I accompanied the Man last night to a birthday dinner for one of his friends at a Korean restaurant, Seoul Garden. I was a little worried about the menu options because the research I'd done was not very helpful.
When it came time to order, you pushed a button and the waitress came. It was neat. Well, when I tried to ask questions the waitress freaked a little because she didn't speak much english. So they got a very helpful (and patient) waiter to come and talk to me.
The big thing at Korean restaurants is the grilled/ bbq meat. Pretty much every meat was marinated in soy sauce, except for some pork that you'd grill at the table. The problem with that, though, is that you had to get at least two orders of something "grillable at the table" and no one else was getting that.
Fortunately, we were with some people who knew the menu options and traditional food preparations who helped me pick something safe to eat and communicate with the waiter. They could tell me what had soy sauce and what didn't when the other foods arrived, too.
I ended up getting a bowl full of vegetables that included bean sprouts, lettuce, zuccini, and some other veggies that I can't remember the name of. It came with steamed rice that you were supposed to pour into the bowl and mix it all up. I preferred to eat them separately because there were some sprouts that were marinated or pickled in something that I did not care for at all. I just picked around them and it was all good.
The coolest part of the experience was, the huge amount of food that comes with the meals. The entire table was covered in small bowls of spicy potatoes, seaweed, spinach, fermented cabbage, pickled cabbage, and a couple other things I can't remember. It was very a colorful and festive sight, with deep greens, reds, yellows, all down the table.
They served miso soup and plates of salad, and this was all before the entree. There was hardly any table space with the huge amount of food.
Then, after the meal, they served slices of orange. I wish I had known because they looked really good but I was stuffed.
I don't think I'd go again, however, because the food wasn't "spectacular" and my options were very limited. But overall it was a cool experience and I didn't go hungry.
3 comments:
i've never had korean food - maybe because I'm a vegetarian, and the whole bbq thing doesn't do it for me - but congrats on trying something new, even if you didn't like it enough to eat it again.
And a side note: pickled vegetables are like some of the grossest things out there. When I was in high school, I studied abroad in Japan and had the immense displeasure of eating umibushi - pickled plums - seriously. the. grossest. thing. ever.
Just happened to see your post. ^^ Glad you liked Korean food. Korean food can be very 'different' to many people especially the fermented cabbage (Kimchi). What you ate was called "bibimbap"
Oh,and I don't know about the restaurant you went but some restaurants allow you to order one serving bbq. However, you can't bbq on the table. They usually just cook it in the kitchen and serve. Many Korean food involve more veggies than meat. It's just that Korean bbq is well known than other dishes and yes it's true that it would be hard to order something if you are a first timer...
Anyhow it's nice to hear that other people are trying Korean food. ^^
anna, you're right.
The big thing really was the veggies, as in the traditional korean food. The people we were with mentioned that too.
But the big thing among us meat-eating americans was the bbq. lol.
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