Seoul Eats

Oh, wow! The entire episode for Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie is up on their website. You can watch it here: I know I posted about it before, but I only gave the iTunes link, so this is for those who don't have itunes. Dan

Blue Bottle Coffee Company The Siphon Coffee System is heating up Our Barista adds the coffee grinds in a filter above the water. The siphon defies gravity (because hot water wants to rise) and the water flows up into the glass tube with the coffee. As the heat is turned off, the water flows back down to the bottom The finished coffee Am I a coffee snob? Cheri is a coffee snob in training. After a year of e-mailing and reading each other's blogs, we finally meet in person. While I was in San Francisco, I was able to meet up with Seoulberry. If you don't know who she is, you can check out her blog. Cheri was in town and I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with her. We geeked it out on one of the days and went to electronics markets, photo stores, a radio shack, and the Apple Store (I know we just fell right into that stereotype.) And one of the food related places that we went to was the Blue Bottle Coffee Company, which is considered by many San Franciscans as having t

S'more keyboard with marshmallow keys. Via Gizmodo.com

Mango Salsa Grilled Sweet Potatoes, Oranges, Tomatillos and Pineapple Marinated and Grilled London Broil Here are the happy recipients of my meal And chocolate Souffles for dessert Here's a close-up of the souffle. This is what I made for my parents and for their friends Bob, Brenda, and Brenda's sister.

I know. Random post, but I just thought I would put it up. No. It's not real poo. Dan

A Buffet plate of BBQ sauce marinated pork, collard greens, slaw, a biscuit and banana nilla wafer pudding. A drumstick, mac n cheese (meh...I think it was stouffers) Carolina pork, beans, collard greens, and bbq sauce pulled pork. A Pork Cracklin Chicken Gizzard Buffet spread of chicken, pork, and catfish. Good Ole Southern Soul Food. I love southern BBQ, chicken, pork cracklings, pinto beans, collard greens, and biscuits. Sure I was born in Korean and adopted by Yankees (I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware), but my stomach is all Union Jack. My parents and I drove 14 hours from Delaware to Florida and on our way we stopped at Carolina BBQ & Chicken. It was recommended by a local named Anita that worked at a roadside gas station. The tables were filled with locals, so you know that this is a good place. We ordered big ole unsweetened ice teas with lemon and then went right for the buffet. Carolina BBQ & Chicken has crisp southern chicken and lots of slowly cooked pork. It's

the famous burger all wrapped up and served on a metal tray. A shot of the egg bun and slightly pink meat. This is the classic American Burger at San Francisco's Ferry Market. It was pretty good, but is this a burger that's more hype than substance? It's pricey at $6.99 for the regular hamburger. This price doesn't include fries, drink, or tax. The meat isn't thick, but it is juicy and with a distinct beef flavor. It should because they raise their own cows. This is the main selling point for Taylor's. They raise the cows on vegetarian feed (so the burger is sans mad cow) and the cows don't receive antibiotics or growth hormones. The egg bun is thick and does a good job of sopping up the flavorful juices. I think it was a little too thick and took away from the meat. I agree with limited amount of toppings on the burger. Taylor's hamburgers only have lettuce, pickle, and "secret sauce." Now the secret sauce is clearly "Thousand Island Dre

I have rewritten my review on La Plancha for the magazine. You know what, sometimes it is really embarrassing to see the punctuation and spelling errors I make. When I write for my blog, it is with a free flow approach in mind. When I blog, it's just like "wow, that's fun, I'm going to write about it." REVIEW: La Plancha By Dan Gray Behind the Hamilton and tucked away to the right of Saint Ex is La Plancha. La Plancha is a high-end Spanish steak restaurant that has been around for many years. I've heard about this place for ages, yet had not gone. In general I have found western style restaurants serving meat inferior to Korean Restaurants. Over at Yuhwa (near the Hyatt Hotel) the steak I got was a disk of dried meat with an overly syrupy mango sauce. Outback is just god-awful. VIPS, or Seven Springs- don't even get me started. The one I had at Mignon, which is near Zelen (right up the hill from La Plancha) was quite possibly the only other steak place

Spicy and Crisp Buttermilk Chicken over Buttermilk Waffle Topped with cream gravy then with vermont maple syrup Let the flavors marry for a bit. Then chow down. www.900grayson.com They call them the Demon Lover at 900 Grayson. I don't know why, but I know that I would gladly sell my soul for another one. It's in Berkeley. Dan

I'm currently in Emeryville, California with my friend Matt Kim . He is an amazing photographer and about a month ago he was in Korea and he took pictures of the rice cake fair along with Robyn Lee of Serious Eats . Matt is a foodie, so he has taken me out to get some great California eats. He was also kind enough to give me a place to stay for a couple of days in California. Today we went to 900 Grayson for Chicken and Waffles. During the course of the meal, he gave me some pointers on how to take better photos. I'll post these photos very soon. I've been looking through the photos that he took for the rice cake fair and I must tell you that they are breathtaking. I wanted to share some of them with you. If you want to see all the photos, you can find them here.

Cool. Thanks Robyn. Here is the post. Kevin Cyr's chili burger at Chili King is like a mining excavation. You get a mountainous hamburger dripping with golden cheese over boulders of kidney beans, green jalapeños, and rubble-like ground beef. This mountain could be intimidating for some, so let me give you some advice. 1. First, use your fork to get through the mounds of chili. The chili, with the flavors of onion, peppers, and spices married together after slowly simmering in crock pot for hours, is exceptional. 2. If the fork becomes too heavy, you can use the french fries to pick through the chili. 3. Once you get to sesame-speckled bun, grab hold with both hands and don’t let go until you finish. This is a burger that needs to be wrangled. Click here for the rest.

The back gate to Poppy One of their famous cocktails. I believe it was a cosmo. A dessert Thali with Mango Yogurt Icecream, Warm Rhubarb Orange Shortcake, Candied Pecans, Nutter Butter, a jelly like dessert (the purple one) and hot date cake to the left. Close up of the crunchy savory, sinful, nutter butter Molly Moon's Icecream Salted caramel, vivace coffee, and balsamic strawberry! Oh my! My salted caramel milkshake artist. Yummm! To finish up the Seattle Foodie outing, the Dark Knight Critic took Noah and I to Poppy- a place famous for their desserts and their Indian influenced Thali's. I learned that a Thali is a Indian way of eating that has a variety of small dishes set on a round platter. Poppy has taken this concept and applied it to dessert. Yum... The steam of the Orange Rhubarb Shortcake seemed to lift up float up this dessert to your mouth. I thought the orange would make this dish ordinary, but it did the opposite. The mango ice cream was. The Hot Date Cake was di