One really nice change this time I came was that it started of with a bottle of cold water at the table. Usually its pretty hard to get water and its a place where water is pretty great to have. The meal started off with a selection of appetizers, some of which I could identify (kimchi) and others that I couldn't.
The restaurant was a little less busy than usual (though still pretty crowded) so they refilled the mung bean dish a few times before the entrees came. The first time I went – my uncle took me – I had the Bi Bim Bop and, quite frankly, didn't enjoy it much. A few years later, I started coming back for the tofu soon soup.
The soup comes to your table in a big bowl still bubbling from the kitchen. Its filled with a delicious spicy mix of tofu, broccoli and zucchini. This is why the water comes in handy. You can either sip the soup directly, or pour it over purple rice to cool it. The practice is to crack an egg in the soup, which gets cooked by the boiling broth. I tend not to do that, though I think I'll probbaly start doing it again. The rice water is left at the table, I have a silly tradition wher I take a sip of it (though I sometimes forget, including at this meal. Dinner comes out to be $8 a person which is very reasonable in my opinion.
Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu Korean Restaurant
691 Bloor St. West, Toronto, ON
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Hee hee hee.
ReplyDeleteWhat's amazing is how few expats have ever been to a restaurant like Buk Chang Dong or any Korean restaurant at all before they come here. For many expats their first taste of kimchi comes after they get off the plane.
Yes, Buk Chang Dong is great and it's so cheap. True, don't bother with the Dol Sot Bibimbap or the bulgogi dish they offer. That's not the point. When there are 6 different versions of sundubu jjigae on the menu, that's what you should get, a sundubu jjigae.
Do go with the egg, it's better. And yeah, you're supposed to drink the scalded rice broth and eat the rice once it peels off the side of the bowl. It's the hot stone rice taste!
I guess maybe they're doing the leap-into-the-deep-end school of cultural acclimatization. I'd probably want to try at least a little kimchi first. It makes sense that if its a restaurant that specializes in x, you should get x. My question to you is, should you get x everytime or occasionally try something else? Or maybe experiment at different restaurants.
ReplyDeleteI think I probably will go with the egg next time I'm there. And have more ricewater!