Hey, June!
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| Side dishes!!! |
With the final grade in the books, in comes dead week: the week for Saint Francis seniors who don't have any finals to relax until they have to report for graduation practice on Friday. And being the foodie I am, I decided to go find places to eat with friends! June is a good friend of mine from a few classes at school, and (I'm writing this after graduation so I know now) was the salutatorian for our Class of 2017! Needless to say, she's a pretty smart cookie who also happens to know a lot about the best Korean food in the area. Needless to say, I found a time that worked for both of us in order to get a sample of the best Korean spots that I've never been to or heard of.
My relationship with Korean food was pretty simple – it's either a ramen or a bibimbap and I always enjoy it. But lately I've been feeling a bit more adventurous, and the fact that the name of the restaurant was "Tofu Plus" really made me think that maybe their tofu soup was their specialty! Plus, June told me to order the tofu soup. So I got the tofu soup with pig intestine along with the copious amounts of side dishes that Korean places normally offer! So to begin with, let's talk about the side dishes. These side dishes are actually called 반찬, or banchan in Korean which literally translates to "side dishes", and the number of side dishes put down actually dictates the prestige of the meal, starting from the 3 cheop (삼첩) going all the way to the 12 cheop (십이첩), which is used in the Korean Royal Meal. I think June and I encountered 12 different little side dishes, so it's safe to say that we were treated to a royal meal. But what are in these 12 little dishes, you ask? Well I won't go over all of them but I will go through a few that stood out to me.
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| The kkakdugi (깍두기) tasted pretty good! |
So one of the side dishes that I see every time I go to a Korean restaurant is the kimchi. I know, it's a no brainer for some of you, but let's get it out of the way. Kimchi is basically fermented cabbage that is then made to be spicy by seasoning with chili peppers, and it's definitely one of the first things people think about when they think of Korean cuisine. It's a little sweet, a little sour, maybe a little bitter, and a bit spicy – a great combination of flavors that'll put a red stain on your white shirt (be careful of this). It’s one of the things that is pretty dependable no matter which Korean place you go to, and you might even find it in places you don't expect, like a ramen shop. I'd assume that if you were to find Kimchi in a shop that was not known to be Korean, the restaurant would be operated by Koreans or the chef was Korean and decided to make that style of cuisine too. Anyway, on to another side dish that I enjoy. Well, this is actually another type of kimchi, but the kkakdugi (깍두기) somehow makes its way to my mouth every time. It's the same thing, except instead of cabbage they use cubed white radish instead, creating a sour and bitter taste that ends up to be quite pleasant. According to Wikipedia, this side dish has an interesting origin story: apparently a Korean princess created a new dish on the fly for the Korean king when he came over for dinner. The king liked it, learned it didn't have a name, then decided to name it kkakdugi because "ggakduk sseolgi" means cutting food into cubes in Korean. Seems legit, right? Anyway, onto the main event: the tofu bowl.
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| Looks spicy... |
The tofu bowl came in sizzling, bubbles rising to the top of the sinister looking concoction that just screamed "I'M SPICY" with its bright red hue. But honestly it wasn't that spicy so those of you who have spice as a problem you shouldn't have to worry. They served rice on the side for those who needed it, and mixing it with the soup created a nice flavor. The pig intestine was quite interesting – I didn't really know what to expect when I ordered it, but I wanted to, again, try something new to expand my culinary horizons. And I gotta say that pig intestine is not that bad tasting – there's a little bit of grit inside it, but that's probably just the stuff from inside the pig's intestines. Overall it tasted really good! This restaurant can really take things like this and make it appetizing for just about anyone! The pig intestine had this chewy texture that reminded me a little of the white noodle thing they put around the shrimp thing in dim sum. Overall, I would definitely recommend this spot to anyone in the area willing to try out some Korean food. Thanks June for the rec!
You can find me on Instagram as @stumpyeatsfood and on yelp at theplumpcat.yelp.com. You can also check out more of my photos on Flickr! If you've got a restaurant recommendation or even a recipe that you think I should try, send it to me at ryanjchen2@gmail.com!
Thank you for reading!
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