stanford

The last 2 episodes have been on beans and BBQ, respectively.

The bean episode featured doenjang and mung beans, both of them interesting and delicious-looking. Marja is joined by a Korean “food guru” friend and the lady who runs http://www.fatmanseoul.com/ which is an odd choice as that blog is nearly defunct.

In the BBQ episode the fatman seoul lady teases Marja about the number of shoes she travels with, this apparently is a joke amongst Marja’s crew and handlers, continuing with the recurring “pampered Marja” theme running throughout the series so far.

So far I’m still waiting for more on Marja reconnecting with her Korean history. Maybe it’s still to come, or maybe I missed it, but there hasn’t been anything about where Marja was born, or a cameo by her birth mother, or even much about Marja’s own children reconnecting with their Korean heritage. I could be wrong but I thought this was something they were going to explore.

By the way, Channel 13 is giving away a Kimchi Chronicles prize pack:

http://www.thirteen.org/support/giveaways/kimchi-chronicles-giveaway/914/

Jean George whips up a galbi-style steak (no pear marinade!) and some kimchi butter. I’ve heard about kimchi butter a few times now and I’m totally skeptical of the idea. But it looked so good, I’m totally going to try this out.

The recipe? Mix kimchi with butter.

Last Sunday I watched the third ep of The Kimchi Chronicles, this one spotlighted green tea grown on Jeju Island. I always thought Boseong was known for green tea, but apparently the Jeju variety gets a nice flavor from the salty ocean air.

This was news to me, so already I’m learning something new about Korea from this ep, a good sign.

The first part of the show follows Marja and Jean-Georges Vongerichten as they learn about tea in Jeju, which is followed up in their home in the US where they use the ingredient to create their own interpretations of a Korean dish.

This episode maintained the easygoing, gentle timbre of the first, the entire affair coming across as quite soothing. In fact, as Jean-George prepares his dish, Marja slips out for a facial and massage in what appears to be the “massage room” in her house. No doubt, watching someone get a massage makes for relaxing TV, but I couldn’t help but feel that the segment was a bit ostentatious to the point of being otherworldly. Famous chef in kitchen working with an expensive ingredient; masseuse giving rubdown. All is well in the world.

Having said that, Jean-Georges’ end result, abalone with green tea, looked pretty awesome. The recipe, and all the others in the show, will apparently be posted at http://www.kimchichronicles.tv/, which isn’t finished yet. And there will be a book, too.

All in all this show is off to a great start: it’s beautifully shot, good natured, and the recipes look innovative and delicious. I’m definitely going to tune into more episodes, even though the 4pm Sunday air time is hardly a prime TV viewing hour for me.

Branch, Ryan, branch!

I haven’t been to Song 7.2 but it’s not exactly getting rave reviews:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/song-7-2-new-york

Chris Hansen at Serious Eats has been doing some great posts on Korean places in Flushing:

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2011/01/flushing-pork-belly-at-tong-samgyeop-gui.html

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2011/01/flushing-gamjatang-geo-si-gi-queens-korean-review.html

also this:

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2011/01/fast-food-international-kyedong.html

Flushing is really the place to go for Korean food.