Korean Barbeque

I've never been a big fan of Korean food. Mainly it's because I've never really had Korean food. I vaguely recall having Korean BBQ when I was in Bangkok with my mother and my aunt. Beyond the focus on made and cooking at the table myself, there isn't much that I remember about it. I've tended to avoid Korean food mainly because I perceive that it's very spicy. I have a rather wussy spice tolerance although I can take a pretty decent amount of Chinese heat due to growing up with my dad's pepper sauce. You may think that it's odd to say that one can tolerate one kind of heat and not another, but it's really true. I swear. Anyhow, J really enjoys spicy food and has mostly done without it the last six or so years, so I figure I should increase my spice tolerance.

My commute is typically slow-moving and depressing. One of my so-called "shortcuts" takes me down Buford Highway, home to a concentration of Atlanta's Asian and Mexican restaurants. I enjoy looking at all the restaurants as I drive by and typically coming up with some plan to try all of them. J bears with all this rather stoically.

So when we were planning to go out to dinner with T&M, I suggested Korean BBQ. It's good enough for my sister to eat (she's rather picky) though with the caveat that one generally leaves smelling like greasy meat.

With that in mind, I did my research and found that many in Atlanta feel that Hae Woon Dae (5805 Buford Highway) is the best in the city. For our first collective experience with Korean BBQ, it was quite enjoyable. We ordered four of the BBQ dishes: beef short ribs, tender beef, spicy pork, and squid. Our waiter, notified in advance that this was our first Korean BBQ experience, was incredibly nice and friendly. He came to cook the meats, clearly in charge of the meat cooking experience himself. When the first batch of meat was done, he carefully taught us how to build our bites by dipping the meat in a sauce before putting it into a piece of lettuce with thinly sliced scallions, rice, and some fermented soybean paste. Tasty. All of the sides that came with the meal were quite enjoyable. J particularly enjoyed the kimchi.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience, but I was hoping more to cook my own meats. Some of the meat was a bit gristly and the squid was way overcooked.

And so I went back to research. The Blissful Glutton has mentioned in the past that her favorite place was Yong Soo San, but sadly they have closed so I was left without a good suggestion.

My research ultimately yielded the results that Cho Won Buffet in Duluth (3635 Satellite Blvd) allows you to cook your own meat. And so one night after hitting up Microcenter, we stopped off at Cho Won for dinner. Typically buffets kind of scare me, but Cho Won was crowded and the food turnover was quick. There was a selection of somewhat suspicious-looking sushi rolls that I stayed away from, a pretty good selection of meats for BBQing, some fresh and canned fruit for dessert, a whole mess of hot dishes including fried croaker, potato noodles, and the like, all of which were clearly labeled. I love it when foods are labeled. They also had two soups: the Korean miso soup (which really looks nothing like Japanese miso) and a spicy vegetable soup that made my eyes water just by opening the soup container.

Although I felt that the meats were of slightly better quality here, all of the sides were a bit off, either a little bland or a little too big to be bitesize. Overall, I was very happy that I could choose what items I felt like eating, but was disappointed in the sides.

Last weekend as J and I headed out of town up 85, traffic was so horrible that we turned off to stop for dinner. At McDonald's. It's horrible, I know. As J repacked some items in the car (read that as took an extraordinarily long amount of time), I bounced over to the shopping center next to the McDonald's to check out the Korean BBQ place. The name was only listed in Korean and my curiosity got the best of me. When faced with a McDonald's vs. very-sesame-smelling-but-untried-Korean-BBQ place, you can probably guess which one we chose!

Myung Ga Won (1960 Day Dr) was a delightful dinner, far better than any calorie-laden McDonald's burger could have been. We chose two bbq plates: ribeye and the tender beef. Both were awesome. The meat here was the highest quality that we have had so far. All of the sides were very tasty. Our waitress obviously was concerned that we wouldn't know what we were doing and came to check on us every minute or two. I think she helped me put together every other bite. This was very helpful though since she introduced us to wrapping the meat, rice, and seasoned scallions in pickled daikon discs. Delicious!

Certainly, this is the best Korean BBQ place we have been to. With the constant attention, our side dishes were constantly being refilled. The scallion mixture was spiced -- with what, I have no idea -- but it was tasty and not very spicy. I forgot to put it into one of my little packages and then was disappointed.

Among the sides, was an odd mashed potato-like igloo scoop with a yellow gravy-like liquid poured over it. I kept taking small bites of it, but could only come up with a kind of starchy explanation of what it was. When we were almost done eating, I finally convinced the reluctant J to taste it. He dipped a chopstick into it, a pause, and then... "it's potato salad!" And then he ate the whole thing. It was amazing.

After the meal, we got a small bowl of soup. It reminds me vaguely of one of the ching bo leung soups that my mother made me when I was little, but pureed. (Read about ching bo leung in wikipedia or Chinese wikipedia. Note against that English wikipedia entry: ching bo leung is cleansing and isn't sweet or salty. Instead, it's mostly bland with a touch of salty, just enough to keep it tasty. And it's served hot.) After that, we got a small dessert soup. I don't remember much about it, but it was fruity and refreshing.

So our Korean BBQ expeditions appear to be at an end since we have found our favorite place. The trend would tell us that we should try one more place since every place has gotten better than the last, but I don't think that one will get better than Myung Ga Won. You should try it sometime!