Dish spotlights noteworthy creations in Asia’s restaurants. See previous articles
Tteokgalbi passes for a forlorn hamburger patty on many Korean restaurant menus, and it often goes ignored by diners because of its unassuming appearance. Kwon Woo-joong, the chef and owner of East Village in Seoul, wants to redeem it.
“Many restaurants use meat scraps and not the actual rib,” the 32-year-old Seoul native said, pointing out that part of its name, galbi, refers to the rib. “I use not only the rib, but the best part of it.”
Mr. Kwon learned the importance of quality ingredients from his early career as a chef at Omi, a Korean restaurant in Tokyo’s Roppongi district, from 2005 to 2006.
He honed his style further in New York, creating upscale Korean tasting menus from 2007 to 2008 at Jodie’s Friends, a restaurant that has since closed. He returned to his native Korea in 2008, working at several Seoul restaurants before opening East Village in 2011, hoping to strip away the stuffiness of fine dining while retaining its standards.
“I wanted a new version of Korean food with fresh, farm-to-table ingredients,” he said. “No tricks. Just honesty.”
Mr. Kwon’s commitment to fresh ingredients leads him to daily 5 a.m. trips to Seoul’s Noryangjin Fish Market, and he travels weekly outside the city to find farms and suppliers who produce optimum ingredients like deodeok from Gangwon province, a carrot-like root that can be pickled as a side dish or grilled on its own, and myeongi from Ulleung-Do Island, a plant similar to garlic.
East Village’s version of tteokgalbi is an upscale, all-beef version of the humble dish, using prime rib cuts of beef. Here’s what goes into the dish:
Reconstructed ribs: Mr. Kwon’s tteokgalbi resembles a short rib at first sight, but it’s actually a reconstruction of one. He takes Australian short ribs and removes the meat from the bone, then finely chops it by hand before marinating it in soy sauce, garlic, leek and plum extract. The beef patties are grilled over charcoal, then re-attached to a piece of clean rib bone to appear like a fresh short rib.
Ssambap: Traditionally, the meat is wrapped with leafy greens and rice at the table by diners and eaten like a taco, which locals call ssambap. But at East Village, Mr. Kwon makes the ssambap for you, wrapping the rice sushi-style with the pickled mountain herb gomchi and topping it with pickled banana pepper slices. These small, sharp-and-sweet-tasting rice rolls are side dishes, meant to be eaten between bites of meat.
Korean herb salad: The peppery Korean herb chamnamul is typically served as a side dish to add some bitterness and bite. Mr. Kwon dresses it as a salad, with a sauce made of toasted sesame oil and three-year-aged plum extract.
Final touches: The reassembled ribs share the plate with the chamnamul salad, pickled herb ssambap, deep fried garlic cloves and sautéed oyster mushrooms, garnished with toasted and ground pine nuts. The meat maintains its juicy and tender texture, avoiding the tough, sinewy moments often associated with barbecued short ribs. And while tteokgalbi comes as a mushy hamburger steak at other restaurants, Mr. Kwon’s version is a hearty chew, intended to be eaten with a knife and fork.
Interested diners, take note: You must order the dish in advance. “We can only make five to six orders a night,” said Mr. Kwon.
Price: The ddeokgalbi appears in English on the menu as “Grilled Dduck Gal Bi” for 37,000 Korean won (US$33).
East Village Bistro & Gastropub, 736-9 Hannam-dong Yongsan-gu, Seoul; Tel. +82 2 790 7782
