Korean-Mexican Fusion food of AWESOME.

May 01, 2011

Korean-Mexican Fusion food of AWESOME.

My hometown Portland, Oregon is famous for embracing and celebrating weirdness, and of course that extends to its cuisine. A recent development from Portland's food carts is Korean-Mexican fusion, which I heard about from my friend Arika (of Mega Geeks, Inc.). The minute I heard the phrase "Kimchi Quesadilla" I knew I had to try my hand at it.

My friends in Sendai have been doing what we call Drinking-Baking Parties. It's just what it sounds like, lots of people crammed into a little Japanese apartment cooking while drunk. So much fun! It was my turn to host this time and I had already converted everyone to my Korean-Mexican theme, so we drank lots of makori (Korean Sake) and mixed all kinds of stuff together.

As you can see, alcohol is always the main ingredient.

The first thing I made was the Kimchi Quesadilla. I used white cheddar cheese from New Zealand (vastly over-priced at the import store, but pretty tasty), kimchi, and green onions. For those who like it spicy, we also spread kochijan on top (a spicy red Korean sauce, also used for Bibimbap).

Kimchi Quesadilla- try it, it's amazing!

Next up we made a bunch of Bulgogi Tacos. For those unfamiliar with Korean BBQ, bulgogi is thinly cut, marinated beef. I sauteed it with caramalized onions and fresh garlic, and simmered for a while with a red wine. You could also skip the wine and simmer with Korean BBQ sauce, which I added later.

I thought it would be fun if everyone could experiment with building their own tacos, so I placed various ingredients on the table to mix together. There was shredded cabbage and lettuce, bean sprouts, cheese, green onions, mayo and kochijan. My recommendation is all of the above, with lots of bulgogi. Delicious!

Also, my friends made: ground-pork nachos, tuna and avocado salad, and Korean cucumber salad. Everything was amazing! I wish I could eat like that everyday...