Tag: Fusion American

Blomster’s opens second Korean diner ‘popup’ in California wine country
It doesn’t seem to make sense that a 40-plus-year-old San Francisco Bay-area brunch joint is sharing valuable restaurant space with a fusion diner known for its Korean fried chicken and Los Angeles galbi with mac and cheese. It might be even more surprising that the owner of the Korean diner has never stepped foot in Korea, yet the breakfast baron has racked up many frequent flyer miles to Korea — particularly, Jeju Island.
David Blomster prepares to cut the ribbon for his second Korean diner, located in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2015. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
David Blomster opened his second Dick Blomster’s Korean Diner officially Nov. 13 as the afternoon and night shift in Don Taylor’s Omelette Express, located in the historic Railroad Square district of Santa Rosa, a city about an hour north of San Francisco. During the ribbon-cutting party Nov. 17, I caught up with Blomster and Taylor, as the latter was pouring shots of homemade 12-year-old ginseng-infused soju for his business partners to celebrate the new collaboration.
Don Taylor, owner of the Omelette Express, shares shots of ginseng soju with business partners as he celebrates his new business venture with David Blomster. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
Blomster opened his first pop-up Korean diner, called Dick Blomster’s, in Guerneville, California, in 2012, sharing space with Pat’s Diner, a Guerneville institution since the 1940s. For the first six months or so of his enterprise, Korean-American chef Eugene Birdsall helped him develop the menu for the restaurant and got the concept moving. Local residents embraced the restaurant so much that after a couple of years as a renter, Blomster made enough money to buy Pat’s Diner outright. A “popup” restaurant can be a one-off event, a market test or a business strategy to save money on rent and startup costs. So it’s unusual for a popup to buy its own landlord.
A rustic yet classy way to celebrate a new Korean restaurant venture: 12 year old ginseng soju. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
“I knew there was a need in West County for Korean cuisine,” Blomster said, referring to western Sonoma County, located just west of Napa Valley. At the time of his debut in 2012, the nearest Korean restaurants to Guerneville were Tov Tofu in Santa Rosa, which is a half hour drive east of Guerneville, or Bear Korean in Cotati, which was about 40 minutes away until it closed in 2014.
David Blomster is the restauranteur behind Blomster’s Korean diner. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
Although Blomster knows that popup restaurants are a hot trend in culinary circles, he doesn’t believe the term fully explains his restaurant concept.
“I don’t like being referred to as a popup, because popups lack permanence,” he said. “I consider Blomster’s Korean Diner a permanent popup.”
Blomster’s expansion to Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square district brings it among several high-end hotels, but there are few Asian restaurants within walking distance.
Taylor reached out to Blomster a few months ago to see if they could find a way to share his space with the Korean diner.
“This is a 40-year-old family restaurant that is not open at night, in the middle of Railroad Square,” Taylor said. “It’s a fabulous location.”
Blomster didn’t have to order up any Korean-style decor for his new popup. Omelette Express is already covered in Jeju-inspired items from Don Taylor’s frequent trips to Korea. (Tammy Quackenbush photo).
Blomster couldn’t ask for a better place for his second location. This Omelette Express restaurant is partially decorated with mementos from Taylor’s frequent trips over the last 15 years to Jeju Island, a popular vacation spot off the bottom of the South Korean peninsula. As a former Santa Rosa City Council member, Taylor has been instrumental in fostering Santa Rosa’s sister city relationship with Buk Jeju–Jeju City, the capital of the island province.
“I love Korean food,” Taylor said. “I am excited that David was making Korean food more accessible. He figured out how to make Korean food successfully.”
Blomster’s menu is partly inspired by his college years. He lived near L.A.’s Koreatown, with its mix of traditional Korean restaurants and more modern, hip noodle places.
“I wanted a playful combination of Korean, American and noodle dishes,” he said. “Ingredients like kimchi, ssamjang and gochujang are a starting point for the other items on the menu. We have a few traditional Korean dishes, like tteokbokki, which is a Korean street food, but I don’t claim to be or desire to be a traditional Korean restaurant.”
With dishes like mac and cheese, fried pickles and fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on menu, this Korean diner is equally inspired by Blomster’s roots in the U.S. heartland.
“I grew up in the Midwest, where ‘ethnic food’ was spaghetti,” he said.
One of Blomster’s favorite signature sides is buttered bread: sourdough slathered with butter and fried on a griddle. That’s inspired by his Detroit hometown.
Blomster’s Korean-style restaurant commands a 4 out of 5 rating on Yelp.
Dick Blomster officials opened his second Korean Diner on Nov. 13 at Don Taylor’s Omelette Express, located in the historic Railroad Square district of Santa Rosa, California. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
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Dick Blomster’s Korean Diner
112 Fourth St.
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
www.dickblomsters.com
707-525-1690
Hours: 5–10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 5–11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
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December 2, 2015
Easy Kimchi Deviled Quail Eggs
There are some things that are cheap in Korea that are considered delicacies in other parts of the world. One of those is quail eggs. People don’t think anything of them in Korea. You can get them raw next to the chicken eggs. But even better, you can get them already cooked and peeled in the refrigerator section. That makes things much easier when making this recipe.
Normally, I would have garnished them with something like gochugaru or chiffonade sesame leaves. But the baby was also eating these. She can handle a little bit of spice but not much. These were gone in fifteen minutes.
February 4, 2012
Tex-Mex Bibimbap
Korean food purists walk away.
One evening last week I took over dinner prep and thought I’d make some chicken burritos. Got everything ready and then took out the tortillas. They’d grown a bit of mold. Each one. So I was stuck with the ingredients I had put together. Well, why not replace one starch with another? So I got a metal bowl, put in a few scoops of rice, and topped it with fajita chicken and onions, lettuce, shredded Monterey Jack, and salsa. Stirred it up and didn’t expect it to taste any good.
It was damn good! The cheese brought it together. Melted a bit in the hot rice and chicken. Again, this is proof that you don’t need to make bibimbap a big production. It’s a way to get rid of leftovers.
January 25, 2012
S’more Gyeongdan

S’mores!  The combination of graham crackers, gooey marshmallow and chocolate is an American classic that has found so many sweet applications, like cupcakes, bars, shakes, etc. So it’s only natural that I try my own take on s’more for an easy sweet-tooth fix…
…and you are probably not surprised I made rice cakes with these ingredients. Gyeongdan (경단) is a quick and easy kind of rice cakes made by boiling small balls of sweet rice flour dough, a.k.a. glutinous rice flour (despite no gluten in the flour…so confusing). They are often rolled in sponge cake crumbs or toasted bean powder (콩고물 – kong go mul) which only enhance their already cute looks and flavors.
Now you can enjoy a soft Korean rendition of s’mores from this sweet gyeongdan, with the rice flour wrapper as a snug pocket for holding melted chocolate chips and marshmallow bits together.
These gyeongdan are best, soft and slightly chewy, when they’re warm. If necessary, you can re-heat them, covered, in the microwave for 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the number of gyeongdan) before serving. I have to warn you though there is a chance that the chocolate and marshmallow filling might burst out in the microwave (how do I know this…?). This doesn’t affect taste much, just not the most well put-together pieces of gyeongdan at this point.
If you want to make ahead, make gyeongdan but don’t boil them. Place gyeongdan on a plate, not touching each other, and freeze for a couple of hours until they are firm.  Keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer. When you are ready to serve, go directly from the freezer to boiling water, then roll in graham cracker crumbs.
RELATED POSTS
Orange Seolgi (설기)
Patbingsu Cupcakes (팥빙수 컵케이크)
KOREAN WORDS
ice    얼음    (eol eum, which becomes ‘eo reum’ in actual pronounciation)
adult  어른   (eo reun)
January 17, 2012
Korean Fish Tacos
The modern fish taco was born in Baja California, although different kinds of fish tacos have been part of that Mexican state’s cuisine for centuries. I made a Korean fish taco with 된장 doenjang-glazed cod, Korean pear salsa and coleslaw (shredded cabbage or lettuce would work).
Savory Doenjang and sweet, crunchy Korean pears add texture to these fish tacos. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
In November, U.S.-grown shingo pears are still in season, and ones imported from Korea are still readily available in many Korean grocery stores.
Korean-grown shingo pears are noticeably larger than their American siblings. Unlike some supersized fruit, the larger pears tend to be more crunchily juicy and sweet without being syrupy than the smaller versions. Cubed raw shingo pears refreshingly complement salads, sandwiches and salsas.
Doenjang-glazed Fish Tacos With Shingo Pear Salsa
(Makes two to four servings)
November 29, 2011
New Bibigo Retail Sauces in Korean Tacos
ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal was approached some time ago by publicists for CJ Foods, the owners of the Bibigo restaurant franchise. CJ Foods is also a subsidiary of CJ Corp., one of South Korea’s largest food manufacturers. They offered free samples of their new line of grocery products.
Note: I have not received any compensation for this review by CJ Foods (or anyone else) other than the samples to try out for this review.
Bibigo began its corporate life last year as a small chain of Korean restaurants fervently trying to reinvent 비빔밥 bibimbap as fast-casual cuisine. The restaurant chain has now spread to Singapore, Beijing and Los Angeles.
Less than a year later, the Bibigo name is branching out into the retail market with sauces, marinades and pre-made Korean foods for grocery stores across the US. A CJ Foods rep told me consumers will start seeing Bibigo on US store shelves in January 2012.
I admit I’m biased toward made-from-scratch Korean foods. My writing and cooking talents—meager as they are—are supposed to inspire people to start their own small gardens and cook their own food from scratch.
Yet even the most eager home cook can’t be on his or her game 24/7. And not all have the time to make every marinade, 반찬 banchan (side dish) and dipping sauce from scratch every day. That’s why I’m trying out these sauces and marinades for myself.
When I cracked open the bottle of Bibigo’s Original 불고기 bulgogi sauce ($4.99 suggested retail price), the Northern California wine connoisseur wannabe in me noticed a combination of soy, sesame, ginger and black pepper on the nose. I found all those ingredients on the label, with black pepper towards the bottom. That was encouraging.
The label on the side of the glass jar has marking suggesting how much marinade to use based on how the amount of meat. One bottle will marinade 5 pounds of meat.
Later, I opened up the Bibigo 쌈장 ssamjang ($4.99 suggested retail price) container. The paste was bright red like 고추장 gochujang yet had a texture more closely resembling 된장 doenjang, which is a Korean fermented soybean paste somewhat similar to miso.
The miso-like texture would certainly be a plus for American audiences who may find the presence of whole soybean chunks in a ssamjang a little unsettling. The Bibigo ssamjang was spicy and salty — but not too salty.
When I combined them in the recipe below, the sweet bulgogi marinade matched well with the spicy, salty ssamjang. Fresh from my garden, the perilla leaves’ mint-like flavor played interference nicely.
This recipe is pretty minimal on purpose. I really wanted to taste the sauces. Beside shallots, consider adding diced bell peppers, black beans or any other vegetable.
I used ground beef because it’s the most common taco filling in the U.S. Yet this marinade should also work well with other cuts of beef as well as lamb, goat or buffalo.
October 11, 2011
Patbingsu Cupcakes
Do you have leftover ingredients for patbingsu (팥빙수; shaved ice with sweetened red beans and mini rice cakes) still sitting in the refrigerator? Well, I did. After making it all summer long, it’s become too cold all of a sudden to enjoy patbingsu every day.
So I autumn-mized patbingsu my way.  I guess the name is a bit misleading, since there is no ice in the patbingsu cupcake.  But I couldn’t come up with a better name for these cupcakes that incorporate the essential patbingsu ingredients of sweetened red beans, mini rice cakes and condensed milk. The cupcake itself is soft and moist from using oil and yogurt instead of butter. The patbingsu ingredients are reminiscent of summer, but the warm, gooey-stickiness from melted rice cakes in the cupcakes has finally helped me transition my mind to autumn.  Sweet red beans in soft cake also takes you a step closer to the winter street snack of bungeo bbang (붕어빵; fish-shaped cake filled with sweet red beans).
A cupcake version of a traditional Korean summertime treat

KOREAN WORDS
condensed milk   연유   (yeon yu)
milk                    우유   (wu yu)
October 5, 2011
Raspberry Ssamjang
I have this obsession of taking every non-Korean recipe and trying to put a Korean spin on it. When I have a “eureka” moment, the result is published here.
Just a suggestion: Serve this sauce with some grilled Korean barbecue and lettuce or large leafy herb (깻잎 kkaennip/shiso/perilla shown here) for a low-carb lunch or dinner. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
My current “eureka” moment comes from a recipe by Amy of Amy’s Cooking Adventures. I took her Spicy Raspberry Sauce and transformed it into a Koreafornian concoction Raspberry Ssamjang. (Thanks to the Secret Recipe Club.)
Ssamjang (쌈장) is a spicy paste made from fermented soybean paste (된장 doenjang), red pepper paste (고추장 gochujang), sesame oil and seasonings such as green onion and garlic. Ssamjang is sold in most Korean grocery stores in small or large green tubs. If you don’t read Korean, just look for the green tubs.
Ssam is Korean for “wrapping”; jang, for sauce. So ssamjang is a sauce made for flavoring leaves for wrapping around food.
Ssam show and tell: A kkaennip leaf is smeared with raspberry ssamjang and topped with grilled spicy Korean chicken. (Jeff Quackenbush photo
For barbecued and grilled foods, Koreans will take a piece of or whole leaf of lettuce or a broad-leafed herb such as 깻잎 kkaennip (perilla in English), spread some ssamjang on it, top with meat and rice, and pop it in their mouths like a small bite-sized sushi roll.
This isn’t the first ssamjang I’ve made that excluded the basic doenjang, gochujang and sesame oil combo. In May I developed Peanut Ssamjang. Now, with the Raspberry Ssamjang, I have the makings for a weird peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
The combination of the pectin in the raspberry jam and the cornstarch thickened the sauce nicely, thick, yet spreadable. If you leave out the cornstarch it would still be thick and saucy enough to cling to your lettuce wrap.
September 27, 2011
Smoked DLT
EJ went through a bout of home shopping frenzy this past month. She does that every now and then. I think she has cabin fever taking care of the baby. Amongst her purchases was a big box of Korean style smoked duck.
They’re wonderfully smoked duck slices embedded in fat. We went nuts with it the first weekend. But then EJ got smoked duck overload. I had to take up the slack. I had found that smoked duck makes a great substitute for bacon.
It’s been my breakfast meat of choice lately. But I still have a lot of duck to consume. What’s the next logical step?
Duck substitutes bacon in this classic sandwich
My rule for sandwiches is that the messier they are the better they taste. Supposedly smoked duck is healthier than bacon. Even if it isn’t it makes a great sandwich.
May 1, 2011
St. Patrick’s Day Leftovers: Kimchi Reuben Sandwich

Most American families (even the non-Irish ones) enjoy celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. The green beer, green clothes and joyous “Kiss me, I’m Irish” spirit brings Americans of all ethnicities together. After you have sat down to your homemade traditional corned beef and cabbage meal, there’s the question of what to do with the leftovers.
I would like to suggest you try out a Kimchi Reuben sandwich with a side of sweet-potato french fries to put some Korean flavor in your St. Patrick’s day leftovers.
This recipe was originally featured in a video I posted on YouTube in September 2008. The recipe starts at the 1:39 mark.

*There isn’t much of a difference between corned beef and pastrami. Pastrami is corned beef which has black peppercorns, seasoned salt, garlic, basil, and allspice added for flavor.

March 18, 2011