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Chalmukesumneda!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Chalmukesumneda means "I will eat well!" in Korean.

I've been a kdrama fan for more than a year now, and Koreans being who they are, describe and portray food in great detail in all their dramas. The foodie in me has always wanted to try out Korean food (especially the "Samgyopsal" (Pork wrapped in lettuce)).

So obviously I have been quite excited for the past couple of weeks after discovering that someone had discovered not one, but 2 authentic Korean restaurants right here in the city where I live in!

The D day finally arrived today.

A great deal of planning and discussion had gone into this. Googling Korean foods that were must tries, discussing who's gonna order what.

A little too much for just a lunch, you say?

I agree.

But then again, we're talking about a bunch of people who have been breathing the Korean culture for ages, through the glasses in their laptops, so to be able to actually lay their hands on some Korean food (I am not going to mention the hope of running into some hot Korean dude there. Nope, I'm not. ) is something comparable to ... the first taste of chicken, to someone who has been vegetarian all their lives, but has "heard" a lot about how chicken is. (See, I didn't over dramatize! Though the hope of running into a certain LMH, and me nonchalantly saying "Oh, Annyong-ha-se-yo, I've seen some of your work", and him being interested in continuing that conversation with me might have passed through my imagination once. )

So anyway, back to our story!

Like many organized lunches, our party of 'more than 8' sizzled down to 6 last night, and finally 4 of us ended up there. That wasn't going to dampen my spirits! On the contrary, knowing that I knew all of the other 3 really well, I was happy that I could eat without being conscious.

Two of us went together, within ten minutes all four of us were comfortably seated at a table in a segregated room (This restaurant did not offer ground level seating with low tables). A 14 page menu was read and reread like it was holy literature. If I were that book, I'd've felt very special today, just sayin'.

So going through many eliminations - 2 of us didn't eat Sea Food, 3 of them didn't eat pork (There went my samgyupsal dream - after an internal war with my conscience), and 2 of them didn't eat beef. So it left us with the option of sharing in twos, or just sticking with chicken and veg. And after further discussions, and interrogating (Lets face it, 'asking' would have been a gross understatement) the waiter - who luckily for us was more amused than irritated, we decided on 5 dishes between the 4 us. Which, thinking back now, especially since we already knew that portions would be big, was a real stupidity! Nevertheless, 4 eager souls awaited 'paap' :)

First came in a trolley filled with trays, all freebies !!!

There was kimchi, prawn something, beef something, pork something, egg something, salad with mayo (which probably had a funky Korean name too) vinegar dipped cucumber, sea weed fry (Which was ammaazzziiinnngg) spinach and some sprouts.

Some emptied faster than the others ... the sprouts and spinach were attempted. Chop stick skills were perfected. Almost.

Aaaannnnddddd the main course arrived!

So, I'm not going to be going into the details out that. Just that, as expected, the portions were humoonnnngous. I got to try many things I've wanted to, from what I've seen in the dramas... Eat sticky rice with that loong spoon, take a spoon full squashed along the sides of the bowl, top it with stuff from a soup bowl (Cross a carrot piece and a lentil - no one noticed how delighted at was with how that turned out :P ) and gobble it up!


 Black bean noodles
Uri Chicken (With a fancy name)- :D
 Bibimpaap (Mixed rice)

Black been noodles that came from a bowl that was never ending, bibimbap or something similar that came in a sizzling hot bowl. Chicken and black roll thingy (Kimbap)

I know I could go into great detail about the food, but like I said I am not going to do that ... though, one striking think I did notice was that; though none of the food tasted like anything I've eaten before, it somehow had a familiar feel.

[A friend of mine who recently got married and went to a different state, where they speak a different language, said that though she doesn't know the language, she was lucky to have had a couple of people she knew who used to speak that language, and hence it doesn't feel alien anymore - even though she hardly knew the language at all]

The food felt like that, familiar.

Yes, I didn't get to eat what I have been dreaming of eating for the greater part of 2 weeks, and wanting to eat for more than a year. But hey, the wait is over rated.

The food was yummm.... so many different flavours.

Korean food is not too much about the smell, like Italian food. It's not too much about the striking flavours either. Most of the food I had today hits the tip of the tongue more than the more lingering rear of the tongue. The food had so many different flavours to it, and definitely has its own signature taste. Though, because we avoided most of the meat products today, I can't say what that flavour is for sure yet!

To me, it didn't hit all the right notes. But it hit some pretty good ones! I felt satiated, and I wanted to go back again. Sooner the better! (Samgyupsal might be the reason for that :))

End of the day - I know I haven't tried it all, but it was great food, amazing company and awesome fun!

I'd definitely recommend that you give it a shot, you'll want to go back again yourself to try the others.

And I bet you'll say "Aaaahhh Mashitaaa" at least a few times! I did ;)

1 comment:

Zumaana said...

Nomu nomu nomu Mashita!!! I love the LMH bit :p

 
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