The Bob & Jo Korean Fusion Cuisine truck braved western midtown the other day in the rain, and to show my appreciation for trucks continuing their business in this precarious area, I also braved the rain to check out some of the dishes Donny didn’t get to in his initial visit to Bob & Jo over the summer.
Posted by Rachel Goldner at 11:45 am, October 21st, 2011 under Bob & Jo Truck, Korean.
Any savvy luncher in New York knows by now that Koreatown (32nd St between 5th and 6th Ave) is a wonderland of cheap and filling lunches. In fact, it’s almost becoming difficult to choose between the overflow of options – Shilla, Food Gallery 32, Woorijip, Miss Korea, Arirang, etc etc. Last week, I stumbled across yet another lunch deal at Muk eun ji, the reincarnation of the old Hang Gang space, where you have an option of at least 10 different dishes that fall at or below the $10 price range.
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Posted by Chris H. at 11:45 am, September 8th, 2011 under Korean, Muk Eun Ji.
If there was a guide to opening a generic deli in midtown, it would prescribe DIY salads, mediocre pizzas, predictable sandwiches, wan udon noodle soups, unnerving sushi, perhaps a by-the-lb buffet. The name should riff on variations of café, kitchen, market, fresh this and global that. It might also advise serving Korean food that’s practically decent, like Café Duke (on 51st btw. 6+7th), or a middling bowl of bibimbap, like the version found at Global Kitchen.
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Posted by Chris H. at 9:45 am, September 6th, 2011 under Deli, global kitchen, Korean.
Another season, another Korean truck launches into the streets of NYC. Last week fellow Lunch’ers Wined and Dined spotted a new Korean food truck, Bob & Jo Korean Fusion Cuisine truck. There are definitely no shortages of Korean food trucks with both Korilla and Kimchi Taco trucks roaming around, so when I heard about Bob & Jo I sort of rolled my eyes a little. (Can’t we get a Japanese curry truck?! ) Since I was in the area, I decided to check this new truck out and ended up pretty glad I did.
Check out the menu and food porn after the jump.
The plywood has been up on the old Red Mango space in K-town for months now, and it seems like renovations are now nearing completion. The new restaurant is called Korea Spoon, and based on a reliable source, the menu will focus on seolleongtang, which puts it in direct competition with its next door neighbor, Gahm Mi Oak. According to my sources (although not confirmed), Korea Spoon’s owner is also the same individual who owns slick looking newcomers, Food Gallery 32, Izakaya Moku, and Miss Korea.
I’ve noticed that Gahm Mi Oak’s quality has been slipping lately, so this isn’t an unwelcome change, but I’m a little sad to see K-town undergoing such gentrification. However, only time will tell who’s seolleongtang reigns supreme.
Posted by Chris H. at 1:45 pm, June 8th, 2011 under Korea Spoon, Korean.
Yesterday was the start of the 5 week long free food giveaway from the “Taste of Korea” food truck. Their 1st stop was at Bryant Park and lucky for me I happened to be having lunch at Bryant Park yesterday. Luckily I spotted them early enough, because even though their Facebook page says they would be serving up freebies until 2pm, they closed the line around 1:15 yesterday. After 20mins of standing in line I was handed a very nice looking bulgogi filet mignon silder with a side of kimchi. Finely sliced tasty warm filet mignon, buns toasted in butter, and the freshness and texture from the scallions and the slice of cucumber made a really good slider.
Today the truck will be at 52nd & 6th serving Danji’s spicy pork belly (the Serious Eats crew are fans of their spicy pork belly slider). Make sure to check their Facebook page or the ML Twitter Tracker for the truck’s schedule.
Posted by Donny T. at 9:30 am, April 19th, 2011 under Deals, Free Stuff, Korean.
Recently I had a hankering for some jjajangmyeon- noodles with a brown sauce made from fermented soybean paste. The Chinese version uses ground pork and is less saucey than the Korean counterpart, but both versions are quite excellent. Hyo Dong Gak a Chinese/Korean restaurant (on35th btw. 5+6th) has been the ML jjajangmyeon go to for awhile now, but while looking at the lunch specials (just to see if there was anything tasty looking) I spotted double cooked pork!
Ever since my mediocre experience at Joe’s Shanghai I’ve been on a mission to try all the double cooked pork dishes I can find in Midtown (going to save Szechuan Gourmet for last since it’s probably the best). Will this version come with pickled daikon? Maybe the spiciness is from kimchi? (It is a Korean/Chinese restaurant after all.) But mostly… will this be any good?
Posted by Donny T. at 10:45 am, April 14th, 2011 under Chinese, Hyo Dong Gak, Korean.
This week I noticed on the ML Twitter Tracker that Korilla BBQ was trying out some new menu items–citrus glazed version of their “Wonderbird” (aka chicken) and the KALBiester which is their take on traditional BBQ (kalbi is marinated short rib). Being a Korilla fan, I had to go check it out. Read more »
Posted by Brownie at 11:50 am, April 7th, 2011 under Korean, Korilla BBQ Truck.
Kimbap is an ideal lunch item for me. It’s cheap, travels well, packs an even and flavorful dose of carbs, proteins, veggies, and it doesn’t suffer if I get pulled into a meeting and it sits on my desk for hours until I finally get to it.
Whenever I get the hankering for kimbap and I’m close to Koreatown, E-Mo (‘Aunt’ in Korean) has always been my go to. I get sentimental when it comes to this place as well – it’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall that’s been around forever, and the old Korean lady that assembles the kimbap to-order is as sweet as can be (at least when she’s not scolding me for my embarrassing lack of conversational Korean). It may not be the best kimbap I’ve ever had, but compared to the other options in K-town, it always held its own. That is until Food Gallery 32 opened up across the street, and started selling its own version of made-to-order kimbap at the Boon Sik Zip stall.
A comparison between the two was inevitable, so we set off to do a head-to-head assessment in our highly unscientific analysis.
Posted by Chris H. at 11:40 am, April 4th, 2011 under E-Mo, Food Gallery 32, Korean.
If yesterday’s post about the Serious Eats review of Food Gallery 32 got you thinking about stopping in for dinner or an after work snack tonight, you might want to hold off. This afternoon, around 3pm, a sprinkler burst over O-De-Ppang! in booth 3 of the Koreatown food court. The FDNY was on sight in minutes to get things worked out. Don’t panic though, word is they should be up and running again in the next couple of hours.
Posted by ultraclay at 4:10 pm, March 17th, 2011 under 32nd btw. B'way+5th, 32nd btw. B'way+5th, Food Gallery 32, Japanese, Korean.
