Taste test: Galbi vs Bulgogi

Galbi Grilling

Galbi on the grill!

In a previous post we described the parameters for our Galbi vs Bulgogi taste test. We’d use beef flanken ribs for the Galbi, and there was a nice prime top sirloin on sale at the same butcher so we picked that up for the Bulgogi. Feeling a little experimental, we also defrosted one of our supermarket packages of American-style short ribs cut along the bone, to try Maangchi’s more authentic Korean butterflying method. And we created our own “best of” marinade which you can find in our Galbi recipe post.

Bulgogi Grilling

Bulgogi grilling. Be careful it doesn’t fall through the grate!

The marinade ingredients went into the mini-chop and came out as a paste, which we rubbed into our sirloin and flanken ribs in the same bowl. Meanwhile, we prepared Maangchi’s no-soy marinade in which the butterflied ribs get lubricated with sesame oil, then a dry rub with sugar/salt/black pepper and sprinkled chopped green onion and garlic on top before they are rolled up. All meats marinated a little more than 2 hours, then it was time to fire up the grill in the BlueStar.

Galbi Plated

Galbi plated, with red lettuce and ssamjang sauce.

The winner was Galbi, of course, but not necessarily for their “luxury”. Bone-in ribs are just a lot easier to cook and a lot more fun to eat! The crosscut bones in flanken ribs act as an insulator, keeping the meat a little above the hot grill, and the marbling makes them easy to cook without burning or sticking. We had sliced the Bulgogi when not-quite-frozen to get really thin pieces, and now it proved quite a job to keep them from falling between the cracks of the grill or getting overdone. The butterflied full-size rib also cooked well though the no-soy marinade was less interesting than the other.

Maangchi Style Ribs

Maangchi-style spareribs, butterflied and rolled up to cure.

The KBBQ was served with two kinds of kimchi (our Happy Bellyfish recipe and a milder one made with daikon radish), haiga rice, red lettuce for wrapping around the meat, and an intensely flavorful ssamjang sauce from the Koreatown cookbook; ingredients and prep information in our Galbi recipe post.

I mentioned the Galbi was more fun to eat: you provide scissors at the table to cut the rib meat into bite-size pieces (in a restaurant the server might do this for you) with the bones on the side. Spread a bit of ssamjang on a lettuce leaf, wrap it around the meat: flavor explosion. And the riblets are a bonus to chew on when you’re done.

Galbi Bones

Galbi bones for gnawing.

The Bulgogi was fine, and we managed to avoid overcooking it. (And the marinade was a good flavor note, but it would have been overkill to prepare two slightly different recipes because the beef and char flavor predominated.) The butterflied Korean-style ribs cooked up well (though the bones are too big to gnaw on, alas) and we’d try those next time with our Korean marinade if flanken ribs are unavailable. But now we’re a big fan of non-authentic LA Galbi: along with Disneyland, the Hollywood sign and the La Brea Tarpits, they’re one more gift to the world from SoCal.

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Galbi vs Bulgogi… which Korean BBQ entree is better?

Price Chopper Flanken Ribs

Flanken ribs for Galbi; note the bones cut crosswise at right. (We borrowed this photo from our local supermarket’s website, which advertises flanken ribs but doesn’t actually sell them.)

Galbi vs Bulgogi? Most Koreans would tell you a taste comparison isn’t even worth doing. In a typical comment in a recent restaurant review, my Yelp friend Josh B wrote “select galbi over bulgogi if you agree that kimchi is preferable to lettuce”. That’s because Galbi is a luxury food, reserved for special occasions, while Bulgogi is a run of the mill meat for KBBQ*. If you find both on the menu in a Korean restaurant, Galbi is likely to be considerably more expensive.

But the differences between the two cuts of beef used are actually not that great, apart from those rib bones. Galbi meat comes from the short rib and is presented with the bone on (more on this in a minute). Bulgogi is a lean, tender cut of steak which might come from the rib eye just above the short rib, or maybe a fillet, sirloin or flank steak.

So maybe the big difference is in the marinade? Each will spend one hour (or maybe much longer, if you buy pre-marinated meat) in a soy-based marinade with sweetener and grated pear for tenderizing and typical Korean seasonings. Can we just use the same marinade for both? I asked this question on the Korean cooking group on Facebook and was told oh no, the Galbi marinade is sweeter or uses more fruit.

After comparing recipes from multiple sites and books of Korean recipes, we concluded that while the proportions of ingredients may be different, the flavor profiles are not far apart at all.

Here, for example, are the recipes from the very popular maangchi.com site (we’ve normalized the order of ingredients and quantities so you can truly compare apples to apples, or pears to pears in this instance):

Maangchi’s Bulgogi Marinade Maangchi’s Galbi Marinade
6 T soy sauce
6 T brown sugar
3/8 t ground black pepper
1 ½ cup crushed Korean pear
3/4 cup onion purée
12 cloves of minced garlic
3 green onions, chopped
3 t minced ginger
3 T toasted sesame oil
several thin slices of carrot
1/3 c soy sauce
1/3 c water or cooking wine
¼ c honey or 1/3 c brown sugar
1 t ground black pepper
2 c crushed Korean pear
8 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1 t chopped ginger
2 T toasted sesame oil

You might also compare the H Mart recipes for Bulgogi and Galbi and you’ll find the same similarities, though the Galbi is more complex (because it’s “special”). So we say there’s nothing wrong with making one marinade, erring on the side of more ingredients rather than less, which gives us a purer test of the meats themselves.

Now, about those rib bones in the Galbi. We went to considerable lengths to find flanken ribs, in which the whole rib roast is sawn across the ribs to produce long strips of meat punctuated by a section of bone every couple of inches. This is the only way we had ever experienced Galbi in numerous California restaurants. It turns out that ribs prepared this way are called “LA Galbi” after Los Angeles Koreatown, and it’s not the way the ribs are cut in Korea. There, the meat is cut along the bone on one side of the rib, then the meat is butterflied so you end up with the bone attached to a long strip of meat. Maanchi demonstrates this beautifully in a video presenting an alternate recipe for Galbi. (The short rib pieces she starts with are maybe half the length of the short ribs you find in American butcher counters, so you’d need to ask a favor of your butcher or simply deal with super-sized Galbi.)

Ready for the results of our taste test? You can read about it here.

*One of our favorite Korean cookbooks is the out-of-print Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen, by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall. In her Bulgogi recipe the author comments that Koreans have a sentimental attachment to a grass-fed beef called hanu kogi which is flavorful but a bit tough. This may contribute to the perception of Galbi as a superior dish.

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The food groups of Facebook

Squirrel Stir Fry

Squirrel Stir Fry, from Our Hmong Table.

“I came home and saw my dad hard at work mincing meat on the wooden chopping board. If my dad’s cooking it’s going to be good. He spent a long time in the kitchen today and I didn’t know exactly what he was making, until I saw the head of a squirrel by the side of the minced meat…”

Tub Thao, post in Our Hmong Table on Facebook

We’ve previously posted about our experiences in some Facebook food groups, specifically Aspics with Threatening Auras and Questionable Vintage Recipes. Facebook believes we are up for more adventure so has made some suggestions we’ve happily followed, and you can too. In most cases you just need to agree to obey the rules of the group.

Our Hmong Table is maybe our favorite, with lots of socializing and good fun mixed in with the recipes. It seems like kapoon is the solution for any cooking need. What do rich Hmong bring to a cookout? Nothing that’s why they’re rich. You get the idea.

Korean Cooking is focused on authentic preparations of dishes the members may have tried, often with suggestions from other members. Recently there were numerous posts on what to do with too much shiso/perilla, a problem we had a couple months back.

Lao & Asian Kitchen Cooking has a lot of nice photos but relatively few food prep tips. And Pho Is Life is mainly about how to get a good bowl of soup in the Minneapolis area. (There is no geographical distinctions to the groups; Korean cooking seems pretty spread out while Our Hmong Table has a lot of suggestions from California’s upper Central valley, Fresno up to Sacramento, which we can check out next time we are in CA with a rental car.)

Best of all, the groups seem relatively cordial, with respect for newbie questions and very little of the finger pointing and sarcasm that pervades much social media these days. (Though maybe that’s because of good moderation.) Check ‘em out!

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Recipe: Pav Bhaji (Mumbai street food)

Pav Bhaji with condiments

Pav Bhaji with typical condiments: chopped onions, lime or lemon wedges, chopped cilantro.

This is the Pav Bhaji I made in Minita Sanghvi’s cooking class, taking notes frantically because she cooks from instinct, not recipes. The quantities for some spices seem quite small but the dish was not lacking flavor; feel free to add more if you like. Makes 10 main course servings.

Ingredients:
3 large potatoes, about 2 lbs, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
8 oz cauliflower florets, fresh or frozen
8 oz peas and carrots mix, frozen
2 medium onions, preferably red, peeled and chopped medium fine
8 cloves garlic
½ green bell pepper, seeded and cored and coarsely chopped
¼ t cumin powder
½ t turmeric
½ t nigella/galonga (optional)
¼ t asafoetida (this spice is used by Jains who are not supposed to eat onion or garlic; since those are already in the recipe I would consider eliminating it)
½ bunch cilantro (reserve the rest for garnish)
2-4 oz butter, ghee, neutral oil or a combination (Minita used a full stick of butter; I did half butter, half peanut oil)
2 jalapeños, stemmed but not seeded and finely chopped
8 garlic cloves
2 t Kashmiri chili powder (can substitute non-smoked paprika but the flavor is not the same)
3 T Pav Bhaji masala (essential; buy from Amazon or an Indian foods store)
28 oz can diced tomatoes
Salt to taste (maybe 1 T)

Dinner rolls:
Butter
Kashmiri chili powder or paprika for rolls
Salt
Chopped onions (for garnish)
Chopped fresh cilantro (for garnish)
Quartered lime or lemon (for garnish.

Method: cook the potatoes in a good amount of salted water until just tender; add cauliflower, peas and carrots after a few minutes so all are cooked tender. Drain and reserve. Sauté onion in butter or oil mixture over low heat, gradually adding spices and stirring as you go: first the garlic, then jalapeños, then cumin, turmeric, asafoetida, nigella, Kasmiri chili powder. When the onions are tender and spices are well blended and aromatic, add the tomatoes, then the drained vegetable mixture. Add Pav Bhaji masala and salt and adjust seasoning to taste. Mix with a stick blender or stand blender to your desired preference, lumpy or smooth.

Slice dinner rolls in half and heat in a toaster oven or skillet with a good amount of butter. Serve with the pav bhaji along with chopped onions, lemon or lime slices and chopped cilantro for garnish.

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Pav Bhaji, where have you been all my life?

First Pav Bhaji

Our first Pav Bhaji.

In the midst of a competitive campaign for a local city council seat, my friend Minita Sanghvi took time out to teach an Indian cooking class. She gave us a choice of 3 dishes we could make. One of them was Pav Bhaji, whose picture showed what looked like a buttered roll sitting next to a vegetable stew. Parker House rolls in Indian cooking? Got to try that!

Minita explained this was a favorite street food in Mumbai, and that it was heavily influenced by Portuguese colonization of the west side of India in the 16th century. The Portuguese brought tomatoes, potatoes, chili—and bread. Though the bread of that time would be nothing like today’s lighter white flour breads because the flour would have been darker and coarse ground and the yeast would come from a variety used to make alcoholic drinks.

The ingredient list included Pav Bhaji masala (affiliate link!), a special spice blend of “chilli, coriander, dry mango [aka anchoor powder], fennel, cumin, pepper, clove, cinnamon, black salt, big [black] cardamom & refined palmolein oil” according to the MTR package description. I went to my local halal market to find it and the friendly proprietor said “oh, you like pav bhaji?” in an approving tone and then “what are you going to do for the bread?” When I told him I was just learning to make it he sent me next door to Aldi where I found brioche dinner rolls, an excellent choice.

Cooking pav bhaji is fairly straightforward. You sauté chopped onions, garlic and green bell pepper in a lot of butter and add various spices as you go, then pour in a generous amount of chopped tomato. Separately, you boil until tender potatoes, peas, carrots and cauliflower. Blend it all in a blender or with a stick blender to the consistency you like (I chose slightly lumpy) and you’re done—except for the bread for which Minita used potato rolls from our local store. She added a good amount of butter to the skillet in which she had cooked the onions and heated the rolls on both sides till they were toasty and buttery, then sprinkled on Kashmiri chili powder (you could also use paprika) and salt and we were good to go.

I am not generally a fan of vegetarian Indian cooking because it is usually too bland for me, but this stuff was terrific, full of flavor and an excellent balance of warm spices, herbs and heat. I wasn’t sure what to do with the roll: make a sandwich? Dip it? Eat it in alternate bites with the stew? (Supposedly the sandwich was not invented until the 18th century, though Wikipedia points out that people had been documented eating meats wrapped in a bready covering since ancient times.) Turns out all the above work well.

Minita says pav bhaji, in spite of its vegetarian ingredients, is considered “junk food” in her home—perhaps because of all that butter. Makes me feel even better about eating it. She won her election, by the way.

Here is our pav bhaji recipe, based on the ingredients we cooked.

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What does cheesecake taste like?

Strawberry Cheesecake

Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake is their most-ordered item, says the Cheesecake Factory.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a piece on how the Cheesecake Factory chain thrived through the pandemic by increasing takeout orders. One of the secrets, as Atul Gawande wrote in a famous 2012 New York article, is process—there’s a 500 page operations manual and a procedure for everything, including how to describe cheesecake.

“Adding your delicious descriptions helps guests find the cheesecake they’ll enjoy most,” the guide instructs employees. “Use words that are natural to you and be sure to include your enthusiasm!”

Here are 42 words Cheesecake Factory provides to prime the pump:

Amazing Baked Chewy Chocolatey Chunky
Covered Creamy Crispy Crunchy Decadent
Delectable Delicate Delicious Dripping Drizzled
Extraordinary Fabulous Fantastic Full Gooey
Heavenly Layered Mouthwatering Out of this world Oozing
Light Loaded Rich Scrumptious Silky
Sinful Smooth Soaked Soft Sprinkled
Sweet Swirled Tart Unbelievable Velvety
Yummy Yum-a-licious

What’s interesting to me is how few words actually describe the taste of cheesecake, and only a few more describe the mouthfeel. The rest are about the experience—how you will feel, about yourself and the dish, as you are eating it and how you will be perceived by others.

Some time ago, when I was writing professionally for a meat company, I made a post about how hard it was to come up with adjectives describing taste and mouthfeel without repeating yourself. I later did some catalog writing for Allen Bros., an upscale steak purveyor, and inherited a copy style which was about how “your guests” will react when you serve up your perfectly cooked meat: you paid a pretty penny for this steak, and you want to make damn sure they’ll appreciate it. But still, it always started with taste—that first bite that confirms to the eater this is the good stuff, a cut above the rest.

Cheesecake Factory is doing something different. They want customers they’re doing something special and not a little sinful, simply by ordering such a payload of carbs and calories. I am sure Atul Gawande would approve—especially because he is a doctor by trade (the New Yorker article was about how healthcare delivery should be organized more like the Cheesecake Factory) and these gooey, oozing slices mean lots of new business for his profession.

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Recipe: Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy Cucumber Salad came from a German food blog, and it does remind us of salads served at a meals-included Munich hotel during a stay long ago. Goes great with fish or in a smorgasbord-type setting. We’ve drastically cut back on the sour cream because the cucumbers throw off plenty of liquid on their own. Makes 4-6 appetizer servings.

2 large cucumbers, peeled, sliced in half lengthwise and seeded; or 4 seedless Persian cucumbers
1 T minced yellow onion
½ c sour cream
1 t Kosher salt
1 T white vinegar
1 t dried dill weed or 1 T fresh dill weed, finely chopped
¼ t sugar
Pinch of black pepper

Method: slice the cucumber into ½ inch slices and mix with the chopped onions. Mix all remaining ingredients except sour cream and let them hydrate for a few minutes, then add to the sour ream and mix to a uniform consistency. Mix in the cucumber slices and refrigerate 6 hours or longer before serving. Creamy Cucumber Salad will keep for a couple of days in your refrigerator and tastes even better the next day.

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Recipe: Smoked Baked Beans

Smoked Baked Beans

Smoked Baked Beans. The dish used for cooking will be a goner, so don’t use anything you’re fond of.

Smoked baked beans are cooked along with your brisket or other smoked meat, taking advantage of the extra space on your rack if you have a barrel smoker, or the top level if you have a Weber Bullet like me. You are going to add all the flavor, so start with the cheapest canned beans you can find. Makes 6-8 servings.

Ingredients:
28-oz can baked beans (we used Great Value from Walmart)
2 T bacon fat OR 2 strips bacon
2 T brown sugar
2 T cider vinegar
1 medium onion
1 t Worcestershire sauce
½ t ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Great Value Baked Beans

Use the cheapest prepared beans you find. This can was $1.48 at Wal-Mart.

Method: cut 3 or 4 nice slices of onion across the grain to use as topping, then chop the rest. Add chopped onion to the beans along with brown sugar, cider vinegar, pepper and Worcestershire; if using bacon fat melt it and add that as well. Mix thoroughly and taste for salt; depending on the brand you may need to add more. Pour the beans into a shallow aluminum tray or other pan you don’t mind ruining. Top with reserved onion slices and bacon slices, if using.

Smoke along with your meat during the initial, smokiest part of the cook. You can take them out after that but there’s nothing wrong with leaving them in until you’re ready to remove the meat (or maybe wrap the meat and leave it to slow-cook, depending on your process). Serve hot with other BBQ fixins.

Smoked Beans BBQ dinner

A typical Texas BBQ dinner, including smoked baked beans.

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Texas Monthly BBQ guide jumps the shark

Goldees Pit Bosses

The pit bosses at Goldee’s in Fort Worth are all in their 20s. Ranked #1 in the new Texas Monthly BBQ guide.

The annual Texas Monthly BBQ guide is eagerly awaited by Texans near and far. Will Snow’s retain its top ranking, or will some upstart along the lines of Franklin in Austin upset the post oak woodpile? What old standbys have lost their luster as a pitmaster retires or is called to the great smokehouse in the sky, and who are the young bucks/buckettes who will emerge to replace them?

Well, the Texas Monthly BBQ guide for 2021 is a bit of a departure. Snow’s and Franklin are #9 and #7 respectively, Kreutz’ is the only Lockhart smoker listed (as an honorable mention), and Miklethwait and Louie Mueller don’t even crack the top 50. In their place is an assortment of places serving novelties like brisket elote—”Layers of creamed corn, chopped brisket, queso fresco, cilantro, and hot sauce are a full meal in a cup” at #10 Panther City BBQ, Laotian sausage—”take a chunk, mash it into a bit of sticky rice, and dunk the combo into the spicy-sour jeow som sauce” at #1 Goldee’s Barbecue and, God help us, “an array of Instagrammable desserts” at #3 Burnt Beans Co.

What in the world has gotten into BBQ Editor Daniel Vaughn, and his monk-like attention to temperature stalls, smoke rings and burnt ends? Well, therein lies the problem. According to Texas Monthly, 37 staffers and 3 freelancers visited 411 barbecue joints to compile a preliminary list, and the “most promising candidates were then revisited by either barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn or food writer Patricia Sharpe, or both, to determine the top ten.” Notice the “or” in that statement. Some of the top places were not even visited by the Texas Monthly barbecue guru.

Now, we understand these are tough times for traditional media, and Texas Monthly needs to appeal to a younger demographic to stay afloat. And establishments that serve the public must evolve as well. We grew up near the first 7-11 store in Dallas, which was referred to as “the ice house” by old-timers because that was their most important product when self-cooling refrigerators were a relative novelty. These days you can probably buy a bag of ice at 7-11, but you’d have to look for it.

Frankin Barbecue

An array of smoked meats from #7 Franklin. Not very Instagrammable, but mighty tasty.

But… barbecue is all about the meat. And while we love the sides (especially when the place takes a novel twist on a standard, like the poppy seed slaw and buttermilk pie at Miklethwait), they should never be allowed to steal the show from the main attraction which is the classic cuts of beef, pork, sausage, maybe chicken or turkey, prepared to the best of the pit boss’ ability.

It’s clear that the reviewers were entranced by the novelty of imaginative entrees and clever desserts (we refuse to use the I-label) and as a result they lost track of the reason they were reviewing. People travel long distances and wait in long lines in search of a transcendent BBQ experience and “sassy kimchi, vinegary braised cabbage and sausage, and terrific pork hash (a.k.a. rice with a meaty gravy) … [and] cheddar cheesecake with a dab of apple butter … worth a return visit” (at Leroy & Lewis, #5) ain’t it.

If you want to read the rankings in full, Texas Montly is behind a paywall but you get two articles for free. The top 10 is here, and the also rans here. Read fast, because we predict this will prove a one-year experiment and we’ll be back to the regular rankings in 2022. The one silver lining about this train wreck? For now, the lines are likely to be shorter at Snow’s.

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Recipe: Best Way Eggplant Parm

Best Way Eggplant Parm

Best Way Eggplant Parm.

Best Way Eggplant Parm uses a flour-and-egg wash when cooking the eggplant slices. This creates a barrier to keep the slices from absorbing excessive oil, plus it provides another layer of flavor that’s similar to breadcrumbs but without the grease. Only possible drawback is that the slices tend to come apart when you cut them. If this bothers you (it doesn’t us) you can reassemble on the plate, slice the product cold then reheat in microwave, or build a shorter stack in a wider pan. Serves 4 as an entrée.

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant, about 1 ½ lb
Kosher salt, maybe 1 T
2 T olive oil
1 egg
1 c all purpose flour
1 t Kosher salt
½ t ground black pepper
1 c good tomato sauce
2 T tomato paste (optional)
1 c grated mozzarella
¼ c grated parmesan or romano
1 t oregano
1 t garlic powder or 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine

Battered Eggplant

Egg-battered slices waiting to be assembled into Best Way Eggplant Parm.

Method: peel the eggplant and slice crosswise into ¾ inch slices. Sprinkle both sides of each slice with salt and rub it in to be sure the surface is thoroughly coated. Stand the slices up in a colander for an hour or so to leach out excess liquid then dry thoroughly with a paper towel or clean cloth (you want to remove some of the salt as well as the water).

Heat the oil to medium-high (about 350 degrees) in a non-stick skillet. Make your dredging mixtures: thoroughly mix flour and spices in a plastic bag; dilute egg with a little water and beat. Dip each slice in the flour, then the egg, then lay it in the heated skillet.  Don’t crowd the slices; cook in two batches if needed. If temperature is right it should sizzle when you put it in the pan then cook till the bottom of the slice is a light golden brown. Flip and cook the other side to the same light golden brown. Test for doneness with your finger; if the slices are not very tender and yielding give it another couple minutes with the heat slightly lowered. When the slices are done, transfer to a paper towel to drain.

If you are using tomato paste, mix it into the tomato sauce; this will give you a deeper, richer flavor. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Assemble the dish in a loaf pan or 9×9 glass pan which has been buttered or oiled to prevent sticking. Start with a thin layer of sauce, then a layer of eggplant slices, then a layer of mozzarella. Sprinkle on some parmesan, garlic and oregano. Repeat this process till all the eggplants have been used with the top layer being cheese and spices. Bake 30 minutes or until the cheese is thoroughly melted. Slice and serve. Eggplant parm reheats well and should taste as good or better the next day.

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