Food Porn: Naked Tchopstix

Oh geez, it's been a long, painful week. I haven't been to the gym is a little over the week and I haven't been able to cook. Why? Stupid, old bones always go out of place. Unbelievable sciatic pain. Ufff. But I feel better; the old snap, crackle, pop doc (my lovely chiro sheila...) put me back in order.

feeling MUCH better thank you!

sort of. HAHA. I love photo apps. This one is called PhotoFunia.

So any way, that was not my food porn pic.. DUH. My friend Juliet (also a Jules) and I went to Naked Tchopstix in Broad Ripple. I seriously wish that we had looked around different neighborhoods before settling. But, BR and SoBro aren't that far from us, so I'm not too terribly upset. It would be nice to not drive all the time and be able to just run/walk on the canal. OR be able to stumble home after bar hopping. Just saying.

Naked Tchopstix is Asian infusion food. A mix of Japanese and Korean mainly, which are two of my favorite cuisines put together: HEAVEN! I usually get sushi, but I have had their Bibimbap and it's delicious. I think in the colder months I'll try the Kimchi Jigea or Yukae Jang (Cafe Korea has the best Yukae Jang). Juliet hasn't really had Asian cuisines (she's my little Latina cutie friend) and she went with the Shrimp tempura bento box. I'm so happy that she enjoyed it! I wasn't sure what I wanted, so I just ordered my usual; dragon roll and spicy tuna roll. The spicy tuna roll is not like most you'd have at other restaurants; they use gochu-jang (Korean hot pepper paste) instead of ichimi-togarashi (Japanese red pepper flakes) and personally I like it with gochu-jang. Nom nom nom...

Okee, enough talking....food porn photo time:

oh Naked Tchopstix, you do me right... RAWR.

So we are suppose to go to the Indiana State Fair tomorrow. But I think we are going to need to eat dinner at Naked Tchopstix too. ^__^

Food porn: Bibimbap

So, I just got feed back on my speech presentation on How To Make Bibimbap. I got a 93%; a few points were knocked off because I didn't have references in the Power Point. Oh well. Still an A, that's all I really care about.

If you follow me on Instagram/Twitter/FB you've probably seen this photo:

I probably could have taken a better photo, but I was tired and hungry...and I was just ready to get this assignment done. Also, you'll notice that this isn't really a traditional bibimbap. I didn't use bean sprouts, gosari, spinach, or kimchi. With good reason of course, my presentation would have taken way too long. I think explaining gosari would have taken at least 2 slides. :P You know, even though bibimbap is easy to make, there are A LOT of steps. I probably should have just made a How To Make Bulgogi.

I don't think I'll post the recipe here. But if you want a good how to, check out AerisKitchen's YouTube video.

Speech on Bibimbap

I have a power point presentation due for my speech class. And how luck am I that it has to be on a cooking recipe? SCORE! I better get an A on this speech. And of course I'll need too work on sounding "natural." During my last speech my instructor told me I sounded "unnatural" and "robot-like." I get excited about food so I shouldn't have a problem this week. :P

I'll post my bibimbap.. err, my mom's bibimbap recipe later this week.

Oster 10-Cup Rice Cooker

Food porn: Naeng-myeon

Naeng-myeon (or naeng myun, naengmyun..) is one of my favorite hot weather dishes to make. It's cold buckwheat noodles (gluten-free!), cold broth, hard boiled or soft boiled egg,and usually cucumbers and kimchi on top. I mom always added chopped red leaf lettuce so I always add that as well. Authentic Korean naeng-myeon will always have beef or chicken based broth. But you can make a vegetarian version; one of my favorite blogs has a great recipe posted here.

add ice cubes to make the soup colder!

Eden Foods 08639-3pack Eden Foods Soba 100% Buckwheat Wheat Free - 3x8 oz.

Korean Pancake

I don't know if I would consider myself a foodie, but I love cooking, eating, and drinking--so maybe I am a foodie. I, by all means, do not think I am the best cook in the world (Dillon thinks I am, but he thinks I'm great at everything *mwah*) but I have been trying to be better at it. First of all, it is always cheaper to cook at home than it is to go out. And second, I'd rather hang out at home. Maybe in a few months when I have the svelte body I want (hitting the gym & hitting it hard) I'll be more up for going out.

This first recipe is my version of the Korean pancake. NOBODY makes it better than my mom, but unfortunately she is 2,338 miles away (yup, I know the exact distance, I miss her lots). I've watched YouTube videos, read blogs, and dissected the pancake that I've had at restaurants and I've come up with my version which is easy and tasty (well, all of them are pretty darn tasty).

Ingredients:

• 2 green onions, sliced (diagonally, makes it look pretty)
• 1 medium, red onion, sliced (or white, yellow....i just like the color and the peppery taste)
• 1-2 red chili pepper, chopped (again, it's more about the color. jalapenos would work too) 
• 1 medium to large zucchini, julienne (with a mandolin or just julienne it yourself)
• canola oil for frying
• half cup to cup of Korean pancake mix (depends on how much batter you want)
• water (errr...1 to 2 cups... maybe more!)

(just a side note, i don't really measure.. maybe i will in the future if i get serious about this, so pls. bear with me. :P)

chop, chop, chop!

Step 1: chop, slice, and julienne all the veggies. Oh, and feel free to use whatever veggies you want. Most recipes call for zucchini, but you can use whatever veggies you love.

Step 2: mix the batter up in a large mixing bowl. You don't want the batter to be like the pancakes you eat with syrup, it needs to be a little bit more fluid than that. (oh geez, i'm terrible at giving directions.. hahah..)

Step 3: mix in all the veggies with the batter!

Step 4: put a generous amount of canola oil in a heated pan. I might have gone a little over board on the oil when I made these, but it wasn't too bad. I made some pancake size ones and some smaller patty-size. I think that the larger size came out a lot better, but I just need some practice. :X So anyway, fry until golden brown. Or crispy brown, whichever you prefer.

Step 5: EAT! Well, first you want them to drain & cool on a cooling rack OR just on some paper towels. The only problem with paper towels is that the pancakes are a little sticky. 

YUM, i ate it all!

I was too lazy to make a sauce, so all I did was dip the pancake in ponzu sause (citrus soy sauce). I enjoyed making this and of course eating it. :P

yeaaah.. stool in the background..hmm..