One of the hallmarks of traditional Korean cuisine is the use of fresh, seasonal ingredients in everyday cooking. Not only is eating seasonally delicious, its sustainable and healthy. At mokbar, our menu is constantly changing to incorporate the freshest ingredients from places like the Union Square Greenmarket or the Korean markets in Flushing, Queens.

RAMEN BROTH

Our broth, known as the “mother broth”, starts by building a rich tonkatsu-style broth (Japanese pork based broth) — by boiling down pork bones, chicken bones, chicken feet, trotters and other goodies.  To this, we add even more traditional Korean ingredients to the stock — myulchi (dried anchovies), dashima (dried kelp) and shiitake mushrooms. Then to finish it all off, we add a mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery) for even more depth and flavor.

This “mother broth” then becomes the base for the majority of our ramen dishes, except of course the vegetarian/vegan and chicken broths.  All of our ramen dishes are made to order — and the soup for each is born by combining the “mother broth” with another specialty broth or sauce.

NOODLES

We searched high and low for the best noodles to slurp up our soups and tapped Sun Noodles based in NJ for the job. The traditional noodle we selected  is soft, chewy and a great vehicle for picking up broth.

SAUCES

Almost all of our dishes (from kimchi to ramen) include gochujang, a traditional Korean red chili paste.  Gochujang is made with dried chili peppers, fermented soybeans, glutinous rice & salt and arguably one of the most indispensable ingredients in traditional Korean cooking. We use only the finest gochujang — a local, artisanal product that is custom made for us — that is aged 18 months to achieve just the right blend of sweet, spicy and savory. The same goes for our doenjang, a fermented soy bean paste that is considered to be one of the most essential condiments in authentic Korean cuisine.  Our doenjang is also unique in that is a local, artisanal product that is wheat and gluten free – something very difficult to find.