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Thanks to Sarah Lambersky & staff at Countlan Magazine for the recent feature on my Korean Salted Mackerel Recipe! Countlan based in Denmark, is a quarterly online magazine that explores how people entertain at home all over the world. Captured with gorgeous photos, Countlan really helps you see the beauty of individual stories through their lens.
Perfect recipe for summer if you love fish, hope you all enjoy this as much as I do~
Fresh picked baby carrots from the garden
I guess I can't stop talking about this farm-to-table spot a little ways from Seoul. Bean Table. It's time for a revisit. Need to keep sharing the love...
I had an opportunity to stage for Bean Table my last month in Korea before taking off to the states. Good friend and chef Wonil Lee welcomed me as part of his staff, after some serious convincing. Let's just say, this restaurant is on the top of my list for folks visiting Seoul!
The real deal...
*Authentic Korean flavors + modern presentation.
*Non-GMO soybeans (for those who care about this like me).
*Homemade tofu made with natural sea salt coagulants (this part could get pretty technical if you break it down).
*Fresh and organic produce.
*No MSG or preservatives.
I had a real difficult time finding Korean restaurants in Korea that didn't use preservatives. Dining at Bean Table to me is like eating in my moms kitchen-you can feel and taste the love with each dish. Every bite is well balanced, and the variations of the banchan (side dishes) are seriously endless...
This spread is considered 'anju' or food that's paired with drinking.
You can achieve quality taste without msg in royal cuisine.
You may think that the quote above is pretty random or weird. The sad truth is, is that so many Korean restaurants (I will boldly say majority) in Korea, use a lot of msg. When I first moved here a few years ago, I struggled with indigestion for a year! Only to find that it was the Korean food that caused it. Not to say that there aren't restaurants who do it the proper way and leave msg out of the picture all together. During this course, after carefully learning how to marinate and season food without any additives, everything was quite clean and authentic! So you can achieve the quality taste at home by using natural ingredients to prepare amazing Korean dishes.
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Theme for day 4- '궁중상추쌈' or royal lettuce wraps.
Day 3 & 4. I just have to say these past few days were a lot of fun. Not only were the things we had to make challenging, but the history portion of the class was quite interesting. For those who live in Korea (mainly speaking to ex-pats, foreingers) you may ask yourselves when eating Korean food why everything is pickled, marinated, and you don't see a whole of just 'fresh' veggies. Well, a bit of history that I learned. During the days when the King ruled the land, everyone had to produce items for 'the palace' or '궁'. However, since it took days to have the items delivered to the palace, you never found raw fish, fresh veggies, and even some fruits. Everything had to be dried and preserved before it entered the palace. Therefore once it entered the palace grounds, the chefs had to create dishes soley upon what they received. So when studying royal cuisine recipes, everything is marinated, fried, cooked all the way trough, etc. This explains a lot as to what we know of Korean cuisine today. However, the farmers & peasants ate the most fresh vegetables & fruits, and 'bibim bop' gave birth in that very comnumity (thus I hear they live for a long time). Interesting how this dish is one of the dishes that is most recoginized today when it comes to Korean cuisine!
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Alas, the Korean royal cuisine course that I have been waiting for has begun this week. I was hoping to do a daily post, however I think I'll update every few days (my friend Tom from tomeatsjencooks will so not forgive me for this!). Normally this course is offered in a span of 4 months, but for folks like me who is too impatient to endure the 4 months, we do a 2 week intensive 'crash' course instead, haha. So where exactly am I taking this course you may ask?
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The Back Kitchen Seoul...
Here's the story of two food lovers who met in Seoul through the wonderful world of blogs.
Wanna hear a nutty story behind our first pop up?
So it begins.
Joe McPherson from Zen Kimchi and I randomly discussed doing a pop up in a car ride back in March. We never shared a kitchen before, let alone run a 40 seat pop up! So we decided to make our lives more complicated and fun by setting the date on Seoul's first pop up. Yeah, we're nuts. So what the heck is a pop up you may ask? Well, you may have heard of supper clubs or underground restaurants. Similar concept, but you basically take over a space (preferrably a kitchen space in an existing restaurant), come up with a creative food menu, and feed folks who want to eat your food. Oh by the way, there is money involved. Either a set fee for the meal, or suggested donations. For our pop up, the suggested donation was 35,000 won/guest for a 5 course meal. Uhm, I think this was a steal! hahaha.
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Korean bibim bap
As strange as it sounds, even though I am currently residing in Seoul, I have not quite scoped out all the greatest Korean restaurants here yet. It seems like it's a continuous hunt, trial and error, or MSG overdose. Then when you do find one where you want to give your own Michelin star rating, I tend to 'hand pick' these favorites and tuck them away in my back pocket. Yeah, I am kind of revealing my bad tendencies, hahaha. However, from this point forward I decided to start unraveling those very places that deserve to be noted for. I would like to begin with Mugunghwa.
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King oyster mushrooms, lotus roots, chinese yam on a bed of pine needles
When it comes to all things vegetarian, I'm definitely in. Well, mostly. One would think that vegetarian cuisine would be an easy find in Seoul, but guess what? Not really. When I first got here early 2010, every time I ordered the 'veggie kimbop' (Korean maki rolls) at restaurants, ham would always be included! Ugh...so I continuously make it a point in asking them to take it out.
I'm not quite a vegetarian, although I took a shot at it for a year, prior to my arrival to Seoul. If you're familiar with Korean food, you may know that a lot of their 'banchan' (side dishes) are mostly vegetables. However, vegetarian spots are a hard find in Seoul. Especially the ones to be noted. I do have a few fave's, but I'm always in search for some more...
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Bulgogi with their homemade tofu served with white kimchi was perfect...
So when you first see the name 'Bean Table' what immediately comes to mind? To be honest, tofu wasn't it...hahaha. Good friend and Chef Wonil Lee opened the doors to his tofu haven early this May. When he first tried to explain the concept of his new place, I was like 'uh what? what was that again?' Traditional Korean served on beautiful earthenware with modern presentation...hmm. I seriously questioned this at first, because to be honest, there are tons of amazing Korean restaurants in Seoul. Lee has a background in contemporary European, but has an impressive palate for Korean cuisine. Thus, this is his true ambition.
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