Day 14: Duk Bo Sam

The Geek is a very accommodating fellow. We were talking about what to have for dinner tonight and I suggested Duk Bo Sam, mainly because I thought it would make an interesting posting and he grudgingly agreed. Ok, the conversation didn't go quite that way. I said, "I want to have Duk Bo Sam so I can blog about it" and he instantly replied, "Ohhhh! Yes!"

Even if you're Korean, it's possible you have never heard of this dish. It seems to be a fairly new food trend and, as far as I can tell from Google, it is a California thing. I had not heard of it until six months ago but now we love it so much that we eat it at least a couple of times a month. Sometimes we make it at home and sometimes we'll splurge and go to Shik Do Rak, a Korean restaurant that specializes in this dish.

So what is Duk Bo Sam? (Or Timbuktu, as The Geek jokingly calls it since, being a very-white-guy, he had a hard time remembering the name in the beginning.) Duk, pronounced almost like 'thuk,' is a Korean rice cake. It is eaten many different ways: as a kind of thick chewy noodle in soups or as a dessert where it is stuffed with sweetened red bean paste or other fillings. Sam, pronounced 'sahm,' refers to leaf lettuce that you wrap around rice and chili paste.

At New Years, Korean people eat a special duk (made from white rice flour) that is brushed with sesame oil and filled with a sweetened sesame seed paste. If you've ever had that, imagine that rice wrapper laid out in sheets and cut into small rectangles. I haven't been able to find those Korean duk sheets for purchase so we use Vietnamese rice noodles. Wrap that around grilled meat and vegetables like sam. Alternatively you can wrap the meat with thin slices of pickled Korean radish. If you are familiar with Korean cuisine, you're probably thinking this is very similar to how we eat cha dol begi (thinly sliced beef brisket).

Here in southern California, Koreans make a whole meal out of this. At Shik Do Rak the grills are built right into the table and you can order different combinations of meat (angus beef, pork belly, marinated beef ribs, chicken, shrimp) and vegetables (mainly mushrooms and onions). The meat is not seasoned in any way and so you grill it at the table and then dip it in a mixture of sesame oil and salt and if desired, hot chili sauce. The restaurant provides unlimited bahn chahn - bean sprouts, seaweed, fish cakes, and kim chee - as well as a salad of slivered lettuce and green onions, which they refill from carts that the servers push around the dining areas.

This is a very easy feast to make at home. Here's what you need:

• Thinly sliced beef. I buy pre-sliced ribeye from the meat counter at the Korean market (about $4/lb) but you can easily do it at home. Buy a beef roast (anything boneless will work) and freeze it until it is almost frozen solid but still soft enough that you can get a knife through it. You can then run it through a food processor or slice by hand. Be sure you are cutting AGAINST the grain or else your slices will be chewy. Aim for slices that are about 1/8" thick.
• Bacon, if you're into that sort of thing, which The Geek and I are. Cut strips in half.
• Other meat options include chicken cut into bite-sized chunks and peeled shrimp

• Sesame oil
• Salt, table or kosher
• Chili sauce, I like sambal oelek (optional)

• Lettuce and onions (green or white), thinly sliced and tossed into a salad. I like to add purple cabbage for color.
• Vietnamese rice noodles
• Pickled Korean radishes (optional). If you can't find Korean radishes, use daikon. Slice thinly so that they are like round sheets. Pickle according to Andrea Nguyen's do chua recipe. Let sit for an hour or so in the brine before eating. You want the radish slices to soften up enough to be able to wrap around meat without breaking.
• A heat source. I bought an electric indoor grill specifically for this purpose, but you can fry up the meat on the stove in a pinch.
• If you have bahn chahn, great! If not, you won't miss it at all.

To prepare:

1. The meat should be thawed and cut up so that you can put it on the grill right at the table. Alternatively, fry on the stovetop and serve warm.
2. Microwave the rice noodles until soft. Cut into rectangles that are about 2-1/2" by 4" inches.
3. Put about a teaspoon of salt in a little condiment cup (you'll need one for each person) and add a tablespoon or two of sesame oil.

To eat:

1. Pile a bite-sized amount of salad on your plate.
2. Take a piece of cooked meat and dip it in the salt/sesame oil mixture. Place on top of the salad.
3. Put a dab of chili sauce on, if desired.
4. Add bahn chahn, if you have it.
5. Wrap the whole thing in rice paper and/or pickled radish - it should be a perfect mouthful - and pick up and eat.

The Results

For me, the highest praise someone can give my cooking is a spontaneous "Mmm" the instant the food hits their tongue and the flavor registers in their brain. This is a gut reaction, not a conscious one, and most good dishes only garner one "Mmm." This meal always gets at least two or three.

Ratings

• Deliciousness: You'll be amazed
• Difficulty: Super easy
• Time to prepare: Varies. If you buy the meat already sliced and you have pickled radish available, it takes less than 20 minutes to get on the table. But this meal takes a while to eat (similar to fondue) because you are cooking the meat as you eat.
• Prognosis: Definitely a keeper!

My Shopping List

Nothing - I made do with what I had on hand although The Geek supplied the bacon.

The Tally

• The day's tally: $0
• Total this week so far: $0
• Total this month to date: $0

P.S.

• If you're in SoCal, Shik Do Rak has three locations: Garden Grove, Irvine, and Los Angeles. During the week (except holidays), they offer an all-you-can-eat special (about $17/person) which is a great deal if you are a serious carnivore. They also have traditional Korean dishes on the menu. I've only had one of their soups but it was delicious, very authentic.
• As I mentioned, I bought a Sanyo Indoor Electric Grill for this purpose. I like this particular model because it has a large heating surface and at 1300 watts, generates plenty of heat. You can pour water in the bottom to cut down on the smoke. A couple of drawbacks about this model though are that the plastic frame is really cheap and there is no bottom part to the frame. If you try to lift the grill from underneath, the metal pan just lifts up and the whole thing disassembles.
• There are many uses for the thinly-sliced ribeye so I like to buy  it in bulk. I use it in shabu shabu and to make bulgogi (Korean marinated BBQ beef)-Phillysteak sandwiches. Will blog about those two dishes another day. It is also an easy way to add protein to stir-frys and soups.
• Believe it or not, this is a great meal for vegetarians, especially if you have bahn chahn available. The rice noodle wrapper (and the pickled radish) tastes great wrapped around the salad and well-seasoned vegetables.