This new restaurant called, Cote.
It is one of most ambitious Korean barbecues
I've seen anywhere and that's because
they have their own dry-aging room.
They don't do this in Korea.
(soothing music)
You guys just opened here, like a couple months ago.
It's been like eight weeks.
And, so where's the name from, Cote?
- [Simon] Cote is Korean word for flour.
Of course, I love cote du boeuf and bulgogi
- [Matthew] I've had dry-aged beef for Korean barbecue,
but never at a place that actually does it themselves.
Why did you guys do that?
So, I love steak.
I also love Korean barbecue, and I love how each bite
is like, the first bite at steak houses.
So, why don't we just put the dry-aged, premium quality
USDA prime meat and Korean barbecue format
and put it together.
You had another restaurant, Piora,
and that was a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Is it your goal to get Michelin stars?
The goal would be to create a restaurant
that Korean Americans can be really proud of.
Non-Korean, like New Yorkers, can really have
that accessibility and excitement, a familiarity,
while being able to enjoy the authenticity
of Korean barbecue.
(upbeat music)
The dry-aging room was phenomenal.
It was so cold in there, but to see all those full
rib-eyes there, dry-aging for months at a time.
Oh my god.
Did somebody mention rib-eyes?
Hey!
So this is very exciting.
Yes, I already had you in L.A., but you know what,
we had to do barbecue together.
It was like fate.
What is dry-aging?
What is that gonna do to the experience?
We dispatch an animal.
To get that meat to be tender and flavorful
you need to age it.
And that's accomplished in two ways, one is wet aging
where you basically stick it in a bag.
Enzymes on the outside actually tenderize the meat inside,
breaking down the connective tissue,
making it easy to cut, easy to chew.
Wet-aging accomplishes tenderness,
but it does absolutely nothing for flavor.
The other way of aging beef is dry-aging,
and that's when you, literally, take big chunks
of beef and you hang them in a room
or you put them up on the shelf
in a very temperature controlled environment.
A mold forms on the outside.
This mold protects the beef from rotting
and at the same time releases enzymes
in the same way that wet-aging beef,
but beyond that, it introduces a tertiary flavor.
Think about wine, think about cheese,
it's actually the same enzyme.
Wow.
If we're gonna go to the rib,
let's cook some of the outside
let's also cook some of the inside, the eye.
You can actually see the dry-aging process,
they don't always trim it away.
- [Matthew] That's crazy, that's like jerky right here.
You're smelling the room that you were just in, alright.
that is prevalent right there.
It almost reminds me of, like, an egg yolk.
Interesting.
It's so dense.
There's a creaminess to it.
Yeah, it's, wow.
Now that's the extreme, right,
because that is the absolute edge.
We're now gonna eat from the eye
and let's see how much of that flavor permeated in.
- [Matthew] It's perfect.
That was steakhouse quality steak.
They nailed everything.
Maybe one of the best bites I've had at aKorean barbecue.
Are you just gonna eat that?
It's dry-aged beef, why wouldn't you eat this?
I just got peer pressured.
You can taste the age, taste the beef.
I like it but I think it actually
gets way more flavor when you grill it.
A hanger steak is a great steak.
You don't get super thinly shaved pieces
like Chadolbegi or something.
They are just mini steaks.
You see that even bronzing? The Maillard reaction.
That's right, the Malliard reaction,
basically the protein's been converted.
That's what gives beef that flavor that we really crave.
Is it too hot? Oh.
Perfectly cooked. Wow.
I like that texture.
I like the differentiation, it's just satisfying.
And it gives you great flavor.
This is kkaennip, so this is a Korean perilla leaf.
It looks almost like a shiso leaf.
Look at the juices that are coming out of this.
That's incredible.
This is ssamjang.
Everyone makes it a little different but at it's core,
it's fermented soybean paste.
This is a scallion salad.
Should I be using my chopsticks?
No, this is hand food right here.
It's so wonderful when it works in concert together.
This is chuck flap.
This is imperial beef.
It's a wagyu.
I believe it's a hybrid, so they cross a true Japanese breed
with like a black angus.
Oh yeah, this is cooking really fast.
So much more tender, it melts away in your mouth.
The fat is nice and complimentary.
It doesn't have too much funk.
Obviously you wouldn't generally drink red wine
with a Korean barbecue.
Why not?
I think you totally can.
When you're at a place that's this nice,
you can break through that and not have to get soju.
Cheers.
So this is galbi.
You have the richness of sesame oil and you have some
savoriness from soy sauce.
And then you get the sweetness from either sugar
or sometimes they use Coke. Coca-cola?
Yep, and then they put garlic in here.
There's a bunch of aromatics and different flavoring.
Very sweet smelling.
That's great.
This is certainly one of the
best quality galbi pieces I've had.
You think a piece of kimchi on here would be good?
Delicious.
I don't what else you could need on this
Gentlemen, I'm sorry to interrupt.
Oh, hold on a second, I think we may have found something.
So this is a pretty special cut
120 day dry-aged sirloin
Wait, this is older than your restaurant!
(laughs)
The texture on this is much firmer.
You can feel the strength of it.
It's gonna be tender though, I guarantee you.
Givin' off so much smoke.
It will cook differently because it has much less moisture
Look how it didn't even brown up.
No, but you can feel that it's just heavy.
Yes, you're right, it has a density.
That is unbelievable!
That's like beef cheese.
The funk is on every bite.
I think kimchi, that's genius 'cause
there was an acidity to kimchi
Kimchi has a freshness, a crunch, acidity.
And a spice to it.
Totally balances it out.
It's almost like, when you have fruit with cheese,
you need those counterpoints.
This is a Korean barbecue destination, instantly.
No doubt.
It's also a carnivore's destination.
I'm gonna stop talking.
I want to eat all this, so
Thank you so much for watching,
and if you want to see more of K town,
click right here.
We're just using modern techniques we have from
training here in New York City, French or Italian
you can still apply.