Koagies at Myung Ga

404 Marlton Pike E.
Sawmill Village
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
(856) 216-0090
Website

With my love for Banh Mi no secret, I began to think about other types of Asian fusion sandwiches. I was planning on making Korean cheesesteaks, and taking all of the credit, but the Koagie beat me to the punch. Well to be more exact, Myung Ga beat me to the punch (and apparently a place on N 5th street beat them to the punch). Myung Ga even trademarked the Koagie name, so you know they mean business. A trip to Cherry Hill was in order.


Inside, it looks similar to many other Korean restaurants, but maybe a bit cleaner and newer. It is located in the Sawmill strip mall, and not nearly as hard to find & access (you can make a u-turn right after it) as other eating destinations in South Jersey.


Remarkably, the food photos maintained the traditional orange glow that I have become accustomed to when taking pictures inside of Korean restaurants.

The banchan were swiftly brought out upon sitting down, and the server promptly opened our wine as well (it's a BYO). There weren't too many other tables in there, which could be expected for a rainy Tuesday night, but tables came and went. The chef's wife was more than gracious to speak with us, and explain every question we had about the menu with superior knowledge and enthusiasm. She also explained that the special was Korean fried chicken, which they apparently had just started last week. Be still my heart. I was literally rambling on about said fried chicken on the ride over the bridge. Needless to say, a four piece was ordered with two different sauces, in addition to the kimchi pancake, and seaweed salad appetizers, followed by three different Koagies, and a Yue Kae Jang. This is to say nothing of the seven banchan that came out on the house. Whew, what was I getting into?



Two of the more interesting banchan were dried sweetened seaweed, and the fermented chilled cabbage soup below.


The fried chicken consisted of two drumsticks and two wings, breaded and fried, and then sauced, half in hot sauce, and the other half in honey sesame ginger. The wings are marinated before they are fried so that the meat itself really retains the flavor. The breading stays ultra crispy, despite being smothered in rich sauce, and is so airy, I was picking every piece off of the wing that I could. The hot sauce was spicy, but not too hot, and the sweeter honey sesame wings were a nice savory contrast.


The seaweed salad was tasty, and ample. The pancake was also well cooked, and quite tasty, but our table was so full of plates that I forgot to get a picture before I scarfed it down.


So at this point many people would throw in the towel. It was certainly more than enough to satisfy everyone at the table. But what would be the fun in that? When the Koagies arrived, I was surprised by their bulk. They were seriously as well packed as any good cheesesteak, and the bun was legit. Hefty, able to stand up the the serious ingredients inside, yet still fluffy enough to make eating this sandwich a breeze. A nice coating of sesame seeds was well placed, as both Philly sandwich rolls, and Korean dishes showcase these unsung flavor enhancers. They were also served with a dish of Koagie sauce. I was instantly impressed, as I love extra sauce, as well as being able to increase the sauce ratio on my sandwich at will. The sauce, which is also lightly on the sandwich, is a creamy, sesame(ish) flavor that goes quite well with the large roll. Mine absolutely did not need it, but I could see the potential for the sandwich to become dry, and they preempted it. Well done. According to the pictures I had looked at before hand, I figured that the spicy cucumbers were stock on the sandwiches, but they were actually served on the side. Spicy pork before and after below.


Although I really, really liked all three Koagies that we ordered, I think the spicy pork was my favorite (no surprise here). The pork was very flavorful, a bit of spice and very rich. The fried onions throughout and the sesame sauce with sliced cabbage on the bottom was just great.


The beef bulgogi was basically delicious marinated rib-eye cheesesteak meat, served in the same style. So very tasty. Definitely my second favorite Koagie of the night.


The BBQ chicken was also very good, I just happened to like the others just a bit better. You really can't go wrong with ordering anything here, and I was thoroughly impressed.


Just to keep them honest, we ordered an authentic Korean dish, that the server even had to ask why we ordered it, as many (white?) people don't really order it/know about. I myself would not know about Yue Kae Jang if I hadn't eaten it many times over with a friend who previously worked in a Korean restaurant. The soup is always served VERY hot, and is a comforting spicy bowl of glass noodles, beef, mushrooms, green onion, egg and soup base. So good. They did not disappoint. It was everything I have come to expect from this delicacy, and I would definitely order it at a later time, if I wasn't so overwhelmed with their Koagies.


Afterward we finished with the coconut snowflake desert, which was kind of like a shaved ice the chef had made himself. They also gave us these tiny, shot sized bottles of liquid with our bill, which tasted like key lime pie (in my opinion).


Overall, this place is incredibly reasonable, well staffed, and the Koagies were everything I had dreamed of and more. They were twice as much as a Banh Mi, but you got three times the food, and all of the ingredients (meat ESPECIALLY) were far superior. There were no weird chewy pieces, nor anything hard when biting through these huge sandwiches. I say this often, but I can't wait to get back to this place.

Philadelphia Chutney Company

1628 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215)564-6446
Website


I was really excited to have a new addition to the center city lunch scene, and a unique Indian place sounded great. And it IS good, but I have a few gripes.

[As seen below, "dosas" are rice flour crepes stuffed with various fillings and wrapped like a loose burrito.]


First off, the line. The line was understandably long for a new lunch spot, but the space is small, and each order took about two minutes to process. While waiting to order, I thought to myself, "luckily they take cards," (because that's always a bonus when trying to decide where to eat) but the guy at the register didn't know how much each item cost, so the time-saving efforts in paying with plastic were completely counter-acted. Especially strange for an employee, considering I could handily recite the prices for most of the menu items after the first ten minutes of standing in line (which I continued to do for another fifteen minutes). See the line below.


See the lone front-of-house worker, actually looking up prices, below.


I was also overcharged, as was everyone else in line who ordered the "chef's special". He was constantly giving refunds and explaining that he had it wrong in the computer. My suggestion? Change it, or manually enter the price each time. This was getting embarrassing - even for me. Next off, they don't specify where you are supposed to wait for your order, my assumption is that you are supposed to spend this time hovering around one of the tables in the small space, praying for a place to eat when your food is finally up.


At this point, it's nearly been forty minutes before I get my food. I wanted to use the bathroom, but it is kept locked, and you have to awkwardly push through the crowd of people hovering around the counter waiting for their food to get back up to the singular employee working the register. When you get there, you are handed a single key. No chain, no rope just a key. Kind of gross, considering the person handing you the key is the same person handing everyone their food, as he is (need I mention it again?) the only person working up front.

I do like the variety of chutneys served with your order (pick one, additional flavors available for extra charge), and the concept of the place. What I wish for, however, is less "Americanization" of the Indian street food. I ordered the chef's special, in which they don't tell you what is inside, only that it's "whatever the chef wants." I can dig this, and the chef's special was a nice blend of spiced potatoes, diced tomatoes and onions. Definitely my favorite. The only complaint, is that it's all for show. The thing looks huge, but in reality is sparsely filled. It was also lacking the POP of flavor I expect from Indian food. It was subtle, and tasty, but I was left wanting.


I also tried the dosa with smoked paneer, spinach, jack cheese and balsamic roasted onions. This one was not as good. There was very little to it, and although it looked terrific, much like all of their dishes did, it lacked flavor and substance. The paneer was not smokey, and was actually totally bland. The spinach was wilted and wet, the jack cheese was out of place, and the balsamic onions had me longing for the Indian onion chutney served at most places.

I also tried to order the samosas, whose namesake was prominently displayed behind the cashier on a chalk board, but alas, they did not have any. Instead I went with the "medhu wada," a fried lentil cake, which for lack of a better description, looked and tasted like an unsweetened doughnut. The chutneys helped a bit, but I was still underwhelmed. Below from the left are the tomato, curry, and cilantro chutneys. Tomato, surprisingly was by far my favorite. The other two were just okay.



All in all, while it's nice to have a new place to eat in Center City, a place whose name screams 'good idea,' there are some major kinks to work out. If you visit, just keep in mind the crowd, the line, the small interior space, the locked bathroom(?), the fact that you will be hungry again in two hours, and that everything is vegetarian. That aside, I hope they do well, and look forward to a better experience when they get it together.

UPDATE: One of the owners contacted me promptly to assure that they are still working out the kinks, and invited me back to try them again. That is EXACTLY the kind of thing that will make these guys successful, and I can't wait to take them up on it, and relay my experience. Well done, Philly Chutney, well done.

Sorry

My blog was hacked, sorry about the last post. I will be back posting next week, I am spending time with my family right now.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Taste of Key West

401 South Swarthmore Avenue
Ridley Park, PA 19078
(484) 497-8007
Website

I was recently out in Ridley, fishing one afternoon, and after an early afternoon of mixed success, was hungry for some snack food. Although A Taste of Key West has had varied reviews, it is (as far as I know) about the only place you can boat up to for food and drink on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, at least in the Philly area. Besides, DelCo doesn't frighten me (too much).


Located just off of 95, where the marina is by the airport, it's not hard to find this place. The outdoor "Tiki-style" bar was packed with locals, and we were told to seat ourselves. No problem.


They made an attempt to put down sand to increase the island feel, but the sand was a bit wet and came away more as hard pack. No biggie.


Although they have a huge menu, we played it safe with some "island brews," which inadvertently were Victory Lagers. I remarked how it would just be easier to call it by its name than to explain to every customer what island brew meant. Some crappy Jimmy Buffet played over the well-worn speakers in the background, and the crowd drank and ate peacefully. You really can't beat the option to park a boat outside of the restaurant you are going to.


We also played it safe on the food scene, and considering it was mid-afternoon, and we had dinner plans for a few hours later, just got a light round of food. Some of the food items sounded good in theory but I was not quite ready to jump into a $14-18 entree at a place that most likely doesn't require shoes.


Michael's Buffalo Chicken Tenders were quite tasty. They were served with a sort of peppercorn blue cheese dip, and with a side of fries. Not too bad for $8. They were also gracious enough to only scoff slightly at the request for sides of brown gravy AND cheese for the fries. What can I say, I like to dip. The wing sauce was good, and the fries with dipping sauce hit the spot. The regular chicken tenders were also good, served with a side of honey mustard, and another generous portion of fries.


Now for the wild card. I decided to give the cheapest item on the menu a go-round and ordered a Hans Weiner Dog. Mustard, onions, and special sauce, for a whopping $2.50. Awesome. I remarked how I was hoping the special sauce was a crappy chili sauce, like Nathans. And it was. They even served it with a bag of kettle cooked chips. For the price, you really can't beat it. It was a pretty okay cheap dog.


The inside looks like it's straight out of backwoods Florida, and I imagine it gets jumping on summer weekend nights. All in all, I will definitely be boating in that area again, and I will definitely stop at A Taste of Key West again.

The Jug Handle Inn

1018 South Fork Landing Road
Pennsauken, NJ 08110
(856) 665-8696
Website

I have heard the Jug Handle prides itself on having the "best wings in the world." Given the rather sorry state of good, cheap wings in the city, [which is hard to believe given that outside the city limits they are a dime a dozen (or $.25 a piece)], I often seek respite from the lackluster local offerings and usually find my desired level of flavorful crispiness in the 'burbs. I even have such an affinity that I will venture to . . . New Jersey.


As this was a wing journey, it was a 'must' to give some of the interesting varietals on the menu a go-round. I am glad I did. The buffalo-garlic were pretty much what you would expect, smothered in buffalo and tons of garlic. I ordered all the wings extra crispy, but I am pretty sure they just cooked them the usual way. You never know how each place does them, but Jug Handle was definitely unique. They were lightly breaded and fried perfectly, with crispy edges, and succulent inner meat. When I said they smothered the wings, I meant it. Luckily the crisp outside stood up to the hearty sauces, and retained the satisfying crunch that is so vital to good wings.



One gripe is that you have to order celery and blue cheese separately, but for $.55 a piece, I can deal with it. Also, the sauce is so thick and tasty that there is little need for the blue cheese. I do love some blue cheese on the side, but it was mostly lost in the thick sauce. The honey-hot was one of the better sauce combos, as the slight sweetness complemented the slight burn of the hot. Not quite hot enough for me, but absolutely delicious. You may also notice that they leave the wing tips on the double bone pieces, which I usually can't really get behind, but in this case I was picking the crispy skin off of them. These benefited more from the blue cheese than any of the others.


The BBQ were great, with a thick, sweet, smokey, rich sauce that stuck to the wings and your fingers. They were even better when we ordered more a couple of hours later mixed with extra hot sauce. From 5-7 pm and 10-1 pm they have a wing "happy hour" Monday through Friday, with half price wings. We also ordered another round of honey-extra hot and they were equally as good. Be warned, however, that the jump from hot to extra-hot is a huge one. The hot don't have much bite, whereas the the extra-hot really put the flame to your taste buds. They also offer an extra-extra hot "bald eagle" style wing, but I prefer to be able to taste my food, over simply burning my mouth.


To round out the meal, we sampled the "No Joke" pizza. At $10, it was well worth the investment. It features a crust brushed with horseradish, and a flavorful center piled with grilled chicken breast, bacon, and provolone. There was no actual sting from the horseradish, but there was the distinct flavor of the spicy root. All in all, not a bad pizza, but next time I will get a side of their BBQ sauce, as it could use a bit of sauce, and I think the BBQ would go perfectly.