Kitchen Kibitz at Shojo

On Sunday night I went to my second Kitchen Kibitz popup at Shojo! I've been wanting to go to Shojo for a while now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I've already talked about what Kitchen Kibitz is, so I'll get right to the good stuff.

I went to this event alone and was a bit nervous. People tend to go to these dinners in couples or groups and I'm quite introverted when it comes to meeting new people. When I got there I randomly chose a spot at a big table and spent the first 5 minutes trying not to be awkward and mostly looking at my phone. Eventually conversation spread across the table and I ended up having a fabulous night! I was sitting with 8 others and had a great time talking about Iron Chef, restaurants in Boston, nonprofits, traveling, etc. etc. It just turned out really great!

Sunday's popup focused on fusing traditional Jewish cuisine with traditional Chinese cuisine in a fun, modern way. As the Chinese New Year is coming up (Friday), each place setting had fun trinkets to celebrate, including various red envelopes filled with gelt (Hanukkah candy coins, instead of real money per usual Chinese tradition). My red envelope meant "good fortune for the new year." I'll take it!!

As soon as we sat down we were poured cold tea -- oolong tea infused vodka, peach de vinge and lemon. This was so delicious and I helped myself to a few cups throughout the night!

The first food of the night was black & white challah bread (black from using squid ink!) served with a miso honey butter. Apparently is was guest chef Mark O'Leary's first time making challah bread, but you could never tell. It tasted like it came right out of the oven of a bakery on Long Island!

Next up were the appetizers: matzoball ramen and a pastrami rye bao.

[apologies for crappy photos]

One of my favorite parts of the evening was that many of the guests I was sitting with were excited to share with me stories of growing up in a Jewish home/family. When the soup came out, the guy sitting across from me explained the "battle of matzoballs" and how he was a "sinker" lover at heart and wouldn't go near a "floater". He was thrilled that the matzoballs in our soup were "sinkers" -- made with schmaltz (rendered chicken fat), fluffy on the outside but dense inside so they sink to the bottom of the bowl.

The pastrami rye bao was one of the more hilarious mash-ups for me. The perfectly steamed Chinese bun was made with rye flour and filled with thin sliced pastrami and kimchi instead of your standard Jewish deli cole slaw. So creative.

The rest of the meal was served family style. Three HUGE entree trays were passed around the table:

Luobagao latke with green tea creme fraiche and smoked salmon. This dish was so delicious -- the latke was very soft and made from parsnip. The smoked salmon and little chip on top paired surprisingly perfectly with the cakey latke and the green tea creme fraiche.

Good harvest stir fry flanken. I could have eaten this whole tray! Flanken is a cut of meat taken from the short ribs of beef. Apparently it's a big cut of meat eaten on Jewish holidays. Who knew? The flanken was served with thin noodles and veggies -- a fun play on a noodle and beef dish!

Chinese 5 spice kugel with dried longan. Again, I loved how heated the diners at my table got when arguing over what the "right" kugel is. As a first time eater of kugel, everyone was fighting to tell me what kind of kugel their mom makes (which of course, is the *right* kind of kugel). It was too cute. The kugel was probably the strangest thing I ate all night, but also the best! Kugel is a mashed up egg noodle pie, and Shojo added an Asian twist by seasoning it with Chinese 5 Spice and topping it with crispy fried wantons.

For dessert, we first cleansed our pallets with a tangerine honey shaved snow. Then we were treated to mochi, coated in a Manischewitz syrup and covered in black sesame seeds. Everyone at the table was hesitant to try this (apparently most people think Manishewitz is gross) but it was actually really delicious! Personally, I loved it.

Overall it was a great night! I'm so glad I decided to go despite having no one to go with. Nights like these are good reminders to push myself out of my comfort zone!