Seoul food and fried chicken: the Frying Pan brings Nashville-meets-Korean street food to Vancouver’s restaurant scene
Inspired by Roy Choi, food-truck founders Jacob and Sunny Jung open new eatery in Gastown
Sunny and Jacob Jung have a lot of ideas for dishes inspired by their native Seoul they plan on introducing to the Frying Pan Kitchen & Bar. Photo by Rich Won
JACOB AND SUNNY Jung are both from Seoul, but the two met and fell in love in Vancouver after arriving around the same time in 2010. She was working at a Blenz coffee shop, and he was a regular customer—even though it was a much further walk for him than other cafés. In 2017, they launched the Frying Pan food truck, making Korea-meets-Nashville street food at West Pender and Burrard Street, with hopes of one day opening a restaurant. And here they are: the couple just opened the doors to their bricks-and-mortar Frying Pan Kitchen & Bar in Gastown (60 West Cordova Street).
“A restaurant was always in the plans for our business,” Jacob tells Stir. “There are so many dishes we want to share with Vancouver, but we’re so limited on a truck. We know it’s risky to open during a pandemic, but opening the restaurant has always been our dream, and we felt that we must continue and not hold back.”
Jacob’s mom first taught him how cook. Growing up, bulgogi was his favourite dish. (Meaning “fire meat”, bulgogi is a staple on Korean tables consisting of thinly sliced, marinated beef that’s grilled or pan-fried.) He witnessed how hard it is to be in the business by watching his parents operate their traditional Korean restaurant, but found inspiration in Roy Choi. Born in Seoul and raised in Los Angeles, Choi graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and founded the Kogi BBQ food truck, becoming a booster of street-food culture. He has gone on to international acclaim for hosting the TV show ‘Broken Bread’ (which this year earned him a James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Host in a television series) and cohosting the Netflix cooking series ‘The Chef Show with Jon Favreau.
“Choi is my role model,” Jacob says. “My whole life, I have been dreaming to be like him. When I came to Canada, I was blown away by the culinary scene and immediately thought of ways to bring Korean street food here in my own way with a Western influence.”
The Frying Pan Kitchen & Bar’s double-decker fried chicken sandwich already has as following.
The Frying Pan’s bulgogi fries are an example of the Jungs’ fusion fare. Akin to a Korean version of poutine, the dish features smoked beef piled atop French fries with house-made teriyaki sauce, mayo, marble cheddar, green onion, and sour cream. The restaurant also offers a smoked-beef bulgogi rice bowl with the additions of red cabbage, stir-fried carrot and onion, and a sunny-side-up egg. “Every time I make bulgogi, I think of family at home in Korea,” Jacob says.
Other highlights are the crispy Nashville-meets-Korean-style fried chicken sandwiches, including a double decker, with two fried thighs—one laden with sweet soy sauce, the other with yang nyeom (a sticky, spicy red-pepper sauce) along with lettuce, marble cheddar, and house mayo on a toasted bun. For the hot chicken tacos, the chef grills a flour tortilla with cheese to create a crispy cheese skirt before it’s loaded with his signature hot chicken and all the fixings.
The Frying Pan’s family feast comes complete with pickles and slaw. Photo by Rich Won
A family feast features a choice of two chicken sandwiches, bacon cheese fries, boneless fried chicken bites (with a choice of soy garlic, yang-nyeom or honey garlic sauce), slaw and pickles. To drink, the Frying Pan is serving up Hoochy Booch kombucha and local brews by the likes of Driftwood, Parkside Brewery, and Yellow Dog Brewing. And guess what garnishes the Frying Pan’s Caesar cocktail? A piece of boneless fried chicken, naturally.
The food truck will roll again weekdays downtown for lunch and on Saturday at Riley Park Farmers’ Market on Saturdays in the New Year.
Meanwhile, for the Frying Pan Gastown, which is open daily except Mondays, there’s lots more to come.
“We're working on a new menu, creating with something sweet such as fried chicken donut sandwich; actually, since we opened our truck, we have been making hot chicken donut sandwiches for staff lunches,” Jacob says. “Maybe a sweet cream bun hot chicken sandwich… The more I work with food, the more I feel the passion to cook for others.”
Photo by Rich Won
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