Layers, Flavors, Lessons

To those who follow my Instagram and Facebook pages, the fact that I have once again made dumplings, fried rice, lomein, or LA galbi might seem a little overplayed. So like the Steve Miller Band is YET AGAIN singing, the Joker on your local radio station. But before you think I might be playing it safe, although sometimes I am, please know that I am turning dials, taking notes, and learning from my mistakes and shortcomings. 

Today, I need to marinate flanken-cut beef ribs for LA galbi. Fortunately, I have made this a few times. Sometimes it was so great it was difficult to think that it was me who made it. This usually was what I did, combined with cooking over a wood fire. I took notes too. So, today before I begin the long road of prepping I am looking back on these notes.

I recall that Liz from Subversive Table said, “I added a can of Coca-Cola for good measure,  advice of a Korean American friend who swore by this sweet ingredient. The result? Everyone at the potluck went crazy!”

In this previous time, I made the marinade after watching a healthy and diverse number of cooking videos featuring: LA galbi. 

Monday arrived. The LA galbi was made along with corn on the cob, grilled chicken thighs, grilled roasted beets, skewered teriyaki mushrooms, and scallions. There is no compromising on the meat, but I need to at least test with top-blade steaks, because you never know. I have found that this underrated cut of meat can be in the winner’s circle when paired with a little imagination.

I keep thinking that this major epiphany will land on me when working with this beef flanken cut of LA galbi. Like Who’s Behind the Door, something is there: a familiar stranger. Something I know, but I don’t know? While the marinade is important, I discover that the cut of meat is almost more important.

So today I am building my marinade for this…and making a lot of homemade kimchi as well! It is crazy because I had 3 derailments before I could ever get to this meal.  I realized I did not have all of the garlic I needed, so I had to run over to Claremont which pushed everything back by 2 hours. Dirty dishes in the sink, and clean dishes in the dishwasher, so I did the Kitchen-500.  That is where you create the full circle of dish life which in the end results in clean dishes put away, dirty dishes rinsed and in the dishwasher, sinks cleaned and ready for prep.

When making Kimchi, it is smart to start with the cabbage first, because there is a lot of cutting, rinsing, soaking, and salting and the salt portion takes at least 90 minutes with a couple of 30-minute rest periods in between, so a good time to prep other things.  But for some reason, I did not do it in order. During all of this, a loose fastener on the sink trap let do while I was emptying my 80-gallon stainless steel kimchi bowl.<sigh>

Finally got to get on task with the galbi. I did not have a ready wood fire as I have not figured out a good way to modify our newer wood stove to cook in it. So, the next best thing: three handfuls of apple wood chips in a foil pouch, poked full of holes with a toothpick, and threw that onto the grill during the warm-up process to fill the grill with a bit of wood smoke to fake it so real, I am beyond fake. (Sorry, heard Doll Parts today, lol).

The kimchi took a long time over all, the kind of time that makes you want to eat cereal for dinner, or order Subway, or ask your son who isn’t home yet to bring pizza home. But, I did not do that, I made the galbi. Then I threw together my spinach artichoke dip.  I can have one of these in the oven in 12 minutes these days. A stark improvement over the 3 hours it took me when I first developed this recipe nearly 21 years ago now.

So, as fragmented as it all was, dinner is served. Another notch in my kimchi belt, galbi belt, and another medal on the spinach artichoke wall. It’s getting better all the time.