No I haven't given up this blog and no it's not because I haven't been cooking. Procrastination is the word in Pisces's bible.
Anyhow, to welcome my return, thought I'd write an entry to thank Carousel. We've had the opportunities to indulge ourselves with very inspirational chefs around the world thanks to their concept. A brilliant hidden gem that combines 'pop up' restaurant and arts.
Few months ago we saw Washington DC's Mandu will be residing at Carousel, hashtag modernized korean. Interesting we thought and soon we found ourselves with tickets for a long overdue date night. The home cook style chef brought his mom along and we started off with a shoju-based cocktail with szechuan peppercorn.
The 5-course menu soon unfolded with traditional homemade pork dumplings with spicy scallion condiments. They are slightly different from the Chinese version with a thicker pastry but very juicy! It was then followed by Korean fried chicken wings - while they are crunchy and delicious I wasn't 'wowed'...
This congee with a modern twist was very different and most diners had wiped their bowls clean. Congee has always been the comfort food and I grew up with the luxury of having an aunt to make this for me. It takes so much time and attention for a good soup base and consistency I pretty much give up doing it myself. This congee, unlike the classic version, was lukewarm and more like a paste, served with a soft boiled egg and crunchy seaweed and pulled chicken. The flavour was so intense that you couldn't stop. Nonetheless, I still prefer what my mom would make :P
I suppose a Korean meal isn't complete without steak tartare. Mandu had also added his own ideas to the recipe - instead of raw eggs it was served with hard boiled egg york only, together with fried garlic chips. I liked the idea of mashed eggs but the garlic chips were too overpowering. It was a bit of a shame as the asian pears and steak tartare were so perfectly seasoned!
We then moved on to the mains with traditional Korean 'jiajiang mien' - it's braised seafood and pork in black bean sauce on hand cut noodles. This was the star dish of the evening! The noodles were cooked perfectly al dente and with a lot of bite, matched with the very thick sauce it was just heaven!
It's a shame we had to leave early as J wasn't feeling up to it. Nonetheless it was a fab evening and our stomachs were v satisfied. We'll defo visit Mandu next time we're in DC!
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