Seoul Korean Restaurant
It was a cold and wet night, not your typical late spring weather but good for the farmers as the cliché goes. Korean food is great comfort food for this gloomy sort of weather. It soothes the soul and delights the taste buds with food that is satisfying without making you feel like Mr. Creosote. So with all that I was looking forward to dining at Seoul Korean Restaurant tucked away in a city side street.
For entrées we shared dumplings and seafood pancake. The dumplings were half-moon parcels of minced meat with garlic chives to add some bite. Korean pancakes have quite a lot of filling for not much of the batter, which has a tempura consistency. When perfectly cooked so as to be gently crispy as was the case they make for quite the yummy morsel.
The main courses were variation on a theme as we had bulgogi, spicy beef, japchae and spicy squid. Bulgogi is a dish of thin slices of beef marinated in a soy based sauce with a moresome sweetness stir fried with some vegetables. The spicy beef was similar to the bulgogi but with the addition of a chilli paste made with fermented soy beans, hits all the right buttons on your taste buds.
Japchae, which is actually similar to my a word in my family's dialect of Chinese meaning mix up, is pretty much bulgogi with more vegetables and cellophane noodles. These cellophane noodles are made from sweet potato starch and have a nice squishy texture. The spicy squid was similar to the spicy beef flavouring wise, well except for the whole red meat thing duh, but with perhaps contrasting sweetness and saltiness.
As usual for a Korean meal, the mains were accompanied with some sides including the obligatory kim chi. The kim chi was delicious as always, with just the right tang. I wasn't too excited about the chilli silken soy bean curd or the strips of fish cake. They just didn't have enough intensity of flavour when compared with the kim chi.
Continuing my appetite of kim chi, I thought a bowl of kim chi jigae would be the perfect foil to unseasonably wet and cool October night. The spice and tang of the kim chi sure did open up the airways and the bean curd in soup warmed the cockles of my heart, even below the cockles, I just don't know.
Despite what I said earlier about Korean food not making you feel like Mr. Creosote I almost did, although my arteries still felt fairly clear. However we soldiered on with green tea ice cream for dessert and were rewarded with a lovely, finely gritty textured dessert. It had a level of sweetness that emphasised the flavour of the green tea and made you realise you don't need copious amounts of sugar in a dessert.
In the midst of all this I nursed first a Hite beer and then an OB beer, my preference was for the Hite. The Hite a smoother and more refreshing feel than the OB but I think Cass is still the best of the three Korean beers I've tried.
I miss the way they used to serve Cass beer at Mapo in a frosted glass tankard. It was a much more refreshing experience than Cass served normally. Culinary nostalgia aside I've been pleased with the hospitality and authenticity at Seoul. The staff are warmly sincere and do fill you in on the dishes and the dishes have more rustic charm and are more satisfying than the modern Korean dishes that Mapo now serves. Overall a great place to go for down to earth food and hospitality.
For entrées we shared dumplings and seafood pancake. The dumplings were half-moon parcels of minced meat with garlic chives to add some bite. Korean pancakes have quite a lot of filling for not much of the batter, which has a tempura consistency. When perfectly cooked so as to be gently crispy as was the case they make for quite the yummy morsel.
The main courses were variation on a theme as we had bulgogi, spicy beef, japchae and spicy squid. Bulgogi is a dish of thin slices of beef marinated in a soy based sauce with a moresome sweetness stir fried with some vegetables. The spicy beef was similar to the bulgogi but with the addition of a chilli paste made with fermented soy beans, hits all the right buttons on your taste buds.
Japchae, which is actually similar to my a word in my family's dialect of Chinese meaning mix up, is pretty much bulgogi with more vegetables and cellophane noodles. These cellophane noodles are made from sweet potato starch and have a nice squishy texture. The spicy squid was similar to the spicy beef flavouring wise, well except for the whole red meat thing duh, but with perhaps contrasting sweetness and saltiness.
As usual for a Korean meal, the mains were accompanied with some sides including the obligatory kim chi. The kim chi was delicious as always, with just the right tang. I wasn't too excited about the chilli silken soy bean curd or the strips of fish cake. They just didn't have enough intensity of flavour when compared with the kim chi.
Continuing my appetite of kim chi, I thought a bowl of kim chi jigae would be the perfect foil to unseasonably wet and cool October night. The spice and tang of the kim chi sure did open up the airways and the bean curd in soup warmed the cockles of my heart, even below the cockles, I just don't know.
Despite what I said earlier about Korean food not making you feel like Mr. Creosote I almost did, although my arteries still felt fairly clear. However we soldiered on with green tea ice cream for dessert and were rewarded with a lovely, finely gritty textured dessert. It had a level of sweetness that emphasised the flavour of the green tea and made you realise you don't need copious amounts of sugar in a dessert.
In the midst of all this I nursed first a Hite beer and then an OB beer, my preference was for the Hite. The Hite a smoother and more refreshing feel than the OB but I think Cass is still the best of the three Korean beers I've tried.
I miss the way they used to serve Cass beer at Mapo in a frosted glass tankard. It was a much more refreshing experience than Cass served normally. Culinary nostalgia aside I've been pleased with the hospitality and authenticity at Seoul. The staff are warmly sincere and do fill you in on the dishes and the dishes have more rustic charm and are more satisfying than the modern Korean dishes that Mapo now serves. Overall a great place to go for down to earth food and hospitality.
Labels: food, restaurant
posted by Forrest Rivers at 23:07
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