The idea for a bulgogi burger came to me last summer when I was thinking about entering a burger grill-off/competition. Little did I know that the "Bulgogi Burger" is already a standard menu item on fast food burger joints in Korea. I was slightly disheartened, since my idea wasn't original, and scrapped it for the competition.

But I never forgot about making it myself. I've never actually tried a bulgogi burger in Korea (it's been about 15 years since I've been there), and decided that I didn't want to know how it is made in tha' Motherland. I wanted to come up with my own. Besides, someone also told me that many "Bulgogi Burgers" are not burgers at all - they are real pieces of bulgogi slapped between the buns. Who knows? I didn't care.

The two most popular cuts of beef for Korean barbecue are cross-cut shortribs (galbee) and thinly-sliced ribeye (bulgogi). However, marinating a whole side of beef, or in this case, a flank steak ,in the same seasonings, grilling, then slicing the grilled steak after cooking is a good way to enjoy Korean barbecue as well. Most Koreans wrap up a slice of beef with a little spoonful of rice and some red pepper sauce in a lettuce leaf, but I usually leave the rice out and double up on the hot sauce.

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 Tbsp sesame oil, 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp. minced ginger, 4-5 minced garlic cloves, and a dash of black pepper.

Place a 2 lb flank steak in a large zipper seal bag, along with the marinade. Let steak marinate for about 30 minutes, turning the bag occasionally to cover all sides. 

Grill the marinated flank steak for about 5 minutes per side for medium rare. Remove the steak from the heat and let sit, covered, for at least five minutes. Do not touch, poke or prod it.

Thinly slice the beef across the grain. Serve with whole leaves of red leaf lettuce and goh-choo-jahng (Korean red pepper sauce).

Korean bulgogi is made with thinly sliced ribeye or other beef, but the same marinade, with a slight modification, can be used on chicken.

Simply take the same marinade you use for bulgogi (soy sauce, broth, rice wine vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, onion, shallots, sesame oil) and about 1-2 Tbsp. goh-cho-jahng (Spicy Korean red pepper paste) for every half cup of marinade. Let thinly sliced pieces of chicken marinate for an hour, up to overnight in the refrigerator, then grill, pan-fry, or broil the same way for bulgogi.

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.

I've been going to the Korean markets in LA a lot more often now as I explore my Korean side in the kitchen. Though I am not unfamiliar with many of the rather unusual and new food products and ingredients to be found in Asian markets, I was pretty amused on my last few visits. I am not sure if I was just never aware of certain products, or that they really are new. Clam jerky?

Now don't get me wrong. I know all about dried seafood. Dried seaweed (called "gim" in Korean and "nori" in Japanese), dried fish, and even dried squid. In fact, I used to gobble up dried squid while watching tv when I was a kid. However, I just can't imagine what clam jerky would look or even taste like. Pretty damn good if it's $4.99!

With the Chinese New Year goings on around the world this weekend, it's no better time to stock your kitchen with commonly used Asian ingredients both in the pantry and in the refrigerator (right after you've purged it of all those useless gadgets). A lot of Asian foods are healthy and delicious, so if you haven't done much Asian cooking at home, let the new Year of the Dog be the year you try it.

I do a lot of Asian cooking at home, so these are a few things I like to have on hand:

• Soy sauce - I actually have a giant 1-gallon container in my refrigerator. Yes, keep soy sauce in the refrigerator. Also, if you are wary of gluten or carbs, there is wheat in soy sauce (who knew?)
• Sesame seeds - I have both regular and black sesame seeds. They taste the same to me, but the black ones add some contrast for presentation. However, there is a difference in taste between regular and toasted sesame seeds. If you buy regular sesame seeds, toast them yourself in a dry pan over medium high heat.
• Sesame oil - It's rarely used as a cooking oil, but rather, as a seasoning in marinades or added to a dish like a condiment just before serving for its fragrance.
• Rice - Short grain rice that is "sticky" when it is steamed.

Earlier today, I posted about the things that Mom would have for us when we went on road trips in our faithful Buick woodie. One of them was a Korean version of the Japanese sushi roll called futomaki. In Korean, it's called gim-bahp, and usually has meat and vegetables (no raw fish). The rice is the same as sushi rice (sweet and vinegary), and the fillings are the same things that Koreans put in bi-bim-bahp, the spicy mixed rice and vegetable bowl.

"Gim" is the Korean word for the seaweed wrapper, also known as "nori" in Japanese. "Bahp" is Korean for cooked rice. Put them together, and you have some great snacking for the back of the station wagon! Who knows, maybe we'll do a slashfood video short of how to roll these guys!

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. 

Kimchee bok-keum bahp is a Korean home and café food. At home, it's a way to use up kimchee before it gets too ripe to eat (at which time, it gets dumped into a big pot and turned into kimchee jji-gae). "Bok-keum" means sauteed or fried and "bahp" is steamed rice if you're only halfway through Korean 101. So essentially, kimchee bok-keum bahp is fried rice with kimchee, and yes, all those stories about Asian restaurants - today's leftover rice is tomorrow's fried rice - is totally true and totally applies here.

Here's a nasty little sercret - kimchee bokkeum bahp tastes infinitely better when cooked with chopped Spam, but since I don't ever just have Spam on hand and the point of kimchee bokkeum bahp is to use leftovers, I usually use frozen leftover galbee or bulgogi. Of course, leave all of that out and your kimchee bokeeum bahp can be vegetaarian.

The other day, on a whim, I took my whole family to the Melting Pot, an outlet of the U.S. fondue chain. I was in the mood for quality fried food, and what's more quality than food you fry yourself, in oil only you've used? ("I think we'll have the Bourguignonne, or however you say it," I told our 20-year-old waiter, scraping up my best guess at its pronunciation. "Wow, that took me nine days of training to learn!" he said.)

As I was frying up tempura zuchhini and beef tenderloin au natur on the little hotplate in the center of our table, I remembered a Koreatown restaurant with mini copper hoods that descended when it was time to start frying. And I thought: I want one of these tables!

So my wishlist for my future kitchen is begun. The dining room will have a traditional table, but my "breakfast nook" will have its very own grill, with a mini hood. I'm sure it will cost thousands - so my future kitchen is FAR in the future. Now all I need to do is figure out where to get the hardware. Am I going to have to go to a restaurant supply distributor or are these in-table grills available commercially? Anyone ever installed one?

"Jook" is a general Korean term for "porridge," similar to Chinese congee. Back in November, Stephania shared her family's recipe for turkey jook as a way to use up leftover turkey. Today, we're having jaht jook, a Korean pine nut and rice porridge.

Koreans eat this for breakfast, but usually, jaht jook used to be saved for special occasions because pine nuts are expensive and not always available. The expensive part is still true, but not the availability part - you can even get pine nuts at Costco year round.

There are a few recipes on the web from various sources like ethnicgrocer (that calls it "chatchuk" which seems very inaccurate because it's not "chat, chuck," ), recipesource, and even reprints of Dok Suni's recipe, but this is the way my Mom told me how to make it.

Today's Seattle Times Food & Wine section is almost poetic in its choice of themes. Bulgogi, Barbapapa, kumquats, cookbooks, Yaksik, Japchae... it could be a foodie rap.

•  Every chef should add some of these traditional Korean-American dishes to their repertoire. Especially recommended: Bulgogi (Korean barbecue, yum), Yaksik (sweet rice with nuts and jujubes), Japchae (clear noodles stir-fried with vegetables) and Tteokguk (sliced rice pasta soup).
• Try the Barbapapa from Seattle's Sambar, "almost like two drinks for one price." It's a martini-like concoction of Hangar One Kaffir Lime vodka, Cointreau, lime juice and... rhubarb sorbet. Phew. I was just wondering what to do with that rhubarb sorbet...