Oriental Spoon: Asian Fusion Restaurant

Asian fusion food is popular in Korea because most Koreans consider Asian food to be food-you-eat-at-home rather than food-you-go-out-to-eat. Fusion food offers something different in that sense.

I went to an Asianstyle cafe/restaurant, Oriental Spoon, with one of my fellow interns at Chosun Ilbo this past summer.

After browsing the brown menu, which included rice dishes ranging from Thai curries to Indonesian fried rice, and noodle dishes with influences from China, Thailand, and Japanese. We ordered one rice dish and one noodle dish and decided to share.

The Seafood Noodle Soup (Chinese rice noodle soup with seafood) came first. Even though the broth was clear, it was still pretty spicy from the green chili pepper. The soup had huge pieces of bok choy, carrots, and garlic mounted on top of rice noodles. There were quite a lot of seafood as well--mussels, clams, shrimps, and baby squids.

I couldn't stop drinking the broth because it had just the right amount of spiciness from the green chili pepper, together with the deep, ocean-like flavors from the seafood. It was a smart choice to order a dish with broth to warm the cold body.

The texture of the rice noodle was tangy. Thank god it wasn't made with flour because after nearly two days of exclusively flour-based meals, my stomach would have been very unhappy with another flour food.

As we were enjoying the seafood noodle soup, the waiter brought us the Nasi Goreng, Indonesian fried rice with chicken and vegetable. The visual of the fried egg on top reminded me of a one-eyed monster...haha. The iceberg lettuce on the side gave me a brain freeze.

The rice was sautéed with chopped scallions, red pepper, and basil in sweet and sour sauce that tasted like a mixture of soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. The scent of the basil wasn't that strong, though.

Sunny side up!

Ms. Kwon's Raw Crab Marinated in Soy Sauce

Koreans eat crabs in many different: steamed (classic since it preserves the taste of the crab meat), boiled as a stew (makes a great dish with rice), fried (almost like a snack/chips), or raw, marinated either in soy sauce (called ganjang gaejang) or in chili paste (yangnyum gaejang).

Since I was craving Korean food like none other (a rather odd sensation because I never crave Korean food when I’m in the U.S.!), I decided to choose the most “Korean” dish that I could eat (since I don’t eat pork belly, live octopus, or cow intestine…)—raw crab marinated in soy sauce.

“Ganjang gaejang” is often called the “Thief of Rice” because, by the virtue of the dish being very salty, people eat it with lots of rice, maybe a bit too much for those on a no-carb diet. I ordered a soy sauce crab meal, which included a bowl of rice, banchans, aged-bean soup (denjang-jiggae), and one whole crab.

I was a fan of all the different banchans. This green vegetable was really soft and savory from the sesame oil that was used to flavor the otherwise coarse and bland leaves.

The soup with aged-bean broth and beef was boiling and steaming like crazy when it came out from the kitchen.

There were ample amounts of scallions, pepper, mushroom, onions, and cubes of tofu, as well as really fatty beef that I immediately scooped out. I wished there had been more pepper to enhance the spiciness of the soup.

I wasn’t quite sure why there was seaweed, but I suppose it goes well with rice mixed with soy sauce?

When I was young and had little appetite, I always ate rice wrapped in seaweed with a piece of kimchi.

The kimchi was aged just the way I like it. It had a beautiful red color, and tasted pretty good as well.

The omelette had tiny pieces of carrots and pepper. I was happy that there was no cheese, or else I would not have been able to eaten it. It’s interesting how the egg whites and the yolk naturally separate. The omelette was a bit greasy, so I had to dab it with napkins. It must have been seasoned with salt because it didn’t taste bland (one of the main flaws of most omelette!)

The ggangdoogie is very similar to kimchi except instead of with cabbage, it is made with radish. I liked the ggandoogie better than the kimchi because I prefer the hard texture of the radish—give me something to chew!

This green vegetable was nowhere as good as the first one. It tasted really bitter and the soft tofu was an odd combination.

I didn’t even touch the sardines and the pepper. I love the tiny sardines that Mom makes, but these were way too big.

Plain white rice isn’t too healthy because it lacks nutrients. I was glad to see the rice with black, yellow, and other grains.

The entire meal captured in a camera.

The night’s highlight! The body was separated from the legs. The chef put really spicy red and green peppers and sesame seeds.

They separated the body on purpose so you could put rice in the shell and eat it with the intestines. It sounds really gross, but the salty, savory, and sea-like flavors all come together.
Just eating a scoopful of the intestine, eggs, and the rice may be a bit nauseating, however. A piece of kimchi will temper that feeling, but the strong flavor from the kimchi also tend to hide the taste of the crab itself.

This dish has to be made with the freshest, the highest quality crab because you are eating the meat raw.

I must have gotten a fat crab because it was full of meat!

The legs were conveniently divided into four pieces to make it easier to eat. The red stuff is the eggs (?). The crab tasted really good first few bites, but then my stomach started feeling nauseous again…that’s what raw seafood does to you.

This is the reason that people call this dish the “Thief of Rice.” Like salt and pepper, soy sauce crab and rice are inseparable.

Tous Les Jours: Bread That Was Too Sweet

In the U.S., bread is eaten as a staple with the main dish. In Korea, it is considered a dessert. I bought two different types of bread from Tous Les Jour, a ubiquitous Korean bakery that has expanded its market in the U.S.

The first bread I bought is 단호박찰고구마빵, or sweet pumpkin and sweet potato bread with glutinous rice inside. Because of the coldness, the glutinous rice that is supposed to be chewy became really hard. I had to make a decision: to reheat it or not at the sake of damp bread for a chewier rice cake filling?

I decided to pop it in the microwave for a minute. The rice cake became chewy, but the bread became too moist and then damp. Oh well.

The bread was way, way too sweet, especially since I was eating it for lunch. Ugh, I immediately regretted eating flour-based food again after last night's flour feast. The bread dough didn't taste like sweet pumpkin/potato at all--it only had a hint of yellow color. The glutinous rice hardened really fast, and the sporadic bits of raisins added to the sweetness of the bread. On top of the bread were extremely buttery bread crumbs that left stain on my fingers.

Below is another shot of the bread that I found online. For someone who loves glutinous rice, there was too little in the bread.

The next bread I tried was 흑미호떡, or black rice pancake with glutinous rice cake.

This bread had a dollop of brown sugar syrup in the middle. Even without microwaving it, the bread was still dry and too fluffy. The glutinous rice cake inside was also thin and had some red beans.

Again, I wasn't a fan of this bread either. Maybe the bread would have tasted better if I wasn't so sick of flour. Oh dear, my stomach is seriously mad at me right now... :(

A Garden to Drink Tea

After a satiating Italian lunch, my friend and I walked further up a hill to a Korean tea place. The cafe was built on Hanok, a traditional Korean house. We had to take off our shoes to get in, which was a hassel because I was wearing boots.

We sat by the funkiest table. The half of the stone table had a dip with water and flowers, while the other half was for placing the tea. The menu was beautifully decorated.

I don't quite recall the name of the tea that I ordered, except it was super complicated to brew. I felt like playing with dolls with this mini tea set. The tea definitely warmed my cold body and I felt so rejuvenated and healthy afterwards.

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.