Big Bang Beef Ribs

Made a ginger beer based bbq sauce. JUMP OFF, JUMP OFF, THE RIBS IS THE JUMP OFF. Look how tender it was. "Had it out in Bedstuy, chillin on the steps, drinkin' quarter waters, I gotta be the best. MJ at Summerjam, Obama on the text, yall should be afraid bout what I'm gonna do next..." - HOVA

P.S. these ribs will def be on the Pop Kitschen menu

Mango Ting Cobbler

With all this bone meat cookin' in the crib, I figured I'd drop some dessert too. I took Ting (Jamaican Soda that tastes like Lime) and Mango, stewed them with some spices, and made a cobbler! It was the shit. In retrospect, I'm gonna use a sweeter, less sour accent since mangoes have a natural sourness and sweetness. I loved it cause I like things balanced (i.e. sweet and sour, sweet and spicy, etc.), but Gizmo said she wanted it sweeter. I'll throw in some condensed milk or cream soda next time instead of Ting.

Gizmo and the cobbler

The 7 Degrees of Bone Meat

So, already, people are running from the bone meat dishes (pepperpot, oxtail pho, etc). This is to be expected in America. Ever since I was a kid, people packed their own dinners when comin over to the crib cause they knew, "If you eat at the Huangs', there is gonna be bones in your soup, bones on your chicken, and you damn right there's feet in your stew."

Warren was hands down the most adventurous white boy of all-time (hereinafter referred to as "MAWBAT". And he was rewarded for it. Warren, tell the people how you feel in the comments. Justin got down too, but he stopped at feet, fair enough. Feet are for freaks like me and Too Short.

Look, I can understand the fear. Bone meat looks weird at first and the flavor is deep. Heads aint ready for the essence! It is the most flavorful, you get your soups, your stews, your best braised dishes, etc. all from bone meat. Even if you don't think bone meat is involved, you're tasting it. Bone meat makes the world go round.

Instead of appeasing people's irrational fears of bone meat, "chefs" should stand their ground and serve the damn bones because everyone knows that's where the flavor is at. If you take an oxtail, eat the meat clean, you'll see two little holes on each side. Suck on em like a Hooker @ the Point and enjoy.

Here is a step-by-step guide to bone meats and where you should start:

1) Go for Osso Bucco - its a veal shank. I recommend Osso Bucco because it is an Italian dish and for most Americans, its a gateway bone meat. The real crack is a few steps down, but this is your dutch.

2) Try the Veal Bones - If you want to try bone meat at home and don't want to spend money on Osso Bucco, try veal tails. They are like ox tails but from veal so its younger, fattier meat. Veal has less "flavor/essence" than mature beef in my opinion and should be less "offensive" to bone meat rookies.

3) Bone-in Short Ribs - In my opinion, no one does short ribs like Korean stew. I love it. Spicy Kalbi Tang is great and easy to make. I'll try to whip some up next week. If I don't remind me! But, if you don't have a good Korean place by you, its very easy to braise short rib with some onions, garlic, carrots, brown sugar, etc. make a nice sweet gravy, serve over rice. Err.... potatoes? I dunno. I eat everything on rice cause Mao told me to.

4) Ox Tails - This is my favorite cut of meat on the planet. My mom makes an Ox Tail Vegetable Stew that is the shit. Again, remind me, and I'll make it. Its got celery, carrots, onions, rice wine, ox tails. I cook a lil rice and put it in the soup. Its what we eat instead of Chicken Noodle Soup. You'll be hooked.

5) Pork Neck - So, you've graduated from the tails and realized, it wasn't that funky! Just good straight forward marrow flavor. Now, go back to your Korean spot and get some Gam Ja Tang. I really love the bone meat stews Korean restaurants do. Everyone thinks, "Oh, Korean, I should get BBQ, no son, the stew is where its at."

6) Lamb Neck - Yea, now you're really in deep. Go straight to Court St. in Brooklyn. Yemen cafe, get the Yaneez and ask specifically for the Neck pieces. You won't be disappointed. Side Note: ARAB ED, you owe me $800 you bum mofugger, PAY ME!!!!! (Arab Ed's uncle owns Yaneez, tell him his nephew is a nappy headed deadbeat)

7) Beef Necks - I don't know any places that serve beef neck. This is Strictly for Live Men. It is the shit. But you gotta do it yourself at home. I barbecue neck bones, I stew beef necks. Any dish that uses bone meat like pho, whatever, sub in beef neck and let it rock.

There it is 7 degrees of Bone Meat....Suck it.

Jamaican Pepperpot w/ Beef Neck Bone

MO Jamaican food for dat ass. This is pepperpot. I dont have a photo of the after. This was taken halfway through before I added chayote, yam, and coconut milk. But, if my camera charges before I finish this, I'll take a photo. Yes, I have been using the same damn giant wok for all these photos.

One of you kitchen equipment companies send me some shit so I don't have to use the same pot. If i had more pots, I'd do more posts!!!! Anyway, I'm not very experienced with pepperpot. This is the first time I made it. But, I'll let you know how it is. I tweaked the normal recipe by using cider vinegar. Pepperpot has ham hock, kale, collared greens, and bone meat. I used neck bone. Neck bone is dope. Especially Lamb or Pork neck.

Korean Gamjatang with pork neck is one of my all-time fave dishes. Anyway, when there's ham hock and collareds involved, I can't help not hitting it with cider vinegar. So I done did it yall.

Oxtail Pho

I love Pho. Especially at Pho Banc on Mott. I'm no hipster come lately to Vietnamese food. When you Asian in Orlando, your options are Vietnamese or Vietnamese. I remember the first time I tried Banh Mi, I asked a old dude at the counter what it was like and if it was good, in the thickest water buffalo-steez accent, homie says, "BETTA DAN SUBWAY!"

My OG favorites: Vietnamese Pork Chop with Crab Pate, grilled beef with chopped spring rolls on bun, Banh Mi, and of course Pho. My favorite cut of meat is oxtail so I tried it this time with oxtail and more noodles since Ning likes noodles. I have to say, it wasn't as good as I would have liked. When you use Oxtail instead of flank steak and shins/bone-in shank, you get more bone flavor, more fat, but less of the meat essence that balances Pho.

Ning and other heads loved it, but I think the spices were too pronounced without being muted by the meat flavor like usual. It was good, but more pungent and herbal than I usually like. I really like tasting the marrow, meat, essence when I drink stew. For instance, not a big fan of tom yum. I feel the spices carry the soup instead of chicken stock or shrimp. Its all preference. Either way, I'll still use oxtail, but just also have flank steak next time. Try it though! Maybe you'll like this version better.

The Black Olive: Duckhorn Dinner

My family owns The Black Olive in Orlando. Definitely not whoremet enough for Magic Dong Huang, but everyone loves it out in Orlando and they're doin their thing. Get that money pops! This was a dinner they did for Duckhorn. Looked dope.



Duckhorn had some cool branding with this stopper



Fancy Drank



Looks like scallops... as Bun-B said, "I eat so much scrimp I get eye-o-dine poisonin'" Yessa, yessa, i believe scallops got iodine too.



Duck with some shrubbery. Jamie Fox Huang says, "Yo Pops, stop tryin to fool a ninja wit shrubbery!" But naw, the duck looks bangin.



In case anyone questions whether this was the jumpoff, I direct you to exhibit A above, White People were in da house! It was official. This wasn't no lunar new year dinner with Pearl River Plum Wine!!!! Although, Magic Dong Huang probably would have served something from Bedstuy Vineyards, this event gets 4 out of a possible 5 MSG Packets. Nice work pops.

Brooklyn Wine w/ Bootleg Tyler Florence

Oh yes, Pop Kitschen will be serving T-Bone Steak, Cheese, Eggs, and Brooklyn Wine w/ Welsch's Grape

The Story of OG Iron Chef

Before becoming The People's Chink aka Magic Dong Huang aka Mr. I Shoot Hipsters.... There was The Legend of OG Iron Chef

Now, this is the story all about how
My life got flip turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you all about the Legend of Iron Chef Right Chere..

In west Winter Park bored and blazed
On internet porn is where I spent most of my days
Just Chillin' out maxin, throwin milkshakes all cool
And shootin some b-ball outside of school
When a couple of hos
Who were up to no good
Got pregnant and married my boys in the hood
We planned one little bachelor party and baby moms got scared
She said "You're never callin steve, kyle, joey sapp, or jameer"

I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she took my boost mobile and sent me right on my way
Wedding coming up, bachelor party still on
I picked up the iron and said, where da xanex at prawn?

Hotel in Miami, yo this is bad!
Drinking thug passion out of a champagne glass.
Is this what cops like Rick Ross live like?
Hmmm, this could still be aite!

But wait I hear there're snitches, POs and all that
Is Miami the type of place they send this Iron Chef?
I don't KNOW!!!!!!
Let's go to Miami Gold and figure it all out there

Well, after the stripper farted, _ _ _ _ spanked the ho
There was a dude who looked like Kimbo Slice standing there
I aint trying to get arrested
I just got here
I sprang with the quickness like lightning, disappeared

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
I said on to 7-11 before the bride gets here!
Picked up some frozen burritos and dipped out the rear
Headed back to the hotel to microwave these here

I pulled up to the hotel about 7 or 8
And I yelled to D-West, "You better have my doughnuts later!"
I looked at my room
There was no microwave there
Busted out the iron and cooked right there!!!!

NO LIE, at this bachelor party, we got mad twisted. 5 am, at 7-11, bought mad frozen mexican food, but no microwave in the hotel room. I say to my peoples, get me an ironing board, a glass of water, and a iron, I'ma chef this right chere. That is the Legend of OG Iron Chef. Some people cook with truffles and other expensive shit, I hold it down with the iron, BONG BONG

Don't Forget, Autumn Festival October 3rd!

So, its mooncake time. There are tons of blogs explaining what Autumn Festival is, but I'll give you the ABC (american-born-chinese) cliff notes. Your parents play mah jong, your grandparents ask if you are an accountant yet, and you eat MOONCAKES!!!!! Kind of like Yom Kippur but with mooncakes instead of noodle pudding.

On a side note.... I was looking for good mooncake photos and typed in a search "mooncakes FOB". As in Fresh Off the Boat. Cause FOBs got the good shit. But out of nowhere, all these photos of some band called Fallout Boy come up! Who the hell are these bozos? They aren't even on Hot 97!!!! Who listens to this crap? Can Kanye interrupt my google search to trash these dudes? That would be awesome. Pass the henrock yeezy.

Reader Questions

I love reader questions. Almost as much as I love getting really blazed using my volcano vaporizer and eating gummies.... but not quite. OD'ing on gummies is still my favorite thing to do in life. Its just not so fun when your teeth are rotting and your breath is stanking cause you fell asleep eating a pound of gummies watching Martin Yan's China. Martin Yan's China is the best way to brush up on your Chingrish. Phrases like, "This is the fashion" or "Rook how beaurifo my kung pao panda rook on dees rotus reef." are great for get togethers during the moon festival!

Anyway, reader questions...

"Where is the restaurant going to be?" Either NYC or Boston. Looking in both places right now, specifically East Village south of 13th, north of Houston in NYC and Brighton/Brookline in Boston.

"Is this a Chinese Restaurant?" Well, I am a Chinaman, there will be a few chinaman items, but no, it is not a "Chinese Restaurant". But like they say, "You can take a chinaman out the paddies, but he will still put MSG in all your food."

"How big is your penis?" Somewhere between not so shitty and not so big....but shawties love my food so it dont matter. they are so far in a MSG coma that they wake up and ask, "what happened?" and I say, I just brought the sichuan earthquakes to your vagina. BONG FUCKING BONG.

Getting a Loan

So, after cooking, I went to go get a loan. That is me above. Things went well until they asked me for some information:

LLC, Tax ID, etc...

For all you aspiring entrepoorneurs out there, leave the gun, bring the Tax ID.

They said that to get a loan, I needed these things:
Register the business
Get LLC
Get Tax ID
Establish checking acct
Put in app for biz loan
Look at our pay stubs
Look at our taxes

Chase was cool though. Once I took off the mask, they sat down, told me that they could actually do the LLC and Tax ID registration for me. So that was dope. Will let you guys know how it goes with the loan application.

On the Menu Tomorrow....

Tomorrow.....

Stephane's Ting Chicken Salad

and

Taiwanese Red Sausage Fried Rice

stay tuned.... if i get motivated tonight, i'll make some pepper pot. you know how chinee and jamaicans get di-down!!!!!

Chinee-Jamaican Ropa Vieja

Made my own sofrito but instead of using tomato paste, I used Jamaican Pineapple Soda and ginger. Threw in a little soy sauce to bring it all together and then stewed it with some flank steak. Shit is OFF DA HOOK

Cheeto Crusted Fried Chicken.... and the story behind Pop Kitschen

So, this is the first menu item I made. Cheeto Crusted Fried Chicken. I took cheetos, crushed them up and used them as bread crumbs. This is a good time to explain the concept behind Pop Kitschen.

I almost never go to the grocery store with a recipe in mind. What I do is, I go, I see what cuts of meat are there, I grab a few things here and there, and go home to figure it all out. Usually, I'm missing something I need so I grab cheetos instead of bread crumbs, weed instead of oregano (JOKE), etc. I developed my own style of cooking by necessity.

Over time, I realized things taste better this way and its fun to see how everyday "low brow" pop cultural items can be used in gourmet cooking. The recipe I submitted for "unnamed food contest" contained cherry coke and you'd never guess it was in there. The point in cooking with these ingredients is not to taste cherry coke. Otherwise, I'd just drink cherry coke.

When I cook, I like to balance flavors and make it all one. If one flavor/ingredient sticks out over all the others, I've failed. Maybe a few are more pronounced than others, but unless its a spicy dish, I really don't like one ingredient being louder than the others.

It is fun to use everyday ingredients laying around your house, in vending machines downstairs, from the bodega to make chef quality food. Its a challenge, but when done right really adds a layer of familiarity, creativity, and depth of flavor.

Who is Pop Chef?

Wassup my ninjas!!! So, the point of this blog is to document the opening of my new restaurant. I'm looking for locations, loans, etc. to open a restaurant called Pop Kitschen. I'll be creating all the menu items in my home, I'll show you how to write menus, what to look for when opening a restaurant, etc. and all of it will be talked about in the context of my new spot.

I actually just decided yesterday to open a restaurant, so the question is, why should you read this blog from a bozo who just decided to open one yesterday?

I've been in and out of the restaurant business the last 13 years. I grew up working in my dad's restaurants: www.eattheblackolive.com and www.cattlemansorlando.com

From prep cook to busboy to bartender to line cook to manager, etc. I've done it. The last 6 years, I've been a sports writer, hip hop editorial writer, streetwear clothing company owner (www.tonkshop.com and www.hoodman.tv), but I never stopped cooking. I can't divulge details but I also made it into a cooking competition on a major cable network so keep an eye out for that in January!

Leading up to the opening of my new restaurant, I'll be showing you guys the recipes, the branding, the menu, etc. Should be dope, so stay tuned!

Peace,
Eddie