Turning Korean
Johannes Pong has the insider’s guide to the best Korean food around town.
It Ain’t Just BBQ
Contrary to a widely held belief around town, Korean food isn’t just about beef. People in Seoul don’t barbecue on a grill in the middle of their table every freaking day, While cooking together and serving others is a standard part of Korean culture, fostering jeong, or “feeling,” elaborate barbecue dinners are usually reserved only for birthdays or yay-we-closed-the-deal celebrations. Normal, everyday Korean food is more about fish and veggies. It’s actually very vegetarian-friendly, with plenty of roots, leaves and marinated and pickled vegetables. Which brings us to…
Kimchi
Of course, kimchi is what tsukemono is to Japan, what achar is to India, and what olives are to the Mediterranean. And like all sorts of pickled plant life, it’s an acquired taste.
While many kinds of veggies can be made into kimchi, the most familiar three are the napa cabbage kimchi, the cubed daikon radishes called “ggakdugi” (in a fabulous example of onomatopoeia, it’s the sound of radishes being cut – “ggakdug! ggakdug!”), and stuffed cucumbers.
But there are countless variations, and every family or restaurant has their own version, depending of course on a “secret” recipe. Standard seasonings include garlic, scallions, and ground chili pepper. Lux versions often include fruit, pine nuts, and even raw seafood like abalone and oysters. The pungent saltiness that frightens some comes from the brine of fermented anchovies or shrimp, which is somewhat similar to Southeast Asian fish sauce.
Fresh kimchi is always sweet and tangy, more like a salad than a pickled item. Kimchi fermented for three weeks or longer starts to take on a sour note. After six weeks or more, the kimchi becomes too acerbic to be eaten alone and will only be used in soups, fried rice or dumplings. It might also be fried or boiled first before being served as a side dish. So if you’re presented with four dishes of cabbage kimchi, don’t be offended – the restaurant doesn’t think you're a retard, they’re offering you four different kimchis to savor.
Banchan
What’s a Korean dinner without those kickass side dishes that you get with every meal? An interesting phenomenon in Hong Kong: if you don’t specify, locals will get side-dishes catered to local tastes, usually the two most common varieties of kimchi (cabbage and daikon), the spinach, beansprouts, and an insipid fruit or potato salad.
If you’re Japanese, they’ll serve you Japanese-style banchan, which is of a sweeter and more savory note. Marinated eggplant, fish cakes, potatoes boiled in syrupy soy sauce, and little chijimi pancakes.
