Sunday, 15 January 2012

Another helping of Korea

On Sundays, I usually meet up with friends for lunch at one of the hotels near my home, so I do also browse the food section of the local papers, and sometimes something in The New York Times food section also catches my eye, even if it's only of academic interest.

A couple of days ago, Sam Sifton wrote about the joys of David Chang's version of bo ssam, a Korean pork dish, as served his Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York's Manhattan district (2011). In "The Bo Ssam Miracle", Sifton not only presents Chang's basic recipe, but also praises his magnanimity in including the recipe in a recently published cookbook, thereby making it possible for home cooks to make it at considerably less than the $200 price in Chang's restaurant, although as Sifton notes, you get enough for 6 to 10 people for your money. According to the article, the popularity of Chang's version of  bo ssam is no longer limited to New York. The owner has recently opened a restaurant in Sydney, where the dish has also gone down extremely well.

I was very relieved when I read the last bit: that Chang has opened a restaurant in Sydney. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sifton's rough account of how to prepare bo ssam, but it seemed a bit time consuming and involved. I'll be perfectly happy to pay someone else to do it for me, and probably rather better than I'm likely to manage. Or perhaps I can give the book to my youngest brother as a gift: he loves cooking and has an extremely well equipped kitchen. $23 for the book at Amazon seems like good value for money.

But one of my traditions is to go back home for a week over Songkran, and my family has grown accustomed to us eating out at least three or four times during that week, and Korean would make a nice change to the French and Italian restaurants that are our custom, along with daily visits to coffee shops. As I was reading the recipe and description, it also reminded of one of my mum's traditional ways of cooking duck - long, slow cooking, so that the meat almost falls apart into a rich pool of juices. Every year when I'm back, we have a family dinner at her home, and she always cooks that dish, although these days, "cooking" really means "inviting the immediate family and a few extended members to a bit meal". My youngest sister and my brother end up doing the actual cooking. Mother and the rest of us enjoy watching and smelling as we wait.

And although I had a large lunch today, now I'm hungry again. Fortunately, I have another food custom: I visit Siam Paragon after class on Saturdays (too crowded on Sundays, but Saturdays are OK), where the supermarket has an excellent soup bar, amongst other things, so I have a couple of tubs of soup to enjoy with bread and butter.

And I'm looking forward to Songkran, when "The Bo Ssam Miracle" can become of more than academic interest.


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References
Sifton, S. (2012, January 12). The Bo Ssam Miracle. The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/magazine/the-bo-ssam-miracle.html
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2 comments:

  1. Sunny16 January 2012 at 03:43

    Peter,
    Another blog about Korea !
    You must love Korea.
    I appreciate that you are eager to have bo ssam,and I would like to say " Nice choice", because bo ssam is very delicious and the method of cooking is healthier than other ways. Even though cooking methods of pork in every country are similar to each other, bo ssam has its special difference. Do you know bo ssam means to wrap something. So when we eat bo ssam, we usually wrap it with Kim chi, cabbage, pickled radish, or lettuce and several kinds of sources.

    I read the article and found that Chang's bo ssam is not original one, but it is mixed with western cooking methods. Original bo ssam is boiled or steamed with something secret. So, famous bo ssam restaurants in Korea have their own secret things. My secret things are a spoonful of coffee, soybean paste, wine,garlic, ginger, and onion. Of course,these are top secret.
    However, l admire Chang who has developed the new method of cooking pork, so eventually, made even someone who can't go to the restaurant right now expect the time to have bo ssam.

    I wish you have Chang's bo ssam when you go to Sydney and then please, to be an ambassador who spreads fame of Korean food. Oh, Peter, I saw some Korean restaurants which serve bo ssam in Thailand. Please, don't have bo ssam here in Thailand before you have the bo ssam, because every Korean food here even in Korean town is much worse than original one everywhere in Korea. Are you watching the picture? It makes me water out of my mouth.

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  2. Preaw16 January 2012 at 16:45

    I think this food is very interesting and I want to try it ! If we talk about Korean food, I like to eat Bebimbop (I'm not sure I write it right or wrong) because in one pot, it's filled with vegetables and it's very delicious! For me, I think Korean food is the best choice for people who want to be a healthy person.

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