Foodie jackpot! Cooking class by local Korean restaurant owner and master chef, Brian Choi, followed by a trip to Sumi Chun's new Korean bakeshop opening in Squirrel Hill. All on a gorgeous cloudless (and kidless) day, what could be better?
Dasoni Korean Bistro in Robinson Township is almost lost in a suburban retail mecca, but one step inside the door and you've left the banality and fluorescent lighting of stripmall and bigbox shopping behind. Dasoni, according to Choi, means "lovely." Dasoni's sparkling stainless steel and polished wood interior, bathed in flattering and soothing lighting, is indeed lovely.
Despite his humble demeanor, Choi's success is due in some part to his friends in high places. I am not usually a namedropper, but ... I've eaten at Dasoni several times in the company of (and usually with the compliments of) philanthropist friend Hines Ward and other well-known and beloved Korean dignitaries. However, in the absence of all that frou-frou, I found Choi to be a soft-spoken and earthy kind of chef--and an excellent teacher. In the space of an hour, I learned how to make bibimbap, a quintessential Korean meal, and the correct way to eat it, too!
Bibimbap, which translates as "mixed up rice," has been on my cooking todo list for years. There's a great kids' book, Bi Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park, that I've been reading to my kids for years. It follows a little kid and her mom around as they shop for and prepare and eat bibimbap for the family's evening meal. The kids love it because it has a fun rhythm to it and it shows a kids spilling water all over the floor. On the last page it gives a recipe. And you'd think I would have made it by now. But the ingredient list was so long and the method so involved, I just never bothered with it. I always order it at Korean restaurants because it is one of the few dishes allowing the diner to control the amount of spicy heat.
Even though it is a standard Korean dish, every chef seems to makes it a little different. Out of the three Korean restaurants I frequent, Dasonii's bibimbap, I have to admit, was always my least favorite. Now, I know it's not only the combination of ingredients and method of preparing that make the dish. With bibimbap, a lot also depends on what you do with it after it's set down in front of you.
Thanks to Choi, bibimbap has become a simple and delicious meal I will incorporate into my cooking rotation. I pride myself on being able to balance my cooking agenda with tastes from every chapter of my multicultural family cookbook, which includes equal parts Irish, Korean, and Coal-miner's Daughter.
Check out the recipe. Even if you don't try cooking it yourself, understanding how it is made and how it should be eaten will enhance your experience next time you order it.
And for dessert! After Choi's bibimbap lesson, a few attendees were chatting about a new Korean bakery that had just opened on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill. A migration soon began. I was the first of our group to set foot inside Sumi Chun's new shop (in the storefront previously inhabited by Tami's Bakery.) In fact, mine were among some of the first feet ever to step into Sumi's Cakery. It was very clean but a little too spare in the furniture and fixtures department. I began to wonder if it was really open for business. But Chun's daughter Bonnie, came out and quickly welcomed me and directed me to the rack fresh baked buns that were Sumi's first offerings to the public: red bean and cream buns packaged for take out and coffee buns aromatic and still warm from the oven, beckoning me to eat them on the spot.
Of course, I did sit right down and eat a coffee bun. It was like a big doughnut without a hole. And the glaze was not sticky, gooey or overly sweet. It was sharp and slightly sweet, and crisp. I wanted to ask Chun what it was but she was quite occupied back in a beautiful stainless steel kitchen. According to her daughter, the glaze in a mixture of coffee, sugar and flour. Looking forward to my next visit. Sumi's website if not up yet. Here's link to a review in City Paper.
Dasoni Korean Bistro in Robinson Township is almost lost in a suburban retail mecca, but one step inside the door and you've left the banality and fluorescent lighting of stripmall and bigbox shopping behind. Dasoni, according to Choi, means "lovely." Dasoni's sparkling stainless steel and polished wood interior, bathed in flattering and soothing lighting, is indeed lovely.
Bibimbap, which translates as "mixed up rice," has been on my cooking todo list for years. There's a great kids' book, Bi Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park, that I've been reading to my kids for years. It follows a little kid and her mom around as they shop for and prepare and eat bibimbap for the family's evening meal. The kids love it because it has a fun rhythm to it and it shows a kids spilling water all over the floor. On the last page it gives a recipe. And you'd think I would have made it by now. But the ingredient list was so long and the method so involved, I just never bothered with it. I always order it at Korean restaurants because it is one of the few dishes allowing the diner to control the amount of spicy heat.- First of all, serve (or order) it in a dolsot, a stone bowl that you heat to a high temperature before putting the bibimbap ingredients in. The heat and texture of the dolsot creates a deliciously crisp shell of rice. Without the dolsot, it is a much different (and lesser, in my opinion) dish experience.
- Second, taste the gochujang sauce before dumping in the bowl and thereby committing your self to its heat. Gochung is a fermented bean and pepper condiment indispensable in a Korean kitchen. Unlike many American condiments this spicy sauce contains a variety of valuable nutrients: protein, fats, vitamin B, vitamin C and carotene. Still, too much of this good thing could hurt you (at least your mouth.)
- And most importantly: mix it up. As Linda Sue Parks' book says, "Mix it like crazy!"
Thanks to Choi, bibimbap has become a simple and delicious meal I will incorporate into my cooking rotation. I pride myself on being able to balance my cooking agenda with tastes from every chapter of my multicultural family cookbook, which includes equal parts Irish, Korean, and Coal-miner's Daughter.
Check out the recipe. Even if you don't try cooking it yourself, understanding how it is made and how it should be eaten will enhance your experience next time you order it.
Sumi's Cakery
And for dessert! After Choi's bibimbap lesson, a few attendees were chatting about a new Korean bakery that had just opened on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill. A migration soon began. I was the first of our group to set foot inside Sumi Chun's new shop (in the storefront previously inhabited by Tami's Bakery.) In fact, mine were among some of the first feet ever to step into Sumi's Cakery. It was very clean but a little too spare in the furniture and fixtures department. I began to wonder if it was really open for business. But Chun's daughter Bonnie, came out and quickly welcomed me and directed me to the rack fresh baked buns that were Sumi's first offerings to the public: red bean and cream buns packaged for take out and coffee buns aromatic and still warm from the oven, beckoning me to eat them on the spot.Of course, I did sit right down and eat a coffee bun. It was like a big doughnut without a hole. And the glaze was not sticky, gooey or overly sweet. It was sharp and slightly sweet, and crisp. I wanted to ask Chun what it was but she was quite occupied back in a beautiful stainless steel kitchen. According to her daughter, the glaze in a mixture of coffee, sugar and flour. Looking forward to my next visit. Sumi's website if not up yet. Here's link to a review in City Paper.
