Chow Down Atlanta

This post is mainly aimed at the four well-behaved teenagers dressed in goth who were brave enough to come in and willing to give Korean food a try. While their looks must have scared raised one too many eyebrows among the all-Korean clientele (us excluded), they sat down, asked many unintelligible questions to the server, ordered, ate, and left with full tummies. Foodies in the making! In any case, think of this as the unknowing diner’s guide to Korean food. And a preface to my upcoming numerous Korean food posts.

The setting

Upon being seated at a Korean restaurant, you will be served a glass of Bori-cha (roasted barley tea) and given menus. Korean menus are generally very descriptive written in Korean with English translation. Don’t get pressured, you can politely ask the server to come back a few minutes later after you’ve read through the menu. When ordering, it is best to point to the dish name on the menu rather than attempt to say the dish name. This avoids confusion and prevents surprises when they bring

you a cold noodle dish while what you really had in mind was a hot rice dish. That being said, be liberal with the use of hand gestures to communicate and describe what you want.

The Food

• Meat Dishes — You will never go wrong with the most popular ones: Korean BBQ. These are the Galbi (gal-bee) and Bulgogi (bull-go-ghi). There are two types of Galbi: the English style which are cut parallel to the bone, and the LA style or flanken style which are cut across the bone. I personally like the LA style as they are easier to eat. Bulgogi, on the other hand, is made of thinly sliced beef. Both are sweetish, salty, with a kick from a bunch of spices such as garlic. The marinade consists of these basic ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, pepper, and some form of a sweetening agent like pear puree.

• Soup — The most popular Korean soup is Sundubu or tofu soup: silky soft chunks of tofu in spicy broth served with your choice of beef, mushrooms, seafood, and other combinations. One of my favorites is Galbi-tang — beef short ribs in clear beef broth with assorted vegetables and mushrooms. It has a clean, refreshing taste.

• Pancake — Korean pancake is actually a gigantic omelet with vegetables and seafood. It doesn’t taste eggy but more savory.

• Rice — All orders come with steamed white rice. In authentic places, the rice is cooked and served in its own stone pot where it accumulates a crusty bottom after a while. This crusty bottom is then poured with hot Bori-cha then eaten like soup. The most popular Korean rice dish is Bibimbap (bee-beem-bop). It is steamed white rice topped with vegetables, mushrooms and pieces of Bulgogi then seasoned with spicy kimchi sauce. It can be served on a hot stone pot. This is a complete meal in itself.

• Noodles — If you’re a Korean food newbie, steer away from the cold noodle dishes and stay on the safe side by ordering Chap-jae (chap-jay). It’s sauteed thick glass noodles with beef and veggies seasoned with soy sauce and sugar. If you’re feeling adventurous go for the cold Bibim Naengmyon (bee-beem nang-mee-yon) made of arrow root noodles topped with vegetables and kimchi sauce. I’m not a cold-noodle-dish person so I seldom order this. However, if you’re the type of person who loves to eat cold spaghetti, then this is the dish for you.

Chow Down

Once you’ve put in your orders, you will be served an assortment of side dishes (appetizers) called Banchan (ban-chan). You’ll mostly see kimchi (keem-chee), pickled cucumbers, pickled radish, deep-fried anchovies, deep-fried fish, seaweed, potatoes, and other types of pickles or kimchi. Kimchi is fermented Chinese cabbage (or any vegetable) seasoned with spicy soybean-chili paste. Banchan is not something you order as it is included in every meal. Eat as much as you want as each dish is refillable by request.

Korean restaurants do not have steak knives so don’t even try to ask for one. You can eat your Galbi with your hands or ask to borrow a pair of scissors to cut them up into pieces. Don’t be shy to ask for a fork, though, as it is perfectly okay to do so.

Your tofu soup is served boiling hot in a special ceramic pot and will come with a raw egg. Crack the raw egg and stir it in or bury it in your soup. Allow the soup to cool down a bit and for the flavors to meld with the egg.

If your rice is served in its own hot pot, you will be given an empty steel bowl to which you’ll spoon your rice into. Leave the crust for later. Do not eat your rice with chopsticks. This is not a Japanese or Chinese restaurant. Instead, use a spoon. Your server will come back to pour banchan into your rice crust. Scrape the crust and eat it like soup. If you ordered Bibimbap, you will be served with a plastic squeeze bottle filled with spicy kimchi sauce. Put as much into your rice as you want and stir.

The pancake will come in a round hot iron plate. Before serving, the server will use scissors to cut them into slices much like how a pizza is served and sliced. Since you will not be getting a plate, you can leave your slice on the iron plate and eat off of it. Just remember to only eat what’s yours and not your companion’s.

Now that you’re Korean cuisine-savvy, get out there and explore. My recommendation is to order the Barbeque (Galbi as it’s tastier) and the tofu soup, if it’s your first time. Try the rest when you come back. I assure you, you will definitely come back.

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