Who's Place? Hu's Place!

When you think of Western food in Korea, two types of cuisines dominate: American (namely steak) and Italian (pasta and pizza). Today I went to a "traditional" Italian restaurant (according to my friend, it prepares the most authentic Italian food in Korea) in Samchun-dong, a neighborhood that is known for its traditional Korean flavor. Irony much?

The restaurant-Hu's Table-was located on a hill. From outside, it looked like a cute little house. The waitress led us to the second story area in a covered outdoor seating with heating.

The setting us quite "cute. I love the bold red utensils and plates. The utensils look very heavy, but they were in fact rather light. No strain on the hands, I suppose.

The menu included pasta and pizza. After we made our order, the waitress brought us two pieces of focaccia bread and a black bread dyed with squid ink. The bread was nicely grilled on a panini press so they were warm.

My dad always gets second serving of bread at an Italian restaurant so he gets full before the main dish. Since I don't like olive oil, I just ate the bread by itself. The bread tasted a bit dry, but I like that it was crispy on the outside from the panini press.

We shared an egg plant pizza. The crust was extremely thin. It didn't have marinara sauce, but the dough was rubbed with extra virgin olive oil. The pizza was topped with egg plant, which was too thinly sliced that I couldn't taste the egg plant itself, basil, tomato, and parmesan cheese.

The slice I had was extremely cheesy. A bit too cheesy for my liking, actually. The cheese was also really gooey and chewy. I had to take the cheese off from the pizza because I didn't want my stomach feeling sad later tonight.

Next came the Arrabiata pasta (spicy marinara sauce) with mushroom, garlic, and bacon. I skipped the bacon, of course. I loved that the sauce had big chunks of tomatoes, and the hint of spiciness from the red pepper was a nice welcome from the cheesy, greasy pizza.

The pasta tasted a bit overcooked, but I personally prefer my pasta slightly undercooked for the
chewier taste, so perhaps I am not the "norm" pasta taster. The spiciness from the sauce also shielded too much olive oil that seemed to have been poured into the pasta sauce.

Hu's Table was a cute little Italian restaurant with great atmosphere. Decent food, but I have had better pasta.