i h c m i K eans B &
SUMMER 2020
K S PIN MA E LO SE W E A S P U U CA AN K E B L C IN AL A DR 7 P.
A FOOD & TRAVEL MAGAZINE BEIJING BOUND Our travel day and first impressions
LET'S COMMIT TO IT DONATE HERE A rally cry for positive Put your money change where your mouth is
Summer 2020 6 7 16 24 27 Blog: Kimchiandbeans.com YouTube: Maria and Nabol
QUARANTINE SHOPPING Everything you need to survive this pandemic, NEW RECIPES! Cooking is 2020's favorite pastime! Enjoy some of our favorite recipes. POSTCARD FROM BEIJING We share our first impressions of our Beijing trip. FOODS FROM BEIJING We share some of our must eats. DONATE HERE Make a difference by contributing to these causes,
K &B News Hi guys! Here's a little bit of what's happened in the last few months.
YOUTUBE After coming to terms with the current pandemic, we’ve adapted our content to better support local businesses and provide useful videos. That’s how our Chicago Takeout was born, as well as new recipe content and quarantine “day-in-the-life” check-ins with our fans.
TRAVEL Believe it or not, we still have tons of footage from our China trip to share. Hopefully, it will somewhat fulfill your travel bug while we can go places again. We’re also planning to travel at a more local level to give ideas on where to go around the Midwest.
FOOD
MIDWEST TRAVEL 5 small towns you should visit
Getting back in the kitchen is a big part of 2020. It’s good therapy to help cope with our new stresses and struggles, and we’ll be bringing you short recipe videos, as well as blog posts and social media posts.
Let's commit to it. We can certainly say that Americans are way past concerns about lack of toilet paper and Netflix options. Virus? What virus? At the 11week mark of our stay-at-home order, shit hit the fan quite spectacularly when an unarmed black man was killed in the arms of Minneapolis police. The death of George Floyd and several other recent incidents of abuse and aggression against the black community were the tipping point that unleashed a revolt against a system that was designed to oppress and silence people of color, minorities and those who can barely make a living. We’ve all seen what has taken place on the streets. But how many of us are truly committed to making a difference on a day to day basis? In our jobs and in our daily lives, we have to find opportunities to educate, support and give voice to those who need to be heard. This shouldn’t be a fleeting moment, but we should use this momentum to reenergize our passion for positive change. 4
As influencers, we can also do better about highlighting people and businesses who better represent our city. For a while now, we have been moving beyond showcasing the typical areas of Chicago to show communities like Back of the Yards and Humboldt Park. And we’ll be doing more of that. Those stories are so valuable to provide a better perspective. When we travel, we also have to work harder at showing everyday life in the countries we visit. We’re trying to do that with our China series to help with some of the backlash caused by the COVID pandemic. There is so much hate and misunderstanding around the world that, if we can do anything to change that, we will. We know this is probably not the intro many of you were expecting, but it’s our way to encourage all of you to think long and hard about how we can integrate this way of thinking, acting and responding into our everyday actions. -Maria & Nabol
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5 small towns you should visit
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Pink Palomas Also known as "the working man's drink," palomas are a Mexican classic cocktail typically made by mixing tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda, such as Fresca.
Ingredients 1 Oz grapefruit soda 1 Oz pomegranate soda 1 Oz grapefruit juice 1 Oz lime juice 1 or 1/2 Oz simple syrup 3 Oz tequila, such as Tequila Partida
In our version, we add a couple of other ingredients to give it a beautiful pink color. Just mix all of the ingredients and enjoy. 7
Easy Thumbprints One of the only silver linings of this whole pandemic situation is that Nabol and I have rekindled our love for recipe development. When you have extra time on your hands and a kitchen pantry full of ingredients, what else can you do? Baking especially is one of those things that we’re not great at, but our cravings for certain baked goods have pushed us to roll our sleeves up and keep improving our techniques. That’s how our latest thumbprint cookie recipe was born. I recently ordered honey and fruit butters from Honeyville, our favorite beekeeping business in Durango, CO. And as were envisioning some sort of cookie or scone made with their famous apple butter. 8
To oue surprise, these are probably the easiest cookies that we’ve ever done - and from the first try too! Instructions 1. Combine all of the dry ingredients and slowly incorporate the roomtemperature butter, the eggs and the remaining ingredients. 2. Use your hands to mix the ingredients and make the dough. Form a log and wrap it in cling film (plastic wrap). Keep in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. 3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the dough to make small balls and use your thumb or the back of a round measuring teaspoon to make a hole in the cookie. 4. Fill your cookies with a little apple butter. Bake on a greased baking sheet for about 15 minutes depending on your oven.
Ingredients 1 ½ Cups of all-purpose flour ½ Cup of powdered sugar 1/2 Tbsp of orange zest 1 Spoonful of your favorite apple butter 1 Stick of butter 1 Egg yolk 1 Pinch of salt Apple butter The cookies should have a lightly golden bottom but will remain slightly soft.
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Russian Pozharsky I no longer own a lot of things. As years go by and we continue to move from one place to another, I’ve been holding on to less and less material things. I don’t own a single purse. I buy clothes when I absolutely need them. I make my own artwork, instead of buying it… You get the idea. There are two types of items, however, that I do keep as my dearest possessions: a handful of unique food styling plates and a handful of old cookbooks. They always end up in the “It makes me happy” pile and follow me wherever I go. 10
One of those books is called Mi Cocina Rusa (My Russian Kitchen) by Ediciones Castell, and it was a beautiful gift from a longtime friend. The pages in this cookbook have slightly faded and the book itself smells years old. The layout of the recipes and the illustrations are beautifully imperfect. And the food styling in the pictures is also very rustic and old school. When I was a kid, those were precisely the details that captivated me and encouraged me to start cooking and plating.
I make a point to try and experiment with the recipes in my cookbooks, although I have to say that this Russian cookbook is particularly challenging. I don’t always have access to some of the ingredients and most of the recipes are also very time consuming and incredibly complicated. The delicious Pozharsky cutlets is one of the exceptions. Imagine a huge chicken McNugget that is 100 times better and without any of the preservatives and weird ingredients that you’ll expect from a fast-food chain. Plus, it tastes even better if you pair it with an equally amazing mushroom sauce, inspired by the classic baked mushroom recipe Gribi v Smetane. The best part is that you can totally freeze the chicken mix and make more patties a week or so later. Now, let’s get cooking!
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Instructions for cutlets 1. Using a food processor, grind the meat until slightly smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add the eggs, milk and half of the breadcrumbs. Pulse again until everything is combined. 2. Let the mixture rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Form the mixture into patties. If the mixture is too soft, sprinkle more breadcrumbs. 3. Cover each patty in breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil. Let the patties rest on paper towels to remove the excess oil. Instructions for sauce 1. In a large skillet, sauté the onions with a drizzle of olive oil. 2. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender. Add the pickles, cream, butter and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.
Pozharsky Cutlets 1.5 Cups of diced boneless chicken (use dark or white meat or a mix) 2.5 Cups of bread crumbs 1/3 Cup of milk 1 Tablespoon of butter 2 Eggs Salt and pepper to taste Frying oil Mushroom sauce with pickles 3 Cups of mushrooms 1 Small onion roughly chopped 2 Tablespoons of butter ½ Cup of chopped dill pickles ½ Cup of cream Olive oil Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste Dried or fresh parsley Serve sauce over the chicken patties with some parsley.
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Apple and Turkey Salad As you guys know, we’re big fans of experimenting with seasonal produce, and our friends from Starr Ranch Growers sent us a lovely box of Juici apples — first time learning about them too. Similar in flavor to Honeycrisps, which is actually one of our favorite varieties, Juici apples have thinner skin, amazing crunch and a perfectly balanced taste between sweet and tart. We decided to use them in one of our favorite salads: An apple, green bean and turkey salad with goat cheese dressing.
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Juici apples really add a nice crunch and touch of sweetness to this salad that makes every bite so satisfying. Instructions 1. Make a dressing by combining the sour cream, buttermilk, cheese, olive oil, honey vinegar, mustard, red onion, dried herbs. 2. Blanch yellow or green beans. Or both! 3. Slice slightly chilled Juici apples. Slice some green grapes and cherry tomatoes.5. Shred some of the leftover turkey. 4. Assemble the salad by placing some of the dressing at the bottom. Sprinkle parmesan and honey before serving.
Ingredients – Adjust amount per number of guests Yellow or green beans Juici Apples Parmesan cheese Green Grapes Cherry Tomatoes Shredded leftover turkey Dressing – Serves about 4-6 portions ¼ Cup of sour cream ¼ Cup of buttermilk 4 oz Soft goat cheese 2 Tbs Olive oil 1 Tbs Honey 2 Tsp Apple cider vinegar 1 Tsp Dijon mustard ¼ Cup of minced red onion ¼ Cup of dried herbs (We used a combo of French chervil, parsley, chives and French tarragon)
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Burger Salad Nothing more American than a low carb burger salad to celebrate the 4th! Skip the bun and mix chopped burger meat and beyond meat with your favorite toppings. Use a little mustard and mayo as dressing. That's it.
Ingredients Ground chuck or Beyond Meat, seasoned, cooked and crumbled Butter lettuce Chopped tomatoes Chopped red onions Chopped dill pickles Mayo & mustard to taste
Hope y’all have a fantastic holiday. Enjoy the fireworks.
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Postcard from Beijing Published Sept. 8, 2019
What do we really know about China? Unfortunately, not very much. A lot of the Chinese food we eat in America is clearly westernized, including those Chinese cookies that are only a thing in America. We don’t realize that many of the products that we buy are made in China. And back during our school years, we mainly learned about Europe, Russia, and Latin America, while Asia was mostly mentioned in relation to some sort of political conflict —often seen under a negative light.
We grew up being completely ignorant about one of the world’s first civilizations, often generalizing everything and everyone that came from Asia as Chinese, as in some sort of misunderstood blob of things that have little to do with us. Even today, when we’re so dependent on Chinese technology and goods, we understand very little about the current tariff war and the technology war, not to mention the differences between mainland China vs. Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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As we embark on this new adventure in China, we don’t expect to find all the answers, but at the very least, we’re very curious to see and experience China without all the Western filters that we grew up with. Last February, we found a $444dollar round trip ticket with Hainan Airlines and decided to go for it.
Luckily, it was a pretty uneventful one and the service was excellent. For starters, we were moved to a two-seater at the back of the airplane, which was perfect because we wouldn’t want to drive anybody crazy with our vlogging.
A few visits to the Chinese Consulate and $280 dollars in visas later, we were ready for our our 13-hour and 45-minute flight to Beijing.
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The two meals — one 2 hours after take-off and one 2 hours before landing —were also very tasty and quite filling for airline food. The seats were also comfortable and there were plenty of entertainment options, including recently released blockbusters. The plane even had dimmable windows, which allowed us to sleep for a few hours even when we were going in the direction of the sun. We landed at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Sunday, September 1st. Immigration was a breeze and signs at the airport were clearly labeled in English so we found our way around easily. And because we’re balling thanks to everything we saved on those tickets, we treated ourselves to a driver that picked us up from the hotel. He was waiting for us with a sign and greeted us very kindly.
Even with a bit of traffic, we made it to our hotel in 45 minutes. Roads were very modern, well-labeled in Chinese and English, and drivers were no different than those in Chicago.
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It was funny to see our driver entering the alley leading to our hotel and trying not to curse out of frustration with all the incoming drivers and people making their way in such a cramped space. He was too polite.
And yes, The Orchid is a very nice and modern hotel. But the best part is that it is also located in a hutong, an old alley formed by lines of sihueyuan, traditional courtyard residences. It’s the best setting for Nabol and I to embrace the real Beijing.
We chose to stay at The Orchid hotel in the Baochao hutong area. And by we, I mean me, Maria. Nabol was so skeptical about coming to China in the first place, that I wanted to make this experience as painless as possible, and that meant staying at a decent hotel.
Our front desk person sat down with us to go over a local map and gave us a crash course on how to make the most of the city: Do’s and don’ts, where to eat, useful Chinese words and essential information about attractions and tickets.
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The hotel even gave us a local phone with navigation and translating apps. They are available 24/7 so you can literally contact them for everything.
We can live without social media for a few days. Our plans for tomorrow are very loose. We want to take in our neighborhood and maybe visit some of the shops and game stores in the area.
The only wall that we hit was in terms of the VPN and Sim Cards. We weren’t been able to get anything to work.
Eat some street food and people watch. In the afternoon, we’re excited to join a hutong food tour with Lost Plate. We’ve heard it's a great one. Expect lots of pictures and footage in the near future. Until then, goodnight from Beijing.
We’re not sure how we’re going to connect with everybody back home, but If we can’t it’s not a big deal either.
Published on Sept. 8th, 2019.
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Ground Beef Lo Mein For those of us who love to cook, inspiration can come from anywhere — even an airplane meal that happened to be way above the standard. On our recent trip to China, we flew Hainan Airlines and their menu included both Chinese and American options for the dinner and breakfast service. If you know anything about us, you know we’ll go for the foreign option every single time. And Hainan's ground beef Lo Mein dish was hands down our favorite dish from this trip. What made this dish unique was that it didn’t look anything like the Lo Mein we’re used to from Chinese restaurants in the States.
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The sauce was slightly sweet and you could taste the carrots and celery and it paired beautifully with a side of steamed baby bok choy. We had to replicate it as soon as we got home. Instructions 1. Sauté the onions, celery, ginger and carrot with a drizzle of olive oil or canola oil. 2. Add the garlic, a pinch of cumin, and the beef. Sprinkle a pinch of salt. Cook until the meat is almost completely done. 3. Add the tomato paste, vinegar, oyster sauce, Hoisin sauce and water. Cook until it all comes together and it thickens a bit. 4. In the meantime, chop the ends of the bok choi and steam it until tender. Sprinkle with salt or garlic salt. 5. Boil the noodles. Mix with the sauce and serve with the veggies.
Ingredients 1 Cup of onion, finely chopped 1/3 Cup of celery, finely chopped 1 Small carrot, finely chopped ½ Teaspoon of fresh ginger, minced 3 Small garlic cloves, minced 1 Pinch of cumin salt to taste 1 Pound of beef 1 1/2 Teaspoons of tomato paste 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Oyster Sauce 3 Teaspoons of Hoisin Sauce ¼ Cup of Water 1 Teaspoon of Sauce Ramen Noodles – the straight kind Baby Bok Choy, as much as you want
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Foods from Beijing
Beijing Faves While this is not even a sample of foods recommended to try in Beijing, we wanted to share with you some of our favorites. Baozi & Youtiao This was hands down our favorite thing to eat for breakfast. Baozi are steamed, bread-like buns that are filled with (usually) juicy pork and veggies, and you can find them all around town. And the youtiao are deep-fried and incredibly fluffy and airy long donuts. Simple and delicious.
Peking Duck You can’t leave Beijing without trying their delicious roasted duck. Eat it at a fancy restaurant or as a wrap from a local shop. Or both! For two people who didn’t care for duck before, this really made us a fan. Baijiu Distilled from sorghum and rice, this is Beijing’s liquor of choice. It is usually between 40% to 50% alcohol proof and it smells like pineapple. When your host brings it to the table, it’s a gesture of friendship. 25
Zhajiang mian This popular dish is made with thick hand pulled wheat noodles and a fried fermented soybean paste sauce with pieces of pork. It’s usually served with fresh vegetables, including radish and cucumbers, and drizzled with vinegar and chili oil.
Mongolian Hotpot While this is especially popular in Winter months, hotpots are a fun interactive meal experience all year-round. You choose your favorite veggies to cook them on a big broth pot placed at your table.
Jianbing This is Beijing’s version of a breakfast crepe, although you could eat them as a snack too. The crispy wrap is usually made with wheat and mung bean. It’s then topped with egg, sauce, a crispy cracker, green onion and lettuce. You might also be able to add spam and a number of other veggies and toppings. Jarred yogurt Everybody was drinking these at the parks and markets and we had to try them. The yogurt is lightly sweet, super fresh and not too heavy.
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Donate Here
Consider donating to these organizations. My Block, My Hood, My City provides underprivileged youth with an awareness of the world and opportunities beyond their neighborhood. ForMyBlock.org Campaign Zero is a comprehensive platform of research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in America. JoinCampaignZero.org Black Visions Collective is a black, trans & queer-led organization committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence. BlackVisionsMN.org
Black Lives Matter mobilizes and amplifies national dialogue around state-sanctioned violence. BlackLivesMatter.Com Human Rights Campaign envisions an America where LGBTQ people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe. HRC.Org
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Let us entertain you New Series to Binge Watch
Beijing Travel Back in September, we visited Beijing and fell in love with the sights, the food and culture. In this series, we're doing our best to show you what real life is like in the city. Chicago Takeout In an attempt to support local businesses during this pandemic, we're filming great takeout options that people can enjoy around the city.
Texas Travel If you haven't seen our Texas series, we have great episodes in Austin and San Antonio highlighting the local food and beautiful places to visit.
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Chicago Lockdown As part of our Chicago Dailies, we're doing a few quarantine episodes where we show what life is like and how we're staying busy. Puerto Rico Travel Here's another travel series trending on our channel lately. We highlight beautiful places around the island, as well as great food.
Milwaukee Travel Looking for a fun city to visit around the Midwest, check out our Milwaukee series highlighting some of our favorite places.
New Recipes And don't miss our quick and easy recipe videos to get some inspiration during this quarantine.
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