#pan fried pork buns stir fry and pickled veggies I

[blood-and-breath]

[love-takes-work]

Korean Lunch for the Universes 

Why yes I did make an entire Korean meal for two based on less than five seconds of footage in “Steven’s Dream,” why do you ask?

Instructions and commentary below!

See more SU food tutorials!

It's that time again where I have to spend an entire morning cooking a full meal because seconds' worth of food on a cartoon

Steven and Greg went to Korea and Did All the Things. That includes lunch.

Welp. I'm that weirdo who makes Every Dish In Steven Universe, so get ready to learn now to make all this food.

Four Parts

Sushi

Noodle Bowl

Dumplings

Pickles

I'm pretty familiar with the Japanese equivalents, but this is Korean food and honestly I'm a total tourist to this. So I'm afraid I'm going to mostly approach it like a tourist and take some shortcuts. Some of my stuff is from packages instead of from scratch. Sorry!

SUSHI

This Korean sushi is called gimbap . You will need to make the sushi rice a specific way and then prepare the sushi roll.

Ingredients:

11 1/2 ounces sushi rice

1 1/2 cups cold water

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 package nori (seaweed sheets)

1 carrot

1 danmuji (pickled radish)

Some leaves of spinach

First, sushi rice is made a special way. I am no expert, but the way I do it has worked fine for sushi in the past. First you measure out your 11.5 ounces of rice and put it in a sieve, then wash thoroughly with tap water.

Put it in the pan you will cook it in, pour the 1.5 cups of cold water on, and let sit WITHOUT COOKING for 30 minutes.

When the soak time is up, turn on high and boil. As soon as it hits boil, turn to low, cover, and cook 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let steam in the pan for 10 more minutes. You now have fluffable, tasty, sticky steamed rice!

Next, make your vinegar concoction. Combine the vinegar, the sugar, and the salt in a small dish. Microwave it to dissolve the sugar. I did this in a few 20-second bursts. It smells strongly but I love that smell. Make sure when you stir it, there's no sugar on the bottom! It must be dissolved.

Pour the concoction over the hot rice and stir it in. You are ready to work with it!

While you're waiting for soaking, boiling, and steaming, you can prepare veggies.

• Pickled Radish: Cut discs and chop in six to eight pieces each.

• Carrot: Wash, peel, and cut into medallions. Chop those medallions into halves or quarters depending on how big they are.

• Spinach: Chop off the stems and cut into ribbons.

Put a sheet of nori on your rolling mat, rough side up. Spread some rice on using a wooden implement designed for this and get it out to the edges evenly.

Place a line of each vegetable toward the upper third of your mat of rice.

Roll, compacting as you go, and pull the rolling mat out with a tuck before the top edge goes under. Roll up the rest of the way, remove from mat, and cut in thin slices with a sharp knife.

Gimbap is DONE!! (Sorry, it’s messy. Not my first time doing sushi, but it was my first time trying to slice thin.)

NOODLE SOUP

This particular kind of noodle dish reminded me of a dish I once ate in Japan: Zaru Soba. It's buckwheat noodles served cold! Well, turns out the Korean equivalent is very similar. It's called naengmyeon .

There are many varieties and choices when it comes to making your own naengmyeon. You should have thin brown noodles (buckwheat works), a chilled broth of either beef or kimchi/radish water, seasonings (usually mustard powder and chili paste), and various garnish.

As mentioned above, I am taking some shortcuts here as I'm no expert to this cuisine, so I got a packaged naengmyeon kit that included noodles, broth, and seasonings.

For garnish, after looking at naengmyeon recipes and comparing Steven and Greg's soup to them, I determined they have strips of English cucumber, strips of beef brisket, slices of Korean pear, and a hard-boiled egg. The garnish was up to me. I got these items and substituted pan-fried soy bacon for the brisket.

NOODLES

I boiled water, added the cold noodles, boiled them for only ONE MINUTE, strained them, and ran cold water over them before placing them in serving bowls.

BROTH

The broth is supposed to be literally icy and mine was but it was no longer apparent once I poured it out and stirred seasonings in, to taste. Then I added it to the noodle bowls.

PICKLE

I chopped an English cucumber into strips to lie on top.

"BEEF"

I fried soy bacon in oil in a frying pan and added soy sauce for color to make it resemble beef brisket.

KOREAN PEAR

These things are more like apples from where I live! But taste like pears. Crunchy and good. (I also read that you can juice these into your broth if you want more kick.) Slice thin slices and add to the pile.

HARD-BOILED EGGS

I boiled six eggs like this: Put cold water in a pan until there’s enough water to cover the eggs by about an inch. Boil the water. Once it’s boiling, add eggs cold from the fridge. The water will briefly stop boiling. Wait for it to start boiling again and wait 30 seconds.

Then turn the heat down to LOW and put a cover on the pot. Let the pot simmer for 12 minutes.

Then turn off the heat, remove the eggs from the water, and put them in ice water. Let them chill briefly, then peel.

Cut an egg in half and add to the pile.

Congrats! It's naengmyeon.

DUMPLINGS

Here's another one where I took a shortcut. Most likely Steven and Greg are eating mandu, which is kinda any kind of dumpling, but the pork buns are super popular so they are probably pork buns.

I decided I should make my own since I don't eat pork. I was planning to fill them with tofu, carrots, and scallions. But guess what.

Couldn't find the dumpling wrappers.

So instead of making my own, I just bought some frozen ones that contain vegetables only and I steamed them at home.

I used a lightly oiled steamer in a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes.

Wish I could have made them myself but these will do. I arranged them nicely on a plate.

RADISH

If you notice, there's a small bowl of pickles on the Universes' table. They are danmuji, pickled radish.

I reserved some from my sushi and chopped it in slices like we see in the illustration.

Great!!

COMPLETE MEAL

In my attempt to earn the title of Most Over-Enthusiastic Steven Universe Fan, I set up my table to look very much like Greg and Steven's from the trip to Korea in "Steven's Dream"!

I hope you like it!

And yes, it was all delicious!

See more SU food tutorials!

[tyleroakley-obsessed]

Ed. Note: I’m happy to bring you this blog post from ILM contributor and Memphis foodie Stacey Greenberg.  Look who I found! Tuyen Le, the amazing woman who worked at Saigon Le in the Crosstown neighborhood, is now at Le Delights Bahn Mi and Pho in Cordova. For those of us who have been in mourning since Saigon Le burned down in 2016, this is excellent news. I’ve been twice now, once with friends and once with my monkeys & my mom. I’m here to inform you that if you live near Le Delights, you’re lucky, and you don’t live nearby – you have a very good reason to drive to Cordova. Le Delights is located in the old Osaka space, and has the same owners. Despite being in a strip mall, the inside feels airy and bright. Everything seems nice and new, and the layout and decorations are lovely. You’ll find it on Macon Road at Germantown Parkway, near the Cordova Malco. They don’t serve alcohol, but they do allow you to bring in your own. As far as drinks go, they offer energy drinks with chia, tea, coffee, and smoothies. They also have my favorite, salted lemonade, which is made with fermented lemons. Tuyen isn’t officially cooking at Le Delights, but her famous Saigon Le vegetarian egg rolls are on the menu, listed as Le Delights Vegetarian Roll. Made with tofu and vegan ham, they are just like you remember. They come served with a plate of greens for wrapping (cilantro, basil, etc.) and tangy dipping sauce. (I don’t exactly know what vegan ham is, but I dare say it tastes like meat.) vegetarian spring rolls The appetizer section also features an amazing selection of specialty wraps and rolls. We couldn’t resist the beef jerky roll with shredded green papaya, shredded mango, and shredded beef jerky. Yes, beef jerky. But it wasn’t tough at all. Wrapped in rice paper with rice noodles and peanuts, it was tangy and delightful. beef jerky roll As the name suggests, Le Delights specializes in bahn mi and pho. Let’s talk about the bahn mi first, which is basically the Vietnamese version of a po boy. Served on French bread, it comes dressed with cucumber, green onion, and (deseeded) jalapeno peppers. There’s a salad of pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro, celery, and two sauces on the side for fancying it up. There are two pages of bahn mi to choose from on the menu, including the original (steamed pork, pork sausage, ham & pork pate), spicy stone grilled short ribs, filet mignon, chargrilled lemongrass chicken, pan seared fish patties, and a vegan option with taro root and tofu. bahn mi I’m going to be honest, sometimes the pork pate on the original bahn mi weirds me out, so I was happy we tried the more palate-friendly chargrilled lemongrass chicken. Oh my, yum. I may have found the world’s most perfect sandwich. Hiding on the bottom of the bahn mi section is Le Delights Bao Tacos. That’s right, tacos made with steamed buns (bao). They come in threes and you can mix and match meats–honey glazed pork, grilled beef short ribs, lemongrass chicken, roasted pork belly, Vietnamese sausage, and vegan ham. The tacos are massive and would be enough on their own to get anyone full. They do not come dressed, but the same sauces and sides that accompanying the bahn mi are there for the taking. bao tacos Ok, now for their other specialty, pho. I am not a pho fan, but my oldest monkey is. He begged me to let him get the Kobe beef pho (at market price), but I talked him down to the filet mignon. It came in a huge bowl with all the fun fixings on the side and was spot on. He, and soon his brother, made sure there wasn’t a drop left. If you are craving pho, Le Delights is an excellent place to get your fix. They have vermicelli bowls too. the monkeys pho Over my two visits I also got a chance to try a few of the stir fries–the tofu, the chicken and the lemongrass shrimp. They were all colorful thanks to an abundance of veggies–bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, onion and bok choy. The sauces were not overpowering and they seem like hearty, healthy options. stir fry And finally, there’s dessert. They have a number of sundaes and my crazy friend ordered one with durian because she once had a durian popsicle she liked. Let’s just say that durian is not for everyone. This fruit is known for its super stinky smell and even stinkier taste, but in its defense, it is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries. Tuyen made sure we really wanted the durian and offered to take it out, but my crazy friend persisted. It was…how shall I say it? Yuck. My other friend said it tasted like the ear medicine her mother gave her as a child. But! We were able to eat around the durian and enjoy the coconut ice cream, avocado, whipped cream and whatnot. durian shake If durian IS your thing, please note that there is also a durian smoothie on the menu. Personally, I would recommend the avocado smoothie which is the big seller, and actually delicious. After the durian disaster, Tuyen brought us a big plate of fresh fruit to cleanse our palates because she’s a sweetie. The pineapple, blood orange and papaya were a welcome treat. (On my second visit, Tuyen brought us a treat of tasty fried wontons.) vermicelli bowl She really wants to open her own restaurant in Midtown, but until then, Tuyen is enjoying seeing her midtown customers at Le Delights. She says if you catch her when it’s not busy, she’ll cook up whatever you like. She works Thursday to Sunday, but any day is a good day to eat at Le Delights as they are open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (and 10 p.m. on weekends). There are plenty of vegetarian and some vegan options. Go There: Le Delights Bahn Mi and Pho 8095 Macon Road Cordova, Tennessee 38018 901-207-2746 ledelightsmemphis.com About The Author Stacey Greenberg is a freelance writer who lives in Cooper Young with her two teenaged sons. She’s a contributor to Thrillist.com, Edible Memphis, I Love Memphis, and Memphis Travel. She’s also the author of the award winning blog, Dining with Monkeys (diningwithmonkeys.com). A lifelong Memphian, she loves the fact that she’s never met a stranger here. Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout http://ift.tt/1B5z3Pc

http://ilovememphisblog.com/2017/04/eat-this-le-delights-bahn-mi-and-pho-aka-the-return-of-saigon-les-veggie-spring-rolls/