Tag: globalization

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
New York celebrity chef Hooni Kim marries Korean flavors to local ingredients
Hooni Kim, Michelin-starred chef of Danji and Hanjan restaurants in New York City, sees the marriage of Korean food culture with American food culture as Korean flavors married to local ingredients. At this time, one can’t be a “locavore” and make authentic Korean cuisine in the States.
I met up with him while covering the Korean Sensation Culinary Contest on Oct. 26 at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone campus in the heart of California’s wine country, Napa Valley. He was one of the celebrity chefs judging entries from five student finalists in the competition, hosted with the help of the Korea Agro Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aka aT center).
“I define Korean cuisine as traditional flavors applied to local ingredients,” he told me during an interview that morning. “Certain ingredients you cannot get here (in America), such as gochugaru or doenjang. Then I apply it to local ingredients. I can get cabbage in Korea, but it’s better from New York or Napa — wherever you are from. Korean beef and American beef are very different, but it is still Korean food.”
Chef Hooni Kim says Hi to Joe McPherson and ZenKimchi readers. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
Kim has an interesting way of explaining the difference between Korean food and American food: the “flavor profile.”
“I think Korean food is more dynamic because it uses flavors like spice, salt, etc.” he said. “They (Koreans) go all out, whether it’s salty, spicy or umami. You can experience all these flavors. It’s exciting to your palate. It needs to be, because Koreans eat their food with rice, which is usually unseasoned and it’s a blank canvas.”
American cuisine has individually seasoned components on a plate, while Korean cuisine builds flavors in the mouth based on the banchan and rice.
“If I like saltier food, I can eat more of the food,” he said. “If someone else doesn’t like saltier food, they can balance the salt with rice. You will never find salt on a Korean table at a restaurant for that reason.”
Kim’s vision of Korean cuisine has won him Michelin stars, yet he can’t live on Korean food alone. What he enjoys besides Korean food are sushi and steak.
“Because I cook for a living, I like the natural flavors of ingredients,” he said. “There’s a change of textures and flavors, and I do that with Korean food but when I got out to eat. I want to taste raw fish or steak that is simply flavored with salt and pepper.”
Sometimes we need our food to be complex. Sometimes we want it as simple and clean as possible.
The future of Korean-American cuisine is “bright,” but Kim said he has been criticized for his Korean fusion offerings at Danji. Hanjan serves “Korean-Korean” food.
“The best chefs personalize their food,” he said in response to such attacks. “Even if different chefs are cooking the same thing, you should see their personality. A Korean-American growing up in New York City will have a different cuisine than a Korean-American from the Midwest.”
Part of the future of Korean cuisine in America must be a new generation to step up and make it.
“Coming to the CIA, there are over 300 Korean students studying here to learn how to be a chef,” he said. “That is a first step, having Koreans who know how to be a cook, cooking their own food in their own restaurant.”
Tips for foodies and budding chefs
The afternoon of the contest, Kim seasoned the questions from CIA Greystone students with sage advice.
1. “There are no shortcuts in cooking.”
2. Not everyone discovers their life’s mission in childhood. “I started cooking at 30. Growing up in a Korean family, cooking as a profession was not an option. It’s something to do if you aren’t smart enough to do something else. My mom was the worst cook. She just gave me money to go out to eat.”His marriage to a supportive wife is one of the main reasons he was able to become a chef. “I got married at 30, I was in medical school and I hated what I was doing.”
3. “Making soondae is all about technique. The ingredients have to be fresh and the technique has to been well done…. Soondae is a Korean blood sausage that is sold for about $5 an order on the street. You can take any dish to the next level. There’s no thing as cheap or bad food that can’t be elevated.” Even soondae.
4. “These days, you are looking for mentors. My mentor didn’t want to be a mentor. I cooked in a kitchen where I had to know. I wasn’t given answers. I had to figure it out; you don’t bother the chef. I make a mistake, I got yelled at.”
5. “You learn something in every kitchen and take something away from every experience.”
6. “MSG is like an athlete’s steroids. It makes food taste better without any work. It’s cheating.”
7. “You have to go eat out (to learn about cooking). It’s important to eat other people’s food.”
Kim offered this wisdom while judging a pork slider dish earlier in the day: “When you create something miniature, make sure everything is perfect. There’s no room for error.”
November 11, 2015
Tammy's interview with Roy Choi of Kogi BBQ
On Sept. 11, I spent an hour of my day interviewing Roy Choi of Kogi BBQ. Choi discussed his soon-to-be-released biography, Flavor! Napa Valley and his opinion on pairing Korean foods with wine, the marketing of Korean cuisine and advice for the next generation of chefs and food writers.
Choi is preparing for the Nov. 5 release of his book, L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food. The book, co-written by Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan, is the second publication from celebrity chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain’s line of books for Ecco.
“You can count on one hand the chefs who have tilted the world with their innovation,” said
Michael Chiarello, event founder and owner-chef of Bottega in the heart of California’s Napa Valley. He also owns the lifestyle brand NapaStyle. “Roy (Choi) and his Kogi BBQ truck have forever changed the landscape of cooking in America. Flavor! Napa Valley was created to celebrate great chef innovators like Roy.”
Click here to read Tammy’s complete interview with Korean-American Roy Choi.
October 24, 2013
Restaurant: Kristalbelli, New York
The opening of “the next Korean barbecue restaurant” in midtown Manhattan by K-pop star and producer Jin Young Park has generated some controversy. Some think the restaurant’s aesthetic is too antiseptic to provide an authentic Korean experience.
Some reviews have viciously criticized the atmosphere, exemplified by the restaurant’s namesake crystal barbecue grills. Meat is cooked on a gas-heated, 99 percent crystal griddle in the “belly” of a golden Buddha-shaped frame embedded in the center of each table. The sloped griddle drains grease away from the meat into an under-table trap, and an exhaust fan incorporated in the griddle frame keeps much of the smoke of cooking meat from filling the restaurant and the clothes of patrons.
Reviewers claim the environment is overly elegant, even sanitized, in comparison to the more rustic feel of many all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurants. To those people I would say, it’s not about you.
Kristalbelli does not indulge those who have a fever for the food of Korea’s third-world past of 50 years ago, or even a decade or two past. It’s for Korean food virgins and neophytes, many of who are non-Korean fans of JYP’s K-pop bands.
Readers of my restaurant reviews may remember that my family aren’t hardcore Korean food fanatics like myself and my dear husband. That’s why I enjoy taking them — they might say, dragging them — to Korean restaurants, especially when I really need the perspective of those with little to no understanding or appreciation of Korean food.
To make sure everyone would have a chance to pass some degree of judgment on it, we asked to eat each dish “family-style.”
This is the first Korean restaurant I’ve been to in a long time where the wait staff was eager to answer any and all questions about dish ingredients and preparation. And in a first for me States-side, I didn’t have to be the one explaining all the dishes.
And there was a lot of explaining to do, with multiple 반찬 banchan items (side dishes served with the meal), appetizers and main dishes. My father-in-law counted 50 plates of various sizes on the table for the five of us.
The spread was more typical of a leisurely dinner setting than a rushed work week lunch. If you are really craving barbecue, going at lunch vs. dinner won’t save you any money. But, satiating your craving earlier in the day may save you time. The restaurant wasn’t crowded when we went after the lunch hour.
Each of us received banchan. That included bamboo shoots, seaweed salad and pickled cucumbers. Interestingly, the pickled cucumbers had a pleasant combination of soy sauce, sesame oil and a slightly smoky flavor.
Also among the banchan were two kinds of kimchi: 배추김치 baechu (the most commonly seen kind, made from Nappa cabbage) and 총각김치 chonggak (ponytail radish). The ponytail radish was a little on the spicy side. Yet it was pretty fresh, no more than a couple of weeks old in my estimation.
The first appetizer tray brought to our table had delicately sliced raw tuna set on a bed of lime slices, dabbed with citrus sauce. The tuna was fresh and seemed to melt in my mouth.
The second appetizer was a small serving of rice wrapped in tofu skin and drizzled with a mustard citrus sauce.
The third appetizer was tempura-fried crab legs surrounded by squiggly trails of spicy mayonnaise and savory, okonomyaki-type sauce on the small platter.
For the main dishes, we ordered Wagyu 갈비 galbi (grilled beef, $31), 두부 잡채 tofu japchae (savory cellophane noodle dish, $13), 크리스탈 비빔밥 Kristal bibimbap with tofu ($15) and 두부 된장찌개 tofu doenjang jjigae (fermented-soybean stew, $12).
This japchae was somewhat unconventional. It had the typical mix of mushrooms, tofu and shredded carrots, but it also had shiitake (aka 표고 pyogo) mushrooms and asparagus. The flavors were balanced, none overpowering the others.
Japchae is a common item on Korean restaurant menus. Yet, I never know what I’m going to get, because it is pretty easy to mess up the delicate balance of bold flavors: sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and black pepper. Sometimes, the soy sauce is dominant, and other times, it’s the sesame oil that terrorizes the tongue. One restaurant used a black pepper–forward sauce — unforgettable, not in a good way.
We asked for the Wagyu galbi to be grilled medium-well, basically between medium rare and well done. The meat was well-marbled and tender. The waiter cooked it, so we wouldn’t be distracted from our conversation with the task of grilling. The 쌈장 ssamjang (spicy, savory sauce spread on 깻잎 kkaenip/perilla or lettuce leaves wrapped around grilled meat) had a wonderful robust doenjang component, but it was not overly salty.
Accompanying the kalbi was a little dishful of Nagui sea salt. It’s an unrefined sea salt from harvested from filtered salt water at Docho Island in Korea. It has 20 percent less sodium than Guérande sea salt of France and three times its mineral content, according to the restaurant’s blog. Our waiter pointed out those attributes and recommended we dip at least one piece of galbi in the salt. It was a pleasant, new experience.
The bibimbap had the traditional mix of veggies, which we ordered with tofu. It also had two different kinds of seaweed:kim (aka nori) and seaweed stem called miyeok julgi, and yet seaweed flavor did not overwhelm the dish. Since we were eating the meal family-style, they were kind enough to bring out separate little dishes of gochujang so we could decide whether to spice up the bibimbap individually.
Korean restaurants in the States I’ve visited offer 고추장 gochujang (spicy red pepper sauce) separately, allowing diners to apply as much pain as desired. In keeping with the upper-scale setting, Kristalbelli also offered the sauce separately but in a small dish, rather than in the refillable plastic squeeze bottle of the typical barbecue house. This version of the sauce was sweet, as is common for bibimbap gochujang, but the amount of spiciness was milder that the conventional preparation.
The one adjective that circulated over and again through my mind during the meal was “balanced.” Balancing favors is really a difficult task, especially for Korean cuisine, which is known for its bold flavors. Kristalbelli does that well, maybe too well for some people’s tastes.
Yet, one can’t accuse Kristalbelli of false advertising. One of its goals stated on their website is to “to spotlight the delicate aspects of Korean cooking.”
When we entered the restaurant, it was hard not to notice the wine collection, prominently displayed near the front desk. It’s quite the wine list for a Korean restaurant, with wines from major wine regions all over the wine world: Oregon, Australia, the Napa/Sonoma region of California and Europe. We did not order any wine with our meal, so I would have to leave it to someone with more wine experience to judge the wine and food pairing experience.
If you’re up for it, Kristalbelli currently is hosting a food and wine pairing every Wednesday at 3 p.m. New York time, according to the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Kristalbelli’s second floor has a bar and lounge. We didn’t have an opportunity to go up there on this trip. Someday, I would like to try the 복분자 스테이크 Bokbunja steak ($23), described as a “steak with black raspberry reduction.” I think this is the first dish I’ve seen in a Korean restaurant using 복분자 bukbunjaju (black raspberry liqueur) for cooking.
Long-term success for this restaurant won’t be on the coattails of Mr. Park’s K-pop fame. Kristalbelli will have to win customers with great food and superior customer service.
The latter seemed to be a priority. My family’s relatively virgin palates were treated with respect rather than condescension. And it was the first time I’ve seen a Korean restaurant actively solicit comments via a customer-service survey handed to each of us at the end of the meal. For many diners, especially JYP’s target audience, the emphasis on service will cover alleged culinary faux-pas.
Kristalbelli
8 W. 36th St.
New York, NY 10018
(212) 290-2211
www.kristalbelli.com
Lunch: Monday–Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Dinner: Sunday–Thursday, 5–10:30 p.m.; Friday–Saturday, 5–11 p.m.
Lounge: Monday–Thursday, 5 p.m.–1 a.m.; Friday–Saturday, 5 p.m.–3 a.m.; Sunday, 5–10:30 p.m.
September 16, 2012
Banchan for charity: Would you buy it?
Banchan is as intrinsic to 한식 hansik (Korean food) as pork is to Spanish cuisine. It would be anathema to have one without the other. A Korean restaurant without 반찬 banchan might be called a Chinese or Mongolian restaurant by the culinary illiterate. Even if a Korean restaurant has mediocre banchan, the idea of not offering it at all would be an affront to all that is Korean. Charging for banchan is almost as heretical.
A recent Seattle Weekly restaurant review about Chan’s, a new “modern Korean fusion” restaurant in Seattle, brought the debate over charging for banchan back to the forefront of my mind.
The banchan spread at Brothers Korean BBQ in San Francisco, Calif., comes with the meal. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
Normally, restaurant reviews are not the place for serious commentary about the future of Korean cuisine or talking points in the ongoing debate on how to promote hansik beyond that nation’s shores.
Last year, ZenKimchi Food Journal editor Joe McPherson and I wrote dueling editorials about charging for banchan. It was sparked by an interview in The Korea Herald with former restaurateur Cho Tae-kwon that included his advice for convincing non-Koreans to appreciate hanshik.
McPherson flat out rejected the concept at the time, dismissing it as silly. My knee-jerk reaction was very similar. I told KoreafornianCooking.com Facebook fans at the time, “Yeah charging for banchan is 바보 (babo, dumb).”
After my initial “You’ve got to be kidding!” I tapped into my inner Ayn Rand and wondered with words about a way to charge for banchan.
VIP Restaurant (aka Yang Bin restaurant) in Anchorage, Alaska, doesn’t charge for banchan either. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
I thought at the time there was only one way a restaurant could convince customers to happily and willingly go along with it. If a restaurant were to inform patrons that as much time, effort and care went into sourcing ingredients for and preparing banchan as with main dishes, customers would learn to value banchan as highly as the chef does and be willing to pay accordingly.
In other words, banchan better be as good, or even better, than the main dishes for it to work. After years, even generations, of teaching people that banchan are gratis, convincing people otherwise would be an uphill battle.
According to Hanna Raskin of Seattle Weekly, Chan’s in Seattle may have found another way to convince people to buy banchan — one I would have never considered — charity.
“(Chan’s) won’t bring banchan to the table unless guests pledge three bucks to Korean Foster Care. That’s not a suggested donation: It’s the mandated price, listed on the menu. …
“Every nibble on the vegetable tray is attractive and fresh, but the decision to charge for the mini-spread is bound to flummox eaters accustomed to Korean traditions.”
So, it sounds like the banchan selection is carefully considered, made with fresh ingredients. A certain kind of customer can appreciate that attention to detail.
If you make your own banchan at home, you have a small idea of how much work goes into making it. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
Would a restaurant have to extol the organic ingredients and artistic skill to get you to part with a few more of your hard-earned dollars for a first or second round of banchan?
Or is a simple tug on the heart strings enough to pay extra for banchan that would be included in the meal price at many Korean restaurants on either side of the Pacific?
What would your reasons be for paying more or not?
August 19, 2012
Review: Trader Joes's Bibimbap
This is what it looks like before it's microwaved. The bright orange carrots are a promising sign. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
The lastest of several prepared Korean dishes introduced recently by Trader Joe’s, a Monrovia, Calif.-based chain of grocery stores, is a frozen version of 비빔밥 bibimbap.
This “mixed-up rice” dish — the meaning of the Korean name — already has created some Twitter and blog buzz over the past six weeks.
I stumbled on the following Twitter reviews of the meal:
Anna Pinkert, an intern at Boston radio station WBUR (@annapinkert), wrote,
TJ’s bibimbap bowl should not be as tasty as it is.
Aurynyumi (@laurynyumi) wrote this after taking a bowl with her for lunch:
Eating trader joe’s bibimbap for lunch.. It’s good. 🙂
The ingredients include precooked white rice topped with bulgogi, cooked spinach, a whole scrambled egg, soybean sprouts and julienned carrots. The bowl also included a separate packet of a sweet and spicy chili sauce.
Once the sauce reaches room temperature, it's easy to dispense. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
Observations
The spicy chili sauce had a good balance of spiciness and sweetness, leaning towards the sweet side. Yet it tasted more like Thai sweet chili sauce than the sweetened 고추장 gochujang (spicy red pepper paste) sauce commonly poured atop bibimbap.
The cooked spinach flavor was different from the marinated blanched spinach usually used in bibimbap.
The sesame oil flavor, one of the key flavor profiles of Korean food, also was lacking. It’s listed among the ingredients but isn’t as bold in the final product as is in the fresh-prepared version.
At first I thought the dish didn’t have soybean sprouts, another common ingredient in bibimbap. The sprouts were listed on the package but weren’t a separate item in the ceramic bowl-resembling plastic container. I finally found the sprouts “hidden” among the scrambled egg.
To improve the flavor, I stirred in a half teaspoon each of sesame oil and doenjang along with the spicy chili sauce provided in the packet. That little nudge improved the experience.
Another options comes from emiglio (@emiglio) who gives this advise
I’ve realized you can eat pretty well out of Trader Joes frozen section if you dice fresh onions/mushrooms/garlic into everything.
Conclusions
Trader Joe’s frozen bibimbap bowl does not compare to what you would find in a restaurant or make at home. Despite that, the grocery chain’s version has come close for those days when you don’t have a long enough lunch break to visit your nearest bibimbap restaurant while you’re at work.
Trader Joe’s also released frozen kalbi and bulgogi dishes recently. I plan to scrutinize them for you soon.
July 26, 2011
How to promote kimchi in America without inviting Americans
The South Korean consulate in San Francisco found a creative way of celebrating U.S. Independence Day this year by inviting the wives of other foreign diplomats to their home to learn kimchi-making. The San Francisco Consular Corps helped put on the party.
The stated aim of this kimchi diplomacy, according to Consul Jeong-Gwan Lee and his wife, Jongran Park, was to help Americans become more familiar with Korean food and culture.
“China and Japan [are] two countries so well-known to the U.S., but compared to that, Korea is less known to the people in the United States,” Consul Lee told KGO-TV.
I find it difficult to understand how a party, to which the wives of foreign diplomats were the guests of honor, is supposed to help Americans understand the merits of the Korean/American Free Trade Agreement (KOR-US FTA) — languishing in the Senate for a final vote — and encourage Hallyu (the “Korean wave”) in the U.S.
A better tactic would be to invite San Francisco Bay Area kimchi-conscious chefs to present cooking demonstrations. Health-conscious residents in the region are learning to appreciate Korea’s fermented foods.
July 7, 2011
The Korea Herald stirs up debate over banchan
Imagine if a Korean restaurant gave you a menu of banchan (side dishes) and allowed you to pick desired items, just like you do at home? (Tammy Quackenbush photo)

KwangJuYo Chief Executive Officer Cho Tae-kwon, a former restaurateur Korean media regularly consult on hansik (Korean cuisine), served up controversy in an interview with The Korea Herald by suggesting that charging for traditionally complimentary banchan (appetizers commonly accompanying Korean meals) would create a demand for the items.
“Putting value to namul (herb) dishes, for example, will create demand for variously priced namul. The story of how namul is picked by hand on the mountainside in springtime will add to the value of namul.”
Most of the interview discussed the South Korean government’s continuing efforts to popularize Korean cuisine around the world. He said many Korean restaurants compete with each other on the selection and number of banchan dishes.
Charging for banchan also would reduce food waste in Korea, Cho suggested.
“It is also responsible for the tremendous waste of food. More than 1.3 trillion won is wasted every year as food garbage.”
I strongly agree. Food waste is a real problem in the country.
On Cho’s assertion that the premium would create demand for banchan, my gut reaction was, You’re kidding, right? Or as I wrote in a Facebook thread I set up discussing this article, “Yeah charging for banchan is 바보.”
However, charging a modest fee for banchan could increase the popularity of particular dishes with careful banchan menu planning, marketing and advertising. Growing on Cho’s notion of niche namul, a chef could craft such a menu made up of seasonal bounty with detailed descriptions of the quality, origin and preparation of ingredients. Similarly, savvy vintners of high-end wines, makers of seasonal craft brews and farmers of organic produce have been able to convince consumers to pay a premium via a well-told story.
Allowing customers to select their side dishes would alert the restaurant to which banchan to keep offering and which to discontinue. This would reduce food waste and give a competitive edge over restaurants with gratis grub. Yet blindly billing for banchan or setting up a restaurant that only serves banchan will not help popularize the dishes or the restaurant doing so.
You can find Joe McPherson’s slightly contrary view on this same article, which he called “Cho Tae-Kwon’s “Noblisse Oblige.”
May 1, 2011
Review of Korean taco truck Seoul on Wheels
I found Seoul on Wheels at the Eat Real Food Festival in Oakland, Calif. at Jack London Square. Julia Yoon was serving up a truncated menu of Beef, Chicken, Pork or Tofu Korean tacos and spicy chilled noodles.
We tried the chicken and beef Korean tacos. They were very good. The charcoal grilled beef and chicken BBQ was served on a corn tortilla with chopped romaine lettuce, sliced daikon radish and topped with sour cream and spicy gochujang. The bulgogi taco had the right amount of sweet and savory that one expects from bulgogi and the grilled chicken was a good kind of spicy. A small amount of sour cream kept the spice balanced.
The best part of our visit to Seoul on Wheels (besides trying their food) is an impromptu interview I did with a young man who was trying Korean food for the first time. Check out his reaction to his first bite at 2:03.
Seoul on Wheels has a Twitter account with more than 3,700 followers broadcasting their whereabouts. You can also find them on Facebook.
March 28, 2011
New culinary classes in the USA carry Korean cuisine to the masses
Sur La Table will be offering a class in Korean restaurant classics which will include pajun (mung bean pancakes) in their menu.
Demand for Korean cooking classes in culinary schools or Korean ingredients on grocery stores shelves is a visible sign a cuisine is becoming more popular in a particular country.
For example, Chef Young-sun Lee teaches classes in Korean cuisine at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City and Seattle-based higher-end culinary supply chain Sur La Table in January 2011 will be offering a class called Korean Restaurant Favorites.
The South Korean government has been working hard to promote the country’s cuisine all over the world. Korean English-language media have been fawning over demonstrations by foreign top executives of how to make 잡채 japchae (garlicy zesty cellophane noodles) or 불고기 bulgogi (savory pear-sweetened beef).
However, the future of Korean food in the States and elsewhere does not reside in Seoul’s Blue House or in the hands of Korea’s highly trained chefs, cooking up fancy meals in their five-star restaurants. Culinary schools across the U.S. are starting to cater to home cooks and wannabe chefs clamoring to learn the basics of Korean cuisine.
Sur La Table’s upcoming “hands-on” Korean cooking course will be offered among the core classes at all 23 of the chain’s cooking-class locations in 14 states. Sur La Table offers classes in cities such as Houston; Salt Lake City; Troy, Mich.; Seattle; San Francisco; and Portland, Ore.
Sur La Table, just like other culinary schools, offer classes that factor in the seasons and availability of ingredients, such as offering barbecue and outdoor entertaining classes in the summer and courses on stewing and braising in the winter, according to Anne Haerle, Sur La Table’s corporate chef.
Chef Anne Haerle, graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (2008) is the corporate chef/corporate chef of Sur La Table's cooking curriculum which is implemented across the United States.
“We want to offer a range of classes that include a number of different cuisines, cooking and baking techniques, and types of menus,” she said.
Haerle said the company floated this Korean cuisine trial balloon, in part, because of the popularity of other Asian cuisine classes.
“We’ve had great success offering classes in Chinese, Japanese and Thai cooking,” she said.
“We chose to add the Korean Restaurant Favorites class in an effort to continue expanding our Asian cuisine class offerings.”
Korean Restaurant Favorites is not the only class offered this year with a Korean component. The multi-course menu includes America’s Food Truck Cuisine, “designed to address the growing interest in food trucks,” Haerle said.
A spicy Korean barbecued pork taco, inspired by Kogi of Los Angeles, is one of the dishes on that class menu.
The following interview focuses on the Korean Restaurant Favorites class, Haerle’s take on Korean cuisine and its growing popularity in the U.S.
How did you choose the items to include in the course menu (such as 비빔밥 bibimbap, bulgogi and 파전 pajeon)?
We looked at various source materials for classic Korean dishes that one would typically find in a Korean restaurant. I also personally enjoy eating and making Korean food, so I focused on dishes that I like and believe our customers would like to learn how to make, as well as dishes that can easily be made in a home kitchen.
Does the inclusion of Korean cuisine have anything to do with recent restaurant surveys which indicate Korean food is becoming a trend-setting cuisine?
… We pay close attention to food trends that affect the culinary industry at large. Korean food has indeed been mentioned by several media sources as a cuisine that more Americans are discovering. We first listen to our customers and find out what they want to learn, and then take larger trends into consideration.
How does Korean cuisine differ from others in Asia in ease or difficulty in execution?
Many of the basic cooking techniques featured in Korean cuisine, such as grilling, stir-frying and pickling, are very common in other Asian cuisines, and Western cuisines, for that matter. As with cooking any cuisine, the challenge lies in properly balancing the main flavoring ingredients to create a harmonious balance. Korean food is really no different in that respect.
What is the difference between Korean cuisine and those of nearby countries?
One main difference between Korean cuisine and other Asian cuisines is that the flavors of Korean cuisine tend to be more pungent and intense. For example, many Korean dishes feature red pepper flakes, which supply a lot of heat. Also, the structure of Korean meals, with the numerous side dishes and condiments, is different from other Asian cuisines.
What do you find challenging about making Korean cuisine?
I think a big challenge for many cooks who want to make Korean cuisine is finding the appropriate ingredients. In Seattle, we’re fortunate to have several resources for authentic Korean ingredients. People living in other locations may need to rely on the Internet for buying certain items. Also, people who have not used these ingredients may find working with them to be a challenge. That’s why we are offering a Korean cooking class on our calendar — to help people appreciate this great cuisine and feel confident about making it at home.
December 26, 2010