- [Matthew] It's pretty incredible to see New York City
embrace modern Korean cooking so much.
But what I think it really needs is a face,
and that face is Esther Choi.
She just opened Ms. Yoo, named after her grandmother
on the Lower East Side and she's incorporating
Korean ingredients in things you wouldn't really expect.
It's weird, I feel like it's my duty to my country
and to my culture to sort of like be that person
to take it to the next level, or just take it to people
that haven't seen Korean food like the way that I see it.
I see Korean food as something that's palatable to everyone.
This place is named after your grandmother.
Yes.
This signature dish that we're about to have is basically,
it's something your grandmother made,
and then now you're putting it on the menu.
So basically this chicken, it's, I had it in a turkey,
so every Thanksgiving since I was born,
my grandma did this turkey, she would stuff it with
this glutenous rice in a very Korean style way.
Every year I still have it.
Obviously, I took her recipe and I sort of did it my own way
But it's like a whole fried chicken.
Let's go check it out.
Yeah, let's do it.
- [Esther] There's some gloves.
Okay, so yeah, tell me about this bird.
Super fresh, it comes from a farm in Brooklyn.
But before we handle the chicken,
we're gonna make our stuffing.
Okay.
(electronic music)
- [Esther] These chickens are unbelievable.
They came in yesterday because this has been brined
overnight.
- [Matthew] Okay.
- [Esther] Kombu, salt, sugar, lemon, black pepper,
but the kombu really gives it that umami, too.
- [Matthew] Yeah.
(techno music)
What we'll do is, we'll rub it in this chili paste,
smell that, we make this in-house.
You got the head on and you got,
that's like the most striking thing, you got the claws
and the--
Because it's so beautiful, isn't that what you wanna see?
In its true form?
Sure, yeah, I don't wanna see a fish without its head.
Exactly.
It kind of screams fresh.
Garlic, that's been burnt.
So we burn it in oil, actually, so it's kind of like
confit-ing but we take it to the blackened level.
Korean chili flakes.
- [Matthew] Gochugaru.
- [Esther] Gochugaru, and some sesame oil.
(upbeat techno music)
- [Esther] So you're gonna grab the chicken by the feet,
yes, and you're gonna drop it in the fryer.
It's kind of getting dark already.
- [Matthew] Oh yes.
- [Esther] It's that beautiful color.
Look at her, how gorgeous is she?
- [Matthew] That's quite a transformation.
That is just so browned and gorgeous.
- [Esther] It's beautiful.
And then this will be thrown into an oven
to get cooked all the way through.
Okay, thanks so much for teaching me how to make that.
Yes, uh I need you to leave though
because we're starting service in like five minutes.
Oh, okay, shoot.
Sorry.
Bye.
Thanks for your help.
- [Matthew] Thanks.
It's really is like a turkey, it's like a mini turkey.
My immediate impression when I see this
is that it's very much like a roast chicken,
even though I saw it going into the fryer.
It has more of the texture of roasted chicken.
I'm gonna try a little bit of the breast first.
(fast-paced electronic music)
It's very juicy, it's very tender, great flavor.
The chicken has amazing flavor.
The sauce that I put on the outside
is very prevalent in the skin,
I'm not getting it as much inside, but I think,
you know I think we tried the best that we could.
Mmm, it does have good amount of spice though,
I love that spice.
That sweet Gochugaru-like flavor profile
is really coming through.
Korean fried chicken is kind of more about the,
the way that the skin is fried, it's very crispy.
In this case we don't quite have that.
The meat, however, is much juicier.
So it's different.
Having the glutenous rice inside, I've never had anything
like this, this is definitely different preparation
of a fried roasted chicken.
So this is with some of the spicy sauce.
Yeah, that's sweet, spicy, a lot of the watery Kochujang...
Oh man, super spicy.
Some of the dark meat.
This is the lemon soy sauce.
I like that one more.
It's bright, lemony, savory from the soy.
It kind of counters out the richness of the chicken better.
That good soy, that kind of like binds it all together,
I think it's a better contrast to the richness
of the chicken.
These potatoes are awesome, incredible seasoning on it.
This dish is just an explosion of flavor,
it's an explosion of ideas.
Esther is dynamic, she has so much to say and I'm really
curious to know how it's gonna pan out, what kind of
impact is she going to have on New York City's dining scene.
Thank you so much for watching, and if you wanna see more
of my shows on YouTube, click right here.
Hell yes.
- [Matthew] Whoa, that's so long.
I've had live octopus before and I had it in Busan, and...