Korean Short Ribs at Dean & Deluca

[rice cracker]

I haven't had these (http://www.deandeluca.com/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=160209826&CategoryID=70), so no comment on the quality, but I'm just tickled to see them available on Dean and Deluca.

It made me think of the first time I saw Korean BBQ at the grocery store. Now it's kind of common to see bulgogi shish kabobs.

Ta da! Ribs!

http://www.deandeluca.com/ProductImg/500/202033.jpg

[pikachupacabra]

I've actually been seeing short ribs a lot on a lot of menus in the SF/LA area. Cut cross bone! Not necessarily labeled korean-style, but they certainly advertise how much flavor and tenderness you get from that particular cut.

[SunWuKong]

Korean restaurants in the US should emphasise BBQ more as a marketting strategy because Americans love BBQ and mass quantities of meat. it's great that Dean and Deluca wants to offer "Korean short ribs", it speaks for the rising popularity of Korean food in the US, but i would rather see Korean restaurants benefitting from selling Korean food, or at least other Asian restaurants.

[applehead]

rad, i think you're totally right.
augh, two days ago i went to a korean bbq buffet and
i saw a lot of non korean customers.
and i thought that they would have more business if
they advertised in non korean newspapers.

[Yeahman]

This needs more investigation. Why aren't Korean restaurants able to reach out?

[SunWuKong]

This needs more investigation. Why aren't Korean restaurants able to reach out?

i think they're slowly gaining mainstream popularity. and i think it would help if they opened outside of Korean enclaves - although understandably that is very risky for the individual restaurants themselves. but definitely i think the BBQ part of Korean cuisine should be emphasised.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

^ Actually I wonder if the opposite would be true, that a place like Koreatown might actually be the riskiest place to open up a Korean BBQ place if you're looking at profitability and lifespan. Just like how it's much more profitable to open up a Chinese restaurant in the middle of some white hick town instead of in the middle of an ethnic enclave like Chinatown where there's more competition, your product needs to be better (because your customers are Chinese and not clueless non-Chinese or non-Asians), and you're forced to charge competitive rates. In areas where the clientele is mostly white, you need little more than wooden chopsticks, fortune cookies, and your typical fried rice and kung pao pork-type dishes and you got everyone coming in every time they want Chinese food. Hell, I'm willing to bet most people would not be able to tell the difference (or if they could, they wouldn't care) between a Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean restaurant out in the middle of nowhere every time they searched for some type of Asian dining experience.

[SunWuKong]

^ Actually I wonder if the opposite would be true, that a place like Koreatown might actually be the riskiest place to open up a Korean BBQ place if you're looking at profitability and lifespan. Just like how it's much more profitable to open up a Chinese restaurant in the middle of some white hick town instead of in the middle of an ethnic enclave like Chinatown where there's more competition, your product needs to be better (because your customers are Chinese and not clueless non-Chinese or non-Asians), and you're forced to charge competitive rates. In areas where the clientele is mostly white, you need little more than wooden chopsticks, fortune cookies, and your typical fried rice and kung pao pork-type dishes and you got everyone coming in every time they want Chinese food. Hell, I'm willing to bet most people would not be able to tell the difference (or if they could, they wouldn't care) between a Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean restaurant out in the middle of nowhere every time they searched for some type of Asian dining experience.

well, i was talking about authentic Korean cuisine. but i think it would be risky anyway if they were to Americanise Korean food and open shop at a hick town. you can't really compare that to Americanised Chinese food, because pork fried rice and eggrolls have already carved out a niché in American society. chop suey shops have a history in the US dating back to the early 1900s if not the late 1800s, and for the most part, the American public knows what "Chinese food" is and people know what to expect. not to mention that Americanised Chinese food have also come to occupy a place in the take-out/delivery food hierarchy. on the other hand, Korean cuisine is still very new to the American mainstream.

but honestly, is it really that hard to open a place for Korean BBQ that caters to mostly a white customer base? i mean, the sauce is not that hard to make, and then all you need is raw meat. then offer other simpler dishes like different kinds of bibimbap and kimbap.

even those "Mongolian BBQ" places make money, and they're a big rip-off. you gather the raw ingredients and then you give it to a Mexican to stir fry all that stuff together in front of you. why do people even go to those places? what the fuck are they thinking?

[Craig]

A couple of months ago I was in Dallas in the "Korean" part of town. I stopped of at a restaurant that I had been to before when I lived in Dallas before the telecommunications implosion. Back then the restaurant had good tasting food and I was probably the only non-Korean inside. A couple of months ago, at least half the clientelle was non-Asian (white, Mexican, black, etc.) and the food tasted worse. I think they are marketing a couple of the previously decent Asian areas in DFW to the masses and tourists.

[Yeahman]

Opening a Korean restaurant in K-town is more costly (must be higher quality) but you have virtually guaranteed customers. Americanized Korean food would be cheaper.

I've never seen a Korean restaurant where less than half the customers are Korean. I've never even seen neighborhood sushi restaurants with a non-Asian majority. Only the trendy sushi restaurants are mostly white.

[bigwong235]

even those "Mongolian BBQ" places make money, and they're a big rip-off. you gather the raw ingredients and then you give it to a Mexican to stir fry all that stuff together in front of you. why do people even go to those places? what the fuck are they thinking?

i only see these places in mall food courts. i normally go to them over the other choices because:

a.) you get more food (at least i think so).
b.) it's cooked to order (somewhat), as opposed to sitting on a steam tray for hours on end.

i've always wondered why they're called mongolian bbqs, though. the big thing they cook all the food on is just a giant griddle. so it's not really bbq-ing, and i don't think the concept of cooking things on a big metal sheet is specifically mongolian. i think it'd be awesome if they used it to make gigantic pancakes or crepes.

back on topic:
so, does anyone have any korean bbq marinade recipes i can steal? :biggrin: