Hubby and I drove down to Marin Country Mart in Larkspur, Calif. to check out KoJa Kitchen’s Korean-Japanese “fast casual” food truck at the Off the Grid (OtG) street food gathering. This is a view of the OtG Larkspur from the Ferry across the street taken last spring. (Tammy Quackenbush/Koreafornian photo via Instagram) KoJa (which…
Tag: street food
Korean taco innovator Roy Choi rolls into Napa Valley
It may seem like an odd pairing of Roy Choi, best-known for popularizing Korean fusion street food in the U.S, and a gathering of A-list chefs in America’s top wine region, but organizers of Flavor! Napa Valley say his expertise and innovation will well-complement the conference in late November. “You can count on one hand…
Fun food find: Ssiat hotteok (씨앗호떡) at BIFF Square, Busan
BIFF Square gets its name from the Busan International Film Festival. This annual film festival is one of the most prestigious film festivals in Asia. BIFF Square was the original location of the BIFF, which started in 1996. Although BIFF Square no longer plays hostess to the prestigious film festival — it was moved to…
Recipe: Noryangjin-inspired Poktanbap (폭탄밥) aka ‘Bomb Rice’
Seoul-Suburban, one of my co-conspirators on Nanoomi.net, posted this comment about a new dish they discovered while exploring the neighborhood around the famous Noryangjin Fish Market: I passed carts offering bibimbap, bulgogi hot dogs, deopbap, omurice, hamburgers, bokkeumbap, and something that one cart called poktanbap (폭탄밥), or ‘bomb rice.’ This last one was something…
Koreamerican creation: Kimchi buffalo hot dog
Napa Valley chef Hector Marroquin topped his buffalo hot dog with his “kimchi 3.0,” on a whole wheat bun slathered with Dijon mustard. I included sweet potato fries to complement the spicy kimchi. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush) There’s arguably no food more recognizably Korean than spicy cabbage kimchi. But what is quintessentially American? Few meats…
Recipe: Pul-bbang (풀빵) Korean pancake dumplings
Jeff couldn’t wait to take a bite out of them. Here’s the proof. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush) I found a Danish Æbelskiver pancake pan at William-Sonoma some time ago. I kept staring at the catalog, scratching my head trying to figure out why the pan and its baked contents looked so familiar. Then I realized…
Young-Sun Lee rolls into New York with a kimchi taco truck
The Village Voice reports that Chef Young-Sun Lee, who I interviewed for ZenKimchi Food Journal in September, is jumping back into the restaurant business with his own kimchi taco truck. The menu includes kimchi tacos, burritos and grilled cheese sandwiches. (See my recipes for the sandwich from April and the tacos from July.) His stated raison d’etre is…
Recipe: Korean egg toast
Ketchup on the side is totally optional but kid-friendly. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush) Korean fusion cooking is not a one-way street where Westerners tinker with Korean dishes to make them more appealing to Westerners. Koreans also have “fusion” recipes, in which they have Korean-ized either Western or Japanese dishes. I lightly sauteed the vegetables before…
Korean tacos come to Atlanta
Korean taco trucks are no longer limited to America’s West Coast cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. Now Atlanta, the largest U.S. Southeast city, has Yumbii. It’s one of the latest such roving restaurants to follow in the wake of intense popularity for Kogi, which has more than 67,000 listed followers on Twitter….
International noodles incident with tteokbokki
I submitted a Korean noodle dish for the June International Incident Party featuring the sublimely versatile noodle known as garae tteok in Korean. Ingredients 1 lb. sticky rice cake sticks (garae tteok) 5 fried fish cakes (odeng) 1/4 head chopped cabbage 2 green onions, cutting diagonally about one inch long and separating the white part…