Easiest No Cook Dinner

Last Saturday, I missed an opportunity to go to Kum Gang San (49 West 32nd St., b/n 5h and B'way) with a whole bunch of friends, so I had Korean on the brain. Sunday I partially made up for that decision by inviting a friend over for Scrabble and my favorite no-cook dinner. The great thing about this dinner is all you need is a microwave and some disposable chopsticks saved from all those Thai and Chinese meals you've had delivered to you when you were too lazy to figure out what else to do to feed yourself.

Go to the Korean market just down the block from Kum Gang San. It's called Han Ah Reum (25 West 32nd St., b/n 5th and B'way), and it's open from 9am - midnight. Pick up a basket and head straight down the aisle to the refrigerated display of panchan. These are little side dishes that are served at the beginning of a meal. If you're lucky in your Korean restaurant choices, you'll get a dozen different little dishes ranging from pickled radish, kimchee, spicy marinated shiso leaves, spicy tofu, to little dried and flavored fish. If your yummy Korean restaurant radar blows, you'll get stuck with only a half-dozen barely spicy panchan, and you won't be able to help feeling a little depressed. At Han Ah Reum there's a display of maybe over 40 different types, and prices range from $1.99 to $4.99 -- go nuts.


Then turn around and pick up these individual portions of rice that you can microwave in 1min30sec. They aren't cheap enough (around $2.25-2.50) to be standbys for a college student, but they'll do for working folks with limited patience. Five people? Five bowls. Almost done. Scurry on to the back, make a left at the produce section and pick up some sashimi in one of the refrigerated displays in the back. I got a slab of escolar, commonly served as "white tuna" in sushi restaurants. If you don't have wasabi and soy sauce at home, pick those up too. Finally, swing back up to the front of the market and grab a 6-pick or two of OB or Hite, the most common Korean beers.

Pay, go home, unwrap everything, microwave the rice -- and there's your no-cook Korean dinner party for 2-20!

Oh, I completely lost at Scrabble, in case you were wondering.