Mon 19 Mar 2007
I have gotten a slew of emails lately and while I’ve done my best to answer them, please add your 2 cents.
Anytime mints are a curious candy, once you have a taste for the vanilla mint, no other will ever do. Sadly I could not find an online source for Anytime mints. I did, however, find them at my local Korean Grocery Chain Pal-Do World. If you have a hankering for these I suggest contacting your local Korean grocery and begging, or try calling Pal-do and ask to special order a case. Those of you reading in Korea could stand to make a mint here. Ba-dam ba! I really didn’t intend for that pun, but seriously, you could start an export business out of your apartment.
Calories in Ddok. One of my favorite friends back in Seoul recently emailed me asking, no doubt dreading the answer, if there were a ton of calories in ddok. The sad answer? YES. Though I love ddokboggie and ddokgochi, and ddok guk, the long slender fingers of processed rice cakes are just about as bad for you as a bag of chips. Of course I have no hard-core evidence to back this up, but I vaguely remember reading a JoongAng Daily article about unhealthy snacks and sitting pretty next to a big mac was a bowl of ddokboggie.
Street Food in Seoul.
Recently I got an email from a reader about to visit the land of the morning calm on a stop over asking for suggestions on where to eat Street Food. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a pojangmacha, but some high concentrated areas for grazing include Dongdaemoon market, Myeongdong shopping area, and around Yongsan Station.
Korean Style Fried Chicken in Seattle
The NY Times article, featuring fantastic Korean foodie Zen Kimchi, has sparked interested in Korean Fried Chicken. Recently I was asked where to find this in Seattle, and here is what I could find. Imo’s in Pioneer Square does a Cornish game hen treated to a Korean style fry, and, according to ChowHound.com, a little place in Federal Way, past Federal Way Discount Guns. If you know of a place anywhere in the I-5 Corridor, let me know.
Finally beloved, who muses at belovedbabbling, is asking for Korean restaurants in the Downtown Seattle vicinity. Sadly, I am not an expert here. I know of The Shilla, possible one of Seattle’s oldest Korean restaurants, however I cannot attest to the quality of the food. Then there is Shilla Korean BBQ, a small Kimbap Nara-ish joint in the Uwajimaya food court. Any Suggestions?
March 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Thanks a bunch, Mary! Even something Kimbap Nala-ish sounds pretty good right about now. Truly, just about anything that slightly resembles Korean food would probably suffice; that’s how desperate I am.
March 19th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
WHAT?! I thought ddok was just rice someone had pounded with a mallet whilst wearing hanbok! How can it have almost as many calories as a Big Mack (whatever that might be) ? boo…
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Yes, ddok has quite high calories, but I think it is not fair to compare to a Big Mac, though. Ddok does not contain any fat. It is pure carbohydrate.
March 26th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
True, not a lot of fat but those carbs turn into fat if you get too many of them! How bout some updates on the brown grain dok? Wouldn’t that have less refinedness (I made that word up) to it and thus be less bad for you?
March 26th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
shilla has been hit or miss - medicore the first time i went and pretty good the second time. I guess I need to go one more time to get a final verdict
there are a couple of cheap places in cap hill (like Kimchi Bistro). A lot of the teriyaki places around here esp in the U-dist will serve korean along with the usual teriyaki servings but they will probably not be so good.
If you want better korean food be ready to go north or south to neighboring cities like lynnwood, fed way, shoreline and tacoma.
May 20th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Kimchi Bistro on Broadway does the job very nicely, especially for the price. Their soon doo boo is well within the bounds of authenticity; though not the hottest ever, it certainly wasn’t cooked for the lilly-tongued. Excellent banchan. Haven’t tried the bulgogi or bibimbap.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
There are some great places in Lakewood.