You know that an ethnic restaurant is probably pretty authentic when half the diners are of the same ethnicity as the cuisine served there. So it is at Koreana, a quaint hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant here in Lexington.
I dined there last evening with my sister Jo Ann and my brother Mike (who is in town to attend the UK football game this weekend and to eat).
I'm ashamed to admit that this is only the second time I have dined there. Mike and I gave it a try a year ago. I'm not much for eating out, but when I do, I'm ecstatic when I can dine at a place as good as Koreana.
We ordered three dishes, which we shared. They were Hae Mul Pa Jeon (Seafood pancake), Shrimp Bokum (Shrimp and vegetables with a spicy sauce) served with rice, and Jem Mon Do (steamed shrimp dumplings). These dishes were accompanied by a selection of pickled delights including eggplant, zucchini and onion, seaweed, shredded daikon, kim chee, and spicy and not so spicy bean sprouts.
The pancake and the dumplings came with a wonderful soy and sesame based dipping sauce. The first time I dined there, I tried to coax the recipe out of the proprietress, but she wouldn't give it up. Oh, and the seafood in the pizza-sized pancake included fish, shrimp, scallops, squid and octopus.
I know this sounds like a lot of food, and I guess it was, but we pretty much finished it all without feeling like we had eaten too much.
And to top it off, this wonderful meal for three was quite inexpensive. Even before the $2 discount they were extending to everyone in celebration of their second anniversary in business.
Congratulations to Koreana. May they celebrate many more.
mmmm... reminds me of one of my favorite restaurants in Baltimore - Nam Kang - bi bim bap :drool:
was always a late-night, post-bar kinda place for my friends and i.
Posted by: platypotamus | September 18, 2004 at 00:39
mmmmm, korean cuisine. kal-bi and/or gal-bi beef, summer kimchi, oh, man. dried cuttlefish, and pickled sprouts. i love korean food. there is a little shop in cotati that my son (thanks charlie) took me to. it's near his campus. it may not live up to mrs. park's table, but it is definitely killer.
Posted by: bothenook | September 18, 2004 at 03:58
Ditto. Korean food is the best (followed very, VERY closely by Thai)
We have a Korean restaurant here called Kyung Sung. My favs are: Bool-go-gi (grilled marinated beef), Chop Chae (cellophane noodles with beef and veg), Bee-Bim-Bab (rice with meat and veg and a fried egg on top) and Gim-Bab (Korean beef sushi).
Of course, now I'm hungry.
Posted by: Teresa | September 18, 2004 at 09:18
Stop it, all of you! I am fucking starved.
Posted by: Alison | September 18, 2004 at 10:39
Your description made me hungry for Korean food - I'd never dined Koreanian (because Korenian Restaurants are still very rare here in Germany & none in Nuremberg), but often yet in Thai restaurants, which is my fave cuisine in the moment - a lot of the Thai Restaurants here are run by Chinese people & are not so original thai, but my thai-friend Peo told me, where the 'real' thai conducted restaurants are - & I like it if it's really chilly red hot.. - that clears your brain & you can can get addict to it
Posted by: Heimo | November 27, 2005 at 20:34