"korean cuisine" news and stories

Will wonders at the Korean market never cease?! Sahm-gyae-tahng (that's my spelling, but others may Romanize it differently) is a Korean chicken soup made by boiling a whole young chicken that is stuffed with sweet rice, ginseng, and Korean dates (jujubes). It supposed to simmer for a long time on the stove top to draw all the nutrients out of the chicken's meat and bones, so it's supposedly served as a "healing" soup.

At the market, I came across sahm-gyae-tahng all ready to go in a bag - rice, dried ginseng, Korean dates, and even the seasonings. All you have to do is add a chicken and follow the directions on the package. Kind of like those Hormel add-your-own meat mixes.

In English, C is for chicken, but in Korean, D is for "dahk," and the "jj" in the Korean word for stew "jjim" is a sound that doesn't have an English equivalent. About the closest thing is something between "j" and "ch."

So now that we're done with the Korean language lesson, dahk-jjim is a type of Korean homestyle comfort food. It is a chicken stew made by cooking chicken on the bone for a very long time in a pot on the stove top. Onions, carrots, and potatoes also go into the pot, along with the stewing liquid of chicken broth, soy sauce, and a few other seasonings. Serve it with steamed white rice and since the dahk jjim isn't spicy, put some spicy bahn chan on the table. 

If you didn't already know about it, then you know about Korean barbecue now with all of my posting about how Korean will be the new "it" cuisine this year. Korean barbecue restaurants serve raw, marinated meats, and diners cook the meat themselves at the table over a gas or charcoal grill that is usuall embedded in the table. Galbee (marinated beef shortribs), bulgogi (thinly sliced marinated flank steak), dae-jee bulgogi (spicy marinated pork) - these are all Korean barbecue meats.

But you don't have to restrict yourself to Korean restaurants for Korean barbecue. Japanese restaurants also serve their version of Korean barbecue and call it "yakiniku." They keep the same principle of grilling at the table and the same basic marinade for the meats. The Japanese restaurants add their own flair with fancier grills and different types of things to cook over the grill. Korean barbecue traditionally grills only meats with an occasional sliced onion or mushooms and get their vegetables from bahnchan. Japanese add vegetables to the grill - sometimes directly on the grill, or in small foil packets with butter.

In LA, Gyu-kaku and Manpuku are the only strictly yakiniku restaurants I've tried. Places like Musha in Santa Monica and Torrance serve yakiniku style items as part of a widely varied menu.

Growing up, there were occasions when my non-Korean friends would come over for dinner and Mom would insist that we serve Korean food. I whined. I fought. And finally, when Mom said we were having Korean food or nothing, I sulked, certain that I'd lose my friends forever.

But I didn't, because my Mom was wise and chose to keep the kimchee in the refrigerator, and serve bulgogi, galbee (removed from the bone to make it easier to eat), and jahp-chae, a Korean dish of transparent noodles sauteed with meat, vegetables and the basic Korean seasoning of soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil. Jahp-chae is an accessible taste for non-Koreans because it's very similar to many Chinese stir-fried noodle dishes. The dish is served family-style alongside steamed rice, other dishes and bahn-chan.

The noodles, by themselves called "dahng-myun," are transparent because they are made from sweet potato starch. These days, however, more Koreans are making jahp-chae with any form of transparent, or "glass," noodles. The dish can be made vegetarian by leaving out the meat, and even vegan by leaving out any eggs. The vegetables that Mom always used were spinach, mushrooms, carrots, red bell peppers, onions, and green onions.