So in a typical Korean night out you're
gonna go through at least two or three
different kinds of stages a night — we
call them cha. We have il cha,
which is first stage, a bar with tiki
drinks and a fun vibe. We have ee cha,
second stage, where you go and get some Korean
barbecue. And finely sam cha, third stage,
or karaoke lounges. This place Insa has
all three of them under one roof, where a chef
is reimagining what a Korean barbecue
experience can be, but it's still good
for traditionalists. This place is like
everything you need from Korean culture
in one building. Perfect. I love it. "Yeah,
my husband calls it 'Korean Fun Time
Place For Celebration.' Gowanus
is a very fun neighborhood, it's
sandwiched between a couple of residential
neighborhoods, Park Slope, Carroll
Gardens, very close to downtown Brooklyn
which houses as you know Barclays Center."
You've been classically trained but you
didn't necessarily professionally
cook Korean until this restaurant.
"That's right right, that's the
funniest thing. So
Sunny Lee who is an amazing cook herself —
and she's opening up a restaurant —
she's classically
trained like the rest of us, and we were like,
'None of us really know how to cook this!' But it
was just so great to discover
it together. Of course there's
always my mother that I could call, like,
"Okay, I know this is a silly question,
but I'm going to ask it.' So she
was really on board and she gave me a
lot of advice so it was great to
discover all together. We really wanted
to keep the flavor of the food rooted in
tradition. We don't want
to do fusion. Korean food is
amazing, it's what I grew
up eating, it's what you grew up eating, and
it's what a lot of foodies now are
discovering."
We're trending!
"We're hip!"
"That's a little bit of fat."
The seasoner.
"Look at that downdraft." Wow that's cool. That looks like
something in Star Trek. I think this is
the most ambitiously cut chadol baegi I
have ever seen.
Usually it's this big. "This cooks very
quickly as you know."
Look at that steam coming out of the side.
That's amazing.
The purity of the meat.
I'm going to build up a basic ssam with
gaenip which is sort of a Korean parrilla
leaf. "It's like the Korean basil."
Gonna add a little bit of their ssamjang here.
Some garlic. What I like about the gaenip
is that it has a sharp herbaceousness.
A real contrast to the meat. The
beef is pure, it's muscular, and I
think the gaenip
envelops it in a perfect way.
Your ssamjang is awesome. "Thank you!"
So this is really cool, because this is
the pancetta coreana, which is
interesting.
"You'll never see this at any other place.
It cooks very quickly so you have to
flip it over."
I'm gonna make a bacon and
kimchi sandwich. Grill some kimchi first.
We've got their special bacon on the bottom.
We've got a little grilled kimchi, ssamjang,
the squid — "That's a big mouthful."
"This is soondae.
Soondae is a Korean blood sausage.
Usually it's a lot silkier and more luxurious
than some other pork
blood sausage, because of the
presence of the rice and vermicelli
that's involved. There's a lot of
seasoning involved, a lot of spices, and
we wanted to serve a version that is
made in-house." The texture of
the vermicelli and everything inside of
it balances the meatiness and the
blood. So good. House soondubu, so
it's sort of like silken tofu stew. "We use
seafood broth or anchovy dashi, and
we make a nice seasoning base
that doesn't have flavor enhancers,
no MSG." This is the first
soondubu I think I've had without MSG.
I can markedly tell the difference. "Totally!"
It's interesting to me because the
saltiness is a little more robust,
because the savoriness you're not
getting rounded out artificially.
But I think the longer on the palate you get
more of a pleasant seafood flavor. It's
more developed.
It's more mature.
We're on to the main event, the galbi.
Lightly marinated.
"Soy sauce, grated pear,
it's your typical galbi marinade." Very
good marbling which I think is
impressive.
"You gotta eat right from the
grill I feel like, don't you think?"
Don't even wait.
"You have to go for the hardy stuff, we
have some fresh escarole in here.
Just take one of the meat —"
Go big! "And then
just a little smear of this."
We're done eating but there's one
last thing I have to do.