PBS series “Kimchi Chronicles” is a journey of food and identity to Korea

We’re addicted to the Food Network because we’re amateur foodies who believe deeply that food is the gateway for most people to learn about other cultures. I’m always amazed when I find people who are closed-minded about trying different types of cuisines, and I’ve always lived by the rule that if somewhere in the world, someone eats a dish, I’m willing to try it… at least once. Living by this rule, I’ve had some funky food, including insects, plants that you wouldn’t think are edible, slimy sea creatures that I’m not sure other sea creatures would eat, and animal parts that would probably make a PETA supporter faint.

We love all kinds of cuisines from around the world, and obscure indigenous specialties from around the U.S. One of our favorites is Korean cuisine. You can trace a lot of Japanese culture to China or Korea, including food. Yakiniku, grilled marinated thin-sliced beef, is Korean bulgogi (my favorite). Gyoza dumplings are either Chinese potstickers or Korean mandu. Kimchi is, well, it’s a purely Korean original: Pickled napa cabbage that’s deeply infused with hot chili pepper and briny salt. It’s a staple of Korean cuisine, an ubiquitous side dish, delicious and really healthy to boot. My mouth starts watering just thinking about it.

Erin and I even cooked up our own Soon Doobu Jjigae spicy tofu soup one night, and look forward to trying more Korean recipes.

Growing up in Japan, we had kimchi pretty regularly. My mom used to make it (she hardly cooks anything anymore) when I was a kid. Its pungent odor would fill the house and embarrass me once we moved to the states if my white high school buddies visited, but I even got my giant football player friend Bubba to try kimchi. Like some other Asian dishes, it doesn’t taste as stinky as it smells.

A new PBS series, “Kimchi Chronicles,” explores the richness of Korean food in a fascinating way that’s part-travelogue, part food program and part a journey about identity. The series has been rolling out in some markets, but here in Denver it premieres July 2 on Rocky Mountain PBS (Channel 12 in Denver)

What makes the show so intriguing to me is the star, Marja Vongerichten, who is wife of superstar New York chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
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Oodles of noodles: Ramen has quietly become hip in Colorado

The Miso Lobster Ramen is the ultimate dish at Bones, the non-Asian noodle house in Denver.

Erin and I have always been wistfully jealous of our friends in Los Angeles and San Francisco, for lots of reasons but not least the fact that they can eat killer ramen any night of the week. We have our fave ramen-yas in both San Francisco’s Japantown and LA’s Little Tokyo (“ya” means “shop”). There’s also great ramen to be had on the East Coast — I’ve slurped up wonderful noodles and steamy broth in New York City’s funky little “Japantown” district on the lower East side

In Denver, for many years we had only one ramen-ya: Oshima Ramen, which was good (albeit pricey) when it opened about a decade ago, and has over the past few years become increasingly dirtier and greasier, and the ramen less special and more bland. As it went downhill, it gave us less and less reason to drive all the way across town for a sad bowl of noodles. Some people (including some food critics who don’t know better) think it’s “the real thing” but uh, sorry.

So Erin and I have made it a holy mission to find good ramen without flying to the coast, and some brave Japanese restaurants have met the challenge just in the past year or so.

The best we’ve found in the area is Okole Maluna, a Hawai’ian restaurant an hour north of Denver in the tiny eastern plains town of Windsor, whose owners serve a killer Saimin (Hawai’ian-style ramen). There’s a very good, very authentic ramen served in a little take-out food court in Boulder called Bento Zanmai. Although it’a a bit unorthodox, the miso-ginger ramen served at the late Hisashi “Brian” Takimoto’s East Colfax restaurant, Taki’s, is very good. And now, even the fast-foody Kokoro is serving ramen (but at only one location, on 6th and Broadway, and only after 4 pm). We keep hearing about a Korean-run Japanese restaurant in Longmont that we haven’t made it to. But as you can see, we’re willing to drive for a good bowl of ramen, so we’ll get there eventually.

Imagine our surprise, then, to find that there’s been a veritable explosion of ramen happening right under our nose (is that a triple mixed metaphor?) — and that it’s not ramen made by Asians! Continue reading

Pronunciation of Asian food: I’m guilty, guilty guilty of mangling

The food at Thai Garden ranges from Thai to Chinese to Vietnamese.

Ouch. I stand humbled… and embarrassed. I’ve changed my views on my long-held need to have Japanese words (especially food) pronounced correctly. I was such a purist about it that in the past I’ve even offered a pronunciation guide for often-mangled Japanese words.

But tonight, I realized that despite Erin and my interest in and curiosity for all Asian cultures — especially when it comes to food — and our efforts to pronounce words correctly, I blew it when it comes to some of the most common Asian words we eat: Chinese food. Continue reading

Pho-Yo serves noodles and dessert in one stop

Pho has evolved over the years, from its invention in 1920s Hanoi to its popularity in the U.S. today. When the soup, with rice noodles and meats served in a hearty broth, first arrived in the stateside, the restaurants catered to mostly Vietnamese diners, like an exclusive club. As non-Vietnamese discovered pho, the restaurants became more inviting, and the diners more diverse.

When we first started going to pho restaurants, we weren’t always treated very warmly, because we were outsiders — clearly not Vietnamese. These days, pho restaurants have evolved. We’re welcomed as regulars at our favorite neighborhood pho spot, Pho 78, and all sorts of folks enjoy pho. Even Denver, not exactly known as an Asian American mecca, has dozens of pho restaurants, many with the odd names including nonsensical numbers.

Pho-Yo! is the next evolution. When you step in you might not even think it looks and feels like a typical, funky family-run pho restaurant.

The difference starts with the menu: it’s an Asianfusion combo of the popular Vietnamese noodle soup, pho, and the popular dessert, frozen yogurt.

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Boa mashes Asian, Mexican cuisine in cross-cultural menu

Since the fastest-growing population in the United States is mixed-race and we live in an increasingly global and multicultural world, it makes perfect sense that a restaurant like Boa on West 32nd would open, and serve a mashup of Mexican and various Asian cuisines.

Erin and I got to sample some of Boa’s cooking recently, when we were asked by Asian Avenue magazine to write up one of their ‘Restaurant Peek” features on the eatery. We met photographer ace Brandon Iwamoto there and tasted the food and spoke with the owners on an afternoon interrupted by a tornado warning and a twister curling down from the sky in the neighborhood (it never touched down).

Inside, the restaurant reflected none of the dark fury of the weather outside (except when the entire staff and all the customers ran out in the street to gape at the funnel cloud).

The small, comfy eatery is located in the heart of the bustling, hip Highlands business district off 32nd and Lowell, and welcomes passersby who look puzzled at the combination of Asian and Latin foods. When they give it a try, say the co-owners and chefs, Julie Villafana and Braydon Wong, they like it. Continue reading