Speaking of Wu Chon House.... I've never had a "favorite food." It always felt like choosing one of my many beloved children as the favorite -- impossible. My fallback answer has always been "cheese." Just cheese? Yes, all cheeses -- never met one i didn't like.
But into my life has come the perfect food. It has all the necessary attributes for a food: spicy, meaty, sweet, vinegary, fatty, savory, contrasting textures. And I am deliriously happy whenever I am eating it. Tofu kimchi bokum, particularly as made by Wu Chon House, is my favorite food. (Hedge tells me Koreans just call it tofu kimchi and all is understood. But I found it at Wu Chon, and I call it what they call it.)
Take kimchi and onions and fry till caramelized. Add thin slices of fatty pork belly and fry some more. Add a sauce made of gochu jang (spicy pepper soybean paste), brown sugar, soy sauce and garlic. Add a half cup or so of water to it, because you're going to add some rice pucks and they'll need water to soften up. Simmer this till everything is soft, the sauce thickens and the pucks are chewy soft. Put some cool sliced tofu next to it on the plate. Eat and be happy. Or just go to Wu Chon and order some -- no one else makes it better.
(Thanks to Hedge for the recipe -- I shall never again lack for my favorite food.)
Posted by foodnerd at May 18, 2004 09:58 PM