We challenged Chris Morocco to recreate Maangchi's seafood kimchi fried rice in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. The catch? He’s doing it blindfolded with with only his other senses to guide him.
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00:00Hi, I'm Hannah.
00:01I'm in the BA test kitchen
00:02to have a super secret conversation about Chris Morocco.
00:06Once again,
00:07we're putting Chris's super taster abilities to the test.
00:10This is Mangchi's seafood kimchi fried rice.
00:14I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish
00:17with all of the ingredients in just one day.
00:19He'll be able to taste it, touch it, and smell it,
00:22but at no point will he be able to see this dish.
00:25At the end of the day,
00:26we'll come back to see his final creation
00:29and I'll be the judge.
00:32And,
00:35look like spots.
00:46Huh.
00:47There's something a little like fishy,
00:49a little like squiddy, a little oyster-y,
00:51but like also like bean sprouts.
00:55Just gonna let that hang out in the room.
00:57You all discuss.
00:59Wow, whatever it is, there's a lot of it.
01:01It seems like we've got some bivalve shelves.
01:04I'm gonna probably call this for a mussel.
01:06Wait, more seafood?
01:08But like with a different shape to the shell.
01:10It's like, this feels like more like a clam or a cockle.
01:13Sort of like flattened ellipse kind of thing.
01:16We've got clam.
01:17Or is it a cockle?
01:19Or a manila clam?
01:23Oh my gosh, you know when you can like,
01:25it's like you know the smell
01:27and yet like you can't.
01:29Oh, kimchi.
01:31Oh God, that's good.
01:33Oh, we've got shrimp.
01:34It feels like it was probably seared.
01:37Trying to figure out what these little like,
01:39pops of texture and firmness are.
01:43Oh, sesame seeds.
01:45So now I have like a large diver scallop.
01:48Mm.
01:49Feels like it was probably seared.
01:51Just has a little bit more bite to it.
01:54That doesn't feel like it came from poaching or steaming.
01:59It's like a lot of food here.
02:00Six scallops maybe and counting.
02:03So I think I'm mostly down to rice now.
02:06It's all kind of like joined together.
02:10It's spicy, but it's like very savory.
02:15I mean, I think it's reasonable to think
02:16that there could be some gochujang in here.
02:18Maybe a little bit of soy sauce.
02:20Could be a seafood based stock,
02:24sort of like Korean dashi.
02:26There also is this element over here
02:28that I need to get into.
02:30Oh, it's giving me soy plus citrus
02:34with almost like a horseradish quality to it, like wasabi.
02:38It reads kind of thin,
02:39but there's also like a little bit of texture
02:42as though something were kind of stirred in and dissolved.
02:45Is it like a S&B hot oriental mustard?
02:48All the flavors I'm tasting feel like of a Korean pantry,
02:52that this is like kimchi fried rice with seafood.
02:56Top line is like, it's really good.
03:00So I'm gonna break down some of these components.
03:02You've got mussels.
03:04We're gonna call those cockles or manila clams.
03:08Medium shrimp, sea scallops, short grain white rice.
03:13And then you've got the kimchi as well.
03:15Do I think we need to actually make a seafood broth?
03:20Kombu, salted anchovies, and mustard powder.
03:25But beyond that, I don't know.
03:26I guess we'll see.
03:28This is my list.
03:29Somebody else is gonna shop this for me.
03:31Not riding on any shopping carts today.
03:33Sorry.
03:34Sorry.
03:34["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]
03:46There's not a lot of stuff here.
03:48I didn't even talk about garlic or ginger, did I?
03:51I didn't really taste it,
03:52but looking at this stuff here, it's like, oh yeah.
03:55I wanna get started by making some rice.
03:58I'm looking for rice that is chewy,
04:01nice, pleasantly dense, compact grains.
04:05And I'll make enough for both rounds of testing.
04:09So let's toast off some sesame seeds.
04:11Feel like I was tasting something
04:13bursting with flavor and nuttiness.
04:15And then I think there's some kind of broth
04:17being added to it.
04:18Something, you know, it's like really flavoring the rice.
04:22And to that end, I'm gonna get some kombu soaking.
04:25Korean-style dashi uses dried anchovy
04:27as opposed to katsuobushi.
04:30Ben just popped one for the record.
04:32I mean, that's like off-label use as far as I'm concerned.
04:36It's been a long time, but I do feel like
04:37you normally take out the little black intestinal tract.
04:41You often do take the head off as well.
04:44These are gonna be adding salt, funkiness, and depth.
04:49I don't think I honestly tasted something as intense
04:53as the dried anchovy, but nice to have the option
04:57of using an already fully flavored broth
05:00to thin out our gochujang
05:01and then incorporate into that fried rice mixture.
05:04So maybe we'll chop the kimchi.
05:07I was kind of questioning, okay,
05:08well, is there any additional acid in this dish?
05:10But I think it could very plausibly
05:13only be coming from the kimchi.
05:16Rice is off heat.
05:17I'm just fluffing it, redistribute some of that moisture.
05:21Lids back on for 10 more minutes
05:23just to kind of steam it out.
05:24Our dashi mixture, I think we're good to go here.
05:29Ooh, it's nice.
05:30It just creates this sweetness and roundness
05:33and surprisingly clean.
05:35Gochujang is a Korean fermented chili pepper paste.
05:38It's a one-stop flavor powerhouse.
05:41The question of whether soy sauce belongs in here,
05:45I'm leaning a little bit less
05:47on the notion of it being in there
05:49because there is that finishing drizzle
05:51that would seem to have mustard powder.
05:53There was a little bit of like a saltiness to it.
05:57Ooh, a lot of bitterness there.
05:59So I'm gonna try prepared wasabi.
06:04It's a little bit cleaner, brighter.
06:06We'll do something like that.
06:08Say we're there.
06:09Oil.
06:10It's doing a little pre-salting.
06:14The question is, I mean, are we doing scallops first,
06:18scallops and shrimp together?
06:21Maybe we'll do scallops first and then shrimp.
06:26I don't know.
06:27Where's scallop come from, the word?
06:29Oh, my pronunciation?
06:30Oh, possibly from my grandmother.
06:33Worcester.
06:36Seems like if you're gonna sear a scallop, go for it.
06:39Feels like it was probably seared.
06:41Oh, s***, sorry.
06:43I didn't realize we were going quite that hard.
06:45Hard sear.
06:46Sorry, we'll get them next time.
06:48Doing shrimp now.
06:50I don't know, this is feeling kind of like
06:52almost needlessly fussy.
06:53Two rounds of seafood cooking, then we start our rice.
06:58Love kimchi.
06:59It's also like really cool what happens when you cook it.
07:02Tempers the acidity a little bit,
07:03but brings out a lot of like the sweetness.
07:06About two cups of rice.
07:08Just wanna break it up a little bit.
07:10So I'm just gonna kind of leave that in contact here.
07:12Get that pretty gosh darn crispy.
07:15This is ready.
07:16So manila clams are going in and mussels are in.
07:21Rather save the cockles maybe for the final dish.
07:25The workflow just seems a little weird.
07:28It would be one thing if you were serving from this,
07:30but ultimately it's like whatever you arrange
07:33in the cooking environment,
07:34you kind of have to undo for the sake of plating in a bowl.
07:38We're gonna pop open.
07:40I'm gonna lay our shrimp in.
07:42Scallops.
07:42It's kind of like Korean paella.
07:44So the goal with the liquid now is to reduce down further,
07:48and hopefully that happens in a couple minutes
07:50so we don't overcook anything.
07:52So this is sort of the awkward thing, right?
07:54There's a lot of like manual intervention.
07:57You kind of want the rice on the bottom.
07:59Striking me as like a little bit weird.
08:01It's like a very awkward plate.
08:03So there's our toasted sesame seeds.
08:05It's wasabi.
08:06So this is my first attempt at the dish.
08:10Kimchi paella, or kimchi seafood fried rice.
08:13Ugh.
08:20Ooh, hot ingredients.
08:22I'd give myself 60.
08:24The main things that I feel good about
08:26are the seafood selection, rice, kimchi,
08:29and probably the gochujang after that.
08:32Technique-wise, 60.
08:34Doing the scallops and then the shrimp.
08:37Do they really need to be seared on their own,
08:39or could everything just go into the pot together?
08:44Visually, maybe 80.
08:46The elements feel like they're there.
08:48Flavor-wise, the heat balance actually
08:52seems pretty good to me.
08:53Maybe 70.
08:55Actual scores.
08:57Let's see where we're at.
08:59Ugh.
09:01That's not unexpected ingredient and technique-wise.
09:05I am going to be looking really closely again
09:09at how these ingredients come together.
09:12I don't know.
09:12It's either think less or think more.
09:20Mm.
09:21God, there's something about like,
09:22the way like a scallop in particular smells,
09:25I find very compelling.
09:27Maybe there's no sear happening here.
09:30I'll buy that.
09:31No sear on the scallop.
09:32What about the shrimp?
09:34I think maybe it's that rice mixture
09:36that made it read like the shrimp
09:38would have needed to be seared on its own.
09:41Think I'm feeling good about my seafood selection.
09:44Kinds of aromatics that I would think about
09:46would be onion, scallion, garlic, and ginger.
09:50So it is like a really nice sweetness.
09:53Could be that there's like a little bit of onion.
09:56Feeling for that little layer of sediment
09:58settling in at the bottom.
09:59Is it just a style of prepared mustard?
10:02I thought we had covered our bases
10:04with like a mustard powder,
10:06but is there also like a wasabi powder?
10:09That's just something I just don't know.
10:12All right, second tasting done.
10:13I think I've learned what I can
10:14and time to have my attempt at the last dish.
10:19Never used wasabi powder before.
10:21It has been opened.
10:23So intrigued by the directions
10:25and how you prepare the wasabi
10:27that I'm gonna follow the directions exactly.
10:30All right, we made a paste.
10:32Place container upside down
10:34and wait one minute for maximum spiciness.
10:38Minute timer.
10:39It's building spiciness.
10:41What do you think is happening?
10:43Is it like minimizing oxygen?
10:48Just follow the instructions exactly
10:50and don't change a thing.
10:52Do you use the prepared wasabi with the soy
10:56or just put wasabi powder and soy?
10:59Yeah, it's giving me a little bit
11:01of that like gritty texture.
11:02And then the prepared wasabi.
11:05Maybe there's no difference here.
11:07I'm gonna just go with the prepared one.
11:09One big difference here is aromatics.
11:12For aromatics, what I'm really talking about is onion,
11:15garlic next, ginger.
11:18Aromatics are done.
11:19I used manila clams on my first attempt.
11:22I was feeling more manila on this tasting,
11:24but it would just be such a shame
11:26not to cook off those cockles, you know,
11:27and they're so damn good.
11:29I'm just doing a cup of water.
11:31Cockles and mussels are in.
11:34I'm just looking to cook them
11:36such that I can shuck them open
11:38and then ultimately use this liquid
11:40as the base of our sauce.
11:43So I've got a little onion, ginger, and garlic.
11:46I just wanna get these soft
11:48and I wanna develop their flavor a little bit.
11:50Get our kimchi in.
11:52Just a little bit of like the kimchi juice,
11:54a little bit of brightness.
11:55I'm gonna go with three cups of rice
11:57just so I make sure I have plenty of this mixture.
12:00You're using kind of fresher rice.
12:02This is kind of the moment
12:03that you need to spend a little bit of effort
12:06breaking it up and breaking it apart.
12:08So I'm just throwing scallops and some shrimp into a bowl
12:12so I can season with a little bit of salt.
12:15Rice is real close.
12:17Hear the pitch go up?
12:18A little bit more dried out, crackly.
12:21The thing that feels hardest to me
12:23is honestly the scallops.
12:25Saying it, hearing myself saying it,
12:27and then watching myself just sort of chuck them
12:30into a fried rice mixture
12:32rather than trying to get them like burnished and crispy.
12:35Just like dumping them in there kind of unceremoniously.
12:38That is our seafood broth.
12:40I mean, it's certainly easier this way.
12:43I basically want it to be just about dry,
12:46but I want the seafood cooked through.
12:48Do a little pinch of salt in there.
12:51And then our cooked five ounce just went in.
12:56I don't know.
12:57I mean, it seems a little bit wrong to me.
12:59Like there's quite so much rice on top.
13:01I don't know.
13:02If I start messing with it,
13:03I mean, there's just like no end to it.
13:05So we're gonna say that it's done.
13:08This is my second and final attempt at the dish.
13:12It looks like, frankly, a little bit of a mess.
13:14Everything kind of jumbled in there together,
13:16but I think I created flavors
13:18that are very similar to the dish.
13:20In terms of talking scores,
13:21my actual on ingredients was a 60.
13:24Maybe we pulled this up to a 70.
13:26Technique-wise, I would love to think
13:28we made some material improvements.
13:30And again, like maybe we pulled that up to a 70.
13:33Appearance, eh, did I just shoot myself in the foot?
13:37Maybe we can hope that this is like
13:39still at least like an 85.
13:40Flavor-wise, I'd love to think this is like
13:42kind of knocking on an 85.
13:45Once again, we have Hannah lined up to judge.
13:48We all know she can be tough,
13:51but she ultimately is very fair.
13:54This is the point in the day where I'm just like,
13:55I just need to know.
13:57I just need to know the answers.
13:58Please put me out of my misery.
14:01Hey, Hannah, back so soon?
14:03We meet again.
14:04Like, shall we just get into it?
14:06Sure, absolutely.
14:07May I present to you
14:09Mangchi's seafood kimchi fried rice.
14:13At first I seared my shrimp and my scallops,
14:16and then for the second attempt, I didn't.
14:18But overall, like the color, the general ingredients,
14:22they look to be the same.
14:25Are the scallops and shrimp ever incorporated
14:28into the fried rice,
14:29or are they simply put onto the plate
14:32as part of the final presentation?
14:34It is the latter.
14:35And wait, like you say scallops.
14:38No, we already covered that earlier.
14:40You did, okay.
14:41She treats the scallops and the shrimp
14:43before she even cooks them
14:45with salt, pepper,
14:46and like a light dusting of potato starch,
14:47which is what is accounting for this very light crust.
14:51And then she is creating an infused oil
14:54with a few aromatics.
14:55She uses that oil to cook both the scallops and shrimp first.
15:01Then she puts in her clams and mussels,
15:05cooks them until they pop open.
15:06What is she doing with the liquid?
15:08She doesn't do anything to the liquid.
15:10So what you did is something that I would do,
15:13just reinforce the end result,
15:15put it somewhere because it's like liquid gold.
15:18And then she starts her kimchi fried rice.
15:20So what she does is sautees the kimchi for a few minutes.
15:25She adds her rice and then her gochujang.
15:29Then all of the seafood gets reintroduced
15:32and like just dotted on top,
15:34covers the pan with a lid,
15:37and allows the bottom of the rice to crisp up.
15:40I know you are frying as one would and should
15:45to make a fried rice constantly,
15:47but that's not what she does.
15:48Hers is largely stationary.
15:51But yeah, it's not wrong, but not right.
15:54That's like the most Hannah statement ever.
15:57Is it?
15:58I mean, this is also a very unique dish
16:00to have like a side car of dipping for the seafood.
16:04I see.
16:05Not necessarily for the rice.
16:06For the rice.
16:07I ended up coming around to wasabi powder.
16:09Excellent.
16:10Wait, did you reconstitute the wasabi in water first?
16:13Yes.
16:14Okay, great.
16:15That's exactly what-
16:16It's what it said to do on the tin.
16:16Oh, good.
16:18And then lastly, the finishing touch
16:20for like 99% of Korean cooking,
16:23you need to know this, is toasted sesame oil.
16:25Is it?
16:26Okay.
16:27And Mangchi in particular, you know,
16:28she's like sesame oil,
16:30like you know that's gonna finish every single dish.
16:33So ingredients.
16:35You gave yourself a 70 and I gave you a 75.
16:39You got nearly all.
16:40I mean, potato starch, like that's very advanced level.
16:44And then like cockles for clams,
16:46I think that's like a fine substitute.
16:48You did add ginger.
16:49Yeah.
16:50The toasted sesame oil, like I had to knock you on that.
16:53So for technique, you gave yourself a 70
16:56and I actually gave you a 65.
16:59The way Mangchi made it is not how I would make it,
17:02but it's not how you made it either.
17:05Due to you not following her technique,
17:07like the texture on the seafood is like not the same.
17:11Definitely.
17:12So talking about appearance, you gave yourself an 85
17:16and I actually gave you an 87
17:18because frankly it's a little bit more rustic,
17:21but if we were to replate it,
17:23like I think we could try to mimic this.
17:25How about taste?
17:26I think we need to try it.
17:27Mangchi first.
17:28I want a scallop.
17:30The textures of the seafood elements are really nice.
17:33I love the presentation.
17:34Yeah.
17:35You wanna try her dipping?
17:36That's nice.
17:38Let's try Chris Morocco's.
17:40Oh heavens.
17:42It's wetter and more gingery.
17:45Little like toastier.
17:47They look very similar, but when you taste it,
17:49this more traditional style has like pops of acidity
17:53from the brine.
17:54This one has like a deep savoriness
17:57coming from the reinforced broth,
18:00but also that ginger is a little bit heavy handed for me.
18:04You gave yourself an 85.
18:07I would give you an 82.
18:09I'm so nice to you.
18:12So my score to you is a 77.
18:14Okay.
18:16I mean, I knew there was about 50 different ways
18:18to put that dish together
18:19and I think I found the 49 wrong ways.
18:23It's like sucks to feel yourself
18:25basically trying to validate your C
18:27and like play it off like it's a good thing,
18:29but honestly like with this one,
18:31like I'll take that any day.
18:33Are you kidding?
18:34That's fine.
18:35I'll do it next time or not.
18:3843 tries and counting.
18:39Still haven't gotten a straight A, but that's all right.
18:43We need to add the gochujang about maybe.
18:45See, this is where I'm like,
18:49all right, fair enough.
18:50We didn't need the liquid.
18:53All right.
18:54I'm catching my train.
18:56Fair play, Manji.
18:58You win this one.