Eating Korean

Eating Korean food was a new taste sensation for our group, when we went to the Han River Korean Restaurant. We had all tried Chinese of course, but Korean cooking was new to most of us. The owners graciously welcomed us into their restaurant. Luckily the menus had pictures as well as descriptions of each dish on offer, which made choosing a little easier. It was to be a special night, as Trish’s Korean house guest Kiko was helping out in the kitchen with the cooking.

What to choose is always a trial for me, and even more so since everything was completely new. Robin and I decided to each order a different starter, so that we could have a taste of each others. After much debating we decided on the belly pork. This was a main for two, and was delivered to the table on a little hot plate, rather like a small BBQ.

Belly pork and vegetables waiting to be cooked at the table

The owner then came and lit the stove, and told us that he would be cooking the meal for us. As the pork and vegetables sizzled away, he would come by and turn them over. When the first lot of pork was cooked, we were invited to start eating, while he cooked another batch. The pork was delicious, and tasted rather like smoky bacon. We loved the taste of little side dish of chilli paste that was served with the pork, and felt rather special as all the other meals were delivered to the table.

How is this for service?

I ordered Korean sweet biscuits for dessert, while Robin stuck with his tried and true choice of ice-cream, he couldn’t go wrong with that, he reasoned. To finish I tried a cup of ginger tea – this was just delicious and something I would try again. We had a lovely night, good company, excellent service, and the food was tasty and interesting, we would certainly recommend this Korean restaurant for those who want to try something a little different.

As we said our goodbyes to our friends on the footpath outside the Han River Restaurant, we happened to glance into a German restaurant right next door. There we saw a large table of Asian people tucking into their German meal. It just goes to show that whatever their ethnicity, people are happy to sample the food of other cultures.