We have had our first taste of winter, and it is bitter. Luckily, an antidote that once required a trip halfway around the world is as close as Murray Hill …. for a limited time. Last Tuesday, a pop-up of the 6-time Michelin Bib Gourmand-listed “Seoul” food restaurant Okdongsik opened on 30th Street just east of K-Town.
Ok Dongsik, the restaurant’s chef and namesake, is partnering with HAND Hospitality for the next few months to provide New Yorkers with steaming restorative bowls of his award-winning gomtang, or pork bone broth. The broth has been described as an embodiment of umami on steroids. Kimchi Mandoo, Korean-style dumplings plumped with kimchi, braised pork, and glass noodles, will also be on hand.
On Apr. 1, 2023, the tiny shop, which boasts all of 10 seats, will revert to a pumpkin, so if you want to get in on the action, reserve ASAP. Okdongsik, 13 E. 30th Street.
It Takes a Village
Laser Wolf, the immensely popular shipudiya, or “skewer house,” which opened last winter on the rooftop of the Hoxton Hotel in Williamsburg, has spawned an outpost downstairs, in the hotel’s lobby. It’s name, K’Far, is Hebrew for “village,” and the focus is broad, ranging from breakfast pastries (it opens at 8 a.m.) to whole meals, including booze.
A mainstay of the menu is the house-baked breads (Chef Mike Solomonov’s first kitchen job was in a bakery in his hometown of K’Far Sab, just outside Tel Aviv). Offerings in this department include pressed Jerusalem bagel sandwiches and “toasts” fashioned from the enriched Yemenite sabbath bread called kubaneh. K’Far, 97 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-215-7154.
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