Culinary Adventure: Korean Cuisine

Jae and I decided to go someplace new for dinner, someplace that would be an adventure. There was a restaurant we had been driving by for a couple of years, advertising "Korean Barbecue". I knew I liked Boulgogi, but hadn't had much Korean. Jae often had Korean when she was in a dorm in college, because she hung with the international students. She adores Kimchi, which I won't let her eat in the house. Based on that little knowledge, I figured Korean wouldn't be boring. It was a gamble, and we felt like a gamble, so we went.

We split dishes, family style. First came the steamed dumplings. Those were familiar from other asian food. Yummy. Then came the Kimchi pancake. Jae described it as a cross between a Kimchi omelet and a pancake. I did not expect to like it. It was a vivid orange and it was visibly obvious there was quite a bit of Kimchi in it. I ate half. It was intense, but I decided I liked it. That was the big surprise of the evening.

Then came the boulgogi. That's the barbecue part. We ordered pork, and man was it some good meat. Happily, it came with several side dishes. One little bowl of bean sprouts that I guess were pickled, a bowl of seaweed, and a bowl of fish strips.

We really enjoyed it. It was new, it was fun, and we liked everything.