My cousin Daniel Foose fell in love with a girl he met in music school. Sueyoung Yoo and Daniel married out at our family farm, Pluto, on what might have been the hottest day that year, Saturday, June 30. Friends and family began to arrive the Wednesday before. As the bride and groom are both accomplished jazz musicians, she a pianist and he a bassist, most of the bridal party came with instruments in tow, and late-night jams filled the evenings. Sueyoung made kimchi, massaging each leaf of cabbage with rich chile paste and placing it in her groom’s great-grandmother’s soup tureen. Her soon-to-be in-laws, Uncle Jon and Aunt Caroline, had driven from Austin with a plug-in home-size chest freezer in the back of their Suburban rigged to a battery and filled with all sorts of slow-cooked Creole and Tex-Mex food for the reception. The reception came together in an eccentric perfection combining cooking from New Orleans, Korea, Mississippi, and Texas; and the band played well into the night. It is a joy to have Sueyoung in the family. Now out at Pluto we have kimchi buried in the yard and Korean barbecue is served on Christmas night.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6

　　4 bunches green onions or purple scallions

　　1 tablespoon sugar

　　1 small garlic clove, minced

　　1/4 cup soy sauce

　　1/4 cup sake

　　1 tablespoon honey

　　1/2 cup finely chopped Asian pear or Golden Delicious apple

　　

Step 1

Heat the grill to low.

　　

Step 2

In a food processor, pulse together the white part of one of the green onions with the sugar, garlic, soy sauce, sake, honey, and pear.

　　

Step 3

Place the remaining green onions on the grill 4 to 6 inches above low coals or over low flame and brush them with the soy sauce mixture. Cook for 5 minutes, turning as needed, or until the onions are tender. Remove from the heat and brush with more sauce right before serving.

　　A Southerly Course