dresese

Naeng Myun

A recent article in the New York Times called my attention to Naeng Myun, Korean cold noodles. Not just room-temperature noodles, but noodles in which the broth actually has ice in it. A group of coworkers and myself went to try it out. We went to You-Chun on 36tht St., a Chowhound recommendation.

We started out with a seafood pancake, which I've never had before at a Korean restaurant. It was a little greasy, but fantastic. The crunchiness of the crust of the pancake was a great contrast to the soft creamy inside & chewy seafood.

I got the soup, which they had several varieties of. I had the simple version with the ice. They also had varieties without ice but with hot sauce. When the soup arrived, it was monstrous, a giant metal chilled bowl filled with a sort of slushy broth with buckwheat noodles. The noodles were very good, firm and chewy. On the side they served a white-colored hot beef broth. The whole experience was less strange than I had initially envisioned, and drinking icy broth on a hot day felt very natural.

This was a lot of food, by the way. I would recommend splitting a noodle soup with a friend, if that is possible.

I would recommend this place, the soup was very good. Also, it is open 24 hours, although the place may be much more karaoke oriented late at night. Even at lunch we sat next to a giant TV showing Korean performances, in this case a guy playing classical to a sort of a house beat, while dancers dressed as cats performed. But, hey, they make good noodles.

Colbert

In the proud tradition of this blog, I will now tell you a somewhat interesting and not-very-recent story.

Last month I got to see a taping of The Colbert Report, thanks to my coworker Tudor. I think the last time I ever got to see a taping of a show is when I was a kid on a trip and got to see The Merv Griffin Show. At the time, I didn't know who Merv Griffin was, and I still don't.

Anyway, the show took just about as long to film as it lasted on TV. For some reason, they time it that way, with the commercial breaks and everything. I don't know why they don't break for arbitrary time or not break at all. Editing the tape to be the right length should not be that difficult.

Before the show Colbert mentioned it was his 111th show, and asked the audience what hobbits would call that number. Someone gave the correct answer "Eleventy-first". I had forgotten that Colbert was a huge Tolkein fan.

The show was great, an unusually good show. Afterwards we headed over to the Russian Vodka Room and had some wonderful horseradish-infused Vodka. It's much better than it sounds.

Shalimar

When in San Francisco, there is no better place to eat than Shalimar. The deliciousness per dollar spent ratio is probably the best I've ever seen. They are a triple-threat of Pakistani cuisine - they have the best naan I've ever eaten, the best tandoori meats, and the best curries. Oh wait, that's not all, they also have really interesting and occasionally great meals such as lamb brain curry. Oh yes, and the restaurant is a hole-in-the wall filled with mouth-watering smokiness. Your clothes will smell like smoke & curries after you leave. And if you are like me, you'll have a hard time washing these clothes, preferring instead to sniff them for a reminder of the best Pakistani food you've ever had.

I was back in the Bay Area last week and went, and took more pictures of the wonderful food there (previous pictures are in this post.

I ate with just a few other friends, and so we couldn't sample every delicious thing possible. We had to get the tandoori chicken, because no one does tandoor like these guys.

After that, we had to get my all-time Shalimar favorite combo, Bhuna Gosht and onion kulcha. Each of these two things is incredibly delicious, but they work really well together. The only complaint I have is I didn't get any marrow bones in my curry. When I do, it is always the highlight of the meal. If you go there and get a bone marrow, for goodness sake don't leave it there, suck out the marrow!

We also ordered some classic vegetarian options. Most prominent among them is the dal, which my friend Ben swears by. It does taste pretty good, but to me most dals are pretty boring.

Also we had palek paneer:

I was happy.

A Scanner Darkly

I went to see the new Linklater movie today, A Scanner Darkly. It was really well done, and very faithful to the book. I really liked the visuals, and the movie was surprisingly funny. Then again, the book was as well, but the movie has proportionally more of that great paranoid-druggie humor. The acting was a bit cartoony, which sort of makes sense given the look of the film, but may strike some as overacting. At any rate, Robert Downey Jr. was great, one of the best things about the movie.