"Young Sun Han once owned a restaurant just like Baek Ban in Seoul, and she had certain routines there. Every morning around 5, she'd begin making the day's banchan-the kaleidoscope of side dishes that form the heart of many Korean meals. The selection was different every day: cubed radish kimchi, tofu scrambled with slivers of green onion, omelets sandwiched by whole perilla leaves, dried anchovies glazed with sweet soy sauce."
"Since July, Han has been following the same routine in an unassuming strip-mall space in Chantilly, within deafening distance of the Dulles landing path. Baek Ban, her new restaurant, is named after the simple bento-like set meals centered around rice and available in Seoul's high-quality cafeterias and mom-and-pop lunchrooms. "I wanted to bring Korean traditional food to America," Han says through a translator. "In America, there's [Korean] barbecue, but with my experience, I wanted to develop something that feels like home. It's a feeling of coziness, a feeling of warmth.""
Young Sun Han recreated Seoul-style baekban lunches in a Chantilly strip-mall with Baek Ban, preparing daily banchan each morning around 5 a.m. The rotating side dishes include cubed radish kimchi, tofu with green onion, perilla-leaf omelets, and sweet-soy glazed dried anchovies. The restaurant features forest-green tile, a distinctive logo, stainless-steel trays, self-serve silverware, and a hot-water machine for tea. Service is pared down and focused on warmth and coziness rather than ornate presentation. Han emigrated over two decades ago, worked for other Korean chefs, ran a K Market stall, and developed this concept from personal culinary experience.
Read at Washingtonian
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