Santa Maria had a decent korean place a couple of years ago. If you’re ok with lower quality closer.
I’ve known bibimbop my whole life but I moved to Korea when I was 4. I’ve been surprised about the slow pace of korean food expansion it is much more approachable then sushi is to the american pallet with the exception of kimchi being a bit too strongly flavored for some. Especially after the korean war and with the number of service members who have been exposed to it.
Well, sure!
But does being washed expand people’s horizons where foods are concerned?
In reality, in lot of Japanese food (like sushi) the flavors are actually pretty subtle with an emphasis on the natural flavors of the ingredients. Once the American palate gets over the idea of (sometimes) raw seafood in their sushi, all that is left is the lightly flavored rice and wasabi.
While gimbap and banchan are delicious, to someone used to the more typically lightly flavored maki sushi and tsukemono, it might not be as easily accepted to those unfamiliar with them.
Also, I’ve talked about this before, but even in Hawaii, where we have a large Korean and Asian population, the Korean food here is sweeter and less spicy than “authentic” Korean food. Serve someone even slightly fermented kim chee and they’ll think it’s gone bad, instead of knowing that’s how it’s supposed to “really” taste.
A funny story.
I once ate takeout bibim guksu (we ordered takeout) and it was really spicy hot! I felt better when my friends, (all but one, transplanted native Koreans) had a hard time eating it too. I’ve always wondered if their palates had become accustomed to the milder style local Korean food or if it was really extra spicy.
I think this is what leads to my confusion. American can be described as bland, especially in the heartland, but lightly flavored isn’t something we really do here. It would seem the strong flavors of garlic and spice would be similar to Italian or Mexican cooking as well as more Cajun styles plus Korean BBQ is certainly approachable from a meat and sauce sense to large parts of America. Gojuchang and the fermented side of korean food is weird to the american taste profile but it seems that should be easier to get around than raw fish.
Dishes like japchae or yachaejeon don’t seem to have any components would challenge a typical American aside from them being foreign. Bibimbop without gojuchang and kimchee is a crime so it’s not something I point people to unless they are already experimenting with fermented foods.
I don’t mind the sourness or the spiciness of kimchee-- I just don’t like the cabbageness of it. Something about the process really concentrates the cabbage flavor, to a level that I find unappealing (oddly, sauerkraut doesn’t seem to have this effect). But I’d likely like one of the varieties based on some other vegetable.
At a Korean buffet you’ll have an array of different kimchees–maybe a dozen or so different kinds–to try out, apart from cabbage.
I think, but am not entirely sure, that stereotypical kimchi is made with either some kind of Korean cabbage that we don’t get, or Napa cabbage. It’s typically not “normal” cabbage like you see in the grocery store, and that sauerkraut is made from.
Maybe that’s the difference?
That’s correct. I’ve never seen whatever the typical American/European cultivar of cabbage is used in kimchi–it’s typically Napa cabbage or something similar to it. Weird, though, as I find Napa cabbage much milder than the “normal” cabbage. To me, sauerkraut is far more “cabbage-y” than kimchee.
I certainly knew of rice bowls in their thousand different variations, but the word “bibimbap” had not crossed my normal usage.
Most of my experience with Korean food comes from that one restaurant in Bozeman, which only had the one variety of kimchee (Napa cabbage). There was a nice cucumber salad that you could order instead, but it wasn’t fermented.
I’ve posted about this before in several threads, but foods change to according to regional trends and taste, sometimes morphing into something unidentifiable to a native eater. A major pet peeve of mine is when I someone making a Korean (or any other nationality dish) and add Sciracha just because it’s popular. No, no, no!
My first taste of Korean food, other than kim chee was in the late 60’s when my Uncle married a Korean woman from Seoul (they separated a decade later). The kalbi, kim chee and other dishes she made were completely different from anything I’ve had since. I know she substituted some ingredients since she was unable to get what she usually used in Korea were unavailable here. The first time she made kim chee, she had chemical burns on her hands because she didn’t realize our local chile peppers were much hotter than the typical Korean variety.
She would later bring back spices and sauces from Korea when she or someone visited and the flavor changed slightly, but still unlike anything I’ve had since. I’ll never know if her flavor profiles were because she was from Seoul, or those were family recipes or because of our local ingredients.
I find the flavor of Napa cabbage varies throughout the year. During the rainy season, the flavor is milder than during the summer. I believe it’s because of the amount of water the plants receive. I notice the larger heads (which grew well) tend to be milder than the smaller heads.
Also, the cabbagey flavor of the leafy part is much milder than the stem and absorbs more flavor when pickled (like in kim chee). When I was young, I liked the stems in kim chee because it was crunchy. Now I prefer the leafy part I get more kim chee flavor.
There’s always radish-based kimchi. However, just like Korean cabbage is not the same as “American” cabbage; Korean radish is NOTHING like the “American” radish that you might slice up for your salad. Personally, I love cabbage-based kimchi, as well as “spring” kimchi and “water” kimchi and cucumber banchan, etc. etc. But I really do not like the radish kimchi at all.
Mention was made of Korean-style fried chicken. A chain restaurant of such has really taken off here. Bonchon Chicken. Franchises popping up all over the place. It’s some damn good chicken.
That’s the same or similar enough to daikon radish, right? It’s actually similar in flavor to American radish, IMO, though much milder. I love all kimchi, but that’s actually my personal favorite for the crunchy texture. For those who don’t like the cabbage version, I’d definitely recommend trying it at least.
ETA: Looks like it is similar to daikon, but not the same thing. If you’ve had both, how would you compare the flavors?
I couldn’t tell you the difference between traditional daikon radish and the Korean variety (joseon radish?), but I’m sure my wife could. She buys the raw radishes for various food preps, including several types of radish kimchi. She’ll make the “cube” style out of the large round radishes that are either white or pale green. This is the “radish kimchi” I see sold in the jars or common as banchan. But she also makes a style where it looks like she uses whole radishes of some sort that are elongated and small. This might just be young joseon; or sliced parts. The key is that this type of radish kimchi still has the green tops attached. That is some strong, sour kimchi, right there. I don’t like either style; both the bitter radish flavor and the hard crunch put me off, but at least the cube style is edible LOL.
And as you know, that Korean radish also comes pre-pickled and looks like bright yellow radioactive substance. Also a very common banchan that comes with kim-bap and all sorts of other main dishes. I also tend to avoid this radish. It’s not awful–just doesn’t do anything for me.
I like (*really *like) most all other Korean food. I can down a ton of cabbage kimchi and all sorts of other kimchi or “kimchi-style” varieties. But another Korean dish I don’t like is something my wife calls “muk.” Brown gelatinous cube of something. (Acorn jelly, I guess, from googling around). Ugh.
I hadn’t heard about bibimbap before until I came across it in the frozen foods aisle at the grocery store a few months ago. It kind of implies a certain level of penetration into the U.S. consciousness if it starts showing up next to your Tombstone pizzas and whatnot, although Charlottesville is quite the foodie town, so I don’t want to overstate how much.
A nitpick on behalf of my Taiwanese wife, boba tea is Taiwanese in origin, not Vietnamese.
The Nashville hot chicken definitely blew up recently. It’s all over LA now too. Dave’s Hot Chicken still has hour long lines.
Yeah, Daikon is the best kimchee.