Korean Diner

One of my foreign friends in Korea thinks that I have a food blog.  I do tell him that is not true all the time but of course on occasion food is included. Since he lives in Korea as well maybe he can let me know if my food descriptions are accurate. A Korean diner has a few things in common with an American style diner.  For the most part they serve comfort type food that everyone is familiar with and some of them are always open.  Those are really the only similarities to comparing a Korean diner with an American style diner.  So what is a Korean diner like?  Like previously mentioned side dishes are still served and of course chopsticks are in all diners.  One thing that is pretty unique in all restaurants and not simply just diners is the menu posted on the wall.

  

Following I will describe a few comfort type foods that are found all over the place.  First I will describe kimbap.  Now a little Korean lesson in what kimbap means: kim means seaweed and bap means rice.  So basically in every kimbap there is seaweed and rice and then usually other things in the middle with it all being rolled up.  Some different ones include: tuna, beef, cheese, plain, kimchi, etc.  My favorite one pictured below in the middle has: radish, egg, crab, a root, carrot, and a green vegetable.  This one is a basic one but the one I seem to like the most.

    

Next will be dhakboggie.  There is not much to this dish with the main thing being dhak (Korean way to say rice cake) mixed in this red sauce.  Typically there are also pieces of cabbage, fish cake, and a hard boiled egg that comes in this dish too.  To add more to this dish you can order raboggie which simply adds rameon noodles to this dish along with everything else already mentioned. This food is also considered a street food and is a favorite amongst Koreans. 

Found at a market plus on far side are fish cake on stick in a broth substance. 

The next dish goes by the name of bibimbap.  This is a bowl of rice with different things inside plus a spicy red sauce to top it all off.  Typical things found inside it are seaweed, bean sprouts, green vegetable, lettuce, roots, radishes, and a fried egg.  Of course there are different variations.  With this dish most people mix it all up and eat it together. 

Next dish is more of a stew type dish.  It is called Kimchi jiggae.  Jiggae roughly translates into a stew type dish and so there are multiple types of jiggae.  As the name does suggest there is kimchi in this dish.  Other things found in the dish are onions, green onions, tofu, and pork.  This dish can be a little spicy.  Even with my dislike of kimchi at the beginning, I have always seemed to like this dish.

Final dish I will describe in detail is known as a donkassu.  This basically is a breaded piece of pork that is fried up and has a sauce over the top of it.  There are plain donkassu and also cheese donkassu which is the one that is pictured below.  This dish originally is a Japanese food item but Korea has adopted it over the years.  Plus to my knowledge this is the only dish where a fork and knife are used.  

      

Of course there are other items I didn’t describe in detail.  Other items include different rameons (Korea has a ton of Rameon varieties), different fried rices, different noodle dishes, omrice (omelette rice concoction), different stews, dumplings, etc.  Overall though that was a look at some Korean food that is found at a diner or along the streets of Korea.  Last weekend I went up to Seoul with some friends where we watched a ballgame.  It was a good weekend but could have been better if it was warmer.  This week at work is pretty typical.  This weekend I don't have set plans yet but I might take a day trip to go see some friends.  I will write later.