Korean Kool: Bring the Flavours of Korea to Your own Kitchen

Whether you’re tucking into a traditional stone pot of bi-bim-bap at Sura Korean Restaurant or experiencing chef Roy Oh’s contemporary take on Korean tapas at Anju, the flavours of Korean cuisine are both exciting and approachable.

And, thanks to New York chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his Korean-American wife, Marja, the subtleties of this fascinating country and its unique cuisine are beamed into your living room via their new PBS television show, Kimchi Chronicles. Which means it’s about time you tried Korean yourself.

The Food

Korean beef short ribs and kimchee at Anju in Calgary.

Wedged between massive mainland China and powerful Japan, Korean cuisine sometimes struggles to maintain its identity. But, despite a history of occupation from both sides, this Asian culture has its own style of cooking.

Some dishes are a hybrid of Chinese and Japanese favourites — dumplings and sushi are popular — but Koreans do it all their own way.
There’s a focus on healthy balance in Korean cooking; a balance of flavours and colours, with many vegetables and medicinal herbs included in the mix. Fermentation is important, especially for the famous Korean fermented vegetable and cabbage pickle kimchi, which appears at every meal.

Seafood and chilies are a significant part of this usually light, but savoury cuisine. Whether serving thinly sliced grilled beef short ribs or raw octopus, meals usually include many little side dishes or bancha — plates of lightly pickled cucumbers or carrots, daikon radish, sautéed spinach or fermented turnips. Gochujang — Korean hot pepper paste — gives almost every dish a spicy kick, although the heat is often tamed with sugar, ginger and sesame oil. Korean sauces are typically soy sauce-based, but flavoured with ginger, sugar or honey and sesame oil.

Noodle dishes are popular, too, especially the unique sweet potato noodles called jap chae. And you’ll find lots of hearty soups, often made with beef broth and filled with tofu or dumplings, and served for breakfast.

The Find

Korean products at Arirang in Calgary.

While you can find Korean fare in Asian markets around the city, you don’t really need to venture beyond Arirang Plaza on 10th Avenue S.W. This little mall, next to Community Natural Foods, has a great collection of Korean food purveyors.

Arirang Oriental Foods is the mother of all Korean supermarkets in the city — carrying everything from house-made kimchi and colourful Korean-style sushi filled with pickled vegetables, to imported tins of tuna in black bean sauce and leathery dried whole squid.
The freezers are filled with sushi-grade fish and frozen dumplings. You’ll find more variations of toasted seaweed, nori and rice here than anywhere else in town. Korean cuisine includes lots of beef and pork, too, so check the meat counter for paper-thin slices of beef for bulgoi and pork tonkatsu cutlets coated in panko crumbs and ready to fry up. And don’t miss the condiment bar, with all the house-made pickles and preserves, fish pastes and banchan to round out your Korean barbecue.

Right around the corner you’ll find Olive Chicken selling tender chicken with a crispy panko coating. Get a small box drenched in the spicy and sweet Day-Glo hot sauce and you’ll never go back to plain fried chicken.

Another neighbour, Paul Yu’s Korean Bakery, is filled with cream cakes dusted with sweet vanilla crumbs and other exotic pastries. Try the buns filled with sweet potato mousse or black bean paste, or buy a package of three Korean “cookies” — little pastries that look like fat, shiny donuts, with a thick layer of rich bean filling inside.

If you do want to venture beyond the bounty of Arirang Plaza, my other favourite spot for all things Korean is Koreana Market, tucked behind a strip mall and a Petro-Canada station in the city’s northwest. There’s a little butcher shop in back and a tidy collection of fresh vegetables and imported foods. Whether you’re looking for fat white radishes, dried shrimp, clear sweet potato noodles for jap chae or an authentic stone bowl for bi-bim-bap — a dish of rice, eggs, meat and vegetables served in a heavy stone bowl — it’s all here.

T&T Supermarkets also sell the thinly sliced bone-in beef short ribs for traditional Korean barbecue, along with fresh bean sprouts, winter melon and other Asian vegetables. If you’re just looking for basics, it’s the bargain market.

The Fix

An easy way to enjoy a Korean meal at home is with a bulgogi-style barbecue. Marinate thin slices of beef in a sweet, garlicky soy and ginger marinade, stir-fry or grill, and serve with hot sticky rice, sweet and spicy kochujang Korean pepper sauce, and crisp lettuce leaves for wrapping at the table. Make sure to include little plates of pickles, kimchi and other seasoned vegetables like radishes and cucumbers on the side.

The other way to think of a Korean meal is as a collection of snacks, or anju. You might serve Korean cocktails — soju is the Korean version of vodka — or light Korean beers (brands like Cass, OB or Hite), or enjoy Korean wines made from fermented rice with fruit or herbs. Look for Bek Se Ju, a sweet rice wine infused with ginseng, ginger, wolfberry, yarrow and other aromatics. Along with the drinks, serve little plates of peanuts, dried fruit, pickles or any other Korean dishes, from vegetable dumplings (mandu) to pajeon, a kind of frittata or omelette filled with vegetables, green onions and seafood, and fried like a pancake.

Arirang Oriental Market
30, 1324 10 Ave S.W.
403-228-0980

Anju
507 10 St. S.W.
403-532-9419
anju.ca

Dauck Sa Rang Café
38, 1324 10 Ave. S.W.
403-508-2771

Koreana Market
15, 3616 52 Ave. N.W.
403-338-0089

Olive Chicken
6, 1324 10 Ave. S.W.
403-457-4649

Paul Yu’s Korean Bakery
10, 1324 10 Ave. S.W.
403-802-2023

Spoon Me
100, 1130
Kensington Rd. N.W.
403-453-2101
spoonme.com

Sura Korean Restaurant
2320 4 St. N.W.
403-569-1454  

T&T Supermarket
800, 999 36 St. N.E., 403-569-6888
1000, 9650 Harvest Hills Blvd. N.E., 403-237-6608
tnt-supermarket.com