Marshall Wright Photography
Editorial & Food Photographerblog
east side king @ shangri-la
Last night I stopped by the newest addition to the growing East Side King army at the Shangri-La on East Sixth for a sneak preview of their new space and new menu. Like the other two locations – Liberty Bar and The Grackle – the menu is unique to the location and features East Side King’s two chef’s spin on Asian street food.
The Shangri-La location stays true to ESK’s dive bar meets trailer food aesthetic where the bar’s jukebox adds a dose of punk rock chic and steamed buns take center stage for a sausage meets Asian comfort street food theme. And it is so tasty.
I started off with the Bao Boy (pork chopped sausage topped with kimchee, bacon, grilled pineapple, gochujang*, karashi* mayo, chicarrones, and green onion) and the Mr. Chicken (chicken chopped sausage topped with basil, mint, cilantro, onion, ESK sweet chili sauce and crispy shallots). The pineapple added a nice sweet note to the Bao Boy but my favorite was the Mr. Chicken. The cool refreshing flavors of the basil, mint and cilantro made my mouth jump and was just what I needed in the late June heat. The crispy shallots were just candy on the tongue.
Togarashi-spiced edamame, the Gyu Bao (beef chopped sausage topped with curry cabbage, tonkatsu sauce, kewpie mayo, potato crisps and green onions) and the Veggie Curry (essentially, the same as the Gyu Bao with veggie sausage instead of beef) round out the five item menu.
Oh, and everything on the menu is $3.00! Who says dinner and drinks has to cost more than ten bucks?! I’m also told they hope to add specials to the menu in the coming weeks with sausages provided by local meat shop, Salt and Time. Yum.
Tonight’s the opening night and Shangri-La will be serving free Shiner beer until they run out starting at 7:00PM so get there early!
*gochujang: spicy sweet Korean miso sauce
*karashi: Japanese mustard
photo of the day: the duck hunt
Updated 04.17.11
The show premiered this morning on KLRU. Check your local listings for the rebroadcast. In the meantime, you can view it here too!
Title: Three birds
When: December 2010
Where: Manor, TX
Today’s the last day of the TX duck season so I thought it appropriate to share the bounty from my first ever duck hunt. Over the course of the past year I’ve been the subject of a Texas Parks & Wildlife story of how a foodie becomes a hunter, and this was our only opportunity to schedule a hunt for the piece. It was a cold, cold morning this past December as we got settled into our blinds around 5:30AM. We needed a successful hunt since unsuccessful hunts don’t normally make for good TV and the hunting gods blessed us on this day. Or maybe it was the TV gods. These beautiful birds were used in a duck, sausage & oyster gumbo a few weeks later that was also filmed as part of the story. The gumbo was delicious.
My guides for the day were Garret Gray & his bird dog Dixie Blue. I can’t wait for you to see her retrieving the ducks from the water. What a precious dog. I’m looking forward to hunting with them again next season. It may be time for us to get a bird dog too. But don’t tell my wife that…just yet.
photo of the day: pancetta
I’m sorely behind in my Charcutepalooza challenges. The salt cure was February’s challenge and I’m just now getting around to my pancetta being ready to cook with. And while I still haven’t completed my March brining challenge (I let the brisket get spoiled – fail), a previous photo of the day of this one during the curing phase ended up making the list of best March photos!