Meju

The Quiet Luxury of a Backroom Korean Tasting Menu | The New Yorker

"Tucked in Long Island City behind a pocket-size storefront, I experienced an intimate, theatrical tasting-menu restaurant where only thirty-two diners a week are served—one seating of eight on Wednesdays through Saturdays—for a $185 tasting menu. The dining room’s dramatic high ceilings, moody woods and a painted sunset sky corridor set a restrained, stage-like tone that Chef-owner Hooni Kim reinforces by personally greeting guests and narrating the meal. Kim frames the evening around the meju—the dried-soybean bundle that gives rise to the three essential jangs—and I learned about doenjang, ganjang and gochujang as each course arrived: silk-soft tofu in a warming doenjang broth; a tasting of soy sauces including an inky, more-than-a-hundred-year-old variety dressing a procession of jeons; a duel of gochujangs (one tart and sizzle-sharp from his mentor, one mellower mass-produced) paired with meltingly tender grilled beef and pork; and the ssamjang meat course that prompts a ten-minute intermission. The final savory—listed simply as “kimchi + rice”—is a deconstructed jjim of fermented cabbage leaves and pork, shingled and bathed in clay-red broth, served with snowy rice, a fried egg and gim; it is deep, sour and the thesis statement of the entire evening. Throughout, the food is precise and beautifully balanced, showing off patient fermentation rather than truffles or caviar, and Kim’s stories about fermentation, his mentor and his own culinary journey make the meal feel like both a lesson and a homecoming." - Helen Rosner