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Bibigo began its corporate life last year as a small chain of Korean restaurants fervently trying to reinvent 비빔밥 bibimbap as fast-casual cuisine. The restaurant chain has now spread to Singapore, Beijing and Los Angeles.

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My favorite food in Korea is the kimbap (김밥), although with the new romanization rules, it’s now written gimbap! It’s a snack and a meal that isn’t native to Korea. It was introduced by the Japanese during the occupation period as the futomaki. Gimbap is made from rice (bap/밥). The gim (seaweed/김) is used to roll the rice and other ingredients into a tight package and then is sliced into bite-sized pieces for consumption. The rice is typically lightly seasoned with a little salt and oil, giving it a slightly different flavor than if ordering rice with a meal. Typical ingredients also include fish cakes, imitation crab meat, egg, radish, ham, carrots, spinach, and cucumbers.

-= WEB SITES =-
The Travel Channel: http://youtube.com/qiranger
The Vlog Channel: http://youtube.com/theqirangervlog
Podcast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-qiranger-adventures/id451881376

I have this obsession of taking every non-Korean recipe and trying to put a Korean spin on it. When I have a “eureka” moment, the result is published here.

Just a suggestion: Serve this sauce with some grilled Korean barbecue and lettuce or large leafy herb (깻잎 kkaennip/shiso/perilla shown here) for a low-carb lunch or dinner. (Tammy Quackenbush photo

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(Inside Jung Sik)

I’m very excited about my latest feature article for Yonhap News (연합뉴스).  Chef Jung Sik Yim of Jung Sik Dang in Seoul and now Jung Sik in Manhattan was kind enough to spend time with me in the midst of final preparation before the opening of Jung Sik in Tribeca.

(Yonhap Feature) A first look at a Seoul chef’s Manhattan offshoot

By Shin Kim, Contributing Writer

NEW YORK, September 8 (Yonhap) — When many New Yorkers left the city to take advantage of their last summer vacations in the last week of August, chef Jung Sik Yim was buy finalizing preparations for his new Korean-style restaurant soon to open in Tribeca.

Within a couple of hours in one afternoon, he tasted wines with the sommelier to complete the wine list, cooked with sous chefs tweaking garnishes for the new menu, watched over a candidate trailing for a cooking job and discussed administrative details with the manager.

Yim signed the lease at the current location, previously occupied by the quintessential New York restaurant Chanterelle, over a year ago.  After working through countless yards of red tape, including construction delays and license issues, his first New York restaurant Jung Sik is set to open on Sept. 12 with a private fashion event.

To read the full article, you can follow the link here.

I translated my latest feature article for Yonhap News (Manhattan ushers in the modern Korean dining experience) into Korean.

얼마전 연합뉴스 영문판에 쓴 기사지만, 더 많은 분들과 공유하고자 한글로 옮겨봅니다.  직역 보다 내용의 흐름에 충실한 의역정도로, 다소 한글 표현이 매끄럽지 못하더라도 이해해주세요.

맨하탄의 모던 한식

맨하탄의 한국음식의 인기는 돌솥 비빔밥의 경쾌한 지글거림이나 석쇠에 구어지는 갈비의 열기로 가득 채워진, 미드타운에 자리잡은 코리아타운의 식당에서 비롯되었다고 볼수있다.

많은 뉴요커들은 이곳 코리아타운에서 한국음식과 첫 대면을 했고, 대부분은 아직 한식을 직접 구어먹는 숯불구이와 테이블을 덮어버릴만큼 풍요로운 반찬들로 기억한다.

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Here is my latest feature article for Yonhap News about Korean food in Manhattan.  It’s always fun to meet more people in the culinary world, especially those who are committed to Korean food in New York where my heart lies.  Writing stories about different aspects of Korean food in New York is my way of recording a small part of history that continues to evolve and an excuse for me to meet great people and get inspired.  I hope you enjoy reading this one!

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In Midtown Manhattan, the root of Korean food’s popularity stems from the sizzle that fills the air at Koreatown’s many restaurants, whether it be from the crackling heat of stone pot bibimbap or the hot sputter of galbi beef ribs on the grill.

Many New Yorkers have been introduced to Korean food here in K-town, yet many would equate it with do-it-yourself tabletop grilling of meat and plentiful, refillable side dishes that can sometimes cover the whole table.

For John Sebegny who moved recently from France, his first Korean dinner at a popular restaurant on 32nd Street was “awesome” with “so much delicious meat and so many little side dishes.”

But his dinner did have one negative outcome: grill smoke. “I had to take all my clothes I wore to that dinner to laundry,” he said.

Richard Kim, a Korean-American working in global finance, had a similar complaint.

“Of course I like galbi dinner with friends, but I will give a warning about the grill smoke that follows you home if I’m inviting friends who haven’t tried Korean food. I wouldn’t take a chance of taking my clients to a Korean dinner,” he said.

To read the complete article, you can follow the link here.

A friend of mine named Jason loves beer. He showed me the place that sells the best beer I’ve ever drank, and he makes home-brews that are quite good. But you shouldn’t become his friend, because then he has more people to share his beer with, and less for me.

Anyway, a few months ago, at Craftworks Taphouse and Bistro, Jason got a bunch of his friends and connections together, who had been doing home brewing and the like, to hold a “Fermentation Celebration” – I went down with a mutual friend, and the place was so packed I couldn’t even approach the tables and displays, and talk to the brewers.

Driven by that success, Fermentation Celebration II is spread out across several locales in Gyeongnidan and Haebangchon, so that it won’t be shoulder-to-shoulder, the way the last one was.  It’s this Saturday.

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One of my most beloved things about the summer is not just that you can walk outside without a bundle of clothing, but that Korea offers up a great summer treat. I am talking about patbingsu, which is an ice-y mix of fruits, candies and tteok. There is a standard way to make it with the basic ingredients, however, like coffee in this country, patbingsu is also a competitive item on the menu.

Therefore, just about in any neighborhood you can find different versions of this cool treat depending on what shop you stop at. The most popular place to get a fancy patbingsu is at coffee shops, that will mix them up with ice-cream or espresso. There are also smaller shops that will make them and sometimes you can find them at random restaurants.

This summer I am looking for the must scrumptious patbingsu I can find. My favorite kind of patbingsu is one that uses fresh fruits with tteok candies and something creative added to it. I am not really the-mixing-kind-of-patbingsu eater, rather I like to eat away at the toppings and the ice-y layers before giving it a good mix up.

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I’ve seen plenty of top 10 Korean food lists containing obvious choices like bulgogi, bibimbap, galbi, and ddeokbokki.  I’m tryna do something different here.  There are so many more types of Korean dishes I think that most people don’t know about or haven’t tried yet.  Go out and try these dishes because they are truly delicious.

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