Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Destination New York City: Buddha Bodai Vegetarian Restaurant

Published on June 21, 2008 in new york city, restaurant and vegetarian.

Here’s my adventure at this awesome Kosher Vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown. It’s known for serving a selection of Buddhist Vegetarian dishes. They make mock meat dishes by using ingredients like gluten, soy beans, tofu, mushrooms, rice, and a variety of vegetables. The dishes are made to resemble the real meat versions. Their menu is amazing. For every type of meat, there’s a “mock” version. They still offer things like sweet and sour fish, sesame chicken, lamb stew, beef and vegetables. The dishes will look like what you expect them to look like, but the taste… is spectacular, especially knowing that you’re not consuming any meat at all! All I have to say, it’s not just like a Boca Burger, this is hardcore.

Buddha Bodai is located on 5 Motts Street in Chinatown, NYC.

I went there to enjoy their amazing lunch special. During the weekdays, between 11am and 3pm, they offer this lunch special for only $6.75. It comes with choice of soup (hot and sour or wonton), rice (white or brown), and a long list of main dishes.

For my choice of soup, I picked the Hot and Sour Soup!

For my main dish, I picked the Vegetarian Spare Ribs with Brown Rice.

Close up of the Vegetarian Spare Ribs

Even though the servings were huge and I knew I was not going to be able to finish up my ribs, I couldn’t resist from ordering dim sum. They also offer a nice selection of dim sum dishes (all turned vegetarian!). I decided to order one of my favorite dim sum plates. Roast Pork Buns! In this case, they are called Vegetarian Meat Buns.

I definitely have to come back here for many more visits. There’s so much more on the menu I would love to try… appetizers, soups, noodles, dim sum, their other main dishes,… and who can forget the dessert! They also have a vegan Tofu Cheesecake and Tofu ice cream! I’ll have to try that!

Another great thing about this restaurant is that they will cook the food to your preference. Therefore if you order a dish and want it a certain way (e.g. lighter on the peppers or more thicker sauce), they will prepare it that way. The service is really good and the wait staff is very nice. I have only gone there to eat in the early afternoon and weekdays, but I’ve heard it can get very busy during the weekends.

Buddha Bodai Vegetarian Restaurant on Urbanspoon

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Korean Pancake

Published on June 14, 2008 in recipes.

Here’s a recipe for a really yummy Korean appetizer dish. It’s simple, quick, and very tasty! The pancake batter can be made from scratch with eggs, flour, scallions, and water. The pancake mixes are also available in small packages at Korean supermarkets. It’s much easier than making it from scratch, because all you have to do is add water to the mix until you reach a good consistency. Once you have the batter, you can add your choice of ingredients. Popular ingredients include varieties of seafood, imitation crab meat, shrimp, green and red peppers, and kimchi. Here’s one version that we made.

Ingredients

(Here comes the list of goodies…)

  • 1 onion, cut into small ~2 inch pieces
  • 1 green bell pepper, cut into small ~2 inch pieces
  • 1 Chinese chives, chopped
  • 1 scallion, chopped
  • SPAM ham, cut into small pieces (didn’t have anything else…)
  • Imitation crab meat, peeled apart

(You can go all out and include other ingredients like… red bell peppers, carrots, sesame seeds, etc. Normally, it’s a seafood pancake, but since we didn’t really have any seafood available, we settled by using SPAM. For the whole seafood experience, you can put squid, shrimp, scallops, etc. )

Directions

  1. In a large mixing bowl, pour in the pancake mix and gradually add the water in while mixing. Mix well until the batter gets quite thin.
  2. Add the vegetables, ham, and imitation crab meat.
  3. Continue to mix.
  4. Heat a tbsp of oil in a medium size (8 or 9 inch) skillet.
  5. Use a ladle to scoop the pancake mix and transfer it onto the pan. (That’s just about the right amount for one pancake!)
  6. Try to spread the contents evenly, so that you don’t end up with all onions on one corner.
  7. Cook the pancake over medium heat.
  8. When the pancake starts to set (in about a couple of minutes or less), flip it over and cook the other side. Then flip again.
  9. The pancake is ready when it reaches a nice brownish color (not burnt) and starts looking crispy.
  10. That’s one pancake, so repeat the steps until all the batter is gone.
  11. Cut the pancake into eighths (kind of like a pizza) and serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce suggestions:

  • Vinegar and Soy sauce combination (about 2 tbsp vinegar and 4 tbsp soy sauce)
  • Spicy dumpling sauce
  • Citrus soy sauce (Ponzu)
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The Wonders of Street Fairs

Published on June 6, 2008 in events, new york city and photo.

I love street fairs, festivals, farmers markets, flea markets, and all good stuff. Therefore, whenever I come across one unexpectedly, I get uber joyful and I find myself skipping towards the crowded and rowdy road. I came across one near Lincoln Square, in New York City, a while back. I only walked around for about 10 minutes, but it was a blast. I picked up some bootleg designer shades for ten bucks (score!).

Street fairs have wonderful food. You can basically find anything from the super greasy to the super sugary. My favorites include… gyros, funnel cake, fried dough, shish kabobs, fresh squeeze lemonade, italian ice, etc. The list goes on. But, one of my ultimate favorites are sweet crepes. There is was, a la Bella Crepe! Bananas and nutella! Strawberrys! All that powdered sugary goodness!

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