kevin once told me he was ambivalent to ice cream and I had never been so surprised in my life. I'm sure he's changes his mind since then (or else!!!). It is creamy. It is sweet. It is refreshing. It fills all the gaps in your stomach. It is soft and easy to eat (I do not mess with strange items like chocolate chips in my ice cream!). I’ll just talk about different ice creams I like here for a bit:

 

Häagen-Dazs: The OG! This has been the number one brand for me and my family for as long as I can remember. So many high quality flavors such as mango, cherry vanilla, caramel cone, green tea, pistachio, and butter pecan! And of course, who can forget the Coffee Almond Crunch ice cream bar if you want something on a stick. I still need to try rum raisin, which I heard is a very iconic flavor (Note from Nov 2020: I had it and though it was decent, not one of my favs). The brand is hard to spell though. 

Melona bars: A favorite of mine when I discovered them in 10th grade. Honeydew was new and the novelty of it hit me really hard (was anyone else a melon grl in high school??). It's soft and meant to be lapped up by your tongue. I think the original honeydew flavor is the best. They're still a timeless classic, imo.

Samanco: FISH SHAPED! STRAWBERRY JELLY! SWEET VANILLA ICE CREAM! Fun memories of sharing a 4 pack with your friends and eating on the sidewalk. A meal for true city kids.

Sweet Alchemy: Sweet Cream Ice cream....One of my favorite spots on the ave, I love it SO MUCH. Exactly what comes to mind when I think of sweet cream ice cream.

Cold Stone: A chewy texture, which makes this so fun to eat.. It's also where half of my friends worked in high school. Though come to think of it, I never got free ice cream from that anyways...but Banana and Sweet Cream are my favorites here, with Cheesecake a close one!

Salt & Straw: Sometimes this is place is just too quirky for me, but I do really appreciate how out there some of the flavors are, and I do think every aspect complements the whole very well (though I wouldn't say I'm always in the mood for it).

Outshine: Often incorrectly called “Outlast” by me, this has a wide variety of flavors and does a great job of making a popsicle that lends itself to being sucked dry as though you are a vampire, without really “dehydrating” the popsicle of its flavoring. Top notch stuff, grape and tangerine are my favorite flavors. I do tend to overeat these in the summer and get sick of them until next year.

 

I do not like Full Tilt or Molly Moons or D/Breyers. I take this very seriously!

Well, thanks for listening to me talk about food for 3 years. who's hungy.
 

Comments

:9999999

[kumquat]

I"M HUNGY!!!!!!!!!!

i have been craving soondubu jjigae like crazy too recently... especially the kind that they have at tofu house with shredded beef and little clams. i also wish i had a dolsot because its seriously the perfect winter food but it's a bit too much trouble to deal with at home... i just wish i could go and eat out every week like we used to. boiling point is also very warming but somehow its never been more than "pretty good" to me though i like the idea of individual hot pots... i want to have individual hot pots at the thai place we went to for joseph's bday last summer

also this must be a years old memory but i thought u preferred chaat corner over chaat house??? ive only been to chaat corner (once i took an inappropriately long break at work when i still worked at jazen to get the papdi chaat) but i will definitely try to get chaat house the next time i go to chinese market.

i'm so sad i haven't had salt & straw for over a year. i just want interesting berry flavors the more intense the better. i'm going to try to get some haagen dazs at fred meyer tn but it's not the same!!! i think my ice cream picks are pure berry flavors > coffee/matcha > floral... flavors? agree that full tilt is subpar even though i want to like them so bad

Re: :9999999

[walleye]

oh yesss i keep seeing ur tweets about it...hope we can at least share a bowl together at some point this winter :') and i agree, it's a lot easier to figure out portion size with a dolsot! ugh so much nostalgia these days about going out to eat together every week when u came home :'(((( bring that back.

and i see what ur saying about boiling point...u should try the mushroom one! i have never had that many mushrooms at the same time in my life and it really wowed me...

yeah i did use to prefer chaat corner but i think i went a few times and it never met expectations since, whereas chaat house is pretty consistent and their raj kachori chaat is SO GOOD u must try.

berry is a good pick esp after eating that huckleberry one in pullman (salivates) i want tht AGAIN! haagen dazs can only fill the void of ice cream shoppe ice cream for so long...and that reminds me, i want a tasty rose ice cream some time soon....full tilt has a good personality but her talent...not there!