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| A Jamaican meat patty from Mike's Korean Kitchen / Courtesy of Mike's Korean Kitchen |
By Jon Dunbar
Corner Pizzeria in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, is hosting a pop-up event this Saturday, selling Jamaican meat patties made by Mike's Korean Kitchen, a social media culinary project.
"I just love cooking and know what it's like to not be able to get the things you crave," said Mike, the guy behind the pop-up. "This popup is just trying to push my hobby to the limits."
On his YouTube channel, founded in 2016, he shows how it's possible to make any food in Korea. His videos cover things as simple as cookies and brownies, as well as frozen foods and TV dinners, basic stuff that foreign residents living in Korea might miss from back home. Missing food from one's home country can be a major cause of homesickness, and finding ways to overcome that feeling can help to improve quality of life while living abroad.
"I don't miss any food from America really because I can make it or find a place nowadays," Mike admitted.
A Jamaican patty is a bright golden semicircular pocket, which is stuffed usually with meat. It's somewhat comparable to meat pies or empanadas ― maybe even Korean mandu, if one wants to stretch the definition. But the Jamaican delicacy has its own preparation techniques and seasonings, and if you want one, the comparisons are no alternative.
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| Jamaican meat patties from Mike's Korean Kitchen / Courtesy of Mike's Korean Kitchen |
Preparation for meat patties is pretty intensive.
"It is about a five-hour process or maybe six depending," he said. "To make a small or large batch, as well as both a small or large patty, it takes the same amount of time just about, because of letting the meat season for hours, and having to cool the dough so it's easier to work with, plus you need to use half the butter in the beginning and then shred the other half of butter into the dough, folding it and incorporating it to get that dough perfectly flaky."
Many of Mike's key ingredients come from overseas, although these days he can order them through Coupang and Gmarket. This includes hot curry powder, scotch bonnet pepper powder and jerk seasoning.
"All of these things are coming from overseas and take a minimum of two weeks to get," he said. "I make no compromises and made sure I planned for the April 1 event to ensure all my special authentic ingredients arrived."
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| Some of the imported ingredients used to make Jamaican meat patties / Courtesy of Mike's Korean Kitchen |
He already did a pop-up in Daegu's D-Art Pub earlier this year to celebrate Bob Marley's birthday.
"I visited Jamaica in 2015 to celebrate the 70th birthday of Bob Marley and fell in love with the Jamaican street food and fast food," Mike said. "It was so good I could eat it cold for breakfast from the night before. I love Jamaican patties and think there's a huge demand out there … just need to find a niche."
For this event, he connected with Corner Pizzeria after posting about the idea on a social media group, looking for community interest, as well as a possible venue.
"I need an oven as a priority for any patty venue so pizza shops are great," he said.
After this pop-up, he hopes to do more in the future, and he's not short on ideas. "Also, I love lasagna and chocolate brownies with ganache. I've also sold vegan winter minestrone at a popup market in Seoul. I think about selling grape leaves or dolmas since they seem hard to find," he said. "I think about making all kinds of food you can't really find easily in Korea."
For the pop-up, Mike will offer two kinds of meat patties, stuffed with ground chicken breast and with ground beef. The patties will go on sale at 11 a.m. and keep selling until they're all sold out, which could come fast, so Mike recommends getting in quick.
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