The Miele Guide, Asia’s premier restaurant guide, has opened its voting to the public.

VOTE NOW

Full Disclosure

I’m again one of the judges for the Korean side–I think still the only non-Korean judge–and tried to really nominate some well-deserving restaurants.

Gamja fries topped with chopped galbi. (from SF Weekly)

I’ve hinted it many times, and we just keep getting confirmation after confirmation. The Korean government and corporations dream of conquering the world with their prissy pretentious overpriced “well-being” concept of Korean food–you know the postulations like “Americans pay $300 for Japanese food, why not Korean” and “Americans only eat hamburgers, so they’ll like Korean food because it’s well-being.”

But reality blows their sanitized fabrications out of the gukmul.

SF Weekly reports that Korean food is entering the American consciousness, or at least the San Fanciscan consciousness, as stoner junk eats. It started with the Kogi tacos in L.A. Now street vendors and strip malls sell bulgogi topped hot dogs (you can actually get those at New York Hot Dog & Coffee in Korea), marinated beef and kimchi-stuffed sandwiches with creamy gochujang mayo, and fries topped with chopped galbi.

Accomplished Seattle food writer Matthew Amster-Burto (Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater) ponders why Korean food hasn’t taken off in Seattle even though the stars are aligned that way. He blames the insular tendencies of Korean restaurateurs, as in their neglect to advertise in English papers, and the baffled cluelessness Americans feel in Korean restaurants, to which I can relate. Talking to Joule’s Rachel Yang, he works on some ideas for establishing Korean food in Seattle, which could be a blueprint for the rest of the States.

1. Inexpensive restaurants with streamlined menus catering to Americans’ favorites (bulgogi, japchae, galbi), similar to Seattle’s teriyaki restaurants, should populate the area.

2. Promote gochujang. The culinary oracles are already predicting that gochujang is about to become the next sriracha sauce.

3. Korean tacos are already getting Americans used to Korean flavors, like kimchi.

Face it, folks. Royal court cuisine isn’t going to lead the charge. Neither is topoki. Americans aren’t going to latch onto yangnyeom dolsot bap because it’s boring but healthy. Rule #1 is taste. And even though my cholesterol count rises just reading those descriptions, the Korean junk food invasion looks mighty tasty.

Korea Attacks! Korean junk food has established a tasty foothold

Enjoying Korean food without knowing it

[HT to a very special reader]

Maangchi and friends

I’m sure everyone has recovered well from the Olympics. We are well into month #1 of Kim Yu-na gold medal skating re-runs, along with a documentary that shows how her body is scientifically designed for figure skating compared to her Japanese rival.

Here’s a heaping serving of banchan:

• Saveur Magazine is holding its first blog awards. Maangchi is one of the nominees in the video category and the only Korean food related blog in the running.
• Americans don’t really like North Korean soju. “There was some interest at first because people were curious, but the poor taste led to dwindling orders and we stopped imports a year ago.”
• Korean dreamboat Daniel Henney and goes on an Australian truffle hunt with a Korean Iron Chef winner. Wait, there’s a Korean Iron Chef?
• A review of a Toledo Japanese restaurant with bibimbap. My buddy Brant has stated many times that most all Japanese restaurants in the U.S. are owned by Koreans.
• ALTAWATSAC has a beef with Outback Steakhouse in Korea.

Cheese Ravioli with Soju Sauce (using homemade cheese)

One of the original reasons I started this blog years ago was to share tips on how to survive on the Korean economy–one where cheese is scarce, coffee is expensive, and ovens are luxuries. I’ve made it my mission to find ways to bring home a little closer to my adopted home because we all know that one cannot live on kimchi alone–well, okay, Korea’s citizens can pull it off, but that takes early childhood programming. I’m not quite wired that way.

That’s why we have Food for Foreigners.

It’s a category for tips and recipes for those foods you miss from home using the following guidelines:

• No ovens. Most expats in Korea don’t have them. So it’s a waste to give recipes using devices that people don’t have. I’ll admit that there are a couple of oven recipes in the batch, but I state upfront that they are oven recipes. Some of them you can get away with performing by using a toaster oven. And toaster ovens you can find cheap and secondhand online. I did.
• No Costco. Not everyone has access to Costco, especially on a consistent basis. I try to stick to ingredients people can find at their local ajosshi marts and big box supermarkets. Occasionally I head down to the international markets like the ones in Itaewon and Ansan. There were a couple little Chinese shops near me when I lived in Sillim-dong where I scored cilantro and ground corn (for polenta and mock grits).
• Keep it affordable. A trap expats run into is paying way too much for home comforts. With a little flexibility, you can make decent substitutions and not only create an old favorite but discover a new favorite. Insisting on a narrow set of ingredients is stubborn and shows no imagination. You’re just not going to get veal demi glace in Korea. Get over it.

Some of the most popular posts highlight making your own ingredients, like Mock Ricotta Cheese and Corned Beef. Shinshine has even shown how to make a Cake using a Rice Cooker, and I used a tip I found from a book on food science to make Cappuccino in a Microwave and have made real unsweetened Yogurt in a Thermos. A good example of using local ingredients as substitutions is the Cheese Ravioli in Soju Sauce, which is really a vodka sauce with soju instead. In the near future, I’ll post how I took the Mock Ricotta Cheese one step further to make my own goat cheese.

Yes, I can show you how to make goat cheese for under W5,000. And it’s pretty dang good. So remember to subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss out on the fun, and share with your friends (using one of the links below).

Posted by Tammy

The Korean government is working overtime to make Korean food more popular in the United States. Even before the current government’s intervention, private Korean companies such as CJ Corp. and Ottogi already set up a corporate presence and a distribution network through Korean and Asian grocery stores in the United States. However, most of the food is made in Korea and then imported into the United States for distribution and sale.

If Koreans wants explosive growth in the popularity of Korean food, particularly among non-Korean domestic cooks, I believe that Korean companies need to set up corporate offices and food production plants in the USA.

Korean automobile manufacturers have already done this. Hyundai and KIA both have automobile plants in the United States. Setting up operations in the States helped Hyundai grow from a niche market into a strong, highly esteemed competitor in the automotive market.

Establishing a corporate presence in the United States will make it easier for Korean food manufacturers to learn what American people like and dislike about Korean food and be able to target their product lines accordingly. Which means Koreans may have to broaden their definition of Korean food.

Despite Ottogi and CJ Corp.’s American corporate presence, they are primarily importers of Korean foods made in Korea. There are no American production plants. I’ve never seen an Ottogi spice packet say “Made in the USA”. However, that trend is starting to change as well.

I went to my local Korean grocery store recently and discovered a Korean beef and vegetable soup made by a Korean company called Chang Tuh Corp. Chang Tuh Corp. is based in Kimpo, Gyonggi-do, South Korea. Even though the product itself is 100% Korean based on the bilingual, mostly Korean packaging, it was made in the USA in Salem, Ore.

I was intrigued enough to bring some home and try it for myself. I served it with white rice and Korean sidedishes, and both hubby and I thought it tasted pretty good. It was not overly salty, like many processed food products. It had lots of veggies as well, including daikon, bean sprouts, and green onions. I hope Korean companies make more pre-made Korean foods in the USA as good as this dish.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking in 2007 (had to put her college degree to use somehow). Her recipes and articles have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

10 Magazine is holding a poll on which is the best English blog in Korea.

Just some info. vote zenkimchi Not making a call to action or anything.

The JoongAng Daily has a piece on food bloggers, particularly Chalica Park of Vegetarian in Korea, Daniel Gray of Seoul Eats and there I am with the lovely Danielle Buckley of Wonju Wife (and Zenkimchi).

Foreign foodies flock to the Web

GO YU-NA!

I guess you heard about our little superstar.

And now the banchan:

• Dr. Vino wonders if Korean food is impossible to pair with wine and then is surprised. Obviously hasn’t read much Josh Hall
• Asian wine goddess Jeannie Cho Lee’s recent gala at the Park Hyatt Seoul is featured in The Korea Herald
• Journalist Mariah Gardner has her first Korean food experience at Arirang in Augusta, Georgia. Apparently likes the dolsot bibimbap
• Staying in the South, Access Atlanta highlights Korean fusion burgers and pastries at the Lotte Assi Plaza

This just in:

Twitter user victorology has spotted some Taco Bell construction in Itaewon. To those outside of Korea, I know this is not big news. But really, as hair metal gods Cinderalla said, “Don’t know what you got til it’s gone.”

It’s deadline time for the month. Posting may be light. But I want to remind you that the ZenKimchi Korean Food Collection on Flickr is growing. The most organized photo set of Korean food you’ll find on the internet.

I’m sure it’ll be worth a good thirty minutes of distraction.

A few things coming up in ZenKimchi Land. A few of us are working on a big piece for 10 Magazine. We’re also taking nominations on Twitter for Korean foods to be included in ZenKimchi’s first Korean Food March Madness. I have some recipes from “Star Chef” Kim I need to translate and get online. I also will be giving a lecture along with a cooking demonstration for the big Seoul KOTESOL conference in March. A major site redesign may also be in the works. Still debating that.

So we have a lot to look forward to this spring.

On a techie note, I’m really digging VoxOx. It’s one of those services where you can combine all your instant messaging accounts, including Skype, Facebook and Twitter, into one bundle. It also comes with a VOIP phone feature. The killer app for me is that it has an instant universal translator for instant messaging. It can’t handle complex sentences, but it can translate simple Korean-English phrases no problem.