- So I'm standing outside of this super cool
kind of venue in Edgewood, which is a
historical neighborhood in Atlanta.
There's a chef here that I know is making
some pretty progressive, thoughtful,
avant garde, supposedly amazing food.
His name is Allen and he worked
at Heirloom Market BBQ.
He worked at Yet Tuh.
You know, he was the initial chef at Gaja,
and he really gets the cuisine.
So I'm really curious to know
what he really does to manipulate the flavors
and do something new and fresh.
(upbeat music)
- My parents and grandparents were Korean,
but I had an American step-grandfather
so my grandmother was not only cooking Korean food
at home at all times for not just for family but for church,
but she was cooking for my grandfather as well
because he was not very well versed in food.
Fried pork chops and collard greens
at the same time with kimchi on the table, you know.
So I got to really have that hodgepodge
and really figure out, it's like, hmm
these things all make sense, you know.
It's not about combining things.
It's kind of like, what makes sense with what
because in the end it can all make sense.
- [Matthew] Allen's Suh's Pop-Up, Ronen Knife
is one of the most curious and almost cheeky takes
on Korean cuisine that I've ever seen,
and it's mostly because he's injecting these flavors
of traditional dishes and even some Japanese elements
and jazzing them up in unexpected ways.
- [Allen] First dish, short rib ramen.
- [Matthew] Yes, what's in here?
- [Allen] So it's a kkakdugi soup with beef bone broth
and grilled scallion
and uni and braised short rib.
My all time favorite combination
is galbi and kkakdugi together so...
- It's crazy that you were able to get
so much umami from daikon radish.
How did you do that?
- I roasted it for a second first,
you know just watermelon radish.
It's only half watermelon radish.
- The intensity of the broth is fantastic,
and it really compliments the noodles,
which kind of remind of jjampong noodles, a little bit.
- It does smell of like Shin ramyun or jjampong a little bit,
you know. - Yeah!
But uni, that's definitely next level.
(upbeat music)
Tell me about this dish.
- [Allen] It's kind of like an easy way
to present soondae, you know.
- [Matthew] Mmm.
- So we have sweet glutinous rice
and first, it's dressed in raw pork blood
and then cooked pork blood
and then when I lived in the Midwest,
I was introduced to a wonderful food item
named goetta with rolled oats in it.
So I know I'd normally use dangmyun
or japchae in it, you know, or dangmyun noodles.
But you know, I always felt like with soondae
that evenness of texture was always, you know,
I just felt like I wanted something else with it, so...
- Honestly, until I was probably like 20,
I didn't eat it.
- Really?
- Oh yeah.
And it wasn't necessarily because I didn't like it.
I just had not tried it.
It wasn't something that my parents
really gave me, you know - I see.
Yeah, exactly. For me, it was like, you know,
when I was a young kid, it was such a treat.
- This to me has actually kind of a gyoza type thing.
The wrapper itself is very thin.
Great texture.
The flavor of the soondae itself
is definitely not overwhelming
but it's there or reminds you that this is soondae.
I think this is really clever.
I've never seen anything like this.
(harp with upbeat music)
This is frickin' peanut brittle?
- [Allen] Yes.
- [Matthew] Oh man, that's super cool!
- [Allen] So this is anchovy peanut brittle
because my all time favorite banchan is myeolchi bokkeum.
- I guess it's a little frightening.
I mean myeolchi is like
they're like these small anchovies
and they can range from microscopically small, almost,
they're like little wisps,
to something a little bit more substantial.
I think maybe... - Three hair's length, so...
- Yeah, like maybe the substantial ones
could be a little scarier
because they have some of the eyes
on them and you're like uhh.
The flavor is just perfect with it
because it's salty, it's sort of toasty, nutty,
and that goes perfectly with peanuts.
- And it's actually more akin to bbopki, you know.
It's made in the same way.
(electronic upbeat music)
- [Matthew] So this is the the hamachi?
- Hamachi tartar.
So basically this is supposed to kind of emulate yukhoe.
- Yeah, yukhoe is this kind of real classic,
luxurious beef tartar that would be
I mean the predominant notes is like a soy,
sesame type of covering. - Correct.
And with bae, you know.
- Yeah, you have Asian pear, bae, to balance it out.
- We love our raw fish here; it's on table.
So there's hamachi, and then Korean pear and radish
and lemonade kimchi dressed with seasame oil
that has a hamburger patty that's been steeped
into the sesame oil because it's a play on yukhoe
so you know, we need-- - What?
- some sort of beef element.
- So a cooked hamburger and you threw it in the sesame oil?
- Extremely well done hamburger
and I just steeped it into the sesame oil
just so it has kind of like a beef flavor.
It's a kool-Aid lemonade is the secret ingredient.
- This is kool-Aide?
- Yeah.
Lemonade kimchi.
Why use water? Why not use lemonade, you know?
So... - Dude. That's awesome!
(upbeat guitar music)
Like my brain is bending right now.
This is cool.
- [Allen] So it's cheddar cheese flavored tteokboki.
- Wow! It's a little evil, it's a little genius.
It's almost like jazz, right.
Sometimes there's a jazz musician and they play a lick
and they do maybe a bar or a little measure
that's an homage to something else that they know
that somebody who understands that creator or that artist
is going to be like, "Oh, I see what they did there."
You're basically doing that here.
If you don't know Korean food,
you can come in here and you could be like,
"This is good. This is like really fun stuff."
But if you know Korean food,
if you understand it and start you start eating this stuff,
you're like, "Oh, I see what you're doing there."
You know, and it's really clever.
I'm having fun here.
- The food has to be fun.
- Thank you so much for watching
and if you want to see more of my K-town videos in Atlanta,
click right here.
We're at a place called Woo Nam Jeong
and in English it's, I guess, locally known
as Stone Bowl House.