Sampan is Philadelphia’s latest entry into the celebrity chef dining scene, with Michael Schulson at the helm. It’s a modern asian tapas type of joint, with asian inspired small plates. The place is pretty cool looking even from the outside. Look at those crazy wooden slats, they totally draw you in!

It is a small plates place, and they recommend 3-5 plates per person. And each plate is not cheap. So get ready to spend! Here we have the edamame dumplings. These little translucent pockets are filled with a puree of edamame. The consistency is very creamy and ricotta cheese-like. It is served with a very mild sake based broth. These are very different and delicious! Don’t expect tons of flavor, as these are quite subtle.
Here are the kobe beef satays, with apricot, soy, and mirin. These were pretty good, but I don’t know man, they’re awfully expensive for two teeny little skewers of meat. I realize that the kobe cows are massaged daily by their individual handlers and pampered and such, but I’m just not sure that’s worth it when you just put hunks of their meat on sticks.
Here are some more meats on sticks that I can get a bit more excited about. These are the korean BBQ beef satays. They’ve basically taken bulgogi, rolled them and stuck them on sticks, and topped them with kimchi. Yes sir, these were fantastic!
Here we have something with slightly more heft, the pork banh mi, or at least Sampan’s take on the banh mi. It has berkshire pork belly as the main ingredient, with the standard carrot, cucumber, and cilantro as fixins. This is not nearly like the banh mi you will find at your neighborhood vietnamese sandwich joint, but these are definitely yummy. They do not have the shredded daikon, which I love, so that kind of bummed me out a little bit. And there’s a sauce in there that’s not typically found in other banh mi. It’s also pricey for a banh mi, that’s for damn sure, but for Sampan, it’s one of their tastiest bargains. E was absolutely crazy about this, and this was probably her favorite dish of the night.
Here is Sampan’s version of the “Philly Cheese Steak”. It’s got shredded beef plopped on little toasted buns, and are topped with shallot, cheese, and sriracha. These are a bit on the salty side, but I really enjoyed them anyway. The strong smell of the cheese threw me off initially, but then once my nose got used to it, I really found these to be quite delicious. I think this was probably my favorite of the night, along with the korean bbq satays. They don’t really taste anything like philly cheesesteaks at all, but I think that’s a good thing.We topped off the evening with a visit to Capogiro, my first all summer. I got half blackberry and half yellow plum sorbetto. Jimminy christmas trees, was this yellow plum some of the most fantastic frozen treats I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I don’t know that I’ve ever eaten yellow plums, but if they taste like this, then sign me up! The blackberry was delicious as well, and really tasted intensely like blackberries, but the yellow plum just blew me away. Definitely thumbs up on both the dinner and the dessert!

Here we have a two-for-one recipe special, a first ever on foodzings. Both of these dishes are so easy, that even I could make them. So we’ll start first with a cucumber side dish. It’s a tangy little banchan of freshly pickled cucumbers, with a bit of spice.

We start off with a few pickling cucumbers. Half them lengthwise, then slice them.

Throw them in a bowl along with some thinly sliced onion.

Throw a little salt over this and mix it around a little bit.

Chop up a sprig or two of green onion.

Throw these into the bowl, along with a bit of sugar. Mix again.

Then we only have two more things to add – kochukaru (korean chili powder) and white vinegar.

The more kochukaru you add, the spicier it will be. The more vinegar you add, the tangier it will be. Put in however much you like! That’s it!

Ok, moving right along to our second dish, sweet red bean buns. Correction, the easiest sweet red bean buns you will ever make. These are super tasty and super easy to make. Seriously, they don’t get easier than this. So if you like pastries, and if you like sweet red bean, then keep on reading. If not, then click away.

Here are the ingredients – crescent roll mix and a can of sweet red beans. Seriously that’s it. This is a two ingredient dish. I told you it was easy.

So you take a piece of the crescent, and spoon some sweet red bean in there.

You close it up so that it forms a little bun.

Place the buns seam-side down on a cookie sheet. How long to cook these? At what temperature? I have no idea. Just follow the crescent instructions and don’t burn them. The bottom has a tendency to burn, so keep an eye on them.

Eat them when they’re fresh out of the oven! Ok, so I don’t know if these buns are really korean, but since my mom is korean, and she made them, I’m going to call them korean. Or at least korean-esque. All I know is that they’re good and beyond easy!

I was in Columbus for quite a long time, but we were all well fed by my mom’s cooking the whole time. Here are some of the highlights. Her famous spring rolls! As usual, they kicked ass. We accidentally bought the wrong noodles (cellophane noodles instead of rice noodles), but they were still darn good.

Spam fried rice! This happens to be a favorite of my brother. I’m not nearly as into it as he is, and he is also a SPAM freak, but I like it. With egg on top and ketchup. It totally takes us back to our childhoods.

Some spicy kimchi soba noodles. A ridiculously easy dish of soba noodles, chopped up kimchi and maybe some cucumber, and some kochujang. Maybe a little sesame oil, soy, sugar too. It’s great for a hot day, which most of the days in Columbus were.

A big bowl of kalguksu. Kalguksu literally translates to knife noodles (kal is knife, guksu is noodles). The noodles are thick wheat noodles that were traditionally hand-cut with knives. They don’t exactly do that these days. The dish isn’t the most flavorful, so we eat it with kimchi. Everything tastes better with kimchi!

My mom also made another big batch of dumplings, or as we call them, mandu. Here are some of the little half-moon beauties after being steamed.

We also ate some on another day in soup. Manduguk literally means dumpling soup. Mandu is dumpling, guk is soup. See, you’re all getting a free korean lesson.

A little bowl of spicy dubu jjigae. That’s tofu stew to you. Can you figure out what means tofu and what means stew? Congrats! You’re well on your way to be fluent in food korean.

And a random smattering of banchan and other dishes. Some galbi or bulgogi, I don’t even remember which it was anymore. Some of the japchae, whose recipe I shared with you earlier. Some marinated cucumbers, whose recipe I will soon share. And some marinated file fish. The file fish, or juipo, was languishing in my brother’s freezer for who knows how long. So my mom freed them from their frozen cell and promptly led them into our bellies.