Bites Around the World: Korea

On Monday night, 11 of my co-workers and I headed to Cho Won Garden, one of the only Korean restaurants in Charlotte. Paul, an analyst from Korea, claims that this restaurant is pretty authentic (although it doesn't compare to the Korean food you can get in bigger cities like NYC) and took over ordering for the whole table. If I've ever had Korean food before, I was too young to remember what it was like, so this was a first experience for me.  It was a feast.

The waiter first brought out eight dishes for each section of the table. This really reminded me of eating at Arab restaurants in Israel, where the waiters bring our eight or twelve dishes full of vegetables and spreads right when you sit down. From the top right: bean sprouts, radishes in a spicy sauce, mixed vegetable kim chi, "egg pudding" (basically tasted like hard boiled egg white), seaweed with spicy sauce, beans, sweet potatoes in honey and sesame seeds (delish), and kim chi.

The waiter then brought out a big plate of clear, glass-like noodles stir-fried with vegetables and shaved beef. This was one of the best dishes (that's Adam going for seconds or thirds).

Next were the soups: spicy bean paste soup on the left and bean curd and seafood on the right. I loved the bean paste soup - it was salty and spicy and really, really good.

Some kind of spicy octopus and cabbage dish that came out steaming and sizzling like a plate of fajitas.

This is the "pancake" - kind of reminded me of a Chinese scallion pancake, but this had octopus in it. Also very good!

 
 

There's more...the waiter then brought out Korean BBQ (below) and Korean pork. Both were super yummy. Paul told us to make lettuce wraps and add the sauce at the bottom of the picture below:

This was legit SO much food, but we did a pretty good job clearing the plates. I'd definitely like to try Korean again sometime!