Fusion Tacos

Have I mentioned how much I love tacos? A few weeks ago I shared how we did a stay-cation week, and one of the fun things we did was participate in a Cookology class making fusion tacos! We've done a couple other Cookology classes before, one was Italian and one was Greek. If you've never done it, you should. Its tons of fun, you can learn some great kitchen tips, and at the end of it, you get to have a tasty meal with unique food you didn't know you could make.

We made three kinds of tacos: a Korean beef taco, a spicy Thai chicken curry taco, and a dessert choco-taco! The first thing you do is set out and organize your mise-en-place, a French term meaning "putting in place' or in other words, you're setting up your basic ingredients you'll need to get the dish started.  Our mise-en-place consisted of one tray of veggies and one tray of spices and sauces we would need to make our dishes.  Our veggies were carrot, lime (yes I know this is a fruit), jalepeno, white onion, green onion, cucumber, radish. Our spice tray consisted of soy sauce, sesame oil, kochujang (a spicy bean paste used in a lot of Korean food), minced garlic, fish sauce, brown sugar, and ginger.

For the Korean Beef taco, we made a marinade for the beef from crushed pear, onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, black pepper, sesame oil, and carrot. While that marinade was working its magic tenderizing the beef, we made a cabbage slaw. We chopped a couple different kinds of cabbage, added finely sliced pieces of cucumber, green onion, a little sunflower oil, a little vinegar, and a little salt to taste and mixed it all up.

Then we started on the Thai chicken tacos. We chopped up some chicken that was already cooked to save time in class and added it to a pan with olive oil. Next we added coconut milk, kochujang paste to taste, and fish sauce. Then also add garlic and jalepeno, also to taste depending on how spicy you want it. You can also add other veggies to the chicken mixture or put them on raw at the end. We added our radishes to the pan while cooking. And topped the tacos with cilantro and lime when it was time to serve and eat. For these tacos we used a corn tortilla and they were topped with a peanut sauce (it was already made for us in class but its easy to make at home too: peanut butter, soy sauce, siracha, and maybe a touch of warm water) and crushed peanuts.

When it was time to assemble our beef taco, we cooked the beef in a pan with the marinade. We topped a flour tortilla with the beef mixture, the cabbage slaw, a little siracha mayo sauce, and a drizzle of plain siracha to taste.

But we weren't done yet! Now it was time for dessert! We made a batter, similar to pancake batter but we wanted it to be thin like a crepe. Next we put the batter in a hot pan like we were making a pancake. Now anyone who has kept up with my blog knows I have a hard time making pancakes because I get scared of "the flip". I just recently was able to do this flip successfully for the first time ever! Now I have to flip this big one!! Chef Mark, our teacher gave me a few tips and told me to go for it.  Ok here goes...I did it!!! Perfectly, in fact! We all cheered! It was a triumph!

Once the crepe/pancake was done but still warm, we laid it over the handle of the pan so it would curve like a taco as it cooled.  Then we dipped the edges in a chocolate ganache and served it with vanilla ice cream.  Everything was super delicious! The chicken taco was sweet, creamy, and fresh with a little spicy heat while the beef one was hearty and savory with its own level of spice. The dessert one was fun to make and a nice sweet treat to cool our tongues from the previous spice. Our teacher, Chef Mark, was very encouraging and informative. And we got a tasty meal that we can now easily make at home! Can't wait to try it in my own kitchen!

HoneyPig!!

Let's say you'd like to take a big vacation to somewhere exotic, like maybe Korea. But a trip to Korea is pretty expensive and you don't really have the money in this economy.  Well, here's a much less expensive alternative to feeling like you're in Korea and you get a unique meal thats super yummy.  Go to the HoneyPig in Centerville, VA (or in Annandale or Ellicott City, MD).

you should note they are open 24 hours too!

When you step foot in the door of this place, you must be ready for an adventure.  Almost nothing is in English. In fact, the walls are plastered with posters, all written in Korean.  All the TV's mounted on the walls are playing Korean news and TV shows.  The music playing overhead is some kind of Korean pop music.  All the waitstaff is Korean.  And if you're not Korean yourself, you can be sure you will be in the 3% of customers there who aren't Korean as well.

this is the foyer when you walk in...the restaurant is pretty much the same

There is just enough English on the menu so you can order your main course food item.  They have things like pork belly, pork ribs, beef brisket, octopus, chicken, kimchi, tofu...as well as pork necks, beef intestines, tripe, and seafood pancakes.  Even some crazy drink called Soju, which I think we figured out was fermented sweet potato.

soju

The walls are made of corrugated metal and the tables are made of stainless steel with a large burner in the middle.  They light the burner and bring out a large metal lid which is placed over the fire. As the metal lid heats up, thats what they cook your food on.  As we were waiting for this process, they brought out numerous small bowls and dishes, which at first we had no idea what they were or how to eat them.  It turned out to be a really tasty green salad with this sweet dressing plus sides of kimchi and other veggies in this spicy red sauce. They even gave us a complimentary steamed egg soup. I'm not really sure what exactly was in it but it was really eggy and warm and yummy...almost the texture of fine grits. Oh and the only utensils you are given are chopsticks and a spoon for soup. So get your chopstick fingers ready!

the burner in the middle of the table

salad and veggies

steamed egg bowl

We ordered thick sliced pork belly and beef intestines.  The pork belly is pretty much like really thick fatty bacon. The intestines looked exactly as you might expect. As they bring them out raw, they look like slimy long tubes, which they chop up into smaller pieces and cook them in a separate pan with some kind of sweet teriyaki-type sauce.  When they are mostly cooked, they are transferred to our hot metal cooking lid to finish cooking along with the pork belly and a load of kimchi with noddles and soybeans in a red sauce.And we were also served a small bowl of sticky white rice.

my pretty plate with pork belly and kimchi and noodles

Everything....and I mean everything...was super yummy!  I have to be honest, I was a little nervous when Superking ordered the intestines.  I wasn't sure if I was going to go for that.  But I have to tell you, it tasted delicious! I think whatever sauce they cooked it in helped give it a sweet quality.  But it wasn't super chewy like I thought it might be. It was slightly tougher than a noodle. I really liked it!

raw intestines in sauce being prepared

intestines cooked with whole garlic cloves and peppers

It was interesting to see the looks on the faces of some of the Korean customers and our waitress when the intestines were brought out. Our waitress looked at us doubtfully, "did you order this?" as she begins cooking it up.  I'm sure not many people, especially non-Koreans, order that too often.

this was all that was left...

We really felt as though we were temporarily transported to Korea while we were there. This was definitely a true food adventure and we came out on the other side finding a new kind of food to love! If you're feeling adventurous or if you already enjoy Korean food, you must go to HoneyPig!

The HoneyPig himself!

DC Weekend 2011: Part Three and a Half

So Part Three talked about our lunch at Truckeroo and Part Three and a Half is about our dinner at Truckeroo.  Yes, we went back to eat more food.  So we like to eat! Is that so wrong?? Anyway...

live band playing

way more crowded than lunch

After our Truckeroo lunch, we went for a walk around the National Gallery of Art and a leisurely snack and a drink at the Founding Farmers restaurant, which we went to for Memorial Day.

popcorn of the day: old bay

By the time we got back to Truckeroo, there were two lines of people waiting to get in. It was packed out! We finally make it in and we hop in line for the Sabora Street truck.  It was about an hour wait before we made it up to order. Thankfully the weather was nice! When we got our food and took the first bite, we knew the wait was worth it.

Chorizo Arepas served with yucca. An arepa is like a cornmeal cake patty and you are usually given two of them stuffed with some kind of meat in between like a sandwich.  It was sweet and soft and really delicious. A great compliment to the spicy Spanish chorizo The chorizo was accompanied by a little crunchy slaw and some cotija cheese.  And next to it was the yucca fritas.  Yucca is similar to a potato but with a slightly different, almost sweeter taste and these were cut like fries and topped with a yummy creamy sauce.

The next truck we waited for was Takorean.  Just like the name implies, they specialize in Korean tacos.  We had a little bit of an adventure in this line.  All the lines were so long and we were still hungry.  It might sound like we ate a lot but when you split one small meal for two people and then have to wait another hour or more for the next bite, its hard to feel full. But luckily there was a nice couple in front of us that we started chatting with in line.  They hadn't eaten anything yet and decided maybe to try a shorter line.  Being the nice people we are, we told them to go ahead and try another line.  If you get through that and want to come back to this line, we'll give you cuts. So they took us up on our offer.

About twenty minutes later, we're still waiting in the same line and not moving very far and that couple comes back. So we kept our word and let them cut.  Then shortly after that, they found a friend who was in the same line but near the front.  Their friend gave them cuts and since we were so nice to them, they said they would order our food when they ordered if we gave them money so we didn't have to wait anymore! See? No good deed goes unnoticed! Paybacks work for both good and bad!

Ok back to the food...we decided to go for something unique so we ordered the Caramelized Tofu tacos.  Most people when they hear tofu they immediately get grossed out.  But trust me its not that bad.  In fact, when prepared well and served with other food that is yummy and prepared well, tofu can actually be quite good.  It usually has the texture of a mushroom or a semi-soft cheese and it has no taste of its own. It simply takes on the flavors around it.  These tofu tacos were amazing!!

such beautiful color

This tofu was marinated in hoisin sauce and served in small corn tortillas with siracha sauce (a little too spicy for me but yummy), lime crema sauce, fresh cilantro, sesame seeds, and a spicy kimchi style slaw.  Talk about yumma yumma!!

After we left Truckeroo, we decided we needed a dessert.  Let's catch a cab to Georgetown and go to the Thunderburger Bar.  And what do we find when we get there? Our friend Ruby Woo and company out for a birthday celebration! Oh yeah, and their Guinness Chocolate Cake was delicious too with Belgian chocolate whipped ganache and raspberry sauce!! To die for!

Heres some other yummy food trucks...

Sweetbites truck: cupcakes, cookies, muffins

Tasty Kabobs

Porc Mobile: pork sandwiches

Fojol Brothers: Ethiopian

Dc Slices: pizza

Eat Wonky: poutine (fries with gravy and cheese curds)

El Floridano: Cuban