The "secret" to making the kalbi video

Most recipes for kalbi (Korean beef ribs) currently published use Western substitutes for pear juice such as corn syrup; apple, kiwi or pineapple juice; or a sweet lemon-lime soft drink such as Sprite. I decided to go "old-school" in my kalbi video, going back to basics because Americans in most areas of the country have access to Korean pears.

However, Korean pears are a seasonal fruit, especially if you're a bit of a purist like me and prefer to buy the pears from Korea. What do I do in the spring and summer when Korean pears are lacking? I buy the little cans of pear juice from the Korean grocery store. They're approximately 8 ounces (236 ml) and have the perfect amount of juice for my marinade. It's a little more liquid than the grated pear I usually use, but the flavor is still there. That's the important thing.



Here's a little video-continuity secret. For the most part, it was recorded in the order it is shown. However, we captured the pouting-over-the-cookbooks scene immediately before I started cooking, so all the dialogues before the cooking sequence were filmed first. I forgot to my glasses them off while I was grilling the ribs. There's a brief point at 3:53 at which you can see glasses.

I don't wear my glasses in my videos because we use a lot of lighting. It is difficult to compensate for the glare on the lenses, so it's easier not to wear glasses on camera. I only need them for reading books or a computer screen anyway. However, I thought my glasses would add an honest, studious touch to that little vignette, so I wore them.



Photo credit: Jeff Quackenbush, 2008