A Korean Tasting Menu With Verve and Polish, at Jua

Hoyoung Kim joins a number of Manhattan chefs serving a modern, worldly vision of the cuisine.

Hoyoung Kim’s tasting menu at Jua often begins with an inky dark column about three inches tall. The bottom third is wrapped in puffed seaweed that, in its specific degree of crispness, recalls a Pringles chip. Rising above that is caviar piled in a tall black beehive, like Marge Simpson’s hair in the Halloween episode where she turned up as a witch.

The obvious move is to pick the thing up by the base and eat it like an ice cream cone, but the server has said something about trying to get all the flavors in one bite. Inside, from the bottom up, is a foundation of truffled rice, crisp shards of pickled mountain yam and kimchi, and finally a spoonful of chopped raw short rib, slippery with sesame oil, just beneath the roe.

What Mr. Kim has done is to take kimbap, that sturdy and filling staple of Korean lunchboxes, picnic baskets and takeout containers, and dress it up for a black-tie event. He has worked up several other kimbap variations, too, including one filled with sea urchin. One version or another almost always bats first in Jua’s menu, and with good reason: Once you’ve eaten it, you’re likely to trust anything that comes out of the kitchen.