LUCKYRICE Talk + Taste

Feeling a bit hungry one Sunday afternoon, I accidentally stumbled upon Astor Center and discovered a Korean food truck parked outside, serving free bibimbap. Curious, I got in line and upon receiving my bowl of rice, pleasantly discovered an event called the LUCKYRICE Talk + Taste happening inside the Astor Center and wandered indoors!

...except that this was a planned trip and I had been dreaming about this afternoon of cooking demos and tasting for the past few weeks prior. But how awesome would it be if I really did just accidentally wander into random food events?

Anyways, so I really was greeted by the Korean food truck parked outside Astor Center. The truck was sponsored by the Taste of Korea mobile kitchen, a truck roaming the streets of NYC for 2 weeks offering up free and fresh authentic Korean delicacies to, as the name suggests, provide a taste of Korea! With my first taste of Asian food for the afternoon comfortably resting in my stomach, I then wandered into the event to kick off an afternoon of food, feasting, and fun! 

Upon entering the room, we were greeted by a spread of adorable decorated sugar cookies. From that point on, I knew I would emerge looking exactly like those cookies - especially since Bombay Sapphire and Singha Beer were present at the event (haha, just kidding...).

The room was set up with booths along the walls representing the likes of Kyocera, Singha Beer, Fiji Water, Bombay Sapphire, IFT Macau, etc. I took a quick peak at the sign in front of the IFT Macau booth and saw the dish they would be serving for the afternoon - Minchi - and instantly feared that the afternoon's event would just be a repeat of a handful of dishes from the Grand Feast. While panicking though, thankfully I saw a group of people wandering in and out of a set of double doors towards the back of the room. Curious, I followed them through the doors...and wandered into the test kitchen. Whew!

The test kitchen was rather small, with enough seating for maybe 30 people - thank you random people for leading me into this room early! With my beer and camera in hand, I plopped down into one of the seats and prepared for an afternoon of culinary delight. 

We kicked off the event with demonstrations from Ching-He Huang, representing the Cooking Channel. Ching prepared two dishes for the afternoon: steamed chicken with Chinese mushrooms, goji berries and dried lily bulbs followed by vegetarian crispy beancurd rolls. I realized I had made the silly mistake of leaving my pen and notebook behind (and forgot to pick up the recipes on my way out), so forgive me for not being able to include their recipes. 

As I watched her prepare the dishes, I realized that no beginner chef would be able to watch and reproduce the exact dish from the demonstration alone, but at least Ching explained and discussed each of the ingredients and gave a quick overview of the actual steps involved in mixing together these dishes. The first dish was quick and simple - she mixed together the marinade of mushrooms, goji berries, dried lily bulbs, spring onion, and Chinese rice wine and then pulled a finished dish out of the steamer.

The steamed chicken was delicious: tender and light, yet still packing a flavorful essence of rice wine and goji berries. The flavor of the chicken was familiar and reminded me of home; a very satisfying dish overall.

The vegetarian crispy bean curd rolls were light and flavorful and very similar to the steamed bean curd rolls commonly served at dim sum. The ingredients and the preparation were very basic and easy to replicate. However, because the rolls were deep fried (and I'm not sure when I'm ever going to venture out to buy frozen bean curd), I doubt this dish is ever going to appear in my house.

Next up was Angelo Sosa from the restaurant Social Eatz (and also Top Chef!) preparing a Malaysian dish: shrimp belacan over rice. Angelo was an entertaining character and gave us a recap of his travels through Malaysia and his fascination with Asian cooking. He also introduced most of the room to the joys of cooking with shrimp paste, namely the terribly strong smell that the paste emits as it first cooks; thankfully, the shrimp paste eventually becomes light yet rich, chock full of delicious shrimp flavors.

This dish was actually the most flavorful (and complex) dish of the evening, but despite the fact that I did not really learn enough to ever be able to prepare this dish, boy was it GOOD!

The afternoon continued with a preparation of bibimbap by Jennifer Maeng. The dish was simple enough - peeling, slicing, and quickly sauteing all of the ingredients then decoratively piling the vegetables on top of the rice. Jennifer introduced us to many new ingredients that afternoon, but there were just too many steps involved in the dish for me to ever actually want to recreate it at home, especially knowing that I can get an even better bowl of bibimbap for a mere $12 in K-Town.

The dish was colorful and light tasting, but again, I'd probably prefer to go out and just place a simple order of dolsot bibimbap (served in a hot stone bowl) - plus it would come with all of those extra side dishes!

Last but not least, Ming Tsai graced us with his demonstration of black bean orecchiette with spicy pork & broccoli. Not to play favorites, but Ming was probably the most engaging and entertaining of all our presenters that afternoon. He was honest, hilarious, and was just a great way to end an afternoon of fabulous food and fun.

The dish was simple and definitely easy to cook at home. However, and it pains me to say this, the flavors were too simple and basically reminded me of a slightly Chinese version of Hamburger Helper. If the black bean flavor had been stronger and carried through better, this dish could have been much more appealing (the pasta was also overcooked...which was ironic because Ming told us orecchiette was hard to overcook). But alas, perhaps the pan of pasta Ming had produced himself really was as delicious as he made it sound...we will never know!

At the end of the day, the LUCKYRICE Talk + Taste was really a great and relaxing way to spend an afternoon. If you're a beginner cook, I would not walk in with the mindset that you will emerge with a whole handbook of new cooking techniques, but if you're just there to be entertained, to taste, and to learn a few new things about food and cooking, then this is the event for you! 

LUCKYRICE 2011 Grand Feast

An evening of NYC's best Asian cuisine, seemingly endless amounts of alcohol, and a spectacular nighttime view of Central Park - what more can you ask for? For those who attended Friday night's LUCKYRICE Grand Feast held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the answer was simple: nothing!

The Grand Feast consisted of a lineup of some of New York's most amazing Asian restaurants, including Morimoto, Ma Peche, and Kittichai to name a few, as well as an impressive array of alcohol, ranging from sake to gin. For me, this event was the perfect opportunity to sample the cuisines of a number of restaurants I had always wanted to try, all within the span of 3 hours!

Though there were quite a few dishes that left much to be desired, overall the food offering was satisfying and at times, pleasantly surprising. One of the first dishes I ate was Spicy King Crab from Morimoto, basically featuring fresh King Crab meat with a simple spicy sauce smeared on top. When I first ate this dish, the only thing I could think about was how much the sauce reminded me of the sauce used to make spicy salmon rolls and how it was overwhelming and masking the crab. However, after I took my next bite (using a more proportional amount of sauce to crab meat), the sweetness of the crab meat was finally able to shine through, mixing with the sauce to produce a sweet and spicy mouthful of flavor, with the roe in the sauce providing a surprising and fun crunch to offset the tenderness of the meat. 

Next up was the Pork and Black Pudding Pie from Public. This mini pie was a nice surprise, with the flaky pastry bundled around a moist and flavorful pork filling. This pie reminded me a lot of Australian meat pies - except much better (no offense to those who like Australian meat pies!). 

My favorite dish of the evening was the Fluke Tartare served by Ma Peche. This was actually the only dish I went back and got seconds for, but then again, it was also tiny. The tender morsels of fluke were mixed with black rice, avocado, and blood orange, creating the perfect mouthful of sweet and salty. Not only was this dish refreshing in taste, but the composition of the dish was also refreshing in appearance, with a vivid mix of contrasting colors, sizes, and textures. I regret not going back for thirds!

Bar Boulud presented their "L'Imperatrice," a Pandan rice pudding with jasmine gelee, fresh julienne of champagne mango, and orange tuile. I can't say that this was the absolute best mango and rice pudding I've ever had, but at the end of the day, it was still a good dessert with satisfyingly simple and straightforward flavors. Keeping true to Asian cuisine, this dessert was not too sweet and could easily rival the mango rice puddings served throughout Asia.

Unlike most of the restaurants represented at the event, Shun Lee stuck with a very traditional and classic Hainan chicken over rice. The chicken was moist and light in flavor and was served atop a bed of steamed rice, which was the real star of the dish. The rice was infused with the flavors of ginger, sesame, and chicken and was, simply put, delicious.

Red Farm presented us with a Lobster, Shrimp, and Black Olive dumpling. The dish was simple - it was basically a traditional shrimp dumpling, like the ones served at dim sum, with the added bonus of lobster filling and olive flavors. Simple and pleasant, it was hard to dislike this dish (unless, of course, you were allergic).

One of the most interesting dishes of the evening was a sea urchin and cauliflower panna cotta with a Fiji water dashi served by 9 Restaurant for Fiji Water. When I first saw this dish, I didn't know what to expect. I had been trained to only view panna cotta as a dessert and with that in mind, I was quite scared that the sea urchin would overpower everything with its oftentimes overwhelmingly fishy flavor. But fortunately, the sea urchin flavor was not too heavy and mixed nicely with the light panna cotta and the salty dashi. 

Another of my favorite dishes was the Minchi served by David Wong of IFT, Macau. Minchi is a traditional dish from Macau and is basically a stew of ground pork and beef with fried potatoes served atop a bed of rice. This dish reminded me a lot of the Taiwanese ground pork/minced pork belly stews I grew up with and particularly appealed to me because it was really a perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors. This was actually the first time I had ever eaten minchi and I was absolutely delighted by the contrasts of tender stewed meat and crispy fried potatoes. This dish is basically the epitome of Asian comfort food; I will definitely be experimenting with this recipe soon.

After walking around and sampling as much of the food as humanly possible, I was able to enjoy the other great aspects of the event - the alcohol and the chefs! I quickly dashed around the room in search of all the amazing chefs that had dreamed up our feast for the evening and found Daniel Boulud, Masaharu Morimoto, Todd English, Angelo Sosa, and many others in attendance. 

All in all, the LUCKYRICE Grand Feast was a great and memorable experience and a must-attend event for every Foodie out there. Thank you LUCKYRICE for putting together this spectacular event!