Tasting Menus with Fewer Pretensions

choi

Be Careful, Nytimes.com allows a non-subscriber only one free view a month at most.

Brett Anderson, Tasting Menus with Fewer Pretensions. New York Times, Sept 7, 2022, at page D7 (every Wednesday, section D is Food section)/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/ ... us-fine-dining.html

Note:
(a) The herald for this article appears in most (from top of page down) portion of page D1, which stated (with a huge photo of dishes), "The New Tasting Menu Is Your Friend;A rising generation pf chefs is taking the once=stuffy dining tradition and making it more affordable, more approachable and more fun. BY BRETT ANDERSON | PAGES 7-8[.]"
(b) Mainly I was hooked by (large) photos about a few dishes. I did not read the article, only to read about the (South) Korean couple to see if the text about them said more about Korean food featured in the article -- it did not.

—---------text
When Peter Cho and Sun Young Park moved from New York City to Portland, Ore, in 2015, they were looking to create a family-friendly alternative to the grind of restaurant life as they knew it. With little money to spend, they took over a residential space and converted it into a restaurant, Han Oak, as well as their home.

The couple took inspiration from Beast, Naomi Pomeroy's now-closed restaurant across town, as an example of a tasting menu offered in a casual setting. In the beginning, Han Oak was open only two nights a week. With the family's apartment just a few steps from the kitchen, "we could literally parent while we worked," Mr Cho said.

Han Oak's $55, five-course menu of dumplings, noodles and Korean fried chicken attracted national acclaim. Its hours expanded to four nights a week, and the menu changed. The family moved into a different home around the start of the pandemic, which prompted them to temporarily close Han Oak.

Last year, Mr Cho and Ms Park opened Toki, in downtown Portland, with an à la carte menu filled with dishes road-tested at Han Oak. When Han Oak finally reopened in February, it did so with a new, hot-pot themed tasting menu that has already evolved.

"I see this as more of an event space where we can try new concepts," Mr Cho said of Han Oak. "With a tasting menu, we know we're going to be serving a certain amount of people. It's more like catering."
—--------------------------------   
(i) How-To: Pork & Chive Dumplings with Han Oak. Schoolhouse,com, undated (whose photo showed the Korean couple were making 餃子)
https://www.schoolhouse.com/blog ... plings-with-han-oak
("How did you land on the name Han Oak?
Peter: My mom came up with our name. Han Oak translates to 'a traditional Korean home.' She said the name suited us because the restaurant is, in fact, a Korean home. We liked the play on the word as we were as un-traditional as a Korean home gets"
(ii) hanok
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanok
("A hanok (Korean: 한옥, 韓屋) is a traditional Korean house")

ㅎ h
ㅏ a
ㄴ n

ㅗ o (But what about the circle or oval over the vowel o?  A placeholder, it will be explained in a follow-up posting, titled Hangul.)
ㄱ k
(iii) The preceding Wiki page contains caption of a drawing in the right margin says, "Giwa (기와) drawn by Danwon."
(A) Roof tile in Korean can be written as 기와 (giwa) or simply 와 (wa). The 질 does not have a corresponding hanja 漢字 and means potter's clay-- or clay used by potter. Per Wiktionary.
(B) Danwon 檀園 is one of and the major "号" (according to ja.wikipedia.org; en.wikipedia.org does not explain why he had other names) of 金弘道 (1745 - 没年不詳 (again per ja.wikipedia.org); Korean).
(iv)
(A) Two years after Han Oak was closed, the couple opened Toki (whose name is not explained anywhere in the Web; Google Street View shows restaurant front with an English sign only) in a separate Portland location. This past August, the Korean couple used Han Oak name and place for reserved seating (seating is an uncountable noun) for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays only.
(B) I try harder to elucidate Toki. Santoki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santoki

Still toki is not a Korean word. Finally Google Translate says it is tokki 토끼.
ㅌ t
ㅗ o

ㄲ kk (which is a double consonant (see the next posting titled hangul etc); another consonant ㅋ is k)
ㅣ i

(v)
(A) The photo Korean barbeque is caption, in print, with "Above [referencing the opto above the caption], the current tasting menu at Han Oak in Portland, Ore, which features ssam Korean barbeque."
(B) ssam  쌈
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

ㅆ ss  (in contrast to another constant ㅅ s)
ㅁ m

Take a closer look at the photo mentioned above. At the 4 o'clock you see big-leaf vegetable to wrap bbq meat, so the NYT caption is wrong. Ssam is a wrap.
(C) Korean barbecue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_barbecue
(고기구이 gogi-gu-i meat roast)

고기 gogi   meat

choi

The herald (at page D1) for this restaurant review is a huge photo
[The attached photo at the bottom is meant to be here]
, of which the top photo of the ONLINE article shows a portion only -- but a lot of details.


In print but not online are pointers with explanations.

The top-left with reds: "It's a Party[:] Dinner at Her Place Supper Club in Philadelphia is often served family style, with dishes like fried soft-shelled crab with Caesar aioli.

The one below with black caviar: "Still a Splurge[:] Caviar-topped fried sweetbreads keep a special-occasion feel.

The dish in the center of the photo: "Familiar but Surprising[:] Poached shrimp and charred cucumbers with herbs over homemade ranch dressing."

To the southwest of the center dish is: "For the Table[:] With all the dishes for two persons, the pork chop with peaches is sliced [to divide] for sharing."

In the left lower corner: "In Season[:] This summer spread had to have corn on the cob, with garlic butter and herbs."

In the right lower corner: "Keep It Local[:] Tomato and stone fruits salad comes with speck and a 'schmear' from nearby Perrystead Dairy."

Atop it: "Smart Service[:] A set number of platings makes the cost of dishes like lobster pain perdu easier to manage."

The right upper corner: "Come to Play[:] 'Sandwiches' made with corn ice cream and olive oil cake are an example of the whimsical approach of its chef and owner, Amanda Shulman."

Below it is: "Creative Comfort[:] The layered eggplant Parmigiano is made ahead and served sliced like a terrine."

(A) aioli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aioli
(B) compound (linguistics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_(linguistics)
(For some compounds: "its meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts")
(C) sweetbread
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetbread
(thymus or pancreas)

It is said that thymus (somehow) tastes sweeter than muscle (or meat). From biological point of view, it should not (taste sweet) and is of no nutrition: Like lung, kidney, liver, thymus or pancreas are all cells; no protein unlike muscle (liver does contain some vitamins, which are not needed if one is omnivorous).
(D) schmear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmear
("In some Germanic languages, the cognate of [English noun] smear itself means butter")

That is to say, schmear is a Germanic word that shares the same ancestry as English noun smear.
(E) French toast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_toast
("The usual French name is pain perdu 'lost bread,' reflecting its use of stale or otherwise 'lost' bread")

French-English dictionary:
* perdu (masculine; feminine perdue): "past participle of perdre"  
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perdu
   ^ On the other hand, Perdue is a surname "English and Irish (of Norman and French origin): nickname From Old French par dieu by God"  Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford Uni Press.
* perdre (v; from Latin verb perdere to lose): "to lose"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perdre
* bain (noun masculine): "bath"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bain
(F) terrine
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrine
("in traditional French cuisine, is a loaf of forcemeat * * * similar to a pâté, that is cooked in a covered pottery mold (also called a terrine) in a bain-marie [bain is defined in (E); Marie was an alchemist, not mother of Jesus]")
is a French word (which Wiktionary says is from Latin noun feminine terra).

Forcemeat "is a uniform mixture * * * The result [mixture] may either be smooth or coarse."  en.wikipedia.org for forcemeat. However this Wiki page does not say what it is, or why it is so called.

Danilo Alfaro, Forcemeat: A Key Component of Sausage-Making. The Spruce Eats, updated on Aug 31, 2019
https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-forcemeat-995684
("Forcemeat is a combination of meat, fat, seasonings and other ingredients that are blended together through grinding or puréeing to form an emulsion.  Forcemeat is used as the main ingredient in making sausages, pâtés, terrines, galantines and other charcuterie items. Basically, it's the filling. And it's named because in making sausages, the filling is forced into the casing")