Brooklyn Zine Fest 2013 Recap (+recipe)

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Sewon

Yesterday was the 2013 Brooklyn Zine Fest! There was so much great press coverage this year, the space was packed, and the line by the entrance went around the block during the peak hours. Thanks to our friends, Emily, Debra, and Michelle, we were able to coordinate brief breaks and eat some food out in the sunshine.

I had so much fun tabling with Jannese and meeting zine readers and makers. There were over 80 writers, artists, and publishers exhibiting this year. I was happy to meet a friendly food zine writer of the Runcible Spoon and connected with quite a few Korean food lovers who took home my new recipe zine.

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A mini poster zine I made for the Zine Fest.

Some outgoing mail!

As a show of thanks to you, I am sharing one of my favorite dishes that didn’t make it on the recipe zine this time: spicy Korean chicken stew. I love comforting one-pot meals, like a chicken casserole with a side of buttery mashed potatoes or a hearty soup served with some crusty bread. There are days I want cooking to be easy, with less dishes to wash.

Spicy Korean chicken stew is a traditional Korean dish with many regional variations, even non-spicy versions. Mine is mildly spicy. The trick is to boil the chicken first, which makes the chicken fall-off-the-bones tender. The fat is skimmed off while the chicken stock is saved for later. I like to add in cubed sweet potatoes or tomatoes in my stew, which adds in some natural sweetness. You can also even throw in some rice cake sticks, but remember to soak them in hot water first if they have been refrigerated!

Korean spicy chicken stew
(Dak-bokkeum Tang / Dak-dori Tang)
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
5 cups water
3 cloves of garlic
4 pieces of bone-in chicken (legs and thighs)
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cups carrots, chopped
1 tablespoon scallions, chopped
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

**Optional: sweet potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes, rice cake sticks, etc.

Sauce:
3 tablespoons soysauce
3 tablespoons gochujang
1 tablespoon gochugaru
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic

Directions:
1. In a wide pot, bring water to a boil. Add garlic cloves.
2. Rinse the chicken pieces in cold running water, drain, and put them in the boiling water.
3. Boil the chicken for about 30 minutes. Spoon off any grease or foam that rises to the top.
4. In a small bowl, make the sauce. Taste and adjust.
4. Once the chicken is cooked, take the pot off the heat. Save about 2 cups of broth and drain the chicken.
5. In the same pot, lightly sauté onion and carrots for 5 minutes.
6. Put the chicken back in with 1 cup of the saved broth and the sauce.
7. Stir as the sauce thickens and add the rest of the broth in accordingly. Put the lid on the pot and simmer on low-heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
8. Sprinkle some scallions and sesame seeds on top and serve with a bowl of rice!

Marie, hold on tight!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Sewon

It’s April! I’ve been wearing dresses and cardigans all week, soaking up the sunshine and watching the city change with the seasons. I am still swamped with work, but I can finally see the light at the end.

March was an odd month because I was wallowing in deep winter hibernation mode. It was just one of those days when I received a phone call from Jannese about having dinner with a visitor from Japan. Over a hearty Meatball Shop meal, I met the talented and adorable Ros of Polkaros who came to the city from Tokyo on a short trip. Walking around familiar streets with a new set of eyes and good friends, I was reminded of just how much I do love where I am and how much this place has become a home.

It’s been over a year since I moved to New York. I remember the city was disorienting, far from the quiet mountains of Yunnan and Kunming, where it is always spring. It had snowed a foot when I woke up in Brooklyn, walking miles along almost deserted Bushwick lofts, hoping to walk into a warm place to call home. We walked into a restaurant, which turned out to be Roberta’s. And so it all worked out, as it always does.

“APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.”
–From “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot

Happiest Black Valentines!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Sewon

There’s something romantic about mediated melancholy, especially when you’re all alone in a big city of concrete after dusk and comfortably shrouded in silence. I know I’m a strawberry-tinted chapstick kind of a girl, but I’ve always wanted to try on black lipstick. So I decided to host a small Black Valentines dinner at my place.

I cooked Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon, mostly because it calls for an entire bottle of dry red wine and you can let it stew until dinnertime. My roommate brought home giant bundles of black balloons, and everyone arrived dressed in monochrome.

We drank blackberry infused gin cocktails and chilled prosecco by candlelight, blasted Joy Division, and burned away our fears.

The table set-up before we put up the candles. I made strawberry cake pops! The photo of me is from Valerie’s instagram.

Here’s a serious group photo.

It’s hard to not smile!

Steph carried these bottles of Bitter Valentines Ale all the way from Williamsburg.

We ate two boxes of candy hearts.

“Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.”
― Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room

Emily’s “bleeding” candles.

Chris jotting down his fears on a tiny piece of paper.

A grainy final photobooth shot of the group (Elisa and Fernan, present in spirit) before the end of the night. Here we are in action, on Vine: http://vine.co/v/brXzbEitVqm

P.S. My forever-Valentine announced his surprise visit, and Taurin will be here in just a week!

Maps and Fragments

Category Archives: Daily Life

Brooklyn Zine Fest 2013 Recap (+recipe)

Marie, hold on tight!

Happiest Black Valentines!