Monday, March 30, 2015

Late night soju and seafood pancake

There is something heavy metal about Sik Gaek on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens.  There is an elbow to the eye socket quality.  The music is loud and the kitchen puts out an amazing pancake festooned with sweet shrimp and scallion and perhaps crab or lobster or briney mollusk.  The place is dark and there are polaroids of customers and sharpie testimonials all over the wood walls.  The famous dish is a seafood hot pot the size of an oil drum into which you dump gobs of living invertebrates that quiver and die and release their sweet sea juice into the boiling broth.  We opted for pancakes and some thick cut pork belly that was hefty and chewy instead.  We also abstained from the soju soaked watermelon which sends so many youngsters to the curb on Friday and Saturday nights to divest themselves of their hot pot freight.  We had already had our fill of drink.  I bought a shirt that smelled like a chip shop and wore it proudly days later without washing it.  It was like being wrapped in a 2 day old fried oyster robe.  

2 comments:

  1. Enjoyed the vivid description and humor and remember fondly my gustatory experiences in New York.

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    1. Thanks Jeff. What an amazing place to eat, right? Wish I could transport myself there at will.

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