Today’s posting doesn’t need any setup, so let’s get right to it. Just one little disclaimer—I’m going to borrow heavily from a local Korean restaurant in Los Angeles called Soowon Galbi (수원갈비) that my family goes to. It is my personal favorite (I am NOT affiliated with them in ANY way, shape or form) and its menu and pictures pretty much covers the basics. It would obviously help if you can read Korean a little bit, and I’ll leave that up to you. There are lots of online tutors that do a wonderful job—and I’m not kidding when I say this, you CAN learn to read Korean in about 10 minutes.
First, you should know that any Korean meal comes with what’s called the 반찬, banchan, or side dishes. They come with whatever you order although the number of banchan can vary widely depending on what type of restaurant you go to. They’re included in the cost of the food and you can ask for re-fills. They don’t charge extra for those but don’t over do it, though. These are usually served before the main dish and a great way to nibble.
There is a word that pops up in every menu that you should know. It is 전 and usually spelled jeon. It most often is translated into “Korean pancake” and depending on what comes before the word 전, it can be seafood, potato, meat, kimchi, or any other “pancake.” Here, on this menu, it’s scallion pancake, and it looks like this.
Obviously, it tastes nothing like the American flapjacks although the jeon’s are made with flour-based batter. It always comes with the soy sauce-based dipping sauce. So, when you see the name 전, or jeon, on the menu, expect to specify what kind of jeon you want—seafood, green onions, or whatever that happens to be on the menu. Kimchi jeon with makgulli (막걸리, Korean rice wine) is a Korean staple on rainy days.
계란찜, or steamed eggs, usually comes as a part of banchan when you order the main dish, but at Soowon Galbi, I guess you have to order it separately. This is not terribly difficult to make, but to make it puff up like that in a hot pot, it does take some skill and careful attention. A great fire extinguisher when you’re having spicy food.
잡채, or japchae. I haven’t yet met a non-Korean person who did not like this. It literally means “assorted vegetables” but the main thing in this is what they call “glass noodles” or 당면 (dang-myon), which is made of Korean sweet potato starch.
떡볶이. Sometimes spelled with a D, and other times with a T. Ddukboki. Frankly, I don’t know why this is on the menu of any high-end restaurants. This is a quintessential *cheap* snack for the school kids, the ultimate street food. This can get super spicy—to the level where people have to challenge. This usually costs around $5~6 for 2 people at street stalls anywhere in Korea. I cannot justify the price tag of $17 for ddukboki. It is a rice (or flour dough) cake in spicy sauce.
As for the Table Top BBQ, those menu items are self-explanatory, so I’ll just explain what Soowon is. It is a name of a city, usually spelled Suwon, south of Seoul that is famous for its marinated galbi, or short ribs.
Any menu item that has 조림 (jorim) at the end means that the dish has been cooked by the braising technique. Almost exclusively, any jorim dish is of fish variety in Korean cuisine. Same cooking method but of meat variety, like beef, pork, and chicken, is called 찜 (jjim) for some reason and I’m not sure why.
Yukhwe or 육회. You will see this word in different spellings in English (that’s why it helps to learn to read basic Korean), and it is a Korean version of beef tartare. At Soowon Galbi restaurant, it is served in bibimbap but in many restaurants, 육회 is a standalone dish or appetizer.
Something 구이 (goo-eeh) = Grilled something. Korea is surrounded by sea on 3 sides—west, south, and east—so grilled fish always played a major part on the Korean dinner table. So much so, there are streets of nothing but grilled fish restaurants, although I’ve heard that they have been disappearing one by one.
Tang, or 탕. Essentially a soup. But there is another word that denotes soup—국, or guhk. The main difference is this. 국 is a “light” soup that is more like a side dish whereas 탕 is more substantial and is a standalone menu item. Also, 탕 is served in a bowl that retains heat a lot longer. 설렁탕 Seol-lung-tang and 곰탕 Gom-tang (both beef/bone based) are two of the most popular Korean soul foods.
jji-gae (찌개) is one of those words that is difficult to translate—and my personal opinion is that we don’t need to translate the names of the food. Like you don’t translate sushi as “raw fish on vinegared rice,” or chimichurri as “Argentinian steak condiment made with vinegar and other ingredients.” Usually jji-gae is called “stew” but it’s not quite the same. It’s somewhere between a soup and a stew—thicker than broth-soup but thinner than traditional European stew.
Kimchi and dwaen-jang (doen-jang) jji-gae are must-have items at any Korean restaurants and they’re like fuel for Korean bodies. Koreans cannot function without a steady diet of these. Probably the third most popular is boo-dae jji-gae, which is an interesting type of 찌개 because it is made with kimchi, Spam(!) and sausages. Truth be told, there has been some debate whether a food that contains Spam qualifies as a Korean food, but that debate has been settled—it proudly takes up a spot in Korean cuisine.
I know Spam is largely dismissed as a serious food item in America and Europe but it is a match made in heaven with kimchi. I guess I’ll do a separate posting on this later. It has an interesting history.
Yum!!