This week in the Seattle Times:

Korean japchae is noodle nirvana

> I’m not sure what kind of justice is meted out by the Korean food police, but I have a feeling it involves an extruder.

The plan was for two kinds of tacos: steak and greens. We got some lacinato kale in our CSA box, and I browned a red onion, added the shredded kale, chicken stock, and red pepper flakes, and stewed it until tender. Meanwhile, I browned and sliced some lime-marinated flank steak. Slicing flank steak, either before or after it’s cooked, is one of my favorite kitchen tasks.

It was at this point that I realized the tortillas weren’t going to work out. Trader Joe’s sells a dozen varieties of tortillas, some great, some terrible. These were the latter, some kind of thick corn tortilla as pliable as corrugated cardboard. I found one flour tortilla in the fridge and magnanimously offered it to Iris. Laurie and I each got a big bowl of greens topped with steak and a squeeze of lime.

Need I say that this was as good as any taco? It was also real home cooking, in that I can’t imagine how anyone would get away with serving it in a restaurant: not enough meat to call it a steak dish, too steaky for a vegetable side dish. I’m going to make it again.

Iris got the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook for her birthday and zoomed right in on a recipe called Jed’s Bed of Shrimp. This consists of half a pineapple topped with an imaginary creature and an enormous pile of fried coconut-breaded shrimp.

I asked if we could dispense with the Jed and the pineapple. Iris agreed. I got a bag of unsweetened shredded coconut and a bag of shrimp and went to work. It was okay. If you, like me, are not a fan of the sweet coconut shrimp as served at Red Lobster and elsewhere, substituting unsweetened coconut will not convince you. Iris wasn’t terribly impressed either.

“Why don’t we try it again with panko?” I asked, sounding just like a guy with half of pound of shrimp in the freezer. (This should be a metaphor for something.)

“Okay!” said Iris.

So I did it again, still omitting the pineapple, and this time doing a standard three-part breading of flour, egg, and panko. Iris ate fifteen shrimp. They were 51-60s, but still, whatever you do, don’t tell her about all-you-can-eat fried shrimp at Sizzler.

Today in Gourmet:

[Chewy Pork Belly](http://www.gourmet.com/food/2009/01/chewy-pork-belly)

> “Just so you know,” he said, “The pork belly is supposed to be chewy. I wanted to add a note of authenticity here. In Asia, people eat with the front teeth. Americans eat with the back teeth.” While I chewed and enjoyed the next piece of pork, I thought about my front teeth. They do seem to go woefully underused.

I’m really happy with the way this little piece came out. I got schooled.