Kimchi Soup (Kimchi-guk)

When last we came upon this old friend he was fresh and new and exciting.  But alas, over the past month, he has become tired, old, boring, in desperate need of a spark, something new.....

Kimchi-guk!!!!!!

Now please do not misunderstand, the Kimchi that we made a month ago is still super duper awesome and super duper tasty.  It continues to fart it's brains out and stink up the whole fridge, kitchen, and house.  Decomposing, rotting, growing deeper and deeper in flavor and tartness.  It's delicious and I eat it all the time.  It's just a little boring in this form now, so,  I'm ready for a new way to eat this amazing food.

Kimchi Soup

A mixture of chopped kimchi, pork shoulder, red pepper paste, and a few other minor characters.  

I have to say at the outset, this was super great, and with a minimum of ingredients, a pretty amazing bowl of soup.

Let's jump right in!  

(in the unlikely event that you want to make this soup, please drop me a line and I'll give you the ingredient measurements)

It starts with Kimchi

You can see the transformation over the last month.  More pale in color and more wilted.

On the left is now, the right is freshly made

Chopped

Pork Shoulder, cubed, kinda small.  

I did an experiment on this and just sliced through the fat and all to see if after cooking it turned out to be nasty and gristly and fatty.  It was beautiful and soft and delicious.  No remains of the fat or anything, other than it flavoring the broth fantastically, rendering down to just tender beautiful meat.

Red Pepper Paste

Just a touch of sugar

Everything goes into the pot all at once and you boil on high for 30 minutes

After the 30 minutes you can add tofu, or dumplings, or whatever other items you might like, or nothing at all.  We happened to have these Mini Chicken Cilantro Wontons in the freezer, and they ended up being perfect.

In the pot they go and cook on low for another 10 minutes.

Add sliced green onions and serve

I made Japanese Sticky Rice as well and I recommend just put it straight away into the soup.  It acts as a vessel of sorts to transport the broth into your mouth, and adds texture, and makes the meal a bit heartier.

What else is there to say?  

Great soup made from great kimchi.  Homemade food, cheap and delicious.

The only way to follow up this belly full of goodness is to sit back, relax, and have some scotch.

How does this stuff look?

Eat drink laugh love

You deserve it all

Go get it

DVA

The South Park Abbey, Really Good Wings

http://www.thesouthparkabbey.com/

This place is good, and getting better with age.  It's fairly new, maybe a year or two since the new owners took over, remodeled, changed the menu, and began evolving this place into a comfortable neighborhood spot to have some good beer, drinks (full bar) and great food. 

In the beginning it was a bit rough around the edges though.  It honestly felt like the new owners were people that loved to hang out in bars so they decided to open their own, which leads to inadvertently terrible service, unless you are in the "in crowd", of which I am, or was not.  I have often spent countless minutes either at my table, or the bar, waving money to get a beer refill (and yes I'm the only one wanting a drink, it's not like there's a crowd) and sometimes 2 bartenders working, and I have to wait because the owners are doing shots with the employees or friends, and that takes priority.  Kinda lame, especially if I am WANTING TO GIVE YOU MONEY!!! YOU HAVE  A BUSINESS THAT SELLS AND I WANT TO BUY!!! 

Can't the party wait?

Also, in the beginning, I had one of the owners, or his mother, or someone, stagger to my table, glass of wine in hand, and start talking to me, telling me that she is one of the new owners and excited to be in business, etc.... and I still haven't seen a menu or a waitress, nor am I enjoying a drink, like herself.  One of the weirdest things ever.  She was obviously excited, and that was nice, but don't stagger to the tables with your drink, talking to people who don't know you only to talk about yourself.  I could see if it was "we are so glad you came"  or "how has your time been"  or "here are some menus, sorry no one has taken a drink order yet"  something normalish...

Last rant, I promise, is that I've also sat with a table full of dirty dishes and had no less than 20 pass-bys of legit employees who could have easily taken them on their way to the kitchen, if they weren't so absorbed with yelling a funny joke out to another employee on the other side of the room, or yelling that they need more charcoal on the grill, like they were having a party in their living room or backyard.  As mentioned previously, if you are on the inside crew this is probably a pretty killer place, shots, laugh with friends, yucking it up.  If you are a regular paying customer, please set your expectation low for service, although they are getting much much better these days,  Still, I will often wipe my own table off and get my own menus, refill my own water, it's just easier and I'm getting to know the crew and there are smiles when I roll in and I can order a refill with a nod or a simple hand gesture now, weaseling my way in for sure, and it makes for a better time.  This place is super close to home and I want to love it, and I want it to love me.  We're getting there.

So the wing's....

They marinate them, smoke them, and then deep fry them to order.

HUGE flavor, great wing's.  They also have many housemade sauces to choose from, and if you've read my previous wing post I HIGHLY recommend getting them dry, with the sauce on the side.  To me, this is the only way to do it.  Their sauces are really great, and sauced wings tend to be the norm, and people dig that.  But without the sauce you can really taste what's going on with the chicken.  And it's really good.

Recently expanded beer taps (38 I think now???)  meaning some really great options, nice job

Cool menus

This includes everything, food, bottled beer, wine.  Pretty cool. 

Of the available sauces I really love the: hot, garlic buffalo, and dirty (which I think is a combination of the hot and garlic buffalo?)

If you're an idiot please try the Tough Guy sauce.  It's for morons that want to prove how tough/macho/awesome they are while at the same time burning out their tastebuds, eliminating any possibility of enjoying the actual food.  So, if your forehead is overly large, protecting an incredibly small brain, I say GO FOR IT!

Again, seasoned, smoked, fried

Crispy, flavorful, really a terrific wing

Garlic Buffalo?

Hot

Dirty

Yummy

They also have really great burgers.  However, and not that this is bad, but they tend to be VERY juicy, so much so that they soak the bottom bun (the egg bun) so much so that even when it first arrives at your table it's a soggy inedible mess.  To combat this I order the burger medium (still a little pink) and the whole wheat bun, which can stand up to more moisture than the egg bun. 

Really a top quality burger.

Dear South Park Abbey,

It's has been a pleasure seeing you grow, learn, and prosper in our sleepy little community of South Park.  You are a welcome addition to the neighborhood, a neighborhood that prides itself of community, family, a friendly little hamlet not unlike the "Mayberry" of old. 

As you have evolved every step has been meaningful, improving the experience of not only the patrons but passers-by. 

Your beer list is simply awesome.

Your food is delicious and thoughtful.

Your staff is killer.  Fun, friendly people that you can feel crank up the energy as the place fills to capacity.

Thank you for coming to the "hood".  I can't wait to see what's next.

Sincerely,

DVA