Memorial Day weekend gives my family an excuse to get together and do pretty much nothing but eat. We went to my aunt’s house in delaware, as usual, and started the festivities with these korean style pancakes. Mrs. W brought these over. This is really the easiest way to cook them. It’s an electric non-stick skillet. Just throw in some oil, which gives you the crispiness, and cook them on each side until they’re lightly browned.

They weren’t typical, in fact, they had shrimp and broccoli in them. And because the batter had some yeast in it, they were a bit on the puffy side. So chopped up raw shrimp, chopped broccoli, julienned zucchnii, and chopped scallion. And voila, lovely shrimp and broccoli pajeon. You can buy dipping sauce or just make some with soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, and whatever else you want.

Next up we had some riblets. We didn’t have actual proper courses or anything, we aren’t that fancy. It’s just that we started off with one thing, and then just ended up moving to the next dish, and then cooking the next thing, etc. We also had some lovely lettuce from my mom’s friend’s garden so we could make little riblet ssams. You know, like the fancy people do at momofuku and what not.

It was memorial day weekend, so you know what that means. That’s right peeps, it means firing up the grill. So as usual, my uncle manned the grill and we had some korean bbq. How easy are these to make? Super easy. You go to H-Mart and buy them marinated. Then you throw them on the grill. It doesn’t get easier than that.

Alongside the ribs, we grilled up some spicy dried file fish that my mom prepared. They were extremely thin and delicate and were boney, so you had to be careful. These had tons of flavor, but were a tad too salty for my palate.

We ate rice too, like the asians are known to do. And we had plenty of banchan. There were random green things that I did not eat. There was tons of spicy kongnamul, or soybean sprouts to you, which is one of my favorite banchan in the whole wide world. There was kimchi too, not made with your typical napa cabbage, but this one was quite the hit with everyone. I particularly liked it.

What did I do at this feast? The only thing I was in charge of was the corn on the cob. I peeled back all the husks and removed all the silks. If you can, get someone else to do this, because it’s a pain in the ass. Then put the husks back into place.  Then soak these bad boys in water before putting them on the grill. The soaking will help steam these beauties. Don’t worry about burning the husks, the corn inside will be perfectly fine. Make sure to not undercook them. I got a little scared and took them off the grill too soon. It was still good, but because it was slightly undercooked, they weren’t freakishly sweet, like they could have been. They were just normal sweet. Don’t make my mistake!

We even had dessert! This doesn’t typically happen. My aunt happened to have this lemon cake, which was pretty f’in lemony and amazing and beyond moist. I wanted to eat the whole thing. But alas, I controlled myself and shared.

We had our little bbq the day before memorial day. On actual memorial day, we didn’t really do much. My mom brought some berries and I happily ate them up for breakfast.

Later in the day for a late lunch, we had miyeok guk, which is a korean seaweed soup. When my mom makes this, she just cuts up meat. But my aunt’s version had rib meat in it and I think she had basically stewed the meat so that it fell off the bone and was super tender. I literally ate all of the meat from the entire pot of this. We didn’t just eat well this weekend, we also cooked! Or at least my mom and my aunt did. Recipes coming up next!

There’s a pretty fancy schmancy food court at the lower floor of the shiny Comcast Center. Yelp had a Spring Feastival there the other week and I got to take a gander, before it was open to the public. All the vendors were out showcasing their delicious wares. Termini Bros had major cannoli action going on. And even though it was somewhat still morning-ish, I had to try it. Nice.
Speaking of Termini Brow, they also had one of their cake dudes decorating a cake. He had just begun, but it was already looking quite lovely.

Speaking of desserts, gelato. The lemoncello one was amazing!

Of course there was sushi, courtesy of Tokyo Sushi.

And while we’re on an asiany bent, some fresh spring rolls from Sook Hee Produce. They had various ones – chicken, shrimp, tofu, whatever would float your spring roll boat. These were pretty good, except for the fact that they put celery in it. Stop this immediately! Celery should not be in here at all. It ruins it! Thank you, now off my soapbox.

Under the “C” Seafood had some shrimpies going on.

Here are some deep fried somethings from Mexican Post. These were particularly terrible.

Di Bruno Bros had some cheese out and about!

But they truly won over my heart because they were slicing up some prosciutto. It was amazing. I saw what they were selling it for, and damn, I probably ate like $20 worth of cured pork. And well, I could have eaten more, if they would have let me. As my brother says, if you have the option, always eat the value!

After my orlando stay, I had to head over to Chicago for a quick overnight trip. After checking into our hotel, we headed over to Catch 35, which is right on the river. We couldn’t get a regular table quickly, so we sat at the jazz bar instead. And lo and behold, jazz musicians started to play! Seafood is what we wanted, and seafood is what we got!

Here’s a crabcake appetizer. I liked this crabcake because it didn’t have all kinds of weird hunks or chunks of random stuff in it. It was pretty much just crab. And it was pretty  much delicious. The salsa that came along with it was also great. I also had a cup of the clam chowder which was very creamy but not very clammy. It was more like a potato chowder with a tiny bit of clams in it. I still liked it, but it needed more clam flavor! J got a cup of the gumbo which he quite liked.

The waiter said that the halibut and the bass were the dishes they were best known for, so J went with the halibut. The sauteed alaskan halibut was topped with maryland crabmeat, portabella mushrooms, and meuniere butter. J requested that they hold the mushrooms. This was an excellent fish dish.

Although I’m typically a scallop girl, I went with the chilean sea bass in hawaiian ginger-scallion sauce. Oh. My. Word. This was one of the best fish dishes I’ve ever had. The fish was incredibly flaky and practically melted in my mouth. The sauce was the perfect complement. I absolutely gobbled this up. The green beans were also great, as I love skinny green beans like this.

Although I was full, J wanted cheesecake. So I had to try it! It had an almond graham cracker crust, which was quite decadent! Overall, the entire Catch 35 meal was excellent. Service was good, but the food took a very long time to come out. I think this was extra noticeable because we were both extremely hungry. But yeah, the wait for the food was quite long! This place was recommended by one of the hotel employees, and we thank him for the excellent pick!