Ssam Kind of Haute

One of my grand life-ideas has been to open a high-end Korean restaurant that would take common Korean dishes and make them haute cuisine. This has been done with other regional cuisines with great success. Morimoto has created upmarket Japanese food in his restaurants. (He has, by the way, created a version of tubu kimchi (tofu kimchi) for his Hawaii menu; even he is not immune to hybridizing his menu for local tastes.) Roy Yamaguchi has done the same thing locally with Hawaii Regional Cuisine. While undoubtedly cooked with more care and flair, many of his menu items wouldn’t be out of place on a local plate lunch hole in the wall.

Korean food seems to be ripe for this kind of swish rediscovery. While in Korea there are ample places to eat upscale versions of Korean food (i.e. Yongsusan), in the US there doesn’t seem to be a push for high-end Korean restaurants. There are exceptions, however, and it seems they are highly successful.

Today I ran across this article on Momofuku Ssam Bar. David Chang has created a bbo ssam (pork shoulder wrap) dish that, judging from the accompanying photo, barely resembles bbo ssam. The most fascinating thing about the dish: the price. If people are going nuts over this dish and are willing to pay top dollar, I think a haute Korean restaurant would do quite well. Of course David Chang has already made a name for himself, but I still think with the time and energy you could sell all kinds of amazing Korean dishes at exorbitant prices.

Don’t go stealing my idea.

Wine and bbo ssam? The soju gods are wincing.

Spring Break Fun Jakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O3qxbGuWU8

Rainy Day Foods 1 and 2

This post is grounded in extreme wet weather, a rarity in the islands. Yes, it rains, but not as much as it has the past two days. Aside from the detriment to those who have been affected by the rain, it’s actually been a welcomed respite from the normal Hawaii weather pattern: warm and sunny. (I know, those in cold weather climes are scoffing, but we really do have basically the same weather all the time.)

When it does rain here, it’s always a great excuse to dip into rainy day Korean food. Something about the rain makes people (us included) crave, among other comfort foods, jun (kimchi or haemul will do), tubu kimchi, bindaedok, any kine spicy chiggye. Soju or makkoli are the preferred drinks.

In Korea, these kinds of foods are available at restaurants that have a traditional theme that recreate the homey feel of drinking establishments frequented by common folk called minsok jip. They are among my favorite places for rainy day Korean food.

Minsok jip don’t exist in Hawaii, but on the rare days that it does rain heavily, Sujin and I jump at the chance to enjoy the taste and ambiance of comfort food on a cool, rainy day. Tonight Sujin made some kimchi jun and we shared a half carton of halabogi’s “travel soju.”

I hope it rains tomorrow.

Welcome

Welcome to One Scoop Kimchi. For the lowdown on the blog’s writer and mission, please see the About page.

I hope you enjoy my musings about Korean food in Hawaii and I hope it inspires you to explore one of the world’s great cuisines. Aside from the many other reasons we are lucky to live in these beautiful islands, Hawaii is a perfect place to sample all kinds of delectable Korean fare.

Mani mogo!