Tag: Worldwide

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
Visiting Jackey’s Seafood at Jagalchi Market, Busan
If you visit Busan 부산 and skip Jagalchi Shijang (Market) 자갈치시장, you haven’t really visited Busan at all. The market opened in 1924 and gets its name from the nearby pebble beach—jagal 자갈 means pebble or gravel. In other words, Pebble Beach, Calif., is not the only famous pebble beach in the world.
On a mid-May visit to Busan, Hubby and I had snacked our way through ssiat hotteok 씨앗호떡 and mandu 만두 stands in Busan International Film Festival Plaza then crossed the Gudeok-ro 구덕로 thoroughfare to Jagalchi Market.
Busan is blessed with easy access to all kinds of fresh seafood. The best deals come from those selling fish in the outdoor part of the market. But unless your Korean skills are as fresh as the fare, you’ll find it difficult to bargain or ask for what you want.
Already having walked off the hotteok breakfast, we went into the six-story market building. There are a number of restaurants on the second floor. To the uninitiated, one restaurant area can blend into the other, but waymarker signs help you orient yourself and find your way around.
In section C1, is a restaurant called Dwejichobap 돼지초밥, also known as Jackey’s Seafood. Jackey starred in a couple of food shows on the KBS TV network and displays screenshots from those appearances around his section of the floor.
Don’t worry about finding this place; Jackey probably will see you first and introduce himself in English. He has a teaching aid with him at all times that has photos of which fish and seafood items are in season and can help guide you to the best choice. He can also offer you either Korean style seating (on the floor) or Western style seating (on chairs).
Grilled flounder at Jagalchi Market, caught and grilled the same day, can’t get much fresher than that. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
Jackey’s is best-known for sushi — chobap 초밥 is the Korean term for the vinegar-flavored rice used in sushi. We weren’t in the mood for raw fish, so Jackey recommended grilled flounder, since it was in season at the time.
Served with banchan, the meal cost ₩40,000 (roughly $40) for two people. It was grilled and seasoned with lemon. A simply prepared fresh fish is much more delicious than a overly seasoned fish any day.
Dwejichobap (aka Pork Sushi)
37-1 Nampodong 4(sa)-ga, Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea
중구 남포동4가 37-1, 부산광역시
Directions
1. Take Busan subway line 1 to 자갈치역 Jagalchi Station, and use Exit 10. Alternatively, get off at 남포역 Nampo Station, and use Exit 2.
2. From Exit 10, walk straight (east).
3. At the second street, 자갈치로37번길 Jagalchi-ro 37-gil, turn right. You will walk under the Jagalchi Market sign over the road.
4. Walk for three blocks. The road will curve to the left in front of the market.
August 23, 2013
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: Korean Village Wooden Charcoal BBQ House, San Francisco
The restaurant was nearly empty when we sauntered in at 1:45 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. Two men were engaged in an animated conversation in a Chinese language at a table on the opposite side of the restaurant, their words echoing off the walls and the mirror that stretched the length of one side of the restaurant and over the din of the sports color commentators on the big-screen TV.

Because of the name of the restaurant, we ordered broiled 불고기 bulgogi and broiled barbecued chicken (닭구이) from the lunch menu, which bundles the items with 밥 bap (rice), 반찬 banchan (side dishes) and a bowl of soup. Both entrees were $9.99 each.

The banchan were typical Korean restaurant fare: baechu kimchi, lightly pickled cucumbers, marinaded soybean sprouts, marinaded mung bean sprouts, soy sauce–brined jalapeños, and two kinds of daikon kimchi (one was fresh and the other was made from dried daikon). They were tasty but not surprising.

Miyukguk, a simple Korean seaweed soup (Tammy Quackenbush photos)

The surprise for us were the small bowls of 미역국 miyukguk, which is a Korean seaweed soup made with wakame in a simple broth. Of all the soups in Korea’s culinary repertoire, few are more Korean than miyukguk. I have to give the restaurateurs credit for serving such a bold, unusual dish to a couple of non-Koreans, since many non-Koreans are still somewhat squeamish about seaweed in its leafy form.
Korean women recovering from childbirth are served this soup morning, day and night for the first couple of weeks after giving birth. Some Korean women are also compelled by well-meaning relatives to eat lots of it leading up to childbirth, since is it believed to purify the blood and help women with lactation.
The waitress set the bowls down, I looked at my husband and said “Happy Birthday,” though neither of us have a birthday coming. He doesn’t like seaweed in soup or 김밥 kimbap (sushi).
“It’s good for me, right?” he asked me while stirring the leaves and looking skeptically into the bowl. He ended up liking the flavor of the soup.
The service was prompt. The waitress took our order shortly after we sat down and brought the banchan, rice and soup within a few minutes. The bulgogi and grilled chicken arrived a few minutes after that.
The bulgogi was quite dry, and the smoke flavor from the real wood oven was pronounced. We dipped the meat in the miyukguk and wrapped it in moist rice, which helped.
The chicken, however, was moist, the “special house sauce” more obvious than on the bulgogi, and the smokiness more subtle.
Korean Village Wooden Charcoal BBQ House, or Wooden Charcoal BBQ, is located in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood at 4609 Geary Blvd.
It is easy to find from Highway 1, commonly known as 19th Avenue, a major north-south thoroughfare on the west side of the city. If you’re traveling north on 19th Avenue (coming north from San Francisco International Airport and San Jose on Interstate 280), turn right on Geary Boulevard. The restaurant will be on your right between 10th and 11th avenues.
Making left turns on a number of streets of San Francisco is difficult. If you are traveling south on Park Presidio (from Napa-Sonoma wine country and the Golden Gate Bridge), you can’t turn left onto Geary. Travel a block south of Geary, turn right onto Anza, turn right at 14th Avenue then turn right a third time, onto Geary
This restaurant is worth the hastle. Parking is available along Geary or side streets.
Geary Boulevard has a string of Korean shops, grocers and restaurants. Wooden Charcoal BBQ is about a block away from longstanding Korean barbecue master Brothers Restaurant and several blocks from the Korean establishments in Japantown.
September 22, 2011
Tov Tofu, Santa Rosa
Tov Tofu in Santa Rosa opened in late 2010 and is the latest Korean restaurant to open in Sonoma County, a winegrowing region about an hour north of San Francisco. Bear Korean in Cotati opened several years ago, followed by the now shuttered Nha Bee in Santa Rosa and Honey Cuisine in Rohnert Park in 2008.
My husband and I visited Tov Tofu for the first time on Dec. 24 for a late lunch with a couple of our friends and their two children ages 2 and 4. It’s good to invite, cajole, plead or drag your family and friends with you to a new restaurant, so you more can sample more dishes and get a variety of opinions, from the expert Koreaphile to the first-time 한식 hansik (Korean food) diner.
The dipping sauce was beautiful, but it was the pajeon itself that kept the children happy. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
Our menu included vegetable 판전 pajeon (egg and flour pancakes), 오무라이스 omurice (fried egg omelet over fried rice), 꼬리곰탕 ggori gomtang (oxtail soup), 비빔밥 bibimbap and 냉면 naengmyeon ($9.95). Both the pajeon ($8.50) and the fried egg omelet turned out to be a kid-pleaser.
The waitress brought out salt and pepper shakers to spice up the oxtail soup. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
The oxtail soup ($12.50) was a mellow and non-spicy option, which ties into its reputation as a health tonic. Some who are not familiar with Korean cuisine might be put off by the milky-white bone broth, but it is full of minerals, including calcium, iron and potassium.
As part of his repeated challenge to K-pop and now Hollywood star Rain, Stephen Colbert said, "I'm all over it like egg on bibimbap." This bibimbap was garnished with strips of scrambled egg. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)
Tov Tofu’s bibimbap ($12.95) was the first such dish I’ve seen that didn’t have a large fried egg placed on top, but I enjoyed the sliced egg omelet homage to the fried egg as well as the pile of kimchi, beef, mushrooms, shredded daikon radish, seaweed (김 kim) and spinach.
A surprising discovery for newcomers to Korean cuisine is 옥수수차 oksusucha (roasted-corn tea), because corn often is not thought of as a tea ingredient. I’ve found that it has to be requested at a number of Korean restaurants I’ve visited in the U.S., rather than being automatically served as green tea is at Chinese restaurants. The hint of corn in a hot beverage is a welcome way to warm the insides while waiting for the food to arrive.
We went back to Tov Tofu on my birthday. This time, my stomach drew me toward the Korean cuisine stalwart 불고기 bulgogi. Tov Tofu’s version was served in typical fashion, layered on a bed of onions and sizzling on a hot iron plate.
Bulgogi and its grilled onion bedding. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
The savory side of bulgogi was more prominent in this interpretation than the characteristic sweetness, which is usually imparted by a Korean pear-forward marinade. Yet the grilled onions added a little sweetness and were just as tasty as the bulgogi itself.
My husband ordered the beef version of 김치 순두부 찌개 kimchi soondubu jjigae (kimchi stew with silken tofu) ($9.95). Those who may be averse to kimchi may want to give kimchi jjigae a try, because cooking gives kimchi tames the tang. Also, the tofu soothes the fire of this spicy dish. The broth had a slight fishy flavor, which likely came from either a fish broth or the fish paste used in many versions of kimchi.
Tov Tofu
1169 Yulupa Ave., Santa Rosa, Calif.
www.tovtofu.com
Hours: Six days a week and closed Mondays. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner, 5 to 9 p.m.
Customer reviews: Yelp pages 1 and 2
Maps (Bangkok Villa closed at that location in July 2010): Bing, Google, Yahoo
February 11, 2011
Brother’s Korean, San Francisco
Brothers Restaurant, located San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood, is one of the few Korean restaurants in San Francisco that is Zagat-rated. It tied with Namu as Best Korean Restaurant in the 2010 Eat and Drink Reader’s Choice Awards by 7×7 magazine.
Brothers is not a fancy restaurant, but it has a 20-plus year reputation (since 1987) of serving up authentic “old school” Korean food. It has generous operating hours from 11 am. to midnight Sunday through Friday.
There is a second location a block east at 4014 Geary Blvd. It opened in 1993 but operates only Friday through Sunday 5 p.m. to midnight.
Warning: Do not wear “dry clean only” clothes to this restaurant. You will walk out smelling like a barbecue grill, particularly one that uses real wood instead of briquettes. It’s the first Korean restaurant I’ve visited in the Bay Area that has grills embedded in some tables with vent hoods above.
The staff brought out the glowing charcoal ready to cook right away.
Based on the reviews at Yelp! and Zagat, many go to Brothers for the barbecue. My husband and I ordered kalbi (Korean beef ribs) and dakgui (grilled chicken) from their dinner menu and decided to grill them ourselves. The server brought us two different tongs, one for the raw meat and the other to cook it. The attention to sanitation scored points with me.
The first food item brought to our table was a teapot full of hot barley tea. That scored even more points with me than the double tongs. Next, someone brought out the hot charcoal to get us instantly fired up for the main event.
The “main event” came with 10 different kinds of banchan (side dishes), including cucumber, radish and cabbage kimchi as well as spicy anchovies, spicy odeng (fish cakes). We also had two different ssam options, either romaine lettuce or kim (sheets of seasoned dried seaweed; nori in Japanese) for wrapping the grilled meat.
One of the highlights of the meal was the bowl of soon dubu jjigae (soft tofu stew). It was full of dubu, zucchini and chives. The broth may have had some dashi (Japanese fish broth) or seaweed in it because it had a slight ocean taste but it was really good.
Kalbi ssam with a little bit of salty ssamjang peaking out.
The only item we didn’t like much was the ssamjang (Korean wrapping sauce). It was heavily slanted on the doenjang (Korean miso) side rather than the gochujang (Korean pepper paste) side but it was a bit too salty so we decided to get our spicy and good salty fix by sprinkling our ssam (meat and lettuce rolls) with the spicy anchovies instead.
Dak gui ssam is jjang!
Prepare to pay about $30 per person, including tax and tip, for Brothers’ signature barbecue dishes. But this “old school” Korean barbecue is worth it.
If barbecue is not your style or in your budget, Brothers has a wide variety of Korean soups and stews, including kalbi tang (Korean stewed ribs), kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew with beef), soon dubu jjigae (soft tofu soup) and kori kom tang (oxtail soup).
The restaurant also has about a dozen lunch items offered from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Prices on that menu top out at about $15.
Brothers Restaurant
4128 Geary Blvd. (between Fifth and Sixth avenues)
Hours: Sunday–Friday, 11 a.m. – midnight
415-387-799
[googleMap name=”Brothers Restaurant”]4128 Geary Boulevard San Francisco, CA 94118-3102[/googleMap]
August 4, 2010
Cocobang, San Francisco
Posted by Tammy
Cocobang is located at 550 Taylor Street near San Francisco’s Tenderloin district within walking distance of Union Square and the Civic Center.
Owners Huh Joon-young and Hur Joon-seok, operating as Daebak Enterprise Corp., have created a small restaurant with about a dozen tables or so. (The city of San Francisco says the restaurant has less than 1,000 square feet, including the kitchen.) Yet our party of five could be seated comfortably. Our two tables were next to the front windows, so we had plenty of natural light to see our food. If we hadn’t been sitting near the window during daylight hours, it would have felt darker.
Some of the reviews from Yelp.com suggest a number of the patrons don’t show up or leave sober:
You don’t come here for the food unless you plan on drinking soju and beer, or if you have a craving for their fire chicken which is good on its own, but more amazing when you have a couple of beers and shots of soju in your belly.
Ok, it’s exactly what everyone says. Only been here when NOT sober..and it’s not bad. It’s not LA korean food good either. But it’s not like we’re in a k-town…. Although, I bet this place would be ok sober.
I considered it a good sign about interest in the restaurant that several people were queuing outside before it opened the Sunday evening I visited Cocobang. Since we arrived a half-hour before the 5:30 p.m. opening, we went to a coffee shop around the corner and came back just in time to be among the first patrons so we grabbed a seat closest to the window.
Cocobang’s decor includes black tables with paper soju advertisement place mats featuring singer Lee Hyo-ri’s smiling face and a large back-wall video projection screen. Food selections include Korean restaurant standards such as the kimchi fried rice and bibimbap as well as some less-common items such as Korean fried chicken. The restaurant has long hours of operation — 5:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. weekdays or 4 a.m. on weekends.
Korean network TV playing on the large screen gave the restaurant a sports pub feel without the play-by-play chatter. When I visited with family members, a variety show was rolling out one K-pop and other musical acts, prompting a flood of questions about Korean pop culture. If you don’t know any Korean — or Korean-English slang — walking in, you might pick up a phrase or two.
Dragging family to a restaurant for a review allowed me to sample five different dishes. Cocobang doesn’t necessarily serve dishes “family style,” but it does have a few “combo” selections with multiple dishes each.
The banchan (Korean appetizers) featured kimchi, spicy odeng (white fish cake), zippy mung bean sprouts and cubed daikon radish marinated in vinegar and sugar (or mirin). The daikon was the most refreshing banchan I’ve tasted in a long time.
I put in an order a half plate ($8.95) of Korean fried chicken. I ordered the regular version (rather than the hot/tangy or the garlic versions). Korean fried chicken is not simply a knock-off of Southern fried chicken. Thanks to the New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gourmet and Saveur, Korean fried chicken is starting to compete with the classic, all-American fried chicken for plate time.
I noticed a subtle hint of Korean curry powder in the thin, crispy crust. Thanks to double frying, the chicken was cooked perfectly, without charring of the batter and little greasiness in the underlying meat. Colonel Sanders would be either proud or insanely jealous.
Bulgogi ($13.95) is a Korean restaurant favorite, because even the most spice-phobic person can try this savory-sweet sauteed beef dish, commonly served on a hot plate with onions, green onions and sesame seeds. My father-in-law likes the dish for that reason, and Cocobang’s version pleased his picky palate. The salty, savory, sweet components typically found in the marinade were distinguishable and had the familiar balance I’ve tasted on both sides of the Pacific. Traditionally, the marinade includes soy sauce, sesame oil and Asian pear puree.
The sauteed chicken (dakgogi) ($13.95) was grilled in a similar manner seemingly with the bulgogi marinade. It didn’t have the spicy gochujang marinade common to most Korean chicken preparations, so it’s another good option for those who see the phrase Korean food and presume they need a gallon of water to quench the fire.
The bibimbap ($9.95) was served in a large bowl with a sunny-side-up fried egg, spinach, mung bean sprouts, mushrooms and beef and a bottle of bibimbap gochujang, a sweeter, tamer, less viscous version of the spicy red pepper paste found in a number of Korean dishes. Bibimbap is another Korean dish many Westerners enjoy. It has a lot of veggies over the bap (rice), the amount of hot sauce can be controlled and playing with the food is required to mix the rice, veggies and meat.
My husband ordered kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap) ($9.95). Normally, the restaurant normally adds Spam processed meat to the mix, but the kitchen made him a pork-free version. The rice was not overcooked and mushy. My husband said it “had texture, almost al dente.”
The menu features other Korean standards, such as spicy grilled rice noodles (tteokbokki), kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae), and barbecued beef ribs (kalbi).
Parking in San Francisco is notoriously inhospitable because the City purposely refuses to build new parking structures, but Cocobang is next door to a small parking garage so you can drive down for your Korean food fix if you aren’t within walking distance.
Another perk (besides the good food) is their amazing opening hours. Most of the nearby restaurants are only open until 10 or 10:30 during the week and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Cocobang stays open much later to catch the very late-night crowd.
July 21, 2010
Namu at the San Francisco Ferry Building
Namu is a Korean and Japanese fusion restaurant owned and operated by three Korean American brothers — chef Dennis Lee and his brothers, Daniel and David — who have established a presence at the Thursday and Saturday farmer’s markets at the San Francisco Ferry Building. They serve what they call “cutting-edge new California” cuisine.
The market menu (PDF) features kimchi fried rice, okonomiyaki and their own spin on Korean tacos (ssam in Korean), using toasted seaweed as the wrap.
Korean seaweed topped with rice, bulgogi and kimchi.
While there a recent Thursday, I tasted the Korean tacos, which cost $5 for two. Each have two sheets of Korean or Japanese seaweed with some sushi rice topped with teriyaki-marinated beef and kimchi salsa on top. Each taco is two or three bites of Korean fusion genius and more healthful than those wrapped in soft or fried tortillas.
Korean french fries topped with chopped kalbi and gochujang will fill you up.
The gamja (Korean for potato) fries are made from “hand-cut potatoes” and topped with kimchi relish, gochujang (Korean spicy red pepper paste), sweetened mayonnaise (Namu uses the popular Asian brand Kewpie), teriyaki, chopped short ribs and green onions. Orders for the fries were flying off the grill, especially in tandem with the Korean tacos.
The okonomiyaki, or Japanese savory grilled pancake, was in demand as well. Namu makes its “crispy and gooey flour pancake” with kimchi and market vegetables, topped with bonito flakes, okonomiyaki sauce and sweet mayo. Most ordered it with a sunnyside-up fried egg. I saw one brave soul pass me with a plate of okonomiyaki with a raw egg on it though.
The dish’s name comes from okonomi, which can be translated “as you like it,” and yaki, for “grilled” or “cooked.” A thinner version is similar to the Korean flatcake dish panjeon.
The okonomiyaki were made fresh and to order.
Namu, whose Korean name means “tree,” is at the Ferry Building on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — get there before the 1 p.m. rush — and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The brick-and-mortar restaurant is located at 439 Balboa St. in the city, near Golden Gate Park. The menu there also includes Korean fried chicken, ramen, bibimbap and additional Japanese-influenced items. Also served there are more than 30 selections of wine, sake and soju.
June 18, 2010
PETA vs. San Nakji
From Hanopolis
It had to come eventually, especially after the san nakji on dalk galbi video.
The folks at PETA have been picketing two New York restaurants for serving san nakji, that moving octopus dish. Now, we jokingly call it “live” octopus, but the creature is already dead before reaching the table, swiftly dispatched by the chef–an end that is likely a lot less painful and prolonged than most of our own ends will be. And it’s a lot more humane than what happens to them in nature.
I’m a supporter of animal rights, despite what some of you may think. Cruelty pisses me off, whether it be factory farming, beating a dog for adrenaline in its meat or subjecting the public to another Sex and the City movie. But when PETA pulls these stunts, they hurt not only their cause but the real change that the rest of us are trying to create in making our world more humane for all creatures.
I also think that it is cowardly to target ethnic restaurants. They already are dealing with a huge challenge of making it in a foreign land in the cutthroat restaurant industry. These are not rich people. They don’t have the luxury to take a day off to picket other businesses.
Yet the most despicable aspect is the cultural chauvenism this displays. The arrogance of forcing one’s narrow-minded eating habits on other cultures! I mean, imagine if Koreans went out and protested restaurants in Korea that were serving American beef…
Oh yeah…
Well, in the meantime, here’s some video of Chef Ben eating his first san nakji.
[HT to Chef Cathlyn Choi]
May 10, 2010
Junk: Lotteria's Red & White Burger
As a public service, I usually (not all the time) try out whatever new crime against nature product from Lotteria’s great minds. What really got it rollin’ was a text message from Wine Korea’s Joshua Hall saying something like, “You gotta try this!”
Already I felt a little safer about this one compared to something like, say, the rice burger, because I already like–am addicted to–the shrimp burgers. And this was a bonus one with two shrimp patties and two sauces.
One side was the standard tartar sauce-like stuff, and the other side was a sweet southeast Asian style chili sauce, all served on a long roll with lettuce.
Yep, I liked it. The shrimp burgers are getting closer and closer to tasting like po’ boys. It’s junky, and I can’t eat these all the time. It’s not gonna blow your mind, but at times Lotteria has to be treated like kids at a church camp–give them praise for effort.
April 29, 2010