My husband and I had originally planned to check out Shiro Restaurant in Napa, Calif., on May 25, 2014, but it took eight months and a nearly 40-mile detour through a nearby city to make it happen. We had read about its opening a few months before and since it was Memorial Day weekend, we decided we…
‘Fusion’ cuisine is older than the Silk Road
Among the cuisine trends noted at the beginning of 2015 was the comeback kid “fusion.” Nation’s Restaurant News Senior Food Editor Bret Thorn blogged that such talk could reawaken the dismissive epithets of “fusion confusion” chefs heaped on “the combination, often self-consciously, of elements of different cuisines in a single dish,” but he urged these…
The Gray Lady has belated shades of kimchi love
New York Times food writer David Tanis in the Jan. 20 article “Cooking with Kimchi” extolled the versatility of kimchi: “At home you can do something as simple as topping a hot dog with kimchi, or layering it into a Reuben or a grilled cheese sandwich.” Glad to see that I’m ahead of my time….
Is ‘Korean’ the new ‘Asian’?
I’ve observed that it’s the trendy right now to slap the word Korean on any recipe that uses vaguely Asian ingredients. This Betty Crocker recipe for “Grilled Korean Steak” is a prime example. There’s nothing inherently Korean about this recipe. Nothing! Was it labeled “Korean” so people would notice it? This phenomenon is not limited…
Hidden Kimchi: The Counter, Corte Madera, Calif.
Korean cuisine (both authentic and fusion) is still fashionable in 2014, in ways that South Korea’s former first lady Kim Yoon-ok could not have predicted when her husband Lee Myung Bak was President from 2008 to 2013. One of her causes as First Lady was making Korean cuisine popular worldwide. Sometime Korean food fusions, such as…
Korea’s hunger for honey butter
The Wall Street Journal’s Korea RealTime blog reported on South Koreans’ having gone gaga over Haetae Confectionery & Foods Company’s “Honey Butter Chip” potato chips.
As it turns out, Americans also are interested in such snacks.
R.I.P.: Bear Korean Restaurant, Cotati, Calif. (1999-2014)
I have been writing about Korean food for more than five years, reviewing restaurants all over the U.S. — San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Anchorage, Alaska, St. Louis, Mo., and even Billings, Mont. I’ve reported on establishments in Seoul, Chuncheon and Busan. But the one restaurant I knew very well I never reviewed:…
Recipe: Spicy Korean Pumpkin Porridge (매운 호박죽)
When the leaves, temperatures, daylight hours and resistance to sicknesses drop, it’s time to think about pumpkin and porridge. Koreans traditionally make a somewhat bland 호박죽 hobakjuk (squash porridge) to aid recovery from ailments. But a bit ofchili spiciness and some patience can move this creamy goodness from sickbed to holiday crowd-pleaser. However, I can’t…
Rustling up Korean food in Montana at NaRa in Billings
I can’t think of any more odd place to find a Korean restaurant than Billings, Montana. There isn’t a single Asian grocery store in the entire city of 107,000 people, yet somehow Billings managed to become home to a 16-year-old Japanese-Korean restaurant that serves bona fide Korean dishes along with arguably some of the most creative sushi…
Korean Beef Soup (고기국 Gogi Guk)
Hyosun Roh of Eating and Living posted her family recipe for 무국 mu guk (Korean radish soup) a couple of years ago. I have enjoyed this recipe on occasion with Japanese daikon radishes, because the larger Korean radishes are difficult to find where I live. What can I do when I can’t find radishes in…