Black Cod in Red Sauce at KangNam

I was glad to finally make it to KangNam on Olympic at the western edge of Koreatown. They have a wide and varied menu with BBQ and sushi, but seem to specialize in home-style dishes. It's sort of a less funky version of the food at Seongbukdong.

The fried oyster pancakes had a nice oyster flavor but were a bit too doughy; I would have liked to see a lower oyster to dough ratio. The boiled short rib is actually braised and served in a sweet jus with apples, cherries and chestnuts. The meat was tender, but the sauce was a bit thin. The KangNam version only made me yearn for the bolder braised kalbi at Seongbukdong.

But the spicy boiled black cod with mixed vegetables was a home run. The dish is a braised code with scallions, rice cake, tofu, daikon and assorted vegetables in a thick Korean chili paste braising sauce. The cod itself was cooked perfectly, maintaining its buttery texture while soaking up the spice from the sauce. The assorted accompaniments added a wide variety of textures and the sauce was sippable by the spoonful.

They also do a good, somewhat spicy chapchae (the ubiquitous Korean noodle dish that we always order for the kids).


KangNam
4103 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 937-1070

"Prison Cheese" Proves Growing Problem for Correctional Authorities

Monitoring and policing the nearly 200,000 inmates in California prisons has long been a challenge for authorities. Officials constantly struggle with controlling contraband such as drugs and weapons, but now they face a new challenge: a rise in "prison cheese." Department of Corrections Media Relations Director Byron Hadley explains:

"For years we had problems with pruno, a fermented wine-type beverage that inmates would make in their toilets with fruit from the dining halls. Gradually, some inmates switched from produce to dairy, and now we increasingly have inmates producing cheese in these same cell block toilets."

Referred to by inmates as "milk rot," this homemade cheese has led to an increase in black market activity both in cheeses and cheese making supplies. Last month, a group of guards at Pelican Bay was arrested as part of black market ring that sold rennet tablets to inmates.

The problem has become so widespread in the system that different prisons are associated with different types of cheese. Ig Jenkins, director of the Department's new Contraband Cheese Task Force (CCTF), explains, "When we recover a cache of illegal cheese, we can tell where it comes from, which gives us clues to the lines of operation between different prisons in the system. For instance, Corcoron is a big cheddar producer. Solano is only a stone's throw from all of those Sonoma County goat farms, so if we see a chevre, we know there is a 95% chance it originated there."

But California's most notorious prison is also its most notorious source of contraband. According to Jenkins, "Pelican Bay is a cesspool of illegal cheese. I've seen everything you can think of come out of there, epoisse, livarot, guryere, ricotta salata, even feta."

The CCTF is up against great odds, but Jenkins believes the Task Force's approach needs to use a carrot as well as a stick.

"We can bust hundreds of illegal milk rot mongers, but until we give inmates an option beyond USDA Loaf Cheese in the dining halls, we're going to have to deal with this problem."

Passion Play

It's rare to find passion fruit in LA farmers' markets, but last Sunday I found a great batch of them at the Hollywood market. They are at the stand with yellow crates that sells mostly avocados, on Ivar, just north of the Selma intersection on the west side of the street.

Not only did they have that trademark, deep passion fruit flavor, but they actually had some sweetness to them (passion fruit tends to be quite tart). I have no idea if they will be around this Sunday, but if they are, I'm getting more.

Whiskey Wednesday; Waxing Eloquent About Maker's Mark

For many years, the only name in premium Bourbon was Maker's Mark. In fact, Maker's did much to invent the premium category. Founded in 1953 by Bill Samuels, Maker's Mark bottled its wheated recipe Bourbon in a distinct bottle with a red wax seal and spelled its product "whisky", like the Scots do. In 1981, Samuels sold his distillery to Hiram Walker, which sold it to Allied-Lyons/Allied Domecq, which subsequently sold it to Fortune Brands/Jim Beam, the current owner.

Unlike nearly every other distillery, for years, Maker's had only one standard bottling, the familiar square bottle, red wax Maker's Mark. They would sometimes change the wax color to various team colors, but the juice inside was always the same. The only exceptions were a few very limited edition versions bottled at higher proofs or using slightly older whiskeys, such as the gold wax and black wax versions made largely for export markets. For the most part, Maker's was Maker's, until now.

This year, for the first time, Maker's released an entirely new expression that will be a regular bottling. Maker's Mark 46 is made by taking regular Maker's and finishing it in barrels with seared French Oak staves. That is, it is given additional ageing with some fresh oak pieces. And the name "46" is not, as has been often assumed, the abv, though the 46 is a bit higher proof than the traditional Maker's.

Since I've never formally reviewed the traditional Maker's Mark, I'll take this opportunity to review both and compare.


Maker's Mark, 45% abv ($20)

Like many, I feel a strong connection to the standard Maker's, as it was one of the first Bourbons I really appreciated. Long before I was blogging and buying limited edition whiskeys, I was sipping Maker's (on the rocks) with fish curries at the old Broadway Thai. (Bourbon actually goes remarkably well with Thai food, which may be the subject of some future post).

The Maker's nose is...Maker's. It's rock candy. The palate is sweet but with some citrus and the typical, savory wheat notes. The finish may be the best part, a sweet Bourbon finale. It's not complex or intriguing, but it is what it is, and that is a very drinkable wheated Bourbon.


Maker's Mark 46, 47% abv ($32)

The nose is strong with maple syrup, so much so that it reminds me of a Canadian; eventually, that dissipates to a more familiar corny Bourbon nose. The palate is rich and savory with plenty of oak. The additional oak notes make it thicker, chewier and more complex than the standard Maker's, but still with noticeable wheat notes lasting into a very pleasant finish.

The new Maker's is a definite step up from the standard version, adding complexity and heft. If you are a Maker's fan, you should definitely try it.

More than Bread: Qing Dao Bread Food

In my endless quest for great dumplings, especially in the wake of Dumpling Master's closure, I have been scouring the San Gabriel Valley for great dumplings. My latest stop was the Qing Dao Bread Food, which specializes in dumplings and buns.

Overall, the buns an dumplings here were a bit uneven, though the good things were very good. Boiled lamb dumplings were fantastic, with a great well-seasoned lamb filling (indeed, better than those I used to get at Dumpling Master). The fried dumplings were a bit too doughy for me and the other bread heavy buns were pretty unexciting. There was a traditional, but well done pork bao, but for some reason, it's only on the menu in Chinese. Look for it directly under the pork with cabbage on the "Fried Stuffed Dumpling" portion of the menu.

My favorite dish, though, was the noodle soup listed as "pork chop with mustard greens." They nailed every element here, soup, meat and noodle. It was a dark, porky broth with chewy, handmade noodles. The chunks of pork chop, marinated in a sweet soy glaze, were fall off the bone tender. I slurped up all the broth I could and delighted in the varying textures of noodle and pork. Great stuff. This was definitely the best dish of the meal, and the kind of thing I will be craving for a long time.

Between the soup and the lamb dumplings, Qing Dao will be a definite return trip and I will want to try more of their boiled dumplings, but next trip, I'll stay away from the buns and fried dumplings.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 N. Garfield Ave. #G
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 312-6978

Taiwanese Iron Eggs

My brother, ever cognizant of my desire to try exciting new dishes, recently returned from Taiwan with something I hadn't seen before: iron eggs. Iron eggs are a Taiwanese delicacy from the Danshui area of Taipei. They are quail eggs (I think) which have been marinated in a sweet soy glaze and dried. Through the process, they turn jet-black and shrink to the size of small, black olives. They are a snack for tea, so we brewed up some of the best tea I had on hand, and gave them a whirl.

The whites (or blacks, really) of these eggs were pretty rubbery, but the yolks had the texture of deviled egg yolks, and retained a lot of good sweet-soy flavor. These salty little numbers would make an excellent bar snack, much more fun than a bowl of peanuts.

Butchering the Pig

How did I miss this?

One of Mozza2Go's classes for their "scuola di pizza" was entitled "Introduction to Pig Butchery" and included this great description:

Join Mozza Chef Chad Colby as he demonstrates how to utilize a whole pig and turn it into a meal.

Yes, for only $150, I could have learned how to butcher a whole pig. Now granted, this is not the most practical of classes for the lay-cook. I mean, the closest I ever come to a whole pig is at the LA County Fair, but it just seems so cool.

If anyone has taken the class, please chime in. I'd love to hear about it and to know what you did with the snout.