Kim Chic

Small crabs in their shells in a red pickling sauce recall an AWOL Jude Law eating live little crabs in Cold Mountain. “I don’t think so,” I say.

“Good call.”

We load up on beer — Sapporo. “Is it okay if we don’t get Korean beer?” they ask, and we head back to the house.

there, we split up into two factions: Betty Kim is in the kitchen, where she boils water for the noodles and makes rice. Laura Kim starts the barbecue in the back yard. While the coals burn down, we unpack our booty, arranging on the Kims’ large dining-room table the assorted side dishes (silvery, dried, seasoned anchovy; chewy, dried, pickled squid; slightly sweet black beans in soy sauce; pungent black sesame leaves; the savory lotus root; the greener crunchy cukes, and some hotter, sweeter and more-pickled ones). Despite the clutter of many boxes, it doesn’t look like a whole lot of food — especially since friends, having heard of a pending feast, have begun drifting in.

In the back yard, the coals in the Weber are soon ready, and the barbecue grill is covered in aluminum foil with a few holes pierced in it. (The foil allows the meat to cook in its juices.) The galbi is prepared in two big, sputtering batches. Meanwhile, Betty has warmed the mung pancakes and fried-fish fillets and doctored the red-pepper sauce with sugar and vinegar to accompany them. She has boiled the fresh rice noodles, and warmed the black-bean sauce in the microwave. When the big vegetable-and-meat-filled bun dumplings come out of the oven, she sets out a ponzu (soy and citrus) sauce to accompany them.

The bibimbap, now referred to by all as “your garbage salad,” is tossed with rice and its red dressing — and, yes, I do like it far better than the egg-topped, overly busy, fast-food version I’d had previously.

Eight or nine of us gather at the table and dig in. As it turns out, there is more than enough of everything. The side dishes are so intense in flavor, one eats just a small amount of them, and we actually wind up with lots of leftovers.

Karen, a Korean-American friend of the Kim sisters, allows that the food is “actually pretty good.” The best Korean food, she admits, is her mother’s. The Kim sisters agree that homemade is probably better, but also point out that there is much more variety possible with pre-made foods. The various dishes — buns, pancakes, pickles, short ribs — can each be so time-consuming to prepare, you’d only have a few of them at any homemade meal — maybe four or five side dishes and a soup.

Dessert is simple: Two juicy, refreshing Asian pears are cut up and passed around. “Koreans don’t usually have dessert,” says Laura Kim. “Just fruit, like this.” But we also have the coconut-covered dduk, which makes the rounds to general approbation: a pleasant variation, we agree, on the Hostess Snowball.

One guest surveys the table with obvious satisfaction. “I always shop at the HK Market in Glendale for produce and stuff,” he says. “But I never bought any Korean food because I had no idea what to get. But now I do.”

Exactly. And we have the Kim sisters to thank for that.

Shopping List

Bao-style dumplings stuffed with vegetables and meat

Ponzu sauce

Mung pancakes (bindaedduk)

Cooked fish fillet (jun)

Red-pepper sauce

Bibimbap salad

Black-bean sauce, rice noodles (fresh or dried)

Beef kalbi or galbi, pre-marinated beef short ribs

Rice

Three or more assorted prepared side dishes, which may include:

Marinated dry squid (o jing e chae)

Marinated dry anchovy (medrutchee or myulchibokum)

Black beans in soy sauce (kong jang)

Lotus root in soy sauce

Pickled radishes (mal uh mu che and jjan ji muchim)

Seasoned dry radish (mul mah lang)

Marinated garlic stem (manulchong)

Pickled cucumber (oimuchim)

Kimchi (pickled napa cabbage)

Yulum kimchi (young napa cabbage or put be chu kimchi)

To Do

Cook 1 to 2 cups (dry) rice, white or brown.

For the short ribs (kalbi): Approximately 1/2 pound per person. Barbecue or broil until done to taste. If you barbecue, cover grill in tin foil and prick holes in the foil every six inches or so — this allows smoke and heat in while the meat cooks in its juices.

For noodles with black-bean sauce: Boil rice noodles according to package directions. Heat black-bean sauce (in microwave or on stove top). Toss together or serve separately.

For the pancakes and fish fillets: Warm them and serve with red-pepper sauce seasoned to taste; try 1/4 cup of red-pepper sauce with a dash or two of white vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and adjust as desired.

For bibimbap salad: Toss contents of package with 1/2 to 1 cup of cooked rice and the carton of dressing. If desired, top with an egg fried over easy.

Set out all side dishes banquet-style — and enjoy.