February | 2013 | Happy Noms

Ga Nuong

February 8, 2013 Monte Leave a comment

Ga Nuong is Vietnamese grilled chicken, and something that is my version of comfort food. It’s normally found on the streets of Vietnam in skewers being grilled over charcoal. I tried to make a simple marinade and fry the chicken at home in an attempt to mimic the great sweet and salty chicken. It’s usually paired with either rice noodles and shredded lettuce + beansprouts, or over rice; either way, accompanied by nuoc mam aka fish sauce (recipe here) for dipping. The Ga Nuong turned out pretty well – I liked the marinade, although if you can grill it instead of frying it, that’s definitely the way to go.

In the picture, you can see I ripped off a piece of the skin – couldn’t help myself.

Click here for the recipe!

Categories: Cooking, Viet dishes Tags: chicken, cook, fish sauce, food, ga nuong, marinade, thit nuong, vietnamese

NYC Sushi: Kurumazushi (Feb. 2013)

February 2, 2013 Victor 3 comments

Author: Victor
Restaurant: Kurumazushi
Chef: Toshihiro Uezu

Date: February 1, 2013

I’ve been craving sushi lately, and I decided that I’d go eat sushi today—of course, choosing somewhere and then making reservations is always a pain. I’ve been wanting to try Kurumazushi for a while now since I heard about it from some friends, so I called to check if there were any available seats at the sushi bar.

Reservations are REALLY easy to get as the restaurant has a lot of empty seats. That makes me a little sad—Chef Uezu seemed really nice and pleasant to talk to, and the sushi was definitely good enough that one would think there would be more diners at the restaurant on a Friday night. Anyway, we booked a reservation and made our way there a few hours later!

Notes on the food:

-The fish was VERY fresh and delicious, and the selection was amazing—there were lots of choices, and there were different cuts/areas for each type of fish. Being able to choose pieces with meat from the collar/neck area make me a happy, happy eater.

-The rice was good, but there were a few issues. On the plus side, the temperature was solid, though it was a touch warmer than I would have liked; it wasn’t as warm as Sasabune’s rice, though. On the negative side, the rice was grainy and a bit too hard at times. I would have enjoyed the nigiri more if the rice were a bit softer and fluffier.

Click here to see pictures of the meal!