Koreafornian Cooking in 2011

In 2011, I grew as a writer and a cook of Korean cuisine, venturing beyond Koreafornian Cooking to write posts and feature articles for WineKorea and Yonhap News Agency.

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” —Hal Borland

The following are my favorite posts and publications throughout the year.

January

The most fundamental but neglected ingredient in any cuisine is water. In "How water can be hard on your culinary masterpieces," I tackled a question in my head for nearly 30 years.

Finding the answer took a strange route, through a couple of Korean history books, including Samguk Sagi, a travel book by Korean megastar Bae Yong Joon, and the work of Julia Child. Even the World Health Organization helped me.

I did find the answer to why Grandmother's Montana pickles tasted differently than her Illinois pickles despite having the same recipe. The answer was also so insanely simple: Different mineral components in the water made the difference. I wish I could go back in time and give her the answer, so she wouldn't have stopped making them all those years ago.

Who would have thought that a recreation of a classic Korean street food would land me my first freelance article? (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)

Also early in January, Plate magazine published my article on Korean breakfast culture. My recipe post "Korean Egg Toast" prompted the editors to ask me to write about the first cuisine of the day in the Land of the Morning Calm.

February

Since the weather was still very cold and the risk of catching a cold (or something worse) was still high, I continued indulging my 유자차 yujacha obsession with recipes for Yujacha Salmon and French Toast With Yujacha Syrup.

March

To use up leftover bulgogi or kalbi marinade, I fused a Thai peanut sauce recipe with one for Korean grilled meat wrap sauce (쌈장 ssamjang) to create Peanut Ssamjang.

This recipe was easier than the Yujacha Hamantaschen I made last year but just as tasty. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)

My yujacha obsession raged untreated, resulting in Yujacha Rolls, Yuja Curd, Candied Yuja Peel and Yuja Soju Tincture.

April

A couple of recipes brought back very warm memories. I've been making my own Tuna Kimchi Jjigae, or kimchi stew with tuna, for more than 10 years, because I haven't yet found a Korean restaurant that serves it. Yet Korean grocers sell canned tuna specially made for kimchi jjigae.

You can't have Passover without charoset but there's nothing in the Torah that says it must be made with apples, right? (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)

My second charoset recipe came together for the Paschal season. In addition to the delicious Shingo, Korean Pear Charoset had honey, lemon juice and cinnamon.

May

I rode a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train for the first time to write a guest post for Seoul Suburban, a travel blog for "discovering Seoul, one subway stop at a time." Oakland, Calif., is certainly more than a stop away from Seoul.

Both Incheon and Oakland (major port cities)  have landmarks named after the famous WW2 and Korean War General MacArthur. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)

Yet that city across the bay from San Francisco had a Korean restaurant serving 짜자면 jjajamyun (noodles in salty-savory dark brown sauce) within a short walk of a subway stop named for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, whose forces stormed the shores of Incheon in the Korean War.

Tteokgalbi, don't dare call it "hamburger." (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)

My recipe for Gwangju 떡갈비 Tteokgalbi brought the trolls ashore on the east side of the Pacific. An anonymous poster claimed — without a hint of sarcasm — Gwangju tourism websites and blogs lie about the city's being the spiritual home of the grilled "hamburger" dish.

June

A Taiwanese blogger was sentenced to jail and fined nearly $7,000 for calling a restaurant's noodles "salty." Another anonymous commenter (probably not the same one as on the tteokgalbi post) thought I was overreacting about the potentially huge legal liabilities of blogging. If anything, I was underreacting.

Seoulfoodyo started the meme of top 10 반찬 banchan (myriad side dishes traditionally served with Korean meals), and I ran with it in "How to eat like a Korean: Tammy's top 10 banchan."

July

Scribe Winery near Sonoma, Calif., brought in San Francisco's Namu restaurant to cater a party for 50 guests in connection with the Outside Lands concert series. I covered the event for WineKorea and learned something new about pairing chardonnay wine with Korean food.

Some posts stir up fulfilling dialogue; some, a hornet nest of angst. A review of Trader Joe's frozen 비빔밥 bibimbap stirred up the latter, at least on the Korean side of the Pacific. In the States, readers seemed to have understood the meal was intended for those wanting a quick, inexpensive lunch at work and not as a representation of real Korean cuisine or a replacement for a good home-cooked or restaurant meal.

August

Yonhap News Agency published my first feature article. I interviewed Adam Field, an 옹기장 onggijang (kimchi crock potter) based in Durango, Colo. I learned about him second-hand in May while attending Fermentation Fest in Sonoma County wine country north of San Francisco. While networking, I lamented to one person that I couldn't find real Korean onggi easily in the States. She told me about Field and gave me his email address.

VIP's Jeonju bibimbap was royally delicious. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)

While visiting family in Anchorage, I reviewed a longstanding Korean establishment in the Alaska's largest city, VIP Restaurant.

September

The most popular post of the year was on inventing a recipe for Noryangjin-inspired Poktanbap (폭탄밥), aka "Bomb Rice." All I had to work with to recreate the dish was the description in a Seoul Suburban post on the authors' discovering poktanbap.

I had way too much fun trying to recreate this dish, more fun than allowed by law. I had no idea how many others were intrigued by it, too. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)

My post went viral, thanks to a submittal to StumbledUpon. Joe McPherson of ZenKimchi Food Journal went to Noryangjin a few days later to follow up. He found the little street stall serving poktanbap and discovered Seoul-Suburban left out a couple of ingredients: coconut and walnuts. I think it is still really good without them.

My second post for WineKorea covered Seoul on Wheels' visit to Chateau Montelena. The legendary Napa Valley winery invited the Korean taco truck to a celebration of the beginning of the winegrape harvest.

October

CJ Foods released a new line of Korean barbecue sauces under the Bibigo brand and sent me samples to review. I made a simple Korean Taco recipe to evaluate the sauce's potential as a harried housewife's easy-peasy Korean meat marinade.

I also rediscovered a love of black and white photography, thanks to Black and White Wednesday.

November

Staying in St. Louis en route to my 20th high school reunion, I serendipitously sampled the selections of Seoul Garden in the suburb of St. Ann, Mo. It was my second out-of-state restaurant review.

Seoul Garden served up some simple comforting egg custard the night we arrived in St. Ann, Mo. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)

Twitter became a key source of blog inspiration. I answered tweeted questions about kimchi onggi and soju with necessarily 140-plus-character posts.

December

Within a couple of days of each other, two restaurants I had covered decided to close their doors.

San Francisco Bay area locals who fear going through Namu withdrawals can still find tasty okonomayaki, gamja fries and Korean tacos at their food booth at the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)

On Nov. 30, Namu restaurant announced it would close on Christmas Eve. Difficulty renegotiating the lease on the first location led to shuttering it to concentrate on a new venture in the city already set to debut in early 2012. Namu pledged to continue visits to street-food venues.

The following day, on Dec. 1, San Francisco-based Cafe Gratitude set Facebook and later Twitter ablaze with the announcement of the closure of all Northern California restaurants. Legal problems were cited as the deciding factor. Of interest to my readers both on Koreafornian Cooking ("Black and White Wednesday: Cafe Gratitude Vegan Bibimbap") and Yonhap News ("San Francisco cultivates kimchi as California cuisine") is the planned closure of the wholesale food division, which makes the "I Am Alive" kimchi.

Here's looking forward to an even more eventful and interesting 2012.

Yujacha French Toast v. Yuzu French Toast

During my visit to the late, great Namu in San Francisco's Inner Richmond, an item on the dessert menu caught my attention: Yuzu French Toast.

Who eats French toast for dessert? I will if it has yuja (Korean citron, called yuzu in Japanese) and bae (Korean pear) in it.

The dish is a slice of yuzu/yuja-spiked brioche bread topped with fresh fruit compote laid on top of a drizzle of caramel sauce.

The night my husband and I went to Namu, the fresh fruit compote was made with diced pears. It was topped with a spoonful of whipped cream and garnished with a small leaf dusted in powdered sugar. The brioche was sweet and tasty but it was not dipped in egg batter and fried. It was a healthier, lighter dish.

Namu's dessert is different from the French toast with yujacha syrup I made back in February which is a traditional French toast dish with Yujacha syrup. My husband and I like this syrup so much that we have smuggled it in with us when going out to restaurants for breakfast. The restaurant makes the French toast and we use our yujacha syrup instead of using the maple-flavored corn syrup usually on hand in most restaurants.

Are latkes Korean?

On Dec. 3, 2010, Robert Aiudi asked himself, "Hannukah's Potato Pancakes are also Korean?"

Yep, here's the proof: My "Korean latkes" video, originally posted on YouTube on Dec. 21, 2008.

Smokers, drink your Yakult!

A recent study published in the British Journal of Nutrition has found that daily supplements of the probiotic Lactobacillus casei shirota, which is a proprietary strain used in Yakult, a Japanese yogurt drink, popular in Korea and throughout Asia, may boost activity of key immune cells in smokers.

On a side note, it also showed promise in reducing symptoms of nausea and stomach aches.

For more information, read "Probiotics may boost immune health markers for smokers: Study"

Recipe: Korean-style spicy walnuts

This recipe taught me the real trick to flavoring nuts without grease: coat the nuts with egg while before coating them with the seasoning. The resulting nuts might not look as pretty as spiced nuts made with a coating of oil but they aren't as messy, especially on your guest's fingers.

"God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them." —Franz Kafka

(Tammy Quackenbush photo)

S.F.'s Namu continues street eats as first restaurant closes, second to open

Namu, a San Francisco restaurant with a Korean spin on California cuisine, will continue to serve its version of Korean tacos as well as its popular 감자 gamja fries from street venues after the initial restaurant closes later this month and as a different-format location is set to open elsewhere in the city early next year.

Namu still will be serving its famous gamja fries at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and street-food festival Off the Grid. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)

Secret Recipe Club: Korean Shingo Pear Butter

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment for reproducing a food blog's recipe came from Angela's Kitchen. The recipes there are neatly organized so those with food allergies can avoid whatever will ail them. All her recipes are free of gluten, wheat and dairy products.

What caught my eye was her recipe for pear butter. Making it in a slow cooker that requires minimal attention was a big bonus.

Guest Post: Free Meal Planner & the Kimchi Burrito

Carolyn K. is a freelance writer from Austin, TX and began cooking with different Asian cuisines after she studied abroad in Singapore a couple years ago. She said, "I love how all the cultures there have blended, and I had some pretty interesting and wonderful food because of that blending. I have been doing some little fusion dishes since because it helps revamp meals and leftovers." Carolyn's post has includes two recipes, one authentic Korean recipe and a Korean fusion recipe. She also discovered a free menu planner which might help you find the ingredients you need for a kimchi burrito, or any other Korean dish at the best price. Carolyn was not paid by Koreafornian Cooking for this post and Koreafornian Cooking was not paid by Carolyn to submit this recipe to Koreafornian Cooking.

Sure you can wrap anything in a tortilla and call it ‘fusion’, but when it comes to figuring out how to feed yourself on the cheap, cross your fingers that a free meal planner will suggest this recipe for the Kimchi burrito.

The basic recipe for baechu kimchi, the staple of the Korean table, has been in existence for over 500 years, standing the test of time. (Carolyn K. photo) 

Kimchi is fermented cabbage. It’s super cheap and lasts for days. There are tons of variations, but here's the basic recipe I use.

Ingredients:
1 head nappa cabbage
3 tbsp salt
3 garlic cloves
1 inch ginger root, peeled
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes)
2 tsp. white vinegar

Directions:

1. Take 1 head of nappa cabbage, cut into wedges, and soak in water with 3 Tbs. of salt dissolved in it for 2 hours. 
2. Rinse the cabbage well and drain and squeeze out water. 
3. In a mini-food processor, puree the garlic and ginger along with the sugar, gochugaru and vinegar. This gets rubbed between the leaves and over the cabbage to cause the fermentation. Let it marinate for at least an hour, and then chop up pretty fine.

This can be made well in advance and stored in the refrigerator and allowed to ferment until you're ready. When I make this I double the recipe of kimchi since it saves so well and eat on it for a week burrito style or in a quesadilla with cheese and tomatoes.

Kimchi Burrito

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked rice
1 white onion, minced
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 lime, juiced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1-2 cups kimchi
Buritto-sized tortillas

Directions:

1. Make 2 cups of rice, according to the directions on your rice cooker. Heat up a wok or large skillet and add 2 Tbs. of sesame oil and sauté the onion. 
2. Add chopped kimchi, and toss around for a couple of minutes, and then add rice and lime juice and cook for a couple more minutes. 
3.  Take a large tortilla (makes a better burrito than a taco since it’s got rice in it), fill with kimchi/rice combo and sprinkle with scallions, jack cheese, cilantro and a touch of sour cream. If you want to go one step further, dice one jalapeno, and either saute it with the kimchi/rice or sprinkle it fresh with the other burrito toppings.

You can also infuse the sour cream with lime or jalapeno flavors if you don’t use them in the dish itself. Add chicken or shrimp when cooling the kimchi and rice together for protein options.

Free meal planners may end up giving you better ideas of how to meal plan for the week, but just try and eat for an entire week cheaper with kimchi burrito variations. I dare you!

No more Cafe Gratitude kimchi or vegan bibimbap

Restaurant chain Cafe Gratitude, which focuses on raw vegan food, plans to close not only all seven Northern California locations but also its wholesale department, whose product line includes kimchi.

Cafe Gratitude's I Am Alive kimchi makes a very good topping on your favorite burger. 

Cafe Gratitude on Nov. 29 announced on its Facebook page it will close all seven Northern California restaurants, including their Gracias Madre vegan Mexican restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district.

With great sadness we are announcing the upcoming closing/sale of all Northern California Café Gratitude’s.

A series of aggressive lawsuits has brought us to this unfortunate choice. Although we believe that we have done nothing wrong and our policies are completely legal, it will cost us too much money to defend them in court. Despite telling the attorneys that brought the lawsuits that the current structure and resources of Café Gratitude are insufficient to sustain and defend our community, they have refused to give up and are forcing us to close.

Local news blog SFist was the first to look more deeply into the lawsuits from former employees blamed for the closure of the Cafe Gratitude restaurants. That story and later articles didn't address the fate of the wholesale business.

Treasure De La Cruz, Cafe Gratitude's catering, wholesale food and events manager, said in an email yesterday that the wholesale and catering department would be part of the winding down of Northern California business, which could take until spring to complete.

I regretfully have to share that Café Gratitude Northern CA locations including the wholesale and catering department will be closing.  I’ve attached a letter from Terces regarding the closing.  

The closing is not immediate and could take up to 3 - 6 months. We will continue to be proved excellent products and loving service. It is important at this time to keep sales up. We welcome you to visit the cafes, order catering, order whole pies or cakes, and to promote us. We will be in communication when we will have to discontinue products and services in my department.

One wholesale product is I Am Alive Kimchee. I included that in a Nov. 13 roundup story for Korea-based Yonhap News Agency on Northern California commercial kimchi producers.

Cafe Gratitude opened its first restaurant in San Francisco in 2003 and has restaurants in San Francisco's Mission district, Oakland, Berkeley, San Rafael, Healdsburg, and Cupertino. Cafe Gratitude also owns a restaurant in San Francisco called Gracias Madre, which serves vegan Mexican cuisine. The Cafe Gratitude restaurants in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz are under a different ownership structure and are not included in the latest announcement of pending closures.

Cafe Gratitude's Biodynamic, organic farm, located in Vacaville, Calif., will remain open to supply produce and products for its L.A. location.