At some point in elementary school, Jennifer Kim found the courage to ask her mom to stop packing her lunchbox with Korean food.
The Tupperware containers, with their pungent Korean fare, were creating too much of a scene (not in a good way) in her mostly white Schaumburg school where Kim preferred to blend in with a bologna and cheese sandwich, and maybe a pudding cup.
Kim’s tale is one that many first generation immigrants can relate to and probably still feel guilty about because, yes, we can still picture our mothers’ dejected eyes at our shameful requests.
But like many of us, Kim eventually journeyed back to her roots and warmly embraces and takes pride in her heritage. Part of that self-discovery, for Kim, culminated in the opening of her much-lauded Passerotto restaurant in Andersonville, which serves Korean food prepared with Italian techniques and influences.
“I didn’t allow myself to be Korean for so long because of my own internalized thoughts about what that meant,” said Kim, who reminisced how her parents were delightfully surprised and anxious when she told them she wanted to open a Korean restaurant after the closing of Snaggletooth — a critically acclaimed cured fish micro-deli that she co-owned and closed two years ago.
“Growing up it felt like you had to be fully Korean or fully American. And it was really hard to occupy what that middle space looked like. I want to give back to Korean Americans or other ‘hyphen Americans’ who are struggling with the duality of their identities and [show] you can be both.”
Passerotto, 5420 N. Clark, is the Italian word for “little sparrow”— the nickname Kim’s father called her in Korean when she was a child.
The chef/owner stresses that Korean food — is “the heart and soul” of Passerotto with a nod to her favorite Italian comfort foods, which she first discovered in Little Italy while a student at University of Illinois at Chicago and then later on her travels throughout the European country. Once, she found herself in a small Italian village near San Rocco al Porto.
“I went into this restaurant [there] and [remember] eating this squid ink seafood pasta, [which was] like nothing I’d ever had … but it kept reminding me of budae jjigae (a spicy hot pot stew that literally means “army base stew”),” Kim said. “[They are] totally different things not even in the same realm but something about it was bringing back memories of [meals] growing up and visiting Korea with my mom.”
Many of Passerotto’s favorites like the ddukbokki lamb ragu — Korean rice cakes paired with a lamb neck ragu gravy — taste Korean and Italian simultaneously without being exclusively either.
Still for me, the pan seared tubular rice cakes and the slow-cooked ragu — evoke childhood memories with my Korean family.
The raw crudo or “hwe” section of the menu includes sweet bay scallops doused in a homemade XO sauce with soy onion puree and citron. A surprising element in this entree is andouille sausage — often used in Italian American food — in place of the ground pork found in a traditional XO, a medley of dried seafood, chilis and oil.
There’s also traditional Korean barbecue, kalbi, on the menu. Kim uses Slagel Family Farms full two-inch thick short rib bones which she sous-vides (vacuum-sealed food cooked in a temperature-controlled water bath) for 18 hours. The ribs are seared for color, finished with a veal stock glaze and sliced similarly to a steak. While the end results look different than the traditional kalbi, the texture — a little chewy, fatty and tender — are very similar.
Recently, Kim added new dishes such as jjajangmyeon — noodles with black bean sauce, onions and suckling pig. Other seasonal specials have included a whole branzino fish and fried soft shell crab.
“[Regulars] see that evolution of us [as a team] growing together as a community and for them to also be a part of that and grow with us is the most meaningful thing,” Kim said.
Passerotto is located at 5420 N. Clark. Call (708) 607-2102 or visit www.passerottochicago.com