Hallo, my name in Indigo Montoya.. Wait, that isn’t right.. I guess I should have given away Girl Scout cookies, because only one person took a stab at my questions and they didn’t get a single one right! Oh well, at least I know that next time Thin Mints are the way to your hearts. That said, I should probably finally introduce myself to you dear readers as you have been so patient over the last few months. Hi, my name is Laura, I live in Columbus Ohio and I am the chef/owner of Ajumama- a Korean street food truck that will be hitting the fair roads of my beloved Midwest city in late April. We aren’t going the taco route, we have PLENTY of taco trucks here in Columbus, in fact, there was a mention on Serious Eats about them. http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/12/best-tacos-in-columbus-ohio-trucks.html That said, the last thing we need here is another thing wrapped in a corn tortilla. What we don’t have is a lot of kimbop, dukkboki, or hoedukk. We have some wonderful Korean restaurants th...

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth and yes, I know it has been awhile. To be honest, there really wasn’t a lot going on at the beginning of February so I was really wracking my brain to figure what to talk about. I also took on a private catering job that consumed all of my resources for about a week and I wound up with a lousy cold. Not a very good excuse I know, but I got sick on a Tuesday and by Thursday afternoon (after consuming insane amounts of vitamin c, d, raw garlic, and of course, kimchi) I was starting to feel human. Almost human enough that if I could just get to bed early on Thursday night I would be ready to write on Friday. Sometimes life throws you a curveball, and that Thursday I got one that I knew would be coming but they still surprise you regardless. An hour before I got home from my part time job, my grandfather passed away at age 96 in Seoul. His health had been declining, particularly the last couple of years but needless to say it was still news we...

People often ask me when why I am working so hard to perfect my Korean food recipes if I’m using family recipes.  They seem surprised when I tell them “No”. Don’t get me wrong, I wish I was using family recipes; it would have made the last three months a lot easier.  Unfortunately my halmoni (grandmother) passed away 6 years ago and my aunts are too far away for me to be able to learn much of anything. Everything I’ve learned about Korean food I’ve had to learn the hard way; research, books and eating. Okay, so the eating wasn’t that hard and I get to pretend I’m Dae Jang Geum (A famous Korean drama about a cook in the royal palace that used food to find love and save a kingdom).  Also O’ngo Culinary School has been invaluable for research for when I took classes and the night dining tours when I was in Seoul. (Yes, shameless plug but I owe them a lot!) Most of my recipes I’ve created are a memory of a dish that I have tasted.  How? The tasting skills made famous by Dae Jang-Geum aren...

Two hours of my life I am never getting back.  Before we get to that story, I feel as though I should explain my absence for the last couple of weeks. Unlike Korea, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are a big deal here in the states and this year there was even a bonus. Since the holidays fell on a Sunday, well we picked up Monday as the “observed day” and everyone got a three day weekend!  This would be awesome except I’ve been waiting on my filing from the secretary of state so I could call the IRS so I can get a bank account set up, etc.  Now, with the three day weekend I was waiting longer than expected for the filing since Monday was the holiday and we all know what happens when we take a three day weekend: the work piles up and with everyone basically treating the Friday before New Year’s as a half day. So there are actually only 3.5 working days between December 23rd and January the 3rd. Yippee for everyone except for me. So I basically gave up on getting anything major done...