It wasn’t easy growing up outside of Toledo for Korean siblings Agnes Hong and Peter Mah. “Our friends weren’t familiar with Korean food,” says 29-year-old Mah, owner of the recently opened Andersonville restaurant Jin Ju. “It was embarrassing when they’d open the refrigerator and see kimchi and say ‘Ooh, what’s that? And what’s that smell?’” Their parents emigrated from Korea in 1971 and did everything in their power to assimilate the kids into American culture in terms of language, dress, and activities, but mealtime still involved dishes like pajon (scallion pancake), dak gan jang (fried chicken wings in a caramelized sweet-spicy sauce), miyuk (seaweed soup with mussels), and o jinga bokum (sauteed squid with hot green chili peppers and onions).
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Hong worked as an advertising executive in New York City until 1997, and in the mid-90s she remembers seeing Korean restaurants popping up in lower Manhattan, well outside the ethnic neighborhood that centered around 32nd Street and Broadway. This new generation of restaurants catered to Koreans and non-Koreans alike. “When I moved to Chicago, it seemed like something was missing–the Korean restaurants here are run by Koreans and cater only to the Korean population,” says the 30-year-old. “We thought, why don’t we open a place where it’s a little bit more atmosphere and service friendly but where the food is still just as good? I thought it would work especially in a market like Chicago, where the people are so diverse and everyone seems to appreciate food.”
In order to bring new and old worlds together, Mah hired Agnes’s husband, Yin Jin Hong, to give the food some pizzazz, and traditional Korean cook Jung Che, who answered an ad in a Korean newspaper, to keep dishes authentic. “We wanted to hire someone who’d be accepting of some change–a little bit in presentation and a little in toning down the spices,” he says. “Yin Jin is so good at making the plates look beautiful but they’re still true to the cuisine.” He’s also become Mah’s business partner; Agnes has gone back into advertising.
