Cooking with Korean Cowboy
Janet and Sam Lee are having fun working 18-hour days at their pub at Yonge and Eglinton
I’m in the kitchen at Korean Cowboy, trying to stay small and still between the gas stove and prep counter, watching Janet Lee prepare Korean bar food. First up, is my order for Cheesy Spicy Rice Cakes. Lee takes a small saucepan and fills it with thumbsize pieces of rice cake, a handful of chopped vegetables and a goodly amount of spicy gochujang sauce.
In just minutes, it’s bubbling and begging to be plated.
I blink and miss Lee sprinkling the dish with grated cheddar that quickly melts, taming the bright red sauce into a muted orange.
It’s cheesy and spicy, all right. Also chewy and captivating.
It constantly amazes me how small most restaurant kitchens are — and how quickly chefs pull together a dish once the prep is done. (In this case, the sauce is in a squirt bottle, the vegetables are chopped and mixed, and the rice cakes are soaking in water to keep them tender.)
Janet’s husband, Sam Lee, provides running commentary while she quietly cooks.
Sam has a special place in my food heart for having a Korean restaurant that I can safely eat at with my shellfish allergy.
At Bi Bim Bap, the couple’s Eglinton Ave. W. restaurant, the kimchi is free of fermented shrimp paste. They used to make it with fish sauce, but have moved on to a vegetarian version that works with shiro miso paste.
Bi Bim Bap is now pork-free, fish-free, shellfish-free, nut-free and celiac-friendly. It’s also free of MSG, since that reviled flavour enhancer gives Sam chest pains.
Korean Cowboy, on Yonge just north of Eglinton, does serve squid and whelks, which I may or may not be allergic to. But I don’t want to find out, and the Lees are so allergy conscious that I trust them not to cross-contaminate.
I met Sam years ago when he came to a Mississauga butcher shop to translate for the Korean owners. Sam moved to Canada from South Korea when he was 9 and grew up with “mostly Canadian friends.” But the older he gets, the more he “gets into” his “Korean roots.”
That’s partly due to Janet, a self-taught cook who lived in South Korea until they met and married 15 years ago.
The couple started Bi Bim Bap Korean Stone Bowl Riceteria five years ago, after test-driving the restaurant world with an American Philly cheesesteak franchise.
They opened Korean Cowboy in September in a 100-seat, 16-television space that had been a sports bar and grill. There’s a demolition clause in the lease, meaning that two years from now they can be served with six months notice, but they’re not fussed about the future.
“Janet and I always talk about different concepts we want to do and this was one of them,” says Sam. “I just wanted a good Western bar straight from Korea.”
Korean bar cuisine is “something kind of difficult to bring to the Western side,” but the Lees are having fun trying. Half the menu is straight out of South Korea, the other half is “made in Canada” creations.
There are lots of “anju” or small dishes to share while drinking (preferably Sapporo, Asahi Black beer or soju). There are a few bigger “sharing dishes” such as tacos, ssam lettuce wraps and Korean wings.
Don’t miss the fried spaghetti. It’s deep-fried, dried (not cooked) spaghettini sprinkled with salt and sugar, and served upright in a tall glass. It’s instantly addictive.
“The best reactions are from Italian people who say ‘I’m Italian and I’ve never had pasta like this before — and it’s good,’ ” recounts Sam with a chuckle. The hotdog stir-fry calls out to me. It takes Janet mere minutes to serve me the spaghetti and hotdog dishes. Without breaking a sweat, she also whips up green tea-infused pork with pickled radish rounds for wrapping, and a trio of ssam lettuce wraps — beef, chicken and pork belly.
“I find people like to order stuff they think is weird and gross,” observes Sam. “And they like it even better if we surprise them with a little bit of flavour.”
Sam feels Toronto’s Korean restaurant scene “is on the verge of change” as traditional restaurants with massive menus fade away and smaller, specialty spots serving things like bar food, fried chicken and tofu stew become more popular.
One final thing to note about the Lees. They make a point of hiring university and foreign students, even if it means replacing them when they invariably move on.
“I love the kids — they work hard,” says Janet. “We have fun with each other.”
And fun is what life should be all about, right?
“We work 18-hour days,” says Sam, “and we’re still laughing when we go home.”