Kwang Uh practices what you might call reverse alchemy on corn: He takes a food that’s gold by nature and transforms it through fermentation and fire into a dense, delicious new compound.
At Shiku, the Grand Central Market takeaway stall that Uh runs with Mina Park, his wife, the corn is a regular part of the ever-changing banchan they sell by the pint or half-pint: Mix and match it with a spicy salad of julienned radishes; potent specks of chile-stained dried squid stir-fried with peanuts; satisfyingly mulchy wild greens called chwinamul, fragrant with sesame oil; the wonderful white kimchi, its cabbage leaves slowly melting into milkiness; and a side of plain white rice for a...
Shiku means “family” in Korean. The couple had been approached to run the stall before the pandemic descended. Shiku was meant to be a side project; for now it’s their focus.