- We're outside of this really cool restaurant in Toronto
called Uncle Mikey's
and the chef, Michael
is formally trained in French food
and yet, when he was gonna open his first restaurant
about a year ago
he was like, I just wanna make stuff
that I would cook for my friends at my house.
So what's on the menu?
Steak tartare, Parisian gnocchi covered with oxtail
that's been cooked with doenjang,
you're getting breakfast radishes
that are covered with seaweed butter
or you're having thin cut French steak
but with Korean ssam.
It's everything that you would want to eat
at your neighborhood spot.
Very casual, it's very fun
and it's very approachable.
You guys opened here in like, almost--
it's almost a year anniversary.
- Almost a year, yeah.
- Yeah, and so how did you come up with this concept
- I trained in classic French cooking
and came back.
I thought I would never be ready
so I might as well just open something.
When I was coming up with the menu
I thought that it would be more French.
I just found that everything
that came out just kind of organically
just naturally, had more Korean tendencies to it.
I was just looking for interesting flavors to add to it
but the only thing I could think of
was gochujang and kkaennip
because that's what I like.
I love the combination of spicy gochujang
and kkaennip.
It's got congac in it.
It's got raw egg yolk.
But it also has, you know, gochujang.
- I don't think anyone has ever used cognac,
and kkaennip and gochujang together.
That's pretty awesome.
- I would cook for friends
just on occasion
and this is very the style
that I would cook for them.
- I think that's badass.
I think that's ultimately the best kind of cooking.
You know, you're just cooking for your buddies at home.
- Yeah.
- And this just happens to be open to the public.
I mean it feels like I'm hanging out
in like your attic
or your loft.
Gonna start off with some radishes.
This is super fresh, you just get basic radishes
and you dip them in butter with salt
and it's so simple.
The kicker here, is that Chef Mike is dusting
instead of just salt
he's dusting the butter with some like dried seaweed.
And it's nice cause it adds
a different depth of flavor than just salt.
And it's a nice refreshing way to start the meal.
Salt, fat, and crunch
the fundamentals of a tasty snack.
You know, it's kind of --
that's what banchan is.
If you think about it, right?
You have all these crunchy, fresh things
that really excite your palate
and get you ready to have more.
I know that it seems like these little pillows
of awesomeness are Italian
and gnocchi is
but Parisan gnocchi is actually a French dish.
I've never had this with chopsticks though.
This is certainly a little strange.
Parisian gnocchi is it's funny
because gnocchi is already a really humble dish
and it's made with potato usually
but Parisian gnocchi instead
is actually flour and eggs
and just a ridiculous amount of parmesan cheese.
It's very cheesy.
It's basically like eating poutine
but it's already put together
and so it's kind of perfect.
Oxtail.
Generally, you know, I think
with Parisian gnocchi something that's a braised meat
a very stringy type of cut
would totally work with it
And here, it's fantastic.
It's really, really good with the parmesan.
It's so comforting.
It's just like kind of addictive.
You kind of wanna keep eating it
but the underlying doenjang, right,
so doenjang is Korean fermented soybean paste.
It is like the quintessential Korean flavor.
It's basically, like think of miso
but a little more robust.
It rounds out the flavors, alright
it gives it a different depth of flavor.
It sort of sweetens it almost too.
Really good combination of Korean ideas
and cuisine and just a classic French dish.
Oh, that's good.
That's good sake.
It's gonna be a nice compliment
to this beef tartare, steak tartare.
Chef was saying that he,
you know, he was trying to make a version of steak tartare
which is a classic French dish
and yet he kept finding himself
incorporating Korean flavors.
It was just the way that he liked it
and I think that's what
the essence of this restaurant is.
It's dishes that
if you went over to this guy's house
this is what you're gonna get.
Yeah, you get the Korean
julienne radish here as the foil.
This is unmistakably steak tartare
and what different about yukkhoe
is that you almost get these like
longer strips of raw beef
and when you stir it all together
then it becomes kind of this
almost like beef noodle pasta.
But tartare is different.
It's very chopped up.
You want it to be hand chopped with a knife.
This is cool
like this is just very low-key
like Parisian bistro type thing.
Another thing I really like
it's something that you would never see in steak tartare.
If you were to get some heat from it,
like some spice, it would actually be
from like maybe mustard
and this one is like
it's that Korean chile pepper.
That heat is pretty--
it's a nice welcome change
from a classic French version of steak tartare.
I am into this.
This is really good.
I wanna share this, please
take a dab.
Korean barbecue is always going to be
the most recognizable Korean dish
and of course if he's gonna put
something like that on the menu
and yet keep it grounded in this French theme
he's just gonna do steak.
It's a lot of sesame oil.
Let's take a nice piece of lettuce
nice piece of steak,
gochujang,
just kind of building this like it's Korean barbecue.
This looks like garlic?
Oh yeah, that's garlic.
Alright, getting some pickled onions
and some pickled daikon radish.
I mean, I think that this
in some way, is like the very refined way
of having the flavors of Korean barbecue.
It's missing kimchi, right.
It's raw garlic,
spicy yuzu kosho,
gochujang, and pickled onions
these are strong flavors, it's a very aggressive
it's a fat piece of steak
that's been grilled.
It's rib-eye.
It's tender and it's got complexity
in a way that, you know,
even short rib--
I mean short rib is delicious and I love short rib
but it doesn't quite have the tenderness
and the steakness of rib-eye.
I like that he's taking, you know,
a French way of experiencing beef
and literally wrapping it around Korean style.
Throughout the show
I'm constantly going to restaurants
where people may not
you know, people think that Korean food
can only be this stew
or this bowl of rice
or this Korean barbecue can only take this form
and I think that cuisine can always expand
have new borders that it can cross
and this is very much food
that is thoughtful
and comes from a Korean chef
and a Korean palate
but this is what Korean food looks like in Toronto.
So I'm gonna finish eating all this
including the yuzu kosho
and this awesome steak.
Thank you so much for watching K-Town
and if you want to see more of my food adventures
click right here.