Archive for category: Korean

I think I may get jaded sometimes when you go to as many restaurants as I do and it takes more for me to get excited these days than it used to. Luckily, Bangane is one of those rare finds that really got me excited.

Bangane is a Korean goat specialist restaurant located further down Northern Blvd in the sleepier part of the Korean section of Flushing. I’ve tried one of these places in LA a long time ago, but it was so long ago that I barely remember it as this point, so I was really excited to go re-introduce myself to this dish. This dish is pretty rare and even if you ask people from Korea about it you get this questioning look as it’s not common at all. I don’t know this for sure, but I’d guess this is probably country people type food.

The restaurant has a very traditional looking wood interiors and looks like an old school neighborhood restaurant in Korea. It has this sort of rustic sleepy atmosphere, which I liked. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Most don’t speak English very well, but one lady spoke English decently and was able to help us order properly.

Kimchi

I read a few reviews online who said they were well known for their kimchi. However, while their kimchi wasn’t bad, I found it too sweet and I thought it was just alright. 7.25/10

Jap Chae

This was standard jap chae (glass noodles), but was made well. It wasn’t overly sweet or over sauced as a lot places make it and was a pretty decent rendition although it was pre-cooked as most panchan is. 7.75/10

Bean Sprouts And Broccoli

This was bean sprouts and broccoli cooked with sesame oil; it was fine and pretty standard. 7.75/10

Dried Squid In Spicy Sauce

This is dried squid that is covered in gochujang (Korean chili paste). While it looks spicy, it’s actually sweeter as opposed to spicy. I always love this and it was quite good here. 8/10

Boiled Greens

Standard boiled greens, nothing special. 7/10

Lotus Root

These were lotus root cooked in a sweet soy sauce. They made these excellent here as they retained their crisp without being too tough and were not overly sweet as most places make them. 8.25/10

Egg Custard

This is a simple dish made from boiling eggs, water and sugar, which results in this egg custard thing with scallions. It’s pretty hard to mess this dish up and it was good here. 8/10

Pickled Radish Soup

This is a cold spicy pickled radish soup that is tart, slightly sweet and very refreshing. I always love when they give you this. 8/10

Pan Fried Goat Liver

This was goat liver that had been covered with egg and then pan fried in oil. It turned out to be quite good, it wasn’t metallic tasting at all, wasn’t dry and had good flavor. Also, while it looked really oily, it actually wasn’t at all. 8/10

Boiled Goat Meat

They bring out a big chunk of boiled goat meat on the bone and cut up the meat table side then they put the meat on top of a steamer which has a bed of scallions which have been steaming. You let it steam for a couple minutes then you take the meat, scallions and wrap it in lettuce with the various condiments and dip it in a really great smoky tangy spicy sauce. I wasn’t sure how this would be, but really it turned out to be excellent and one of the more exciting dishes I’ve had in NY in a while. The meat was tender, flavorful and had a slight gaminess to it that I really liked. I know a lot of people shy away from goat or lamb because they don’t like the gamey flavor, but I’m telling you this is really good and I believe most people will really like it. 8.5/10

Jungol

The next course is a jungol, which is a big stew. They take the leftover goat meat, add more scallions and cook it in a spicy broth. The resulting stew was pretty good although I thought it could use a bit more flavor. However, one of the waitresses told us to put some of the spicy sauce with vinegar we used for the boiled goat into it, which was perfect as the tangy sauce gave it an extra kick of flavor that made it quite good. 8/10 (7.5/10 without the sauce)

Fried Rice

Normally when they do this, I never end up having enough room to actually enjoy it. However, this time I had enough to room to enjoy it. They take the soup pan, add rice and seawood to the leftover soup and keep cooking it until it turns into fried rice. It’s fairly light as far as fried rice goes because they don’t use any oil. Also, it’s not heavy flavored, but I liked it quite a bit particularly as a last dish. 8/10

Address:
16519 Northern Blvd
Flushing, NY 11358
Phone: (718) 762-2799

Han Joo is a well-known Korean restaurant located in the Korean area of Flushing / Murray Hill.  As I’ve waxed on about in the past I love specialist restaurants because you know exactly what you’re going for and you know they are going to make it well.  At Han Joo they specialize in sam gyup sal, which is Korean pork belly BBQ.  They are also known for the fact that they don’t BBQ the meat on a typical Korean BBQ grill, but rather on crystal plate, which I’ll explain more about later.

The restaurant is located right in the middle of Korean area of Flushing / Murray Hill, which is the real Koreatown in NY.  It’s a small restaurant that like most restaurants in the area doesn’t have too much in the way of décor.  The service was fine and the hostesses seemed nice although I don’t think they speak English very well (my friends speak Korean).  However, the menu is translated into English (as you can see from my pictures below), so you should have no problems.

Ban Chan:

Ban chan are the small dishes that they give you for free at the beginning of the meal at Korean restaurants.  Here they gave us pajun (pan fried pancake), broccoli and seaweed with gochujang (chili paste), kong na mul (bean sprouts), sweet pickled radish strips, potato salad, marinated cold eggplant and jalapeno in soy sauce.  These were all good, nothing amazing, but competently made.  7.75/10

Crystal Grill:

Unlike most places in NY that use the regular metal grill, at Han Joo they bring out a thick crystal plate which is propped up diagonally with a fire underneath it and you grill you meat on it.  It looks cool although I’m not sure if there is a huge difference aside from the fact that your meat never actually touches fire.  Although the other added bonus is that the juices from the pork run down the plate and they put kimchi at the bottom which baths in it and you eat this kimchi which is delicious.

Thick Fresh Pork Belly (Kal Saeng Sam Gyup Sal):

Han Joo offers several different types of sam gyup sal, which you can see in the pictures of the menu above.  The first cut we got is the thick fresh pork belly was pretty similar to normal sam gyup sal except it was a little thicker.  It had great flavor and the meat was nicely fresh.  It’s pretty explanatory, but it was delicious.  This is definitely among the best sam gyup sal in NY and is a “must order” dish. 8.5/10

Marinated Pork Belly With Green Tea:

My friend who eats here fairly regularly said the thick cut is the best, but we decided to get the green tea as well so I could try some other flavors.  This was not cut quite as thick and was dusted with a green tea powder.  The powder gives it’s a green tea flavor and makes it a little more salty.  It was pretty good although I preferred the thick fresh pork belly.  8/10

Condiments:

The sam gyup sal comes with a variety of condiments including tenjang (bean paste), kinako powder (roasted soybean flour), sesame oil with salt and pepper, marinated onions and green onions, pickled radish, green peppers and raw garlic.  Personally I like it with sesame oil with salt and pepper and some kinako powder.  I also like it to wrap it up with the marinated onions and green onions in lettuce wraps and dip it in the sesame oil with salt and pepper.  I love pickled radish as well, but I usually eat it separately.

Purple Rice in Pumpkin:

The rice is pretty good here; nice and al dente.  I also love pumpkin so I liked this.  8/10

Tenjang Chigae:

Tenjang chigae is a simple bean paste stew.  It’s something people eat at home all the time, but for some reason restaurants in NY can never really get this right.  This wasn’t very good.  6.75/10

Mul Naeng Myun:

Mul naeng myun is a cold buckwheat noodle dish that has origins in North Korea and is usually eaten during the summer.  It’s served with ice, pickled radish, Korean pear and hardboiled egg.  The broth is tangy and sweet and the buckwheat noodles are slippery and have a bit of bite to them, but aren’t al dente per se.  I love mul naeng myun, but I find that the difference between a good version and an ok version to be relatively large.  It was ok here, but nothing special. 7/10

Overall, I thought the sam gyup sal here was great and definitely worth your time.  Also, they have opened a branch on St Marks in the East Village, so if you don’t want to trek all the way out the Flushing you can find it right here in the city as well.

Flushing / Murray Hill Branch:
41-06 149th Pl
Flushing, NY 11355
(718) 359-6888

East Village Branch:
12 St Marks Pl (between Cooper Sq & Astor Pl)
New York, NY 10003
(646) 559-8683
http://www.hanjoonyc.com

It is nice to have a Koreatown in Manhattan; unfortunately, in my opinion, most of the restaurants do Korean food a disservice as they have huge menus and make lots of dishes, but make none of them well.  Luckily, there are exceptions and overtime Korean food in Manhattan has been getting better with new restaurants such as Arirang and PAN.

PAN is a new restaurant that specializes in “pojangmacha” style food, which is a street stall type of restaurant that you eat and drink at in Korea.  A lot of the food served a pojangmacha is comfort food that goes well with drinking.  When I visited Korea I ate at a lot of pojangmacha places and I really enjoyed this style of food.

PAN is hidden on the 2nd floor of a building on 32nd Street between 5th and Madison in between Kyochon and Ishihana.  The dimly lit space is windowless with a very industrial feel having cinderblock type walls, and concrete floors.  The first thing I said when I sat down was “this place really looks like some place in Seoul” and everyone agreed with me.  The clientele was almost 100% Korean, but the staff does speak English and they are quite friendly.

Here’s what we got:

Kimchi:

This was one of the panchan (complimentary small dishes) served.  The kimchi was fine, it wasn’t overripe and was probably better than most places in ktown, but I’ve become a kimchi snob as my girlfriend’s mom makes the best kimchi ever, so I thought it was decent but nothing to write home about. 7/10

Spicy Peppers:

This was another panchan they gave us.  This was spicy green peppers in a chili sauce that had quite a bit of garlic in it.  I really liked the sauce and the taste of the spicy green peppers went very well with the garlicky chili sauce.  I thought these were quite good especially with some rice. 8/10

Soup:

This was a complimentary soup.  I believe it was a fish stock soup.  It had a nice flavor and wasn’t too salty.  I thought it was pretty good. 7.75/10

Steamed Egg Custard:

This was another complimentary dish that is a simple dish made of egg steamed with water and a little bit of sugar and scallions.  While it is very simple, I always like this dish a lot. 8/10

Fried Squid:

This was fried tempura style squid tentacles.  Normally, I don’t like this dish because it’s not freshly fried, so the batter isn’t crispy and it’s usually over-battered as well.  However, here it was freshly fried and not over-battered.  The batter was slightly sweet as I believe they used a sweet potato batter.  It was served with a very light soy sauce that complimented it well. 8/10

Haemul Pajeon (Seafood Pancake):

This was a typical Korean pancake with seafood and lots of green onions.  The problem with this dish is that if you cook it wrong it gets gooey and oily, but they did a good job as it wasn’t gooey at all and had a nice crispy texture on the outside.  It’s served with a soy sauce that has chili and scallions that compliments the pancake well.  Overall, this was a pretty decent version. 8/10

Nakji Bokeum (Spicy Octopus):

This is octopus stir fried in slightly sweet spicy sauce with spicy green chilis and onions.  This is a dish that I love with a cold beer and some rice.  The sauce was quite good here, it was spicy and flavorful without being overly sweet which tends to be the downfall of most places I get this at in Ktown. The octopus was cooked well and wasn’t rubbery and I liked the green chilis that they use.  Overall, I enjoyed this dish. 8/10

Maewoon Jokbal (Spicy Pig Feet):

I’m a big fan of pig feet as I like fatty meats and pig feet sort of remind me of fatty meat as they are gelatinous in texture.  A friend of mine highly recommended I try these as he said they are the star of the show.  I got the spicy version as opposed to the regular steamed version.  They chop the pig feet into bite sized pieces and cook them in a semi-sweet spicy sauce and garnish them with chopped scallions and sesame seeds.  The pig feet were cooked really nicely and were very tender.  The spicy sauce tasted great with pig feet and combined with some rice it all came together really well.  8.25/10

Bo Ssam (Steamed Pork Wraps):

Bo ssam has gotten kind of famous because of David Chang at Momofuku who serves his own version at Momofuku Ssam Bar.  The dish is a steamed pork dish served with cabbage wrappers and condiments such as kimchi, oysters, garlic and a fermented shrimp sauce.  I decided to order it here against my better judgment as I find restaurants that don’t specialize in this dish don’t make it well.  The pork was fine, it was a bit leaner than I prefer, but it tasted decent.  The cabbage wrappers were fresh and the daikon kimchi was pretty decent, but the oysters were too fishy tasting and I didn’t think the dish had enough flavor overall.  I don’t think I’d order this again. 6.75/10

Clam Soup:

This was a clam soup with clams, fish cakes, dried tofu, scallions and bbq’d seaweed.  The soup broth was excellent; it wasn’t overly salty, had a good deep clam flavor and also a bit of a peppery flavor.  Everyone was really surprised as how good this was.  8.5/10

Overall, I enjoyed the food and atmosphere at PAN.  I’d definitely recommend trying it out for some good food and a fun place to have drinks with friends.

Address:
319 5th Ave (between 32nd St & 31st St)
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10016
(212) 679-0770

Sik Gaek is a Korean seafood and drinking restaurant in Flushing.  It became semi-famous after it was featured on one of Anthony Bourdain’s episodes on the outer boroughs.

When a lot of people in America (even foodies) think about Asian restaurants they envision all of them being small rundown restaurants and street food. While that is certainly part of the restaurant scene in Asia, there is a whole side of Asia that is not often showcased in Asian communities in New York (I think this is likely because of the demographic of the immigrants here) such as high end upscale places, drinking establishments, modern restaurants etc.  Sik Gaek reflects a small piece of this as it is supposed to resemble restaurants in Korea where you eat, drink and have a good time with your friends.

The restaurant is pretty busy looking with wooden walls adorned with posters advertising soju with famous star like Hyori on them and specials written in Korean on the walls.  The crowd is mainly Korean.  It’s quite loud with lots of loud conversations and drinking, but it is definitely a fun atmosphere.  The service is generally pretty decent and I’ve always found the servers to be pretty nice.

On to the food:

Fried Egg:

At the beginning of the meal they bring you a few eggs that are fried in a pan.  It’s pretty simple, but they taste pretty good when you put some gochujang (a semi-sweet Korean chili paste) on the eggs as gochujang goes really well with fried eggs.  7/10

Duk Boki (Spicy Rice Cake):

They bring you out a complimentary bowl of duk boki as well.  Duk bok is a dish consisting of rice cakes and fish cakes cooked in a semi-sweet spicy sauce.  While not the best version I’ve ever had, their version is pretty decent.  6.75/10

Steamed Egg Custard:

This dish is eggs cooked with a little bit of water and sugar in a small hot pot. It turns into a fluffy egg custard. It tastes good and it’s almost impossible to mess up because it’s so simple.  7/10

San Nak Ji (Live Octopus Sashmi):

This is my favorite dish here. It is octopus that has been sliced up right before they serve it to you. I’m sure this is going to freak a lot of people out because it’s still moving when they serve it to you.  It is a misconception that it’s still alive, but it does still move because it was literally cut up right before it is served to you.  The octopus obviously tastes very fresh, it’s not rubbery and I really like it with either the gochujang or the sesame oil with salt and pepper.  You do have to chew it so it doesn’t stick to the side of your mouth since it is still moving (I can see about 80%+ of people reading this cringing and vowing never to order this).  I recommend trying this as it is definitely my favorite dish here.  7.5/10

Steamed Seafood in a Sweet Pumpkin:

This dish was interesting.  It was squid, octopus, shrimp and kabocha in a spicy red sauce covered topped with melted white cheese.  Kabocha is called Japanese pumpkin, but is actually a type of winter squash.  It’s orange, sweet and starchy (I love kabocha).  It was interesting, I like all ingredients separately, but I couldn’t decide if I like them all together. You could definitely tell that it’s one of those dishes that someone probably invented in the last decade or so. It was decent, but not amazing.  6.75/10

Assorted Seafood Hot Pot:

This is a gigantic iron pot filled with about every type of seafood you can think of: lobster, clams, abalone, octopus, squid, oysters, shrimp and a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting now.  It also has noodles as well.  The broth is a light spicy broth. I generally like all the seafood, but because there is so much of it and the pot is so big inevitably some of it gets way overcooked. The broth turns out to be pretty tasty because the combination of the seafood flavor and the spicy broth is nice. This is a great dish to drink with as well.  7/10

Fried Rice:

At the end of the seafood hot pot, they put rice in the leftover stew and stir fry it with some dried seaweed and sesame oil.  This is very tasty perhaps even more tasty than the actual hot pot itself.  7.5/10

Steamed Shellfish:

This is a gigantic pot with water and just like the assorted seafood hot pot it has about every type of seafood you can imagine.  I find the seafood easily gets overcooked and it’s too plain.  I’m not much of a fan of this dish.  5.5/10

Noodles:

At the end of the steamed shellfish they use the remaining water that has now turned into a very light seafood broth and cook some noodles in it.  It’s also better than the original dish as the broth is sort of refreshing and the noodles go well with it.  7/10

Overall, I don’t think the food at Sik Gaek is amazing, but some of the food is pretty good and it is a great place to go have fun and drink with friends.

Address:
161-29 Crocheron Ave
Flushing, NY 11358
(718) 321-7770
www.sikgaekusa.com/