Not quite edible, but still deliciously amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM&feature=user
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
corn and avocado salsa
By popular request! This salsa is great for parties and bbqs, and since there's no cooking involved, you can prepare most of the dish well in advance. Since it's chunky, I recommend serving it with tortilla chips that are shaped like scoops or little bowls.
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
1 Red Onion, diced
1 large Tomato, seeded and diced
2 Avocados, diced
1 1/2 cans (15.25 oz) Corn (or about 4-5 fresh corn)
1 - 2 Jalapeños, finely diced
1 - 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Lime, juiced
3-4 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 handful Cilantro, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chop all vegetables to about the same size as the corn. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, gently mix, and enjoy! For an added kick, add a few teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes.
Toss with Romaine Lettuce, a little zesty Ranch dressing, and topped with some pieces of Tortilla chips for a lovely fresh Tex-Mex-y salad!
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
1 Red Onion, diced
1 large Tomato, seeded and diced
2 Avocados, diced
1 1/2 cans (15.25 oz) Corn (or about 4-5 fresh corn)
1 - 2 Jalapeños, finely diced
1 - 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Lime, juiced
3-4 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 handful Cilantro, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chop all vegetables to about the same size as the corn. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, gently mix, and enjoy! For an added kick, add a few teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes.
Toss with Romaine Lettuce, a little zesty Ranch dressing, and topped with some pieces of Tortilla chips for a lovely fresh Tex-Mex-y salad!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
lighthouse tofu
I love spicy foods, and I love eating with friends who also crave the heat. In order to get my Korean food/spicy fix and introduce my favorite suburban friends to a type of cuisine, I took them to Lighthouse Tofu, a Korean restaurant (a local chain) that specializes in fresh soft tofu soup ("soon-du-bu").
Ethnic restaurants such as Lighthouse can be obviously intimidating to first timers. The restaurant is usually packed and the patrons are overwhelmingly Korean The walls are decorated in a faux-Korean newsprint wallpaper, keeping the restaurant's no-frills, clean, simple dining philosophy. The menus are kept in plastic table top displays, and it's immediately clear that they mean business-- there are several types of soon-du-bu, a handful of other Korean dishes, and nothing else.
Each table will be given four side dishes to share, two types of kim-chee (napa cabbage and cucumber), sautéed bean sprouts, and a spicy marinated seafood. In addition, each diner will get a bowl of rice and a bowl of a milder type of kim-chee that is served in a chilled broth. If you run out of any of the side dishes, don't hesitate to ask your server for more.
We ordered a seafood pancake dish ("hae-mool pa-jun") that is served with a soy sauce dipping sauce. It was freshly made, cooked to perfection with a crunchy crust but still soft in the middle, filled with oysters, clams, calamari, crab meat, and vegetables. I've definitely had better seafood pancakes are other restaurants with more seafood, but I was definitely not disappointed with this order.
Lighthouse's best non-tofu dish is their spicy sautéed octopus with vegetables and thick udon noodles. It's served in a hot-stone skillet and not for the faint. Its spicy flavor is paired with a slightly sweet and salty undertones. A word of warning for chopstick novices-- the noodles and octopus are slippery and the red sauce will stain your clothes. Don't be afraid to ask for a fork to enjoy this dish and save your shirt.
The main attraction is the soon-du-bu. It comes in several varieties (seafood, seafood and beef, oysters, mushrooms, beef and kim-chee, pork and beef, beef, or vegetable) and five levels of spiciness (white, mild, medium, spicy, or spicy spicy).
It's served boiling hot in a stone bowl with an optional raw egg on the side. Koreans traditionally will crack and stir a raw egg into the soup, and the residual heat of the soup will cook the egg. The soup is spicy, salty, and incredibly filling.
The rice that served at the beginning of your meal is scooped at the table from a hot stone bowl by the server. They will then pour barley tea into the stone bowl to create a rice soup with the rice that is still remaining. Let it sit there and soften while you eat your entrées and ladle it out into the empty bowls they've set just for this purpose. It's a great, nutty, mellow way to end your fiery meal. Babies love it, too!
Having grown up in Los Angeles where there are a plethora of amazing authentic Korean restaurants, I've often complained of the lack of great Korean restaurants in the DC-area. Lighthouse Tofu is definitely one restaurant that could compete with other Koreatown restaurants.
Ethnic restaurants such as Lighthouse can be obviously intimidating to first timers. The restaurant is usually packed and the patrons are overwhelmingly Korean The walls are decorated in a faux-Korean newsprint wallpaper, keeping the restaurant's no-frills, clean, simple dining philosophy. The menus are kept in plastic table top displays, and it's immediately clear that they mean business-- there are several types of soon-du-bu, a handful of other Korean dishes, and nothing else.
Each table will be given four side dishes to share, two types of kim-chee (napa cabbage and cucumber), sautéed bean sprouts, and a spicy marinated seafood. In addition, each diner will get a bowl of rice and a bowl of a milder type of kim-chee that is served in a chilled broth. If you run out of any of the side dishes, don't hesitate to ask your server for more.
We ordered a seafood pancake dish ("hae-mool pa-jun") that is served with a soy sauce dipping sauce. It was freshly made, cooked to perfection with a crunchy crust but still soft in the middle, filled with oysters, clams, calamari, crab meat, and vegetables. I've definitely had better seafood pancakes are other restaurants with more seafood, but I was definitely not disappointed with this order.
Lighthouse's best non-tofu dish is their spicy sautéed octopus with vegetables and thick udon noodles. It's served in a hot-stone skillet and not for the faint. Its spicy flavor is paired with a slightly sweet and salty undertones. A word of warning for chopstick novices-- the noodles and octopus are slippery and the red sauce will stain your clothes. Don't be afraid to ask for a fork to enjoy this dish and save your shirt.
The main attraction is the soon-du-bu. It comes in several varieties (seafood, seafood and beef, oysters, mushrooms, beef and kim-chee, pork and beef, beef, or vegetable) and five levels of spiciness (white, mild, medium, spicy, or spicy spicy).
It's served boiling hot in a stone bowl with an optional raw egg on the side. Koreans traditionally will crack and stir a raw egg into the soup, and the residual heat of the soup will cook the egg. The soup is spicy, salty, and incredibly filling.
The rice that served at the beginning of your meal is scooped at the table from a hot stone bowl by the server. They will then pour barley tea into the stone bowl to create a rice soup with the rice that is still remaining. Let it sit there and soften while you eat your entrées and ladle it out into the empty bowls they've set just for this purpose. It's a great, nutty, mellow way to end your fiery meal. Babies love it, too!
Having grown up in Los Angeles where there are a plethora of amazing authentic Korean restaurants, I've often complained of the lack of great Korean restaurants in the DC-area. Lighthouse Tofu is definitely one restaurant that could compete with other Koreatown restaurants.
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