New York Street Food: Korilla BBQ

So if you read this article the other day, maybe Korilla BBQ would have caught your eye. I happened to be near where they park their truck on Mondays, and I had their bulgogi burrito one week and their pork tacos (below) the next. Korilla, according to their story, is “a portmanteau of Korean and Grill.” Yeah, kind of. Except what’s the a doing on the end? As far as I was concerned, it was about a gorilla, maybe a Korean one, but their mascot appears to be a slightly angry version of Tony the Tiger. According to Wikipedia, “the tiger replaces the lion as King of Beasts in cultures of eastern Asia, representing royalty, fearlessness, and wrath.” OK, fine, and I guess that explains the cartoon tiger’s scowl. It doesn’t explain why you get Korean BBQ served inside a burrito or tacos, but that’s kind of besides the point. What matters is that it/they are delicious. The burrito’s kind of small for $7, but actually I don’t even know what $7 is worth anymore. That was a lot of money for lunch when I was a lad, but it seems pretty normal in New York now, and it is good, though not a patch on Luardo’s on Whitecross Street in London. It’s fun to get kimchi in a burrito, and the sticky rice and bulgogi were delicious, but I just missed the black beans and guacamole. The tacos, on the other hand, were outstanding. You get three of them, and they are double-wrapped to make sure they don’t disintegrate under the weight of all the meat and goodies you get on top. That thing on the left is a spicy and delicious pickle – it’s huge! These tacos aren’t enormous either (about two big bites each) but they’re extremely satisfying. If the orange van with the tiger and the dudes who all talk like Leo Fatzpatrick from Kids while they blast trance music under an overpass and treat your lunch like a new designer drug that’s going to blow your puny mind and the three tacos for $7 came by once a week, I’d definitely eat there often.

The van:

The tacos:


Really good.

Wedding vs Ottolenghi

Some very dear friends of ours got married recently, and some of us were lucky enough to be invited. So we went. And lo, it was nice. But before that, Lucy and I went to Ottolenghi with some other friends - huzzah!

Lucy tucked into a suitably mustardy welsh rarebit, topped with a poached egg so handsome it should have been a European prince, accompanied by some kale. It didn't last long...

Naturally, I went for the biggest thing on the breakfast/brunch menu - the cannellini bean stew, featuring some pretty ace chorizo n bacon, plonked seductively atop some white toast and served with yet another amazing egg (fried), accompanied by (and this was the selling point) some bastardly brilliant black pudding! Yes!

Obviously, we had a pretty good time. And so did our brunch companions, Willow and Anders, who definitely ate things, I just don't remember what they were. But just look at their pretty faces - does it look like they're not having a good time?

Exactly. Ottolenghi, we salute you. Oh, and Sam and Helena - congratulations x

Bhajis that look like mythical beasts: 4

The saga continues:


(Hint: it’s asleep.)

Dirty Breakfast

One of our number is getting married soon, and on his stag we made sure that there were a minimum of 2 eggs per person per day, with equal amounts sausages and bacon. Sunday recovery mode:


English mustard on everything is the way forward...

It happened again...

So I'm 'Home Alone' again. And, once I'd finished crafting ingenious booby-traps and slapping my hands across my face in an adorable fashion, it was time to make myself another stupid dinner.
Todays lonesome feast consisted of an eight sausage toad-in-the-hole, served with roasted potatoes and leeks cooked with garlic and fennel, together with a red wine and mushroom gravy.
Pretty low key for a one-man-meal I'd say.
This evening's meal was sponsored by several episodes of Deadwood (the finest TV show ever made - fact) and, of course, 'red wine'. Super.

Strangely Soft Focus Supper

So everyone went out without me. Again. As usual, I took my revenge by having an awesome dinner all to myself. Take that, fun-havers!

Clams with pine-nut and garlic picada, oysters rockefeller, and home made french fries.

Not as beige as it looks cheese selection with super sticky onion relish.

Throw in half a bottle of pink wine, half a bottle of red wine, and a book about Caribbean politics in the sixties, you've got yourself a party. At least it's what I call a party. A very quiet party.

Happy Midsommar!

Today is my favorite day of the year. I wish I were celebrating in Sweden. Since I’m not, I tried to find some appropriate food, but I don’t like herring and there were no meatballs or salmon or new potatoes to be had, so I settled for venison-and-wild-boar sausages and one of my favorite beers, Nils Oscar’s God Lager (good lager):


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