It's a long, long way from Garden Grove to New York's Lower East Side, but Young Ja Chun's kim chi had made the trip and was featured by The New York Times in a short but sweet article.
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The product, called Mother-in-Law's Kim Chi, was part of an
International Pickle Festival held there, and was apparently a hit. On
the origins of its name, The Old Gray Lady said:
MIL stands for mother-in-law. According to Korean custom, the mother of
a bride-to-be tries to impress the intended groom with her culinary
skills, which presumably have been passed on to her daughter.
What's the Garden Grove connection? Young Ja Chun is the owner of Jang Mo Gip,
the sullungtang joint I reviewed a few months ago, a restaurant from
which the term “hole-in-the-wall” seemed to be coined. And I've
tasted their kim chi. It is indeed wonderful, and free if you order a
bowl of their excellent sullungtang!
Most importantly, you don't have to go to some pickle festival in New York to taste it!
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.