TDG: Desperate Measures: Kimchi Soup

[Fat Guy]

Sissies need not apply.

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[Monica Bhide]

Mamster, a dear friend spend two days last week giving me lessons in Korean cooking. I now have a well stocked korean pantry and will try to make this soup tonite

I have a question... all of the dishes we made left an uncharacteristic aftertaste... not sure if I did something wrong... or the ingredients were not fresh. Maybe it was the sesame oil... any ideas.

[slkinsey]

I enjoyed the article. As chance would have it yuk gae jang is my favorite Korean soup (along with kalbi tang, which is probably its polar opposite). It sure is spicy, though.

Most times I have had kimchi chigae, it has come to the table at a rolling boil with an alcohol burner underneath it, which makes it a little difficult to eat. One thing I've noticed about most Korean places around NYC is that they seem to take "piping hot" very seriously -- we used to joke that they ran everything through a blast furnace before taking it to the table. Here is another interesting page on kimchi chigae.

Also... although I know the names of the dishes I like, I am sometimes confused as to what some of the terms actually mean. I searched for a glossary of Korean food words, and found this and this,which may be of some usefulness to others.

Monica, how would you describe the aftertaste? And what about it was "uncharacteristic?? Are you saying that it is not an aftertaste that you have sensed other times you have had Korean food?

[mamster]

slkinsey, I've noticed that about hot (as in temperature) Korean food as well. And I'm in Seattle, although the first time I went to a Korean restaurant it was The Mill in New York. Certainly dolsot bibimbap is part of the same trend, since it not only produces crispy rice skin but also keeps the dish hot throughout the meal.

My recipe for kimchi soup eats just fine at something less than 212 F.

Monica, it could be the sesame oil--as delicious as sesame oil is, it's pretty unpleasant if you overdo it. It's also easy to burn if you're not careful.

[Monica Bhide]

No it is not one that I have had with Korean food we have eaten outside... it is an unpleasant taste. I bet you it is using too much of the sesame oil.

[slkinsey]

No it is not one that I have had with Korean food we have eaten outside... it is an unpleasant taste. I bet you it is using too much of the sesame oil.

Yea. You're probably right. A little too much sesame oil can sometimes impart a kind of off-flavor. Also, maybe the sesame oil had turned a little?

[Jinmyo]

If the soup is not spicy enough, add some Korean hot sauce or sambal oelek.

Sambal oelek? Not at all the same thing as gojuchang. Not at all. At all.

Other than that, a very nice article Mr. mamster.

[mamster]

I know it's not the same, Jinmyo, but I tried it and it was good.

[engberson]

Thank you, thank you. This article makes my day.

For the last several years my wife and I frequently visited a Korean/Japanese place in town -- it was Korean with a sushi bar, and miso soup was included with all the condiments, that isn't normal Korean, is it? -- and she would always get the kimchi chigae. It was awful, awful good. Pretty spicy, that's where my brother-in-law came up with his joke about the ring of fire. But clearly he was a sissy, and shouldn't have applied. Anyway, the place went bust and they took our soup away. It never occurred to me to make it myself.

Questions:

Have you made this with pork stock? Is it significantly improved?

What's the difference between chigae and gae jang?

And does anyone know what "son" kimchi is? I can't find a translation (I've tried www.kimchi.or.kr) and I'd like to know what's in it before I buy it.

[gus_tatory]

great article, mamster!

and it dovetails quite nicely with my recent obsession with Japanese/Korean ingredients.

will try recipe as soon as wicked heartburn (induced by work declaring bankruptcy protection) subsides. don't think i can do spicy food right now, as much as i love it, although who knows, it might help?!

thanks!

[mamster]

engberson, I figured that the braising liquid from the pork would not be so different from pork stock that you could tell behind the kim chi. I don't know what the difference between chigae and gae jang is, either, but I'm betting Jinmyo knows. I'm still very much a newbie with Korean food, but I'm learning as fast as I can.

Korean/Japanese restaurants are usually Korean-owned, aren't they?

[DVSDave]

(Not to jump in front of Jinmyo) From what I've learned, you need to add extra bones and tendons to the stockpot. Just avoid the commercial pellets (yes, pellets -- not even powdered) stock concentrate they offer as a substitute. You can always taste the difference.

This may be totally incorrect too, but chijae simply means a simmered or braised dish. "Jang", to me, means a stew or braise WITH bones -- long story short, chijae is a chunky soup that can be dished out quickly, jang requires more intense reduction of stock.

[mrbigjas]

OK what is the name of those little dried fishes that you put on things like seasoning? Little things, kinda golden colored...

[Marlene]

Here is a recipe for Kimchi Chigae.

More from mamster in the archive now.

[skchai]

Came to this thread late. Great article and follow-ups, needless to say. I want to comment on a lot of the posts. Will probably come off looking like an ignorant smartass . . .

From Mamster's Article:

The one (no-doubt-translated) recipe for yuk gae jang that I was able to find on the Web called for "10 oz. striped beef." An asterisk led me to this clarification: "Get a piece of beef that has stripes on it at a market." The recipe also requires you to buy dried fern and boil it for 30 minutes.

Yukgaejang usually uses "yangji meori", or brisket, which does have stripes I guess. It is basically the same cut that is called "chadol baegi" on Korean grill menus. Yukgaejang also may sometimes use "arong satae", which is shank.

The dried fern is "gosari" - a kind of fiddlehead. People in Korea usually get it fresh so don't need to boil it so long, but it's imported here dried up. You guys in the NW are probably able to buy fresh local fiddleheads and don't need to use the dried stuff (though fiddleheads in general are alleged by some to be carcinogenic).

The gold standard of mainstreaming for an ethnic cuisine in the US is the appearance of a national chain serving a bland version of it. Italian? The Olive Garden. Chinese? Panda Express. It's hard to imagine Korean food ever reaching this level of acceptance, but it's a nice thought. Pull into the drive-thru at Korea Hut and order up bimbimbap, kimchi soup, bulgogi, and plenty of packets of kochu jang (Korean hot sauce).

Matthew, you should check out Yummy's if you're here in Honolulu. It's basically what you're referring to.

engberson asked some questions:

What's the difference between chigae and gae jang?

Tchigae is usually translated as stew, though in practice it is refers to soupy dishes in which the chunky proportion is greater than the soupy proportion. I've tried to provide a basic definitions of the various categories of Korean preps at the tail end of the chigae, jigae, jjigae thread in the Elsewhere in Asia forum.

Yukgaejang is a pretty idiosyncratic word. Yuk is from the Chinese character for "meat", and usually refers to beef in Korea (pork in China), but etymology of the rest is unclear. "Gaejang" by itself doesn't really have any common contemporary meaning - at least not any related to food, and there are no other food dishes that end with these syllables. "gae" can mean dog, and "jang" can mean sauce, or more specifically soy sauce, but it's not clear how all that adds up.

O.K. I finally found a site that provides a theory. According to this site, "gaejang" is an archaic abbreviation for "gaejangguk", i.e. dog-and-soy sauce soup, what is nowadays know as "boshintang", "sacheoltang", or erh.. ."mongmongtang" (protect-health soup, four seasons soup, or bow-wow soup). I guess it was very chilli-hot to make up for the gaminess of the dog meat. But rich people who adapted it substituted beef instead, which is why it's called "yukgaejang".

Arrgh. . .

And does anyone know what "son" kimchi is? I can't find a translation (I've tried www.kimchi.or.kr) and I'd like to know what's in it before I buy it.

It seems you are referring to "chonggak kimchi" which literally means bachelor kimchi, though the word can refer to young males in general. I believe the etymology is also kind of rude: chonggak kimchi is made from a small, cylindrical radish that allegedly looks like, ahem, a body part that young males possess.

Given how straightlaced a society it is, a lot of Korean sayings and idioms have remarkably lewd origins!

mrbigjas wanted to know:

OK what is the name of those little dried fishes that you put on things like seasoning? Little things, kinda golden colored...

The little fishes are called "myeolchi", which is usually translated as anchovies, though they are actually Engraulis Japonicus, not the stuff you find on pizza.

Enough already. . .

Edited October 2, 2003 by skchai (log)

[mamster]

Thanks, skchai. We do indeed get fiddleheads here, although I can't say I'm a big fan of them. Perhaps in the right context, though. And next time I'm in Hawaii I will definitely try Yummy's during a break from my intended saimin binge. (I have no idea when this will happen, but things come up.)