Hanjan-Welcome to New York

I am currently sitting on the floor of my hotel in New York City! I spend the last couple of days in Connecticut where I presented for the Massachusetts Hearing Society and then traveled to New York to be joined by Elena and Adam. We have a big weekend planned and while they are both still sleeping, I thought I would post the first of several posts from this weekend.  I have with me, of course, my 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die book and plan on checking off a few while here.

First is Hanjan.  This is a Korean eatery fun by Chef Hoonie Kim.  On their website it says:  “HANJAN is Chef Hooni Kim’s second restaurant after DANJI , located in the Flatiron District in New York. It was inspired by the ‘joomak,’ an old Korean tavern that offered weary travelers good food, good drinks and a place to rest. Many of the dishes at HANJAN are meant to evoke Korean street markets that offer comfort food enjoyed by people in Korea in their everyday life”.  We went last night and had an amazing dinner.

First up, I tried Makgeolli because I had not ever had it before. This is an unfiltered rice beer and our very wonderful bar tender said it was something that could be hit or miss with new people. It was not my most favorite drink of all times but we all agreed it went wonderfully with the food.  We had several things, on that front, that were truly amazing. I am providing the menu so you can see all of the wonderful choices. In total we ordered the wings, pork belly, noodle soup, fried rice and scallion pancakes.  All were amazing but I would say the top two favorites for us were the chicken wings and the spicy seafood noodles.

The chicken wings were cooked perfectly-they were crispy beyond belief-even with the think layer of the most amazing sweet-spicy sauce.  The spicy noodle soup had a spicy broth that had such an amazing flavor that it is pointless to try to describe.  YUM.

There are things I am thankful for every day and one of them is Mimi Sheraton. In a town like New York where  a person can eat well on every corner, I think we might not have tried Hanjan w/o the recommendation.  I am adding mine to Mimi’s. this is a gem of a restaurant-the interior is stunning but cozy, the wait staff are attentive and the food is to die for. Literally.