GARY – Taco Monday at 18th Street Brewery in Gary’s Miller section is always a bit of a mystery since it’s Virginette Fitzpatrick’s day to make the beloved dish any way the spirit moves her.
But Monday evening, patrons of the popular brewery got a treat when Won Kim, the recent winner of Food Network show “Cutthroat Kitchen,” came in to do what he and friends Drew Fox and Joey Potts named “Taco Takeover.” Chicagoan Kim, 35, threw together some tacos with his signature Korean-Polish style.
If mixing Polish and Korean food sounds like the two should never meet, it shouldn’t, Kim said.
“Think about it: The fermentation of sauerkraut is the same as kimchi (a spicy Korean cabbage staple), and pot stickers are very similar to dumplings and pierogi,” Kim said. “My tacos tonight were beer-braised chicken thigh with “krautchi,” my special blend of kimchi and kraut, and topped with crunch chicken skin, and my vegetarian version was beer-braised potatoes and krautchi.
“Chef Virgi’s tacos were really, really good, though.”
Fitzpatrick offered two tacos, one with ground beef and the other with a vegetable curry.
Kim, who’s known 18th Street Art Director Potts for 11 years and who had a hand in designing the art for 18th Street, thought celebrating the “Cutthroat Kitchen” episode where he won with his friends would be a good way to let off steam and get back to his passion of cooking.
“It feels good to remind myself that I can make decent food that isn’t tainted by TV,” Kim said. “It’s also fun to watch how they edited the show. They portrayed me as jerk, but I’m also the jerk who won, so … It was the part I was born to play.”
More Top Picks Best Bbq Rotisserie Attachments For Grills
Kim also used the event to test out dishes he may use in his new restaurant to be named Kimski’s, at 31st and Morgan in Bridgeport. It’ll also feature his Polish and Korean creations, and has the backing of Bridgeport staple, Maria’s.
“My partner is half Polish and half Korean, and his family are the (original gangsters) of Bridgeport,” Kim said.
The restaurant will use locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, Kim said, except for the chili powder used in fermenting the kimchi. That, he said, comes from his mom, who gets it from Korea.
“She gets it in these bricks wrapped in black plastic, and I’m like, ‘Mom, have you just given me cocaine!?'” he said, laughing.
Potts said Kim approached them with the idea by texting them a couple weeks. Both he and Fox jumped at the chance.
“We had about 70 people, and I know if the weather had been better it would’ve been insane,” Fox said. “But it was an awesome event.”