WWGBD: What Would George Bush Do? HELP US DECIDE ON A CONCEPT!

For the first time in my life, I can say I know how George Bush feels.... Confused. But my confusion is a good confusion. Its not like trying to figure out whether I fucked up Iraq or America worse. I'm just trying to decide on a restaurant concept... and I need your help!!!! So please leave feedback in the comments, have your friends comment, etc!!!

Note: My partner and I looked at Bedstuy locations, but its probably going to be the city... sorry BK. I tried!

Concept 1: Baohaus all rights reserved, Edwyn C. Huang 2009

The idea with this restaurant is a small stand-up joint, probably two tables max. Mainly come in, eat at the counter or take to go/delivery. The menu would consist of Biscuits, Burgers, and Baos.

My partner Giovanna came up with the menu categories and I came up with the name thinking, Waffle House (southern i.e. biscuits), Bao (chinese bun sandwiches), Burgers (from germany, thus bauhaus)... you like? It kinda merges all three. The point isn't really to explicate all three categories, more just, do ya like the name?

Fried Chicken Biscuit Sandwich
Sausage Biscuit Sandwich
Burger with special sauce on martin's potato bun
Chinese Bao (pork and my special beef recipe which is what I made the "show" for!)
Fries

All items would be antibiotic free cause... Confucius says no to antibiotics. Probably $6 burger/biscuit sandwich (big biscuit), $6 for 2 baos... But don't quote me on prices! Just to give you guys an idea


Concept 2: The Spork all rights reserved Edwyn C. Huang, 2009

Everyone knows, I'm in the hood like Chinese wings (credit: Jadakiss). But, you never see good wing spots in the city serving wings with fried rice. And if they do, its shitty fried rice as my boy baer says "has a couple frozen peas, carrots, and a piece of egg floating around with MSG".

The Chinaman don't play dat shit! My fried rice is the jump-off, so, my partner and I were thinking real deal fried rice and wings.

WINGS: Original Taiwanese Street Food Flavor, Spicy Korean, Secret Recipe One (its sweet, family recipe), Japanese inspired Burnt Garlic flavor

Fried Rices: White Pepper and shrimp fried rice (white kind, no soy!), Taiwanese Red Sausage Fried Rice, Omelet Rice, Thai Pineapple fried rice, Veggie Fried Rice

You get a whole thing of fried rice with 5 wings on top for $8. Again, don't quote the price, but that's what we're shooting for.

Lastly, I'm campaigning to include a fried pork chop on the menu, but my partner be hatin on the swine!!! What up with that girl??? LOL. She said no pork on my spork!!!


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT and tell us first, which one you like better. Do you still like the other one or do you like none? AND, WHY? Why do you like one better than other, why don't you like the other, or why do you like/dislike either. Thanks!!!!

Mustard BBQ and Sweet Smoky Red BBQ

Two of the usual suspects are back.... Oxtail and Short Ribs. BUT, who thought to BBQ these cuts??? I never see these cuts bbq'd hopefully I can start a trend here. So, for the record, I do not have a smoker in my house right now so technically, this is not bbq. BUT, I am getting awesome results by doing my dry rub and then roasting in a dutch oven. Obviously I don't get the smoke flavor that makes bbq great, but its good tasting roast meat with bbq sauce.

You can always use liquid smoke, but I hate it. I made two sauces. One mustard based, one spicy tomato based w/ scotch bonnet peppers.

Salt Baked Chicken

This is one of my favorite recipes. My mom taught me how to make salt baked chicken, but I tweaked the recipe. Its very simple so try it at home.

1) Take a large chicken and rinse with cold water (important)
2) Let the water drain and pat dry with paper towels, dry the cavity too.
3) Take a lot of sea salt and pat it all around the chicken and in the cavity. Kosher salt is good too.
4) Then, take white pepper and pat around the chicken.
5) Stuff the chicken cavity with green onions, star anise, szechuan peppercorns, and garlic. Feel free to put it in a cheese cloth and tie up. Some people like to wet the peppercorns/anise so more moisture evaporates and gives flavor, but not necessary. You just want the herbs for the "nose". This is an important strategy in cooking.



A lot of cooks think that you need every flavor to jump out. I disagree. I think a hint or nose or just a dash of something adds a depth/complexity without altering the original flavor. I'm very big on this. I like the traditional flavor of things. My mom used to never stuff the cavity, I did it just to give the chicken a different aroma and slight flavor tweak. If you over do it, its not salt baked chicken anymore. Its like some funky asian thanksgiving chicken. The beauty of this dish is the simplicity of the white pepper and salt making a crisp chicken skin.

6) Preheat oven to 375, put chicken in and cook for about an hour. I never time or check temp cause I'm lazy. You don't want plump chicken. Let it get a tad dry, the salt will dry out the skin and the meat will get juicy wet and falling off the bone.

Brooklyn?

I live in BK and I wouldn't move, but what about a restaurant on the edge of Bedstuy and Clinton Hill? Specifically Bedford Ave and Lexington Ave? Not to give everything away, but it'd be a down home southern food type restaurant. Ideas?

The above photo is an image of the previous restaurant, which was a pizza/coffee shop. The neighborhood isn't exactly the ideal spot for artisan pizza/coffee, but maybe a good neighborhood southern food restaurant.

S'mores

Yeaaaaa its that time of year for S'mores already. The weather sucks here in NY. Couldn't go out Friday or Saturday so my fat ass sat home with stovetop s'mores.

Short Rib Soup!

So, one of our readers, Mrs. RCA asked for Short Rib and here it is. I actually made some okra and short rib curry last week but forgot to take photos! And, here's our first recipe. This is my version of Kalbi Tang. Usually, restaurants and some home cooks will use MSG or Powdered Beef Stock (Sogogi Dashida). It does add flavor and a slightly enhanced soup, but MSG gives me headaches, makes me dehydrated, and food coma'd. Some people aren't affected by MSG so its up to you.

Here's my recipe, I'm sure you can find others online, but I like it this way. (FYI, I don't measure, so just estimate to taste)


1) Take your meat (i had about 3.5 lbs short ribs bone in. make sure bone in! more flavor) and put in a big bowl of cold water and a dash of vinegar to drain blood. Usually 30 minutes is enough. Change water halfway through.

2) Take the beef, dry off, and marinate in a mixture of Korean soup soy sauce (Gook Ganjang) and corn starch (just a lil to make the soy stick). Let sit 30 minutes.
(NOTE: a lot of other recipes use green onion, sesame oil, garlic, don't bother. the soup will have plenty of flavor. I even skip this step entirely sometimes because I just like the straight forward flavor of beef. SO, this step is optional)

3) Take oil (not olive, canola/corn/veggie, all ok), heat in a stock pot and add the beef. Sautee the beef 5 minutes till brown.

This is important. Most Korean restaurants will not sautee the beef. They boil it in water. Korean style soups are very clean, clear, and straight forward flavors. I love it. If you like it that way, skip step three and boil the short ribs in water for 5 minutes until foam and oil rises to the top. Then toss out the first (i.e. the water), and reboil a pot of water and put the short ribs in. I sautee and brown because I like the extra flavor from the oil of the beef. All preference!

4) Once the beef is browned, add 3 large green onions (scallions, if you must use big words) chopped into 3rds. If you are lazy, you can also chop up a half head of garlic and put it in now, but I usually do it separately as step 5.

5) In a separate sautee pan, heat up oil and sautee half a head of garlic till almost brown, but don't burn.

6) The green onions should be a nice bright green by now from sauteeing with the beef. You will smell a nice aroma already. Add about 2.5 quarts of water (i don't measure, i just put in like 4 to 5 bowls of water). Use your best judgment and just eye it. The key is a good proportion of meat to water.

7) Take your garlic oil and pour into the soup stock. I like this because the oil from sauteeing garlic gives great flavor. Feel free to put some water into the sautee pan and pour into stock pot just to get all the good flavor.

8) Bring to a boil and cover. After 15 minutes, skim the top and get the foam out.

9) Add Asian Radish (Daikon) chopped into nice chunks

10) Check back every 30 minutes and if the water gets too low, add water. It should cook a good hour and a half. Check the tenderness of the short ribs. When they are fork tender, the soup is done.

9) Once the short ribs are done, add salt and white pepper, cover and simmer another 10 minutes. Then, check flavor. Do you have too much water? Too little? play with the proportions but don't over salt or pepper.

10) I always have one bowl the first day I make it, but it really tastes better the next day. That's why you don't want to over salt/pepper. The next day, the flavors come together and become more concentrated. Plus, if you are health conscious, you can skim the fat off the soup in the morning and then you have a VERY healthy beef soup to start your day or if you have a cold. I usually keep a pot of this in the fridge during the winter.

11) When you want to eat it, take some vermicelli mung bean noodles (very easy to find at asian grocer, they come in little bags wrapped in a big flourescent pink netting). They are transparent noodles! Not rice noodles! This is key, they have a much different texture. All you have to do is bring the soup to a boil, drop in the noodles and they cook almost instantly.

Pimpin' AND Cookin' Aint Easy!

We all knew Pimpin wasn't easy, but cooking? Come on! So many people do it and make money, this shit gotta be cake right? NOOOOOOOOO

This is what has happened the last two weeks.



1) A restaurateur in New York decided to offer me a location and the money to start the restaurant. Deal went well, got to the term sheet, we even retained an attorney to do the operating agreement, and all of a sudden "investor" calls me to pull a super duper grease ball move and pulls the offer off the table cause he says "someone decided to front the money so I don't have to". The deal from the start was that he wanted to be the money guy so it was a 180. Look, this is business though. You get a better deal go for it, but ...

Before you make offers, be sure you want to do the deal. Its pretty JV to offer, ask someone for their advice, opinions, work, and even have them write the menu, do the legal work, create the logo, and then pull out. Its about equal to taking some girl to Pearl's for the lobster, chickalicious for the dessert, going back to your place, telling you to put on the flavored condom SHE brought, licking the tip, and then leaving with the left overs from earlier in the evening and you're sitting there with a stupid strawberry condom on your dick. That's not what's poppin.

BUT, not to worry, I'm actually partnering with my cousin cause I've known him for 27 years and the only time he turned his back on me was when i called him fat and he threw me into the piano, which I considered a pretty fair deal. Good guy.

2) Department of Health Standards - I went to the Brooklyn Flea - this place is great. I went there to check out the market and see what was there. Spoke to the people who are great, but just so readers know, to do fairs like this, you need to cook in licensed/commercial prep-kitchens to comply with the Department of Health. AND, the Flea is basically a curated fair so you can't just pay and walk in. Props to a place like that which isn't out to make a quick buck but actually wants good vendors!

3) Food Handler's Certificate - if you want to cater, sell food commercially, etc. you need a food handler's certificate. There are courses online and you take a test. Not hard. I'm doing it now.

4) Loans! - Loans are tough in this economic environment, but from what I've gathered Chase is the preferred lender for small business loans which the govt partially backs. Readers, correct me if I'm wrong. Some banks like Bank of America aren't even lending to first time businesses. Also, this may be elementary to most people, but just to throw it out there, 100% financing is non-existent. You need 20% down at least, pay stubs to show income, and credit in the 700s.

5) Anything else? OH YEAH, you better be able to fucking cook. So, from one rookie to another, being able to chef up a killer szechuan dog is just half the battle. Even if you are a prodigy in the kitchen, you can end up in the middle of your living room with a strawberry condom on your dick and no left overs.