FINDING KOREAN FOOD IN OAKLAND

We haven't had much luck finding good Korean food here in the East Bay. It's one of the those cuisines that I tend to go back to LA to eat. But I wanted to check out a few places in Oakland and we decided to stop downtown to try a Korean restaurant and pick up some staples at a local Korean market.

We don't make very frequent trips to downtown Oakland. We'd been once to go to dim sum, and my auto body shop is down there. So I was pretty surprised at how quick it was to get there in the middle of the day- only about 10 minutes from our house. We check out a place called Sam Won which was almost right off the freeway. The place didn't look so pretty from the outside and didn't have any windows, but when we walked in, it was filled with Asians, and there were even two Oakland cops having lunch there, so I was already feeling pretty good about it.

When we were seated, we were given menus and barley tea and decided to order off the lunch menu (they require a two order minimum of meat in order to grill on your own). Plus, the lunch menu wasn't too expensive, with most of the entrees coming in under $10.

I ended up getting an order of chicken, which came with rice and wakame soup. It was actually really good. The chicken was well seasoned and though I would've preferred to cooking it myself, I still enjoyed it a lot.

Meanwhile, they also gave us a full range of banchans, which were all quite tasty, and Tom got an order of bulgogi. He enjoyed his meat. Lastly, Tom got an order of shrimp tempura, which was really too much wood, and didn't look that great. The batter was pretty thick and just didn't look that appetizing.
Overall we enjoyed out lunch at Sam Won, and I'm happy that we were finally able to find a good Korean restaurant close to us. I look foward to out next trip soon.

CASUAL BITES

I've eaten at a couple of new restaurants lately, but they were so casual that I didn't take the time to photograph them for the blog. But I figured I'd give you a quick recap, anyway. Also, I've discovered that making a quiche is the best way to get rid of leftover ingredients. I was inspired by a post on the Amateur Gourmet after he'd made a quiche lorraine and I thought, wow, I haven't made a quiche in a while. With leftovers from Juliet's Birthday dinner (chicken, corn souffle, onions) and this crust recipe from epicurious.com, I made a chicken and corn quiche, topped with a lot of gruyere cheese (my fav!). It turned out pretty well and I was able to bring a slice for lunch two days in a row. Since we've still gotten some of that corn souffle left, as well as some ricotta, I think I may make a second version for lunch today.

MULAN:
Last Friday night, we were finally able to check out Mulan in Kendall Square (where the Pho Lemon used to be) . I had driven by this place a few times (it's right on Broadway) and was curious about it because it serves Taiwanese food, but had never made it over there because it's in Kendall. But we were seeing a movie at Kendall Cinemas (we tried to see Little Miss Sunshine, but it was sold out, and ended up seeing Oh in Ohio instead, which was very good), so this was a great time to try it out.

Tom had also dug up a review about Mulan in the Weekly Dig, which I was annoyed at for two reasons. First, the author had written "If naming your restaurant after a Disney character is a bad idea, then putting that character on the cover of your menu is an even worse one. " Ummm, if you had bothered to do even a modicum of research, you would've figured out that Mulan is a legendary character from a 6th century Chinese poem. The movie was based on that character. While I may agree that it isn't the best restaurant name in the world, maybe try some cultural enlightment next time. And on the theme of cultural enlightment, this line also bothered me, "Taiwanese food is a branch of Chinese cooking that tends to focus on simpler, more rustic preparations of standard dishes we’ve all encountered before." Ahh, written by a man who has never spoken to a Taiwanese person in his life. First, calling Taiwanese food a branch of Chinese cooking is like calling Ecuadorian food a branch of Mexican cooking. It's an ignorant statement. We're talking about two distinct, albiet intertwined cultures, with their own ingredients and sensibilities. And, after speaking with people who have spent decent amounts of time both in China and Taiwan, (I've been to Taiwan, and can confirm that the food is awesome, though I can't comment on food in China), I have found that the majority prefer the food in Taiwan to that in China. It's not an offshoot.

Ok, now that I'm done with my little rant, let me tell you about the restaurant. When we walked in, it wasn't packed. But the good thing was that the majority of the ppl in there were actually Chinese/Taiwanese (always a good sign). We were given some very tasty seasoned peanuts and pickled veggies and menus, but I'd already looking it up online. The reviewer from the Dig was right in some respects, there were a lot of typically "Chinese" entrees on the menu, but if he'd consulted someone, he might have figured out that there were many distinctly Taiwanese dishes on the menu. (like the spicy beef soup, that I used to love as a kid) Unfortuantely, I had eaten lunch just a few hours before, so I wasn't terribly hungry. I ended up just ordering a chive pocket and a scallion pancake. Juliet ordered the fried porkchop with rice (classic Taiwanese) while Tom ordered the salt and pepper shrimp and some fried, roasted pork thingy.

The scallion pancake was pretty good (I've had much better, esp. at the Taiwanese dim sum places in Belmont and Watertown), but the chive pocket was disappointing. The pastry wasn't crispy and the filling was not great. I did love Tom's salt and pepper shrimp. Dare I say, they were even better than the ones at Victoria's, much juicer and plumper. Of course, I couldn't try out the other dishes, but I think Juliet and Tom both enjoyed them.

I was hoping to find Taiwanese dim sum serve at Mulan, but unfortunately, they don't do it. Guess I'll have to keep going to Belmont/Watertown. But the food was decent enough that I'd like to go back at a later point, when I'm actually hungry, and try out more dishes.

CAFE HAN RIVER
Normally we refer to this place as Han River, but everyone online calls it Cafe Han River. Anyway, it's this tiny Korean restaurant located right on Beacon and St. Mary's, around the corner from my place. I've lived at my apt for over a year now and tried virtually every restaurant around it, (I refuse to go to Chef Chang's) except for this one. I was quite wary of the tiny Korean restaurant in Brookline, though, so wasn't eager to check it out.

Luckily, Tom tried it out first. He got some take out lunch from the place and said it was pretty decent. (and since Tom's Korean, I tend to trust his opinion in this area.) After work, I was completely exhausted and not interested in cooking at all, so I also decided to get take out from Han River. After looking at the take out menu (which is pretty tiny, just like 15 options), I decided to get the grilled chicken dish and then waited 15 minutes before I ran out to pick it up. Turns out that the restaurant is actually really cute. It is tiny, with just five tables, so they do mainly take out business, and it's run by an adorable elderly Korean couple. The wife does the cooking while the husband takes care of everything else.

Back at home, I was starving and proceeded to wolf down my dinner. Along with the grilled chicken, there was rice, a little kimchi and a side of my favorite seasoned bean sprout salad. Tom was right, it was pretty decent for take out. True, I could've easily made everything myself and probably a better version of it, but sometimes it's nice just to have someone else do the cooking for you. I'll probably be back, on the next day I'm exhausted and just can't muster the energy or inspiration to cook.

KOREAN BBQ AT YASU

Wow. I'm totally in a blogging kind of mood today. Probably because I'm bored at work.
With back to back Sox games taking place in Fenway, everyone's either in the square to see the games or avoiding the square because of the games. Sigh. Good thing we went to Yasu for dinner last night so I can share that experience with all of you.

So I'd driven by Yasu several times and I had noticed it, but since it was a Korean/Japanese restaurant in Coolidge Corner, I just assumed that it wasn't really a place I wanted to try. However, Katie tried it last week and said it was pretty good, and there was a decent review in the Globe about it and more than anything else, we were a little desperate to find great Korean BBQ in Boston. So after a cold rainy day spent outdoors watching the Pride parade, it was nice to get inside to a warm and cozy bbq joint. When we walked in I was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly large restaurant with the traditional bbq grills and more than that, there were a fair number of Asians in the place (always a good sign). We were seated in a back room with our own table grill. Here's a pic of one of the other tables. You'll notice the vent above too.So there were a bunch of us at dinner (and it's always nice to share stuff at Korean bbq). We started off with 2 orders of scallion seafood pancakes and I must say they did a good job with these. I enjoyed it a lot, and hoped that the following entrees would be just as yummy.So for those of you who have never been to Korean BBQ, you get to order some type of meat and grill it yourself. We got 2 orders of beef and 2 of chicken. And it comes with a whole bunch of sides, which I think is one of my favorite parts. I didn't photograph all of them. I think Tom's friend already thought I was a freak for photographing the food at all, while the rest of you have become accustomed to my eccentricities. But here are the shots i did get. My favorites are always the spinach or beansprouts seasoned with sesame oil. and spicy cucumbers. Though the ones at Yasu are a bit too spicy for me. (always be careful with any red colored foods at a Korean restaurant.)Then the meat arrived. First we grilled the beef bulgogi. You'll notice in the pic above the meat being place on the grill. Leah didn't think the beef was sliced very well. And I'd agree with her if i actually ate beef. At any rate, it appeared to be way too thin and ended up looking a lot like the meat that should go into a cheesesteak (if you've ever had one of those.) So you take the meat, wrap it up in lettuce with some rice and bean paste and whatever little additions you'd like to add. Which is exactly what I did with the chicken below.
So the verdict. Mutual agreement among the two Koreans at dinner plus the girl who grew up eating Korean bbq in LA...Yasu was allright. Leah actually like it less than Koreana, the Korean BBQ place in Cambridge, which i don't really like at all. For me, in the two times that I've had Korean BBQ in Boston, the marinade on the chicken just hasn't been right. Koreana's was kinda muted and strange. While at Yasu I didn't like that the meat was marinate in a spicy sauce. I kinda like adding the spice by myself. Plus, I like doing the grilling on my own, and at Yasu, there as sort of this assumption by the waitstaff that we didn't know what we were doing, so they kept grilling stuff for us.

Ah well. It was a decent meal and worth a shot. I think i'll be holding out for Korean BBQ in NY or LA for future outings.