Culinary adventures with Tittsworth

Tittsworth’s penchant for eating exotic and rare foods from around the world is somewhat legendary in the DJ/house music world.  Ask to see his tattoo of all the weird things he’s eaten next time you see him.  So he sent me a link early last week about this famous jerky spot in Chinatown called New Beef King.  Without question, we were going to hit it up the following weekend when he was in town.

Before his set at the Tiger of the Year party at 88 Palace, we stopped in to Prosperity Kitchen on Eldridge for some cheap, cheap pork-and-chive dumplings and sesame pancake with beef.  The food was what you’d expect for last-batch-of-the-night dumplings, but no complaints here.  Jesse stirred up his own blend of Sriracha, soy sauce, and vinegar to kick up the flavor a bit.  Other than being rained on from the condensation inside the tiny shop, the highlight for me was the upside-down OPEN sign in the window.

We had some more time to kill and thought maybe, just maybe, New Beef King would still be open.  Alas by the time we got there, all of Chinatown was shut down except all the white kids standing outside Apotheke.  Back to 88 Palace where Tittsworth slayed the crowd, and we were granted five cases of Tiger Beer.

Next day we headed straight back to New Beef King, and were handsomely rewarded with some of the most delicious jerky I’ve ever had.  Here are some of the various kinds we sampled.

We chatted with the friendly owner for probably about 45 minutes and spent about $60 between us on the delicious varieties.  I love it so much I’m taking all of my friends back this Saturday.  This place is like my stash spot – going back for another fix.

That night we went all the way out to Flushing, Queens to a spot called Sik Gaek, the only Korean restaurant that we could find that serves live octopus.  After a few trains and a cab, we ended up at this place that looked like a Korean T.G.I.Friday’s on the inside and was blasting Tupac when we walked in the door.  A good omen, indeed.

We ordered a bunch of different dishes (rice cakes, baby octopus and crispy pork belly, bulgogi with sirloin, and a bunch of egg dishes they just kept making for us), but the live octopus tentacles was by far the weirdest.  You can see in the video below that they’re still wriggling around on the plate, and eventually in your mouth.  The suckers on them will catch the inside of your cheek if you don’t chew on them fast enough.  I had 2 and that was enough for me, but Tittsworth kept going back in for more.

Later that night at Flashing Lights we also ate Sour Cream ‘n Onion Crickets, Bacon ‘n Cheese Crickets, and bacon-flavored chocolate.  Quite an adventure for my palate for the day.