Mmm spicayy! Seoul Garden is THE place to go for Korean food. We go there mainly for their kickin’ soondobu - which is a spicy Korean soft tofu stew served in a boiling hot claypot filled to the brim with seafood, meat, or both. (You can ask for varying levels of spiciness, but we find that no matter what level we ask for, it always seems to be spicier!)
I love eating out at a Korean restaurant for the panchan, little appetizers, as part of your meal. Most of the dishes are pickled or peppery but sometimes this place’ll have something completely out-of-the-blue, like potato salad or macaroni(!). Standard panchan dishes include fresh kimchee, spicy pickled cucumbers, marinated mung bean sprouts, ddukboki (sweet and spicy sticky rice cakes), fish cakes, and more. If you’re lucky, sometimes they’ll serve steamed scallion eggs in a claypot – also an appetizer! If you want to try something on the menu, get the seafood pancake, which reminds me of a biiig cong you bing (chinese scallion pancake) but with whole pieces of scallion, chunks of squid and mussles, and is flatter and chewier, served with a soy and black vinegar sauce with sesame seeds and scallions. If you’re hungry and you like beef, get #45 (Soondobu and Kalbi) – their kalbi is served on a hot plate on a bed of onions. It’s not as juicy or meaty as you’d get at a Korean bbq joint but for $3 more, it’s so worth it =)
Now, for the soondobu. They have combination, seafood, beef, or vegetarian options but I like to stick with the seafood since the beef isn’t a great cut and they use so little in the combination. Seafood usually includes mussels, squid, and shrimp. When served, the rice comes out in a small metal bowl, along with a raw egg, and the claypot of heavenly goodness. The egg is to be eaten with your stew and the trick is to crack the egg into your pot as soon as you can, so the egg can cook thru in the still-boiling stew. Make sure to cover up the egg and submerge it underneath the other ingredients! A friend taught us the proper way to eat and I think it goes: rice bowl always to the left of the pot, scoop a little rice into your metal spoon, submerge it into your pot and scoop up some soup, tofu, and meat and eat!
