The very best meals writers—together with most of our common contributors—have one factor in frequent: they’re the kind to tear right into a pizza or crack a can of Spam with the identical gusto and appreciation as they sit right down to a 12-course tasting menu. They’re eager to the truth that culinary hierarchies are bogus—and that consolation fare and fast residence cooking are each bit as pricey as probably the most opulent, chef-driven meals.
New York Instances employees author Eric Kim is minimize from this similar fabric, as seen in his marvelous new cookbook, Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home. In it, he explores conventional and time-consuming Korean dishes together with ganjang gejang and seolleongtang, in addition to his personal fusiony weeknight innovations—suppose meatloaf-glazed kalbi and buttery gochugaru shrimp with grits—impressed by his Atlanta, Georgia, upbringing.
I’ve a selected affection for this e book as a result of, earlier than the Instances snatched him up, Kim was a contributing editor at SAVEUR and one among my all-around favourite folks to work with. He’s additionally only a hell of a cook dinner, so when he requested me to check recipes for this mission, I leapt on the probability to spend a number of months consuming his great, unpretentious, and totally scrumptious meals. My favourite dish of the bunch? His belly-warming budae jjigae, a so-called “military base stew,” loaded with each Korean and American pantry staples like Spam, Vienna sausages, gochujang, kimchi, instantaneous noodles, and (sure) American cheese. I begged him to let me share the dish with our readers as quickly because the e book launched.
Nicely, it’s out on Tuesday, and also you’re in luck. Learn extra about Kim’s private connection to this storied dish and discover his recipe within the excerpt beneath.
A method to think about budae jjigae, or “military base stew,” is as an amped-up kimchi jjigae—a effervescent hodgepodge of components like kimchi, Spam, scorching canines, noodles, and American cheese, a cultural by-product of leftover navy rations after the Korean Struggle. In truth, each time I make kimchi jjigae, the leftovers inevitably transmogrify right into a extra scrumptious and extra complicated budae jjigae over the week, as I slowly add components to it, refreshing it every time with a brand new thinly sliced onion and a “contemporary” smattering of Spam. I like the best way the outdated Spam has soaked up all of the kimchi juices (whereas additionally making the fiery broth further flavorful with its fats and salt) and the best way the brand new Spam breathes life into the jjigae once more. For me, budae jjigae is kimchi jjigae in its ninth life.
However with its wealthy and sophisticated warfare historical past courting again to the Nineteen Fifties, budae jjigae isn’t celebrated by everybody. It’s no surprise that some older generations of Koreans don’t love this dish, whether or not they see it as a blot on the nation’s historical past, a remnant of warfare trauma, or a recurrent reminder of exhausting instances when meals was scarce. In 1940, Bangseop Kim, my grandfather on my father’s facet, fled what would develop into North Korea for Seoul in South Korea. He lived his entire life recognizing that he had simply skirted a nationwide division that might outline Korean identification ceaselessly. In accordance with my father, Bangseop by no means ate canned meats like Spam, Vienna sausages, and even instantaneous ramyun noodles—not to mention the sum of those components, budae jjigae. Perhaps as a result of it reminded him an excessive amount of of a world he thought he had escaped.
Years later, my mother and pa, much less instantly affected by the trauma of that warfare, would go to school and order budae jjigae at eating places, the place it was fairly costly. Even in the present day, they nonetheless take into account it a luxurious meal. As a result of right here’s the factor: Regardless of its thrifty countenance, to make this stew requires the acquisition of a slew of the grocery store’s costliest canned meats. Individuals don’t understand that Spam can value upwards of 4 to five {dollars} relying on the place you’re purchasing. In America particularly, Spam has a wrongfully déclassé repute, which was tough for me as a Korean American who grew up contemplating it a terrific consolation meals, a hyperlink between two nations I straddle. For context, in Korea, folks present big packages of Spam. However for each unhealthy factor, there’s an excellent factor: For my grandmother Hyunseok, who lived by the Korean Struggle and married early to keep away from changing into a consolation lady for the Japanese Military, budae jjigae tells the story not simply of hardship and ache, however of resourcefulness, as properly. It tells the story of my grandmother’s survival.
Finally, then, budae jjigae is, for my household and me, a celebration stew.
Republished from Korean American. Copyright © 2022 Eric Kim. Images copyright © 2022 Jenny Huang. Revealed by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random Home.
