David Chang

last few meals in japan and korea… fugu (poison tiger puffer fish) and fugu shirako (the white reproductive organs or basically the sperm of the male fugu) both tasteless and expensive.. shabu shabu with some of the best beef from Kobe. again, tasteless and expensive… a little river fish from a tempura lunch. i love how they present these.. and back to seoul… soy sauce marinated raw crab packed with roe. delicious and rarely served in US koreatowns. i don’t think they can get this species of crab. closest would be maryland blue, but not really… a rather famous myeongdong beef brisket and tripe stew. a bowl costs around $20 US. i guess you can say its priced to match current economic conditions in seoul. wonderful taste like a clear consommé and a midday snack. i don’t know what this is. but it was delicious..🤤 and some comic relief..

i'm not sure the composition of the stone. i don't think it's anything exotic, but the fuel was from a chafing dish candle. not exactly high btu's, but it did sear the meat nicely. i read people have used unglazed quarry floor tile as a pizza stone but i have not tried. i'm on a medical holiday and will be food touring tokyo and back to seoul so i'll try to visit some new and familiar places before heading back home. i'm staying in shibuya (near the famous busy pedestrian crossing) and compared to 10 years ago, this area has really developed. shibuya today is just an architectural marvel because underneath all this is a network of trains that are like bunched up christmas tree lights. i have no idea how they built this place, but they made it possible..

now in tokyo. eating gyukatsu seared on a hot stone. motomura is a 10 seat bar. they only serve gyukatsu in small medium and large portions. the wait was 45 min. i have never not had to wait here..

i'm in seoul. again. eating sashimi, but it's different here. i think they cut with the grain because korean sashimi is always chewier than japanese. anyway.. if you order live fish from the tank. not only will you get the sashimi, but you get the head and bones served to you as a broth at the end of the meal. same with the flower shrimp sashimi. you will get the shrimp on ice, but the heads are deep fried. nothing gets wasted. you get exactly what you pay for. i also ate 감자탕, Gamjatang.(no picture) which is just pork back bone soup. it's basically bones stewe which has a little meat and cartilage you nibble on. this is the only dish they serve at this restaurant. we walked in and they just asked us "small or medium?" there was a 20 minute queue for this joint... i don't think this place would work in the US...

@remi looks really tasty. my wife's gone on business for 2 weeks. i've been basically eating chops of different animals every other night. this is not allowed when she is home..

ohhh, you got the kk accessory. i thought you got one of these..,

if you go to thailand, or if you have a thai grocery near you, they have really good curries in paste form.

made another pizza today with some nice cornicione action. spicy salciccia is so much better than pepperoni..

yeah tastes great as a reuben, wrong type of bread but i'm not complaining..

i saw the pellets in my box and in the 20 min, it burned through the whole thing. probably not good to throw on a hot spot.i used to have a matchbox cast iron smoke box that i bought from amazon a while ago. that is probably the size i'm limited to in a 19. i barely cleared enough space to fir the bento box so space is probably the biggest issue for me.

pastrami came out good. tallow injected, but i felt like most of it leaked out before it could do any good..

@tekobo i don't really know much about japanese curries other than the glopidy goop stuff they serve over rice katsu. i feel like this kind of curry is the fast food variety and someone out there in japan makes better stuff..

@Syzygies i just used my lunchbox now and i removed it after 20 min. i placed it over the coals and it was just too much acrid smoke. it was burning too quickly so i switched to wood chunks. what is the placement of the pot? under or over the coals? yes i don't think the thin stainless would last more than 1 cook. i don't think the msr pot would last either..

i had to wait for my mason jar sealer to finish this so here we go…popped the hard tallow out of the metal bowl. scrapped off any brown bits and moisture. melt over a bain marie and transfer to jars. waiting for the tallow to cool before i vac seal them. im hoping i get 1 year in the cupboard. but i probably will consume it before that…

i was minding my own business and watching weight lifting videos on youtube (yes, thats what some guys do in their spare time) and noticed that the current record holder +109kg class Lasha Talakhadze can lift a 23" KK in the clean and jerk and a 22" TT in the snatch.

@tekobo i'm curious to know what this tastes like. i'd imagine it to be a very spicy taste explosion. i'm so used to asian style curries (like the japanese ones), which is almost always too sweet and sometimes almost tasteless..

@Syzygies thanks for the info. i think my dual zone wine fridge can replicate these temps adjustable from 5-18c. it's handy to keep prefrements at different temps and bulk fermentation at higher than normal fridge temps, but i've always kept my starter in the normal fridge.

what is your keep temp for once a week feedings and what is the warmup temp?

look what i found in my trash today. my neighbors olive tree 😂 i don't think this does well in jungle weather..

i actually just made it so i have no idea how it will hold, but it's thin stainless so probably not a long time. but if it works well, i will be in pursuit for a more sturdier lunch box as my grill is too small to accommodate bigger smoke pots. curious to know how long it lasts in such a little box. the empty side is for the punched holes. left empty so ash or pellets don't clog it. the divider is adjustable but after applied heat, i doubt that thin divider will even hold shape..

will this work as a smoking bento box or am i dellusional? the red caulk is high temp silicon there is a divider in the box to keep the pellets from covering the holes. the divider does not hit the ceiling of the lid. there are two 1/8” holes on the empty side

it's crazy you guys burn olive wood. they are so expensive to buy at the garden shop here. like thousands for a living olive tree..

made some sauteed carabineros sauced in its own head fat and a5 yakitori's. the taste of these prawns is out of this world. it comes pre-seasoned from the sea, meaning you don't need any salt...

i am trying the 2 guys and a cooler shelf stable tallow recipe. apparently, the key to making it shelf stable is to add no water (as opposed to many recipes that call for added water)

@tekobo yes i cleared all the fat on the surface. the point will be braised for brisket daikon (kind of like chinese corned beef). the flat i'm making pastrami. smoked until bark set and steam oven finished. i do have an injector i've never used so maybe i might introduce tallow into the flat, but we'll see..