Lunchin' Solo: iKimchi - Spicy Fried Pork

I've heard about the Korean Food Cart on Lexington Avenue near Baruch College but never really found the time to get it. Finally, as I was running some errands in the neighborhood I decided to stand on the long line and wait for my food.

Good weather and street food don't go well together. I despise the long lines but for good food, it's worth it.

There's like 4 people running this little cart. The chef, the person assembling my tray, the person taking my order, and finally the guy that just replenishes the items in the cart. Their meals range from $5-7 and miso soup for $2 unless you get it with the lunchbox which is just $1 more.

Heard from J that the Spicy Fried Pork is good since he works in the area and got it multiple times, so that's what I got.

Not a bad deal, the Spicy Fried Pork w/ salad and rice was $6. They also prefer you telling them if you want kimchi or not along with the time when you place your order. Salad was on the weak side, can't you give me more? But, I did get hooked onto their salad dressing. So good! I'm guessing ranch and vinaigrette? I did see them squirting 2 different sauces on it!

Kimchi was ok, took me an hour to finally be able to eat my lunch which by that time, my kimchi was warm. I like my kimchi cold because it holds that crunch. Even though it was warm, the crunch was still there. A good little banchan to start with.

The combo came with fried rice, I wasn't too crazy about it because it was a bit on the hard side. But I do appreciate the meat. Very flavorful and they give a generous amount.

Not a bad choice for lunch since I can sort of justify the price. A lot of times Korean lunches can come out to being $7-10, especially around K-town but this is quite reasonable.

iKimchi
Lexington Ave (between 24th and 25th Street)
New York, NY 10010

Hong Kong: Rice Noodles

Prior to dinner, J wanted to take me to 林記小食 for a quick bite. We were in Sai Kung (西貢) for a seafood dinner and since we were in the area, 林記 was a must visit.

It's very much like your average Dai Pai Dong (大牌檔) that has rice noodles with the sauces, fish balls, chicken, etc all on skewers.

We got the rice noodles with fish balls. I think why J likes it here is because of the peanut sauce. We don't have that here in NYC much and seeing it in its glory is quite satisfying. Plus eating everything with just a skewer stick is quite fun. It's a great snack and quick too. The perks of being in Hong Kong - never be hungry.

Hong Kong: Street Bowl

The idea of getting a bowl of food in the streets might be a turn off but it's nothing odd in HK since a lot of food can be eating on the go. Everywhere J and I walked, there were stalls of food being sold. There are always a lot of people around these places since they usually just buy it and stand there to eat, also a great way to digest food and not get fat!

There were so many people that making it through the crowd to get in front of the stall was pretty difficult. I just had J go since he knew what to order anyways. Finding a place to stand was hard too!

Our bowl of pork innards, organs, whatever nasty thing that people don't usually eat. It was braised so a lot of it were very tender and flavorful. This bowl was around 1-2USD which is crazy cheap. I liked the sweet sauce on top but the mustard is just too weird for me. HK-er loves their mustard don't they?

Hong Kong: Traditional Candy and Coconut Wrap

One of the best thing about HK is the endless street food, I can even get my desserts in the streets. Walking along, J and I saw something that was pretty strange. It wasn't the Dragon Beard candy which instantly got our attention. It was a good thing that there were no lines.

The man with his small stand of yumminess!

I was so amazed at how he makes the 糖葱餅 or Traditional Candy and Coconut Wrap, but if I were to literally translate from Cantonese to English, it would be "Candy Scallion Cookie."

It was really simple. He already has this hollow tubular sugar candy stored somewhere and took it out, place it on the coconut wrap and then put a spoonful or two of shredded coconut, roasted sesame and sugar on top. Roll it up and... voila!

It only cost 6HKD which was less than a dollar here in the states.

It was really crunchy but then chewy at the same time. It wasn't too sweet which got me by surprise. I love how the tubes look!

Halfway through, it got completely squished. One of my favorite odd snacks in HK. So glad we stopped to get this!

Hong Kong: Street Skewers

After my trip to Vietnam, I met up with J in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a beautiful country, the food there is even better.

We lived off from street foods when we stayed in HK. They're known for that stuff, literally 10 minutes away there's a place you can grab some food on-the-go. Extremely convenient and addicting also.

It's even better when the place we were staying at is a plaza which means we were surrounded by food stalls at the bottom of our building...dangerous.

One of the first places J took me to (he spent 2 weeks prior to my arrival), claims to have some really good mango slush and skewers.

The Mango Slush was really different, tasted naturally sweet and not the overly loaded with sugar kind. Worked great with our food.

Mmm...Gai Dan Jai aka egg waffles or eggettes. Slightly hollow in the center with a good crunch to it.

Cow's Tongue anyone? The mustard was a bit weird, I would've done perfectly fine with just the sweet sauce and just that. They served this cold, I wish it was hot.

Fish Balls was amazing. We had them make it spicy and boy it was spicy! This is where the slush comes in handy haha

Lastly, Siew Mai or Shumai, we actually had 3 and then I remember to snap a picture. It was really that good. I don't care if it was frozen, it was steamed instead of being microwave and it was fresh. Add some soy sauce and I can eat like 50 of these.

J has been my model for holding foods in HK so you'll be seeing a lot of his tummy, hand, shirt, etc... yea...

Street Eats: PARKED! Food Truck Festival

This past weekend I attended the PARKED! Food Truck Festival that was held at the South Street Seaport with J. Found out from BigAppleNosh that it was literally happening on Saturday, and since it involved food, J and I must be there!

We got there around noon, the place was already packed with people. The sun wasn't giving any mercy either, I think I got a little burnt from waiting on those lines. I mean, I love how convenient it was that majority of the food trucks were there but I so did not love the long lines!

We browsed around a lot and only ordered a couple of things. Good thing there were a handful of trucks we already tried before so it was easy to "move on" to the next one. Overall, it was definitely fun and I was glad I got to spent some time with J.

Photos credit to J.

Kielbasa Hero

Grilled Cheese with Tomato and Bacon

Mandarin Jarrito; Brisket Slider; Short Rib Taco

We also had Dip'n'Dots. I absolutely love this type of ice cream cause it's just so fun to eat. Whenever I see it, and I make sure to have J look out for it also, I would get it. I had to stand in the shade to eat it since it tends to melt fast. Another dessert we had was shaved ice from The Shaved Ice Shop, this was a return visit for us. We had it at Hester Street Fair (which is still happening now!), and loved it. But it was a bit of a disappointment this time since they used a small bowl to hold the ice instead of the cool looking flower looking cup.

I left satisfied and stuffed. There are a couple of places I did try and would definitely want to track down the truck and eat it again.

Street Eats: International Food Festival 2011

I apologize for not posting this up sooner for those that wanted to attend the festival.

This past weekend, the only weekend of the year that the International Food Festival was held. I missed it all the other years so I was super excited to go to this years. The festival stretches from 42nd street to 57th street, a wide span of 15 blocks worth of food and activities (more on the food side).

I'm warning you all, this is going to be one heavy post of photos so bare with me!

J and I decided to work our way downtown, therefore we started our journey from 57th street. Quite convenient since I need to get a book from Borders and Columbus Circle was just 2 blocks away! Anyways, starting from atop was a lot better since there weren't much people. In a right person's mind, they would start down south and work their way up but my mind isn't always right. I was hungry for food so we scrounge around quick to find something to munch on.

We love empanadas but this was so different from the last time we had it. Shouldn't have gotten chicken because beef was so much better. It was oily, but oily goodness.

Crazy turkey drums. I'm quite PO-ed that I didn't get this. We wanted to purchase it from this vendor but he said he's out of gas/coal so his turkeys ain't cooking. I pushed it off til later to get it as we walk further down but by the time we got down there, I was full so that was a total fail. I assure you, next IFF I will definitely get the drum first even if it fills me up!

Red light, green light, one two three?
J and I absolutely love the green lemonade. It's so rare to find vendors with the green one because they usually just sell the yellow and pink one. The green one is actually lime, so the taste is quite different. To me, it's not quite as tart.

I saw this stand and was completely in awe. I love fried food and I love seafood. They even had raw oysters that they shuck on site for you. Whole lobsters for $8 and even soft shell crabs, I was in total bliss heaven.

Somewhere down the road we got a Kobe Beef Slider, a little bland but I love the thickness of the burger. They need to have salt and pepper at the stands rather than ketchup and mustard.

Yay to free popcorn! They let you try some, so just pour a hand full in your hands and chow down. It was extra soft, light, and crispy at the same time. Love me some fresh caramel popcorn.

Random pig just chillin' out and waiting to be taken apart and devour by human carnivores.

I don't know why but I was totally surprised that Red Hook was here. After having Luke's Lobster, I do want to try the other well-known lobster shacks out there, Red Hook being one of them. And what's better than having Red Hook come to us rather than us going to them. We got the Maine style instead of the Connecticut because what's the big deal with mayo? I do prefer Connecticut style since it's a lot more cleaner with only butter. Kudos to them for giving us so much lobster meat.

Kyotofu, so cute. We always end up getting something from them even though we know how it taste and all. They usually never really come up with anything "new" so that's the only downside. I mean we don't crazy love their sweets but it's good to munch on them once in a while. Plus, it was only $2.

Alright, here I go regretting that I didn't get something again. We got the Gator sausage but what I really wanted was the crawfish boil for only $12! I'm still sulking over it. But it's ok, the sausage was pretty good. Loaded with spices you would expect from a Cajun place and that mustard totally worked well with it.

So, that concludes my adventure through 9th Ave. And, no that is not J and me dead center.
I'm quite shocked at how little people there are this year at the festival, maybe people didn't know about it? Overall, the weather was good. I don't like hot sunny days where there are tons of people pushing around to get food. If you missed this year's IFF, there is always next year so look out for that.

International Food Festival
42-57 Street
9 Avenue