Jeong Gam Eorin

Because it was Friday night and because David was dying after receiving a smallpox vaccine, flu shot, and anthrax shot this morning, and because I didn't want to cook, we decided to visit Jeong Gam Eorin, our favorite Korean restaurant. And luckily, this time, I brought my camera with me to finally document a traditional Korean meal.

Here's an overview of all the food and side dishes that accompany a meal at Jeong Gam Eorin....well, any Korean restaurant for that matter. Every Korean restaurant specializes in certain side dishes (though you tend to get a lot of similar ones each time) and they change periodically with the season and what's available. Today we ordered bulgogi and pork. You can see the bulgogi cooking in its absolutely delicious broth (I would bathe in the broth if it were appropriate) at our table and you can just barely make out one of the servers cooking our pork on the charcoal grill at the next table over. (We were very hungry.)

Bulgogi is very thinly sliced beef that is marinated in the world's most delicious broth (I must learn to make this) and boiled either right at your table or in earthenware pots that are then brought to your table, cooked and ready to go. There's something about having your food prepared right at your table that I love. For one, it allows me to see exactly what I'm eating and to determine how well-done I want my meat to be cooked. I can also add my own components (like fresh garlic) and it keeps the meat warm throughout the meal. Those white things on top of the bulgogi are tiny little mushrooms. I'm not much of a mushroom person to begin with, but David really likes them. And the red dish on bottom righthand corner is a chili paste of sorts that adds a little spiciness to your meat. I typically use it sparingly with my pork lettuce wraps.

And here's the marinated pork (next to some fresh garlic....I think David wishes I didn't love garlic so much because I'll eat the stuff raw). Normally, the pork is grilled and cut right at your table, but since we had the bulgogi, they grilled it at another table and brought it to us. The pork is one of my favorite meats to order at Jeong Gam Eorin because it's a thicker cut than the bulgogi but still not as thick as a steak but still very filling.

The pork is typically wrapped in lettuce (they bring both a bitter lettuce and mint leaves, but I prefer the lettuce) and eaten in one bite. I typically add rice (bap), garlic, onions, and other bits into my lettuce wrap and then eat it in a few bites or I just cram the whole thing in my mouth. Either way, it's a delicious bite of food. Featured next to the lettuce are three slices of mint green moo and a regular salad. Moo is a radish of some sort (dikon, I believe) that is thinly cut and then marinated. I've seen it all sorts of colors (yellow, pink, green) and it's got a little bit of a tart flavor but I love it. I typically eat all the salad, though the salad dressing tends to vary and they haven't had my favorite kind in quite some time. But then again, I have no clue what goes into any of the dressings so I really have no idea how to compare them. Also, I'm getting better at eating my salad with chopsticks but metal chopsticks can be slippery little suckers.

No Korean meal is complete without the requisite dish of kimchi (on the left). I've had kimchi that didn't make me instantly regret putting it in my mouth, but that's about the best I can say for the stuff. Kimchi and I just don't get along. It's just way too hot and spicy even if you disregard the fact that it's fermented cabbage. On the left is a sweet potato salad with carrots and corn. It's not really my favorite side dish either because I don't like sweet potatoes which is a tad odd since I love regular potatoes in all their many varieties (russet, Idaho, new, baby, red, yellow, etc.) and in all the ways they can be cooked (fried, roasted, mashed, broiled, baked, etc.). But moving on.....

....to Mystery Side Dish #1. The side dishes are more or less the same at every restaurant (there's always kimchi, rice, onions of some sort, a vegetable) but you tend to get one or two that are new and often, unidentifiable. David believes this was some sort of raw fish but I can't verify that since I steered clear of it.

However, Mystery Side Dish #2 wasn't so bad. It's a noodle of some sort (slimy, but not bad) covered in seaweed (kim). [Kimbap (literally seaweed rice) is Korean's version of sushi, though the fish, I hear, is cooked.] It really doesn't taste like much but it won't kill you either.


Rounding out the side dishes are thinly sliced and marinated onions. These aren't the onions I waxed rhapsodic about a few weeks ago, but they're still pretty tasty. Again, this is coming from a person who, until 4 months ago, wouldn't eat a raw onion if you paid her too. Now, I can polish off a whole dish of these myself.

I call this dish kimchi salad though I have no idea what it really is other than lettuce tossed with a hot, red, spicy dressing. Even though I don't like kimchi, I will eat this because it's fresher and typically more palpable to my anti-spicy taste buds though tonight's salad was spicier than usual.
Here's my bowl of bap (rice) next to a bowl of clear cold soup. Again, I'm not sure what the soup is called but it's a sweeter soup (the taste is similar to what they marinate the moo in) and it typically contains a carrot, cucumber, and more dikon.

Here's David in mid bite. He really needs a hair cut. But I'll give him a pass for maybe another day because he's currently an incubator for smallpox and anthrax. (Seriously, why do we still need to be inoculated against smallpox?)

And finally, my favorite part of dining at Jeong Gam Eorin: the juice (pineapple, kiwi and apricot). Oh, it is heavenly. And it's the perfect taste of sweet fruitiness to complement the spiciness of the meal. Sometimes I wish my tongue were longer so that I could lick the cup. I need to learn how to make it myself. It's just that good.

So there you have it: a typical Korean meal. It's a good thing I'm still so full from my dinner or else I'd be hungry again from looking at all these pictures.