Saturday, July 12, 2008 Traveling at the table By Jigs Arquiza
MY personal experiences with Korea have never been of the geographical kind. I’ve never been to Korea, but I am familiar with tae-kwon-do, being a practitioner of this Korean martial art. I have also watched a Koreanovela episode or two, my favorites being “Oh! Pil Seung” and “My Girl” respectively.
Of course, being a foodie, I do my best to try out the cuisine of other countries. Since I can’t really afford to travel a lot, I make up for it by going to restaurants that serve a particular cuisine. My previous experiences with Korean food have been limited to Korean-style barbecue, Korean-style beef stew and kimchi. Recently, I was able to partake of authentic Korean cuisine at the invitation of Leo and Veronica Moon, proprietors of Fil-Hangang Korean Restaurant at the second floor of SM City Cebu.
Not knowing much about Korean cuisine, I let Veronica direct the activities at the table. She started by serving us kimchi, the dish made from lettuce and radish and fermented in brine, ginger, onion and chili pepper. Contrary to popular belief, kimchi is not as spicy as some people think. It’s actually only mildly spicy, as most Korean cooks want the diner to be able to taste the fermented vegetables. The kimchi was served along with other banchan, or what we Pinoys would call side dishes. Potato salad, sayote and radish slices completed our banchan platter.
A soup the Koreans call haemul doinjang jjigae followed it. Served in a hot stone bowl, the soup is made from seafood and soybean paste. The stone bowl serves a dual purpose: as a container, and being heated, keeps the soup warm all throughout the meal. It’s a very nice touch, considering most people prefer to slurp their soup hot.
Gimbob was also served. Containing sticky rice, ham, crabsticks, scrambled egg, radish and spinach, it was wrapped in seaweed and cut into thin slices.
This is probably Korea’s version of the popular California roll. Another rice dish which I found fantastic was dolsot bibimbap. It’s rice topped with veggies, meat, spinach, sayote and bean sprouts with red pepper paste.
Right before serving, an egg was placed on top and everything was mixed thoroughly. Think of it as a do-it-yourself version of fried rice.
Koreans seem to be fond of grilled food, as evidenced by the bulgogi and buldak. Bulgogi is what we Pinoys know as the Korean barbecue while buldak is known to us as chicken barbecue. The Korean dishes are different in that they are pretty spicy compared to what we’re used to. Still, for someone who loves spicy food, these two dishes will certainly be a delight to eat. Another Korean dish that Pinoys might find familiar is the dduk galbi. Simply put, they’re hamburger patties made from a combination of beef and pork. I have to say that they are pretty good, with a flavor that’s slightly different from the regular burger steak.
With the large number of Koreans here in Cebu, it’s no wonder that Korean restaurants are popping up everywhere. Even then, Leo and Veronica Moon find it surprising that a lot of Pinoys patronize Fil-Hangang Korean Restaurant.
The reason for this is simple enough. Korean cuisine is actually familiar to most Pinoys, except that we just have different names for their dishes.
Another more important reason is that good food, like what Fil-Hangang Korean Restaurant serves, will always be greatly appreciated.
