Thursday, June 02, 2005

5 More Things

5 More Things About Han Sung Oak

1. The outfits the waitresses dressed in looked like they were Japanese Anime Schoolgirls. I expected them to fight each other with maces and laser bolts that shot stars and hearts. It was a little disconcerting to see 40-year-old women dressed like they needed a bookbag.

2. The marinade for the chicken (and beef for that matter) ROCKED. We kept pouring it on our rice.

3. How can you tell you're not Korean? If they give you potato salad as part of the panchan. It's so bizaare. Here are all of these awesome little dishes of jellyfish, tofu, kimchee and seeweed and there's...a little plate of potato salad. Thanks to the chowhound boards we were prepared but it was still the most disconcerting thing to have potato salad as part of your meal. Of course the people of Korean descent weren't given the potato salad.

4. The seafood pancake is a meal in itself. In fact, most of the appetizers were huge. The first time we came and ordered it, we thought we'd get this little quarter sized pancake and what comes out is a pancake the size od a large serving platter.

5. The waitstaff really doesn't want you to grill the meat yourself. They come to your table and put the meat on the grill and then come back when it's ready and turn it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, potato salad is a very common panchan. It's usually less mustardy (more mayo) compared to some American styles. And restaurants routinely serve it to even Koreans (I'm one). BTW, bibimpap tends to be quite flavorful because of the spicy red paste. Not sure if you put that in your dish (you're supposed to mix the paste with everything in the bowl). Bibimpap is probably one of the three big dishes for non-Koreans to try first. The others being kalbi (ribs - should be marinated) and bulgogi (usually a sweeter marinade than kalbi).