I've made it to NYC yet again for my friend Karie's birthday so the food adventures continue! I arrived late Friday which made the 6 hour drive from Rochester more like an 8 hour drive. Full of tension and stress I get to Zoe's apartment where I'm staying, punch in her key code and sleep until she makes it out of work. By midnight we're off to dinner. That's right, midnight. Zoe tends to be a night owl and when in NYC!
Zoe tells me about this Korean restaurant open 24 hours and thus we head off.
LOCATION: 5W 32ND ST, NEW YORK, NY 10001
Although it's midnight, this place is packed! People crowd the doors waiting for their tables voices echo off the high ceilings. Since there's only two of us, we get seated pretty quickly near the back of the second floor. I'm currently nauseous from not eating in the past 12 hours so I'm ecstatic. Zoe and I order a small seafood pancake to start and, of course, in all Korean style, plates with mini appetizers and snacks come out while we wait for out meal. I've gone to eat Korean food with Zoe in Rochester before, but this is NYC so the plates are more elaborate and higher quality. The kimchi comes out, of course, but I'm not a fan so I let Zoe snack on that one. Macaroni, fried fish, broccoli, it was all there. The seafood pancake is perfect. It's honestly a scallion pancake with seafood in it which is a winning combo for me. I am obsessed with scallion pancakes and make dad make them for me at home when I want a snack and he's got time; Adding seafood to it only make it more perfect for me.
For the main course I just copy Zoe and get a tofu soup because that's what we're at this tofu house for. I'm not a huge fan of tofu but I'm ready to try. Zoe orders a mushroom soondubu with beef and I go with the seafood soondubu. Thankfully, they bring out a bowl of rice because that's all I really need. This tofu soup is actually pretty great. I get it regular spicy and Zoe and I each crack a raw egg into it before we start eating. At first it's just a mildly spicy sea of tofu but I mix my egg in an suddenly clams and muscles still in their shells emerge from the bottom. I'm beyond happy. I mix the soup in with my rice slowly as I eat and I'm feeling warm and full before I know it. This is honestly a really great dish and I wish I liked tofu more to really enjoy it. Still, I like the soybean flavor I'm getting out of these big chunks of tofu.
Classic Zoe and me, eating dinner at 1am. By the time we're done and home it's just about 2:30am and we're ready to sleep with our warm full bellies. Successful first night in the city if you ask me.