Week 26 - Folding

Remember the TikTok quesadilla that went viral last year? (I originally wrote earlier this year, but it's not 2021 anymore.) The one where you put something in each of the four quadrants and then folded it over to make the perfect quesadilla? Once that started appearing everywhere, so did variations on the quesadilla, including folded kimbap, which was what I decided to make for the folding challenge last summer.

I decided to make ours with sticky rice, sliced cucumbers, spam (which I think I cooked with a glaze similar to the one for spam musubi, but don't know for sure because this was back in July and I didn't take any notes), and some jarred kimchi.

I followed the same method for cutting and then folding the kimbap, but it didn't turn out that evenly spread out or photogenic. There were several bites of just seaweed or seaweed and one other ingredient. Once I got to the part where it was all together, it did taste good, but it wasn't quite as easy as I was expecting it to be. Honestly, I think I'd rather just throw all the ingredients over some rice in a bowl, and would probably do that instead of this folded version next time.

Week 9 - Korean

I wrote this back in March, but I think I was waiting to publish it until I had finished all the weeks in-between. I'm not planning to go in order anymore since I'm so behind, and this is posted pretty much as written two months ago.

We love Korean food, but I had a really, really hard time choosing a dish for this challenge. I wanted to avoid anything too spicy, so that eliminated a bunch of dishes, and I also needed to skip anything with ingredients that required a visit to a Korean grocery store, since we were doing our best to not go out while all the COVID variants spread around the city. (Present day note: We were not vaccinated at the time, and no timeline had been announced for our age range yet.) My initial thought was pajeon, but at the time I was trying to choose a dish, B was in the middle of an anti-green food phase, so that was out. Eventually, after watching a bunch of YouTube videos (in Korean and English), I decided to try out a type of hotteok that was potato pancakes stuffed with cheese. I didn't follow any specific recipe, but tried to put them all together for the ingredients we had.

The ingredients for the hotteok, which I decided to make vegan for my lactose intolerance, were:

- 2 large Russet potatoes ($1.23)

- 2 pinches of salt ($0.02)

- 1 tsp sugar ($0.03)

- 1 tbsp cornstarch ($0.10)

- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)

- large handful of shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.67)

- 1 tbsp vegan butter ($0.16)

The cost for the hotteok was about $3.23. We ate it with a can of green beans and some smoked salmon, but not sure how much the whole meal cost since we bought the smoked salmon almost four years ago on a trip to Vancouver. My guess would be that the entire meal was under $10 though.

The steps for making the hotteok were:

1. Prep - peel potatoes and chop into large chunks.

2. Add potatoes to small pot of cold water with a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, and then cook potatoes until fork tender.

3. Drain potatoes, add to large mixing bowl, and mash.

4. Add pinch of salt, sugar, cornstarch, and black pepper to the mixing bowl, and mix well until smooth.

5. Take small handfuls of the potato mixture, roll into a ball, and then flatten out into a bowl shape in your hands. Add a little mozzarella, and then close up the potato to seal in the cheese. Roll into a ball again, and then flatten into a disc.

A bit of an uneven flame...

6. Melt butter in skillet over medium low heat, and then add the potato balls. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

The finished product tasted like mashed potatoes with a slight hint of cheesiness. It probably would have been cheesier if I had used non-vegan cheese or a different brand, because this one wasn't super cheesy in flavor. They were good for B, because it meant mashed potatoes without having to use a spoon. Overall, they just tasted like pan-fried mashed potatoes. Glad we tried it, but might try a different type of hotteok next time.

Week 30 - Fermentation

Looking ahead at the next 2 cooking challenges - fermentation and drink pairings - my ideas for them seemed to work well together, so we ended up doing them on the same night with very similar and/or complementary ingredients. Either dish really could have worked for either challenge, since they both involved kimchi, but first up, for fermentation, I made a kimchi potato salad based on a recipe from the New York Times cooking site for spicy kimchi potato salad.

The ingredients for our version of the potato salad were:

- about 2 lbs of small yellow potatoes ($2.79)
- 1 cup of kimchi, chopped ($1)
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise ($1.23)
- about 4 large scallions, whites and greens separated ($0.60)
- about 1.5 tbsp ketchup ($0.08)
- a couple tsp lime juice ($0.15)
- a couple tsp sriracha ($0.15)
- salt ($0.05)

The potato salad came out to about $6.05, not too bad for a very filling salad, but a little high for a side dish. I prefer to think of it as just half of dinner as opposed to a side dish, which makes it seem not quite so bad.

To put together the dressing for the salad, you combine the kimchi, mayo, scallion whites, ketchup, lime juice, sriracha, and salt and mix well. I didn't really measure anything but the mayo and kimchi, and adjusted the other ingredients to taste. I used more kimchi than the original recipe said to because what they had just seemed like too little kimchi for a kimchi potato salad. I really wanted the flavor of the kimchi to come through to differentiate this from any other "regular" potato salad. That said, even with this much more kimchi, it still wasn't really that spicy. You could do this step while potatoes are boiling, but I was taking a shower after going for a run and doing other stuff, so I ended up making it later after finishing with the potatoes. Not ideal, but that's how it went.

As for the potatoes, you just have to scrub them, boil them until fork tender, and then chop into smaller pieces. Since the salad was supposed to be served room temperature or cool, and the potatoes were still very hot, I stuck the chopped potatoes in the fridge until I finished making the dressing.

Once the dressing was done, I followed the instructions and added about 2/3 of the dressing and then put the bowl of dressed potatoes back in the fridge. I ended up leaving them in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes while prepping the other part of dinner (the next challenge). When we were ready to eat, I added the rest of the dressing (at least whatever I didn't eat when passing by the bowl in the meantime) and the scallion greens and mixed well. At that point, we planned to adjust the flavor some more, but we liked as it was.

This was a really good potato salad, very creamy and full of flavor. The recipe said it was a take on pink potato salad made with Russian dressing, and the mixed together dressing really was a bit reminiscent of Russian dressing. We wouldn't say the recipe was actually spicy but it was quite tasty. We're always on the lookout for good, easy sides and this fit the bill. We would definitely make this again.

Week 10 - Braised

I've made plenty of braised dishes over the years, including for other challenges, but instead of trying something new for the Week 10 braised challenge, what I decided to do was make one of my current favorite braising recipes which I've never written about here before. About a year ago, I stumbled upon this recipe for Korean braised tofu from the Las Vegas Food Adventures blog. I tried it as written (mostly, as I didn't have chili garlic sauce and needed to make substitutions) and really loved it. Since then, I've made it my own way, but the sauce was really inspired by this recipe, so credit where credit is due.

The ingredients for my version of Korean braised tofu are (and yes, I'm aware that the sauce measurements are horribly imprecise but I don't measure anymore and just adjust to taste as I go; the original inspiration recipe might be better for measurements if you're not inclined to go by taste):

- 1 package of firm tofu, cubed ($1.32)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.60)
- 1 package of white mushrooms, chopped ($1.99)
- about a tbsp of oil ($0.15)
- a few tbsp of soy sauce ($0.20)
- a couple tsp of sesame oil ($0.20)
- a few shakes of sesame seeds ($0.10)
- 2 large spoonfuls of gochujang ($0.65)
- 1/2 head of garlic, minced ($0.10)
- small batch of scallions, chopped ($0.75)

The total cost for this recipe is approximately $6 (with best guesses on prices for the sauce ingredients), maybe $7 when you include the rice. That's a great price for dinner for 2, so it should come as no surprise that I currently make this quite a bit.

The steps were:

1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium high heat and saute onions and mushrooms.

2. Add tofu and cook the tofu until it starts to get a little more browned.

3. While everything is cooking, make the sauce (or can do it before starting to cook). Mince garlic, chop scallions, add sauce ingredients, and adjust to taste.

4. Pour the sauce over the tofu and vegetable mixture, and stir so that everything is well-coated in the sauce.

5. Reduce to medium low or low heat, and let the mixture simmer for about 5-10 minutes. (The sauce should thicken up and reduce quite a bit. If not, I usually just add a potato/corn starch and water mixture to thicken it.)

It's a really easy recipe to make and other than the mushrooms and scallions (which are easy to obtain), we usually have everything on hand. We love the flavor that gochujang brings to the dish (although I've had to start using more and more because I think our gochujang is getting old), and adding in mushrooms and onions makes it more of a complete dish that we can just eat on its own with rice.

The original recipe that inspired this is pretty great as written too, but I started modifying it mostly to add in more vegetables so we can just make a single dish for dinner instead of a bunch. (Goodness knows it takes me long enough to make one every night.) It has definitely turned out well, and I'm grateful to have found that original one for ideas on a good sauce. This absolutely has a place in our rotation.

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2015

So it's that time again! Another year is coming to a close, and I'm coming up with my favorite food memories for 2015. In years past I've focused more on just my favorite dishes of the year, but this year I embraced more of the actual feel of this post and chose my favorite food experiences. This list is going to be alphabetical by restaurant (except for the last entry) as I'm not in the mood to try and rank all of these as it was hard enough to pick them all.

1.   Shrimp and Grits - B. Matthew's Eatery (Savannah, GA)

I've had shrimp and grits in my day, but the one from B Matthews? My god, what a dish. Perfect balance of saltiness from the andouille sausage and spice rub, richness and creaminess from the cheese and butter, and texture from the grits. The peppers and scallions added an element of freshness to an otherwise heavier dish.

2.   Celebration Meal - Danji (NYC)

This meal, while very good, was not chosen for any one particular dish. As a whole it was a very good meal, but it probably wouldn't have made the list in any of the previous years. This meal as a whole made the list because of what it represented. This was the meal that M and I had to celebrate me leaving my previous job near the beginning of the year. I was glad to have finally made that move, and it has thus far been the best move of my life professionally. The food also happened to be really good.

3.   Tamal de Elote con Camarones - Dove's Luncheonette (Chicago)

This year I had something of a theme to a lot of my food choices, grits and grit-like consistency dishes. This is the second of those on my list. I had a rough morning that day. A migraine kept me laid up for hours, and I was still in a fog when we got to Dove's. That all changed when they brought out the food, though. This dish is a collard green filled tamale with chili garlic shrimp, and banana peppers on top of soft scrambled eggs and garnished with fried garlic and cilantro. The eggs were soft and creamy, and the entire dish was an explosion of flavors. It was a blend of heat, acid, and salt rolled up into one delicious dish. M and I both agreed that we would totally get this dish again, but unfortunately a scan of their menu shows that it is no longer there.

4.   New England Clam Shack Feast - Fred's Shanty (New London, CT)

Ever since M and I moved to NYC, she'd always regaled me with tales of summer New England clam shack meals. Essentially they're clam strips or bellies fried to perfection and often served with fries and cole slaw as well. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but it's a damn delicious one. Fred's Shanty was our first such stop on our trip this past summer. It wasn't the best fried clams we had on the trip, but they were the first I had ever had in New England during the summer. I'd had fried clam strips before in my life, but this was my first time having them while sitting out near the open water on a nice, hot day.

5.   Berry Picking - Johnson's Farm Produce (Hobart, IN)

One of my fondest memories while growing up were going to the grocery store with my mom and learning how to pick out produce. On our departure day from Chicago this year, my family decided to go out to a berry farm in Indiana that my brother and his family had been to earlier. Aside from being the juiciest and sweetest raspberries and blackberries I had ever eaten, it was so much fun being out in the fields with my mom. M remarked later how happy we both looked while working together to find and pluck the best berries on all of the bushes. My only regret for the day was not taking more of the boxes of berries. M and I inhaled our two boxes within an hour of being on the road.

6.   Toasted Cheese Sandwich - Kappacasein (Borough Market, London)

I like grilled cheese sandwiches a lot, but what we got at London's Borough Market was other worldly. Kappacasein is a local dairy farm that produces some amazing cheeses, and their stall pumps out the most amazing toasted cheese sandwiches (aka three cheese toasties) in the world and also raclette, a small pile of potatoes smothered in melted/seared cheese. We didn't get the raclette, but that cheese toastie haunted our dreams for weeks to come. So much so that M made her own version later on (more on that later...). The sandwich itself is rather simple. It has three types of cheese shredded to allow for better and more uniform melting and leeks and onions, both red and white, pressed between bread in a sandwich press. The melting cheese crisps up on the sandwich press, and the whole experience of eating these is heavenly.

7.   Lithuanian Festival (Catonsville, MD)

This was our first ever experience eating Lithuanian food, but that's not what made this so special. Sure the food was pretty good. Both dishes we got, Cepelinai, the national dish of LIthuania, and Kugelis, both seemed like potato and bacon dishes at their cores, but they were really delicious because... well... potato and bacon. While the food was tasty, the whole experience of being at the festival was so amazing. There were stalls selling traditional jewelry and clothing and also traditional Lithuanian folk dancing which was such fun to watch. It was a great entrance into both the food and culture of Lithuania.

8.   Sunday Roast - The Pig and Butcher (Islington, London)

One of the things we knew we wanted to try to do in London was have a proper Sunday Roast. Thankfully we were able to get into Pig and Butcher. My prime rib (which was only allowed to be ordered rare) was sublime. The meat was super tender, and it had just the right amount of seasoning. I got the horseradish with it, and the pairing was perfect. It also came with a massive Yorkshire pudding, carrots and cabbage, fried potatoes, and some jus. All of the flavors were so fresh. On their wall they also had a map of Great Britain which also showed where they got all of their ingredients from. It was amazing to see that everything was local, and we loved the down-home, rustic vibe of the entire restaurant. We also ordered a board to share, and they brought out creamed leeks as an additional side to our roasts.

9.   Fried Chicken Livers - Planters Tavern @ The Olde Pink House (Savannah, GA)

I've always been a fan of offal, and M is starting to come around. These fried chicken livers sounded so good. They were fried and put on top of Geechee Boy grits (there goes those grits again...), bordelaise, and fried spinach. The rich and slightly sweet bordelaise topped the mineral-y chicken livers to form a creamy, decadent dish. The grits were amazing. They had just the right amount of texture to give some bite to the ensemble, and the fried spinach gave things such a nice crunch. This was easily one of the best dishes we had all year.

10. Home cooking

Similar to last year, M has been doing a lot of cooking at home. There were a lot of amazing dishes that were made, and I know I'm missing a ton, but I've selected 4 to highlight.


Cheese Toastie: Shocking right? After loving the cheese toastie we had in London M wanted to try her hand at making her own. The results were beyond anything either of us could have imagined. While it didn't taste quite as good as the ones we had in London, these sandwiches were incredible. Shredding the cheese for the sandwiches makes a massive difference.

Bacon, Leeks, and Mushrooms: What do you get when you cook bacon in butter and then use all of that to cook leeks and mushrooms? Something ungodly unhealthy, but soooooooo delicious. M even made it again for Thanksgiving.

Larb Gai: A traditional Thai salad with ground chicken, mint, cilantro, lime, and a bunch of spices. It's one of our favorite dishes, and M had always wanted to make it. Well, she finally did. It turned out great, and she's made it again at least once since.

Hawaiian Pancakes: This was one I actually did. We bought some Trader Joe's Toasted Coconut Pancake Mix, and I wanted to make it one day. Instead of stopping there, though, I decided to turn it into a full-on Hawaiian memory for us. I took one of our remaining bananas and made a banana syrup for the pancakes and then topped it all with chopped Macadamia nuts. I would love to make this again, but pancakes are too heavy for just the two of us.

Overall we had a really good eating year in 2015. M and I are really excited to continue our eating adventures even if we're really slow at writing about them. Maybe in 2016 we'll actually get better about that, too!

Missing Kimchi

If you work for Trader Joe's or the company that manufactured their kimchi once upon a time or a supplier that might work with them on a future kimchi product, consider this post my personal plea to you (for whatever that's worth) to please, please, please, please, please figure out a way to bring kimchi back to the stores!

I loved this kimchi from Trader Joe's. It was cheap, only about $2 a package. It was convenient, since the majority of my grocery shopping ends up being done at TJ's (or Costco) so I didn't have to make a separate stop for kimchi. It was a good size for 2 people and you didn't have to worry about storing the remainder of an open package. It lasted for a long time in the fridge (the expiration dates were always months away), so just like the soy chorizo, it was great to keep on hand for a "pantry" meal. On top of all that, the flavor was pretty good. We used it in so much - grilled cheese, mac and cheese, plain out of a bowl. Was it as good as some of the restaurant kimchi we've had? No, but for $2 a package, I really wasn't expecting that.

But there was a problem with the product and TJ's discontinued it. I understand why, since I saw it firsthand. The packaging just didn't really agree with the kimchi. While the majority of the packages we got were fine, we did have one (our very last package!) that blew up so much that we thought it was going to explode all over the fridge. I returned that one to the store (this was after it had already been discontinued, so I had already known about that and the reasons why) and luckily it didn't explode on the bike ride down. The feeling I got from the TJ's staff was that this wasn't uncommon.

I heard a rumor that the kimchi had made a brief reappearance on the store shelves this spring, only to be pulled again because the problem had not been rectified. I don't know if that's true, because we never saw it at the store. I know I could just go to the Korean supermarket and buy some (after all, I did make a special trip for the gochujang, so why not for the kimchi?), but it was just so much easier to do it all together, one-stop shopping. I'd love to see more stuff like this at TJ's generally, so maybe someone could bottle it in a jar or some other type of container that won't blow up and explode. It would be nice to see kimchi at the store again.

Mandoo Bar

Early in the World Cup, we checked off South Korea for our WWC challenge. Technically, we didn't have to get Korean food at all for the challenge (explanation here) since we did it last year for the men's challenge, but we were having a lazy Saturday, just walking around instead of biking, and Koreatown was close for lunch. We almost went to get Korean fried chicken, just like last year, but decided to try to do something different and headed into Mandoo Bar for some mandoo (dumplings). The menu sounded good and we could see them making the dumplings in the window, so we were hopeful that they would be good.

To start off the meal, they gave each of us a salad. It was a very simple salad - just lettuce, red cabbage, and carrots with a ginger dressing - but it was refreshing and great for a summer afternoon.

They also dropped off a bowl of cold soy-pickled vegetables, including carrots, pickles, and what seemed to us like turnips. These were pretty good, also very refreshing.

We got 2 orders of mandoo. We weren't sure if that would be enough for lunch but with so many options in the city, we figured we could make a food crawl out of it if they weren't. First to arrive were the kimchee mandoo ($11.50 for 10 pieces), which were steamed dumplings filled with kimchee, tofu, pork, and vegetables.

We also got the combo mandoo plate ($14 for 12 pieces), which was 4 pieces each of the boiled pork, vegetable, and seafood dumplings. The pork ones were the white ones, the vegetables were green, and the seafood were orange. Rather than order any of those separately ($11 for 10 pieces in the case of pork or vegetable, $12 for 10 pieces for seafood), we thought it would be better to try out the combo so we could taste more, especially since we didn't know which would be our favorite.

The dumplings were all pretty good, but even though this is a restaurant that seems to specialize in mandoo by their name, we wouldn't say they're the best dumplings we've ever had. The flavor of the kimchee one was probably our favorite. It had a bit of heat to it from the kimchee, but it wasn't that strong or overwhelming. It just lent a nice flavor to the dumpling. However, the outer skin on that one, especially as the mandoo sat longer, got a bit tough and chewy, making it harder to eat.

From the combo, we liked the flavors of the pork and vegetable ones. Our least favorite dumpling overall was the seafood. It was fine, but the shrimp, crabstick, and vegetable combo inside just tasted a little strange in the dumpling, and we preferred the others. The texture of the combo dumpling wrappers was fantastic, just the right amount of chewiness, and that lasted for as long as it took us to eat them, unlike with the kimchee dumplings.

Overall, we had a nice lunch at Mandoo Bar. If we go back, we think we would want to try the goon mandoo - the pork and vegetable pan-fried dumplings - that we saw them making in the window. Those looked pretty good. We love dumplings and it's nice to have a spot where you can get so many different varieties!

Week 13 - Spicy Food

Our home is no stranger to spicy food, so we were excited to see that the Week 13 challenge theme was spicy food. We use a lot of spicy ingredients regularly (well, as regularly as we cook anything), such as Sichuan peppercorns, chili oil, chili bean paste, red pepper flakes, chili powder, jalapeño peppers, and more. I didn't want to use anything that was common in our kitchen so I knew from the start the ingredient I wanted to use for the challenge - gochujang, the Korean hot chili paste.

We've both had plenty of gochujang at Korean restaurants before, but have never cooked with it at home. I found this recipe for dak bokkeum (Korean stewed chicken) and decided that would be perfect for the challenge. I (of course) adapted it a little bit for what we had to work with, but mostly tried to keep the spirit of the dish intact.

The ingredients for the dak bokkeum we made were:

- 1/3 cup gochujang ($0.62)

- 1 small bunch of scallions ($0.50)

- 2.5 tbsp low sodium soy sauce ($0.30)

- 5 garlic cloves, minced ($0.08)

- minced ginger (amount equivalent to garlic) ($0.15)

- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil ($0.46)

- 1 tbsp brown sugar ($0.20)

- 3/4 tsp crushed red pepper ($0.05)

- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3)

- 1/3 cup water ($0)

- chopped kale ($1)

The measurements above are approximate other than the gochujang, as I didn't feel like adding measuring spoons to the wash and just estimated by how much of the 1/3 cup they filled up. That was accurate enough for me. The total for the stewed chicken was approximately $6.36, which is quite affordable for dinner. Normally we'd add $1 or so for rice, but my parents gave us a giant bag of brown rice that they brought home from some fundraiser so that saved some money.

The steps for making the dak bokkeum were:

1. Mix the gochujang, chopped scallion whites, soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, sesame oil, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper together for the marinade.

2. Slice chicken into small pieces and mix into the marinade. Marinate for about 20-30 minutes. (I would have marinated it longer but it was very, very, very late in the night, and we couldn't wait much longer.)

3. Add 1/3 cup of water to a Dutch oven and bring it to a boil. (It's very quick.) Add the chicken and marinade and bring to boil. Simmer covered for about 20 minutes and then add chopped up kale. (We had a Costco sized bag of kale and no baby spinach so I just finely chopped that up so it would cook faster. I don't know how much kale it was but it doesn't really matter. I think in the future I would just use however much greens I had or felt like using, since it just adds vegetables to the dish and sauce. Can you guess that I don't really cook by measurements that carefully?)

4. Mix the kale in and simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes or so.

5. Turn off heat and add in the scallion greens. (You're also supposed to sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, but I really did not have time to toast them and kind of forgot about them even though they were sitting on the counter.)

We really liked this stew and it's so easy to make. I don't know why it took me so long to put together the marinade (I guess I was just working really slowly that late night), but it took much longer than I planned. The actual cooking part was very easy since everything was pretty much mixed together already and just needed some time to cook. This would be a good weeknight dinner, if I could just get it together and make the marinade faster. The flavors were great.

The gochujang here added a nice amount of heat. The stew wasn't as red as we were expecting, but the spiciness was there. I think in the future, in addition to the kale or spinach, maybe we'll add some other vegetables, like some finely chopped mushrooms, just to give the stew some more vegetables. I have no idea if that's remotely traditional, but it'll work for us. We would definitely make this again, and now we've got a tub of gochujang in the fridge to make more fun Korean dishes!

Danji

A's last day at his job was back in January. We wanted to celebrate the event with a nice lunch so we decided to go to Danji. We've both wanted to go to Danji for years, but every time we've thought about it or passed by, there was always a line since it's such a small spot. We're not big fans of waiting in line so we always figured we'd go another time. We thought it might be a little emptier for lunch and we were happy to be right.

We started out with a couple of their appetizers. One that we knew we wanted was the bulgogi sliders, but we debated a bit on the other since so many things sounded delicious. A was in the mood for wings, though, and since this was a celebration of him, wings it was. Spicy 'K.F.C.' Korean Fire Chicken Wings are their version of Korean fried chicken. They're smothered in a sauce made with honey, garlic, and four different types of chilies. Both of us were very happy that A had a craving for wings as these were phenomenal. The sauce had a beautiful blend of sweet, salty, and spicy. Even with the 4 chili blend, the heat wasn't so overpowering that you couldn't taste anything else. The honey was very subtle, but it balanced out the flavors so nicely with just that hint of sweetness. What we both agreed was that, due to decorum, neither of us should pick up the plate and lick up the remaining sauce. We certainly both wanted to, though.

As for the bulgogi sliders, M had one back in 2011, and ever since then she's been wanting more. The sliders come topped with a spicy pickled cucumber and scallion salsa. What they don't mention is that the buns are butter griddled which makes them AWESOME. This was the best thing we ate during this meal (although there was some serious competition). The buttery bun combined with the sweet and salty beef paired with the sour and spicy cucumber and mild sharpness of the scallion salsa to create one of the most wondrous flavor combinations either of us has ever had. A totally understood why M kept raving about these sliders for so long.

For the entree, M opted for Danji's version of the croque madame. They called it the croque ajuma (Korean for aunt) which amused us both. This sandwich was, beyond a doubt, a complete gut bomb. That doesn't mean it was bad; far from it. But it was huge and really rich and heavy. So what was in the croque ajuma? The croque ajushi (monsieur) was two thick cut slices of country bread with kimchi, bacon, gruyere, and bechamel. The ajuma added to the ajushi an egg on top and some truffle oil.

The sandwich was really good, but it was pretty large, much bigger than we thought it would be. We were so full by the end of this that we ended up taking a piece home for dinner. The egg was done perfectly, and the cheese and bechamel were broiled on top the way a croque madame should be. M didn't really taste much truffle oil, but A tasted a little bit here and there. The combination of kimchi, bacon, and cheese is always a good one, which we've known ever since we made kimchi grilled cheese at home (and didn't post about it), so we were pretty happy with the taste of this sandwich. We would get it again, but maybe not get any other entrees with it since it was so large!

A got the spicy pork bibim-bap and made it a set which added their trio of kimchi and a bowl of their daikon beef soup. At first glance the odd thing about this bibim-bap was that the rice and egg came in the bowl, but the vegetables - greens, carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, and bean sprouts - and protein all came separately. Neither of us had ever seen that type of presentation before.

The bibim-bap was tasty. The pork had a nice sweet and spicy flavor to it, and the vegetables were light and fresh. The only downside was that we both prefer the hot stone bowls to crisp up the rice, but this wasn't that type of bibim-bap. Overall the dish was good but not that different from bibim-bap at other Korean restaurants, except for high ingredient quality. The kimchi trio was tasty and fresh. The cucumber and cabbage versions had a good acidity to pair with the salty and spicy flavors. The mushroom was less spicy, but they also had a really nice mild sweetness. The soup was delicious. It was warming, had good richness from the beef and bone broth, and was perfect for the cold day.

At the end of the day we were both very happy to have made it out to Danji for lunch. There have been so few weekdays off for the both of us so we really wanted to take advantage of A's last day. We really loved this meal, and hope that in the future we'll have a chance to make it back for either lunch or dinner.