Likely. I found a spot in Provo, Utah(!) and one in Virginia Beach (about the only decent restaurant I've found there, thus far). I've been to many others. Menus tend to be quite similar. The thing about lesser known cuisines in this country is that the restaurants that serve them are often good. The food is not usually Americanized--they often start up to cater to locals of the same ethnicity--and they are usually not ones for cheapening the food through the use of large amounts of lower quality food service foods.

I was stationed in Seoul for a year and Chop Chae Bop was one of my favorite dishes. Your's looks awesome and would love to have the recipe. Thanks for the post.

If only this was scratch and sniff

Free time has been hard to come by lately, but I'll see what I can do. Here's the first of the recipes:

Chap Chae

5 to 6 oz very thin bean thread noodles (mung bean noodles)

soak noodles in a bowl of warm water to cover until softened, about 10 minutes, drain in colander. Cook noodles in a 3-4 qt pot of boiling water until tender, about 2 minutes, then drain, rinse until cool.

1/2 cup tamari
3 tbs sesame oil
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs chopped garlic

blend in blender until smooth

1 medium onion, sliced
3 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks
1/4 lb shitakes, sliced
3 cups baby spinach
scallions

add a tbs of oil to a hot wok, stir fry onion and carrot until soft. add mushrooms, then spinach and scallion. Add noodles, toss with sauce, simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed (3-5 min).

Although this recipe has some potential, its the second one we tried, and still wasn't nearly as good as the pancakes we've had that have been made by pros. there's definitely a technique to pulling these off. but if you don't mind somewhat doughy pancakes with clams and scallions, try it out and let me know how to improve it.

Hae-Mul Pajeon

2 cups flour
2 cups water
2 eggs
1 bunch scallions
1/2 lb shrimp chopped
6 littlenecks shucked and diced
salt/pepper to taste

mix flour, water, eggs until smooth. stir in half the chopped scallions and season with salt and pepper.

pour 3/4 cup batter into hot pan, tilting it until batter covers pan. sprinkle scallions and 1/4 cup seafood over pancake. flip and brown other side.

Grilled spicy pork recipe please???

quote:

Originally posted by Don Irish:
Grilled spicy pork recipe please???

I second this request!!

Thank you so much for the recipes!

Funny that you didn't really care for your pancake. It looks awesome.

quote:

Funny that you didn't really care for your pancake. It looks awesome.

They were good, but could be better. I'm wondering if a leavener would have helped to lighten the dough, it was a little like a crepe.

The clams were what make the pancake though. Try to keep them in the recipe. They add a real briny, umami punch.

quote:

Grilled spicy pork recipe please???

The recipe calls for pork belly, but I'd think about anything should work. I didn't plan on making a ton, so I used a tenderloin since its about the smallest cut I could find. I sliced the tenderloin on the bias into about 3/4" thick, skewed, rounds, that I pounded down.

The only trick to the marinade is something called asian chili-garlic paste. We have a great korean grocer that has a large variety of things but nothing called by that name. I purchased a small red tub of stuff called chili paste. Inside is a deep red paste that tastes great and seems to give my korean bbq an authentic flavor.


Marinade:
1/3 cup mirin
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs sesame seeds, toasted, ground
2 tbs minced garlic
2 scallions, whites only
2 tbs fresh ginger
1 tbs asian chili-garlic paste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp chili powder

I marinated the tenderloin for the good part of the day, and I think it might have been a tad too long. There's nothing acidic in the marinade but it still seemed to soften the exterior of the pork.

Kalbi

4 pounds short ribs

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 asian pear
2 tbs garlic
1/2 small white onion
1 tbs ginger
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs honey
2 tbs sesame seed, toasted
2 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs ground red pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 green onions

dump in blender, puree. add to short ribs and marinate overnight.

Wow, very impressive. Is your wife Korean, by chance? If not, that's pretty hardcore for a couple of Americans!

If you haven't had mandu fried in deep fat, you're in for a treat. Pan frying is quick and easy, but break out the deep fryer for something out of this world!

My mom often adds some very thin slices of sirloin to her chop chae. It's pretty oily, but it's just fantastic.

One of the great things about Korean food is that it's very "up to you". I've never had bin dae duk (the pancake) with anything but scallions and ham. That's just how Mom always made it. But shrimp and clams.. that's gotta be amazing! Same with her galbi - she would sometimes add some thin slices of kiwi fruit to the marinade to tenderize the meat a bit more. It didn't impact the flavor, but the tenderness was out of this world.

But I will add that the beef short ribs need to be cross-cut across three rib bones. The ones like you made are mainly for braising, where the large hunks of meat need time to break down. I think, like flank steak, the direction of the cut can make a huge difference in tenderness. You'll need a custom butcher if this style of cut is not available locally (Atlanta has a large Korean population so this is pretty regular in most of our markets). Here is a good example of the cut I'm talking about:


Korean food needs more exposure in the US. Well done!

quote:

Wow, very impressive. Is your wife Korean, by chance? If not, that's pretty hardcore for a couple of Americans!

nope, we're just a couple of crazy round eyes.

I scored the cross cut ribs once at a local grocery. I saw "beef ribs for kalbi" and snatched them up. haven't seen them again, other than at a korean grocery but they're frozen and very expensive. Maybe next time I make it for company, I might ask and have it specially cut.

sounds like you have some knowledge about korean food. can I pick your brain? we've been struggling to find things like chili bean paste, and chili garlic paste. we can never find the exact stuff because we're not sure what we're looking for and there's a language barrier between me and the shop owners.

JB, the cut of short ribs that Dan is referring to is available here at Safeway and Fred Meyer (Kroger in other parts of the country). It's also always at Asian groceries along with pork bellies that "mainstream" groceries on either coast refuse to carry.

The chili bean sauce I use is from a company called Lee Kum Kee. LKK makes a bunch of different Asian seasonings and is pretty widely available (I've seen their products in Asia, Canada, NY, NJ, IL, OH, CA and WA). I buy them from the Asian store but they may be available in the Asian section of your grocery, if they have one. I also use their black bean paste and oyster sauce.

If you can't find them you can always drive 2 hours up to Toronto and stock up on Asian goodies. Don't worry even though there aren't too many "round-eyes" up there, you don't need to be scared. Canadians are nice.

Here's a pic of kalbi I did a while back...scratch that looks like I need a site host for the pic

quote:

Originally posted by j biesinger:

nope, we're just a couple of crazy round eyes.

I scored the cross cut ribs once at a local grocery. I saw "beef ribs for kalbi" and snatched them up. haven't seen them again, other than at a korean grocery but they're frozen and very expensive. Maybe next time I make it for company, I might ask and have it specially cut.

I can't recommend cross-cut ribs enough. I blaze them on the high heat for 1 or 2 minutes per side when they are 1/4" thick. Just like a thin steak.

quote:

sounds like you have some knowledge about korean food. can I pick your brain? we've been struggling to find things like chili bean paste, and chili garlic paste. we can never find the exact stuff because we're not sure what we're looking for and there's a language barrier between me and the shop owners.

What you're calling chili bean paste is probably gochujang (rhymes with gong). It's a Korean staple. It's made from doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and red chili pepper powder. As far as gochujang with garlic, I'm not sure, but I'll ask my mom about it next time I see her.

quote:

What you're calling chili bean paste is probably gochujang (rhymes with gong). It's a Korean staple. It's made from doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and red chili pepper powder. As far as gochujang with garlic, I'm not sure, but I'll ask my mom about it next time I see her.

Is that the stuff they give you at Korean BBQ places along with the lettuce, rice, garlic and jalapenos? I knew it was some sort of fermented soybean paste just didn't know what it was called. I grilled some spicy chicken last night and had it with the lettuce and rice but it just wasn't the same without the soybean paste. I'll go look for it in the Asian store.

J Pan, what you're referring to is doenjang. That's a tough word to vocalize in the English language (the "o" sound is almost silent, in fact my mother skips right over that sound and turns it into "den-jang"). It's not spicy, but very savory. It stinks all to hell in large quantities, but it's an unmistakable flavor to a whole bunch of Korean foods. And definitely required with galbi when you have some lettuce on hand.

At the Korean BBQ joints around here, the sliced garlic and jalapenos are served in a small foil dish - we throw that foil dish on the grill, too, to roast the peppers and garlic. I'm drooling thinking about it!

Don't forget that when you make galbi lettuce wraps, you gotta shove the entire wrap in your mouth at once - no half-arsed bites!

quote:

What you're calling chili bean paste is probably gochujang (rhymes with gong). It's a Korean staple. It's made from doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and red chili pepper powder. As far as gochujang with garlic, I'm not sure, but I'll ask my mom about it next time I see her.

ok, thats certainly the stuff we have. I dont think soy is listed on the label though.

how different is korean fermented soybean paste from the japanese misos?

what is doenjang? I don't recall ever being served this. is this similar to miso?

J,

Sorry I missed your followup, I lost track of this thread.

Yes, doenjang is very similar to Japanese miso, but it's thicker and more paste-like. From what I understand, miso can be made of different grains, but it's usually soy. Doenjang, OTOH, is always soy. And it's saltier than miso.

quote:

es, doenjang is very similar to Japanese miso, but it's thicker and more paste-like. From what I understand, miso can be made of different grains, but it's usually soy. Doenjang, OTOH, is always soy. And it's saltier than miso.

actually I was just at my korean grocer and they had little tups labeled "korean miso."