SOUTH KOREA 🇰🇷
It has always been around here and there, but in recent years the pojangmacha-style Korean pub format seems to be taking over New York City's Korean food scene, especially in and around Murray Hill, Queens. Another new establishment, opened up earlier this year, is Chingunae Pocha, a bustling and friendly place that seems to get a good crowd. Sometimes many of these type of pubs do not get truly busy until close to midnight, but Chingunae seems to thread the line between dinner and late night drinking and might be full even if you show up at 8 or 9pm.
Part of this might be because their decent happy hour food specials, large format dishes best enjoyed with a group of at least four. Also make sure your group comes ready to drink soju, as they serve many varieties like any respectable pocha (short for pojangmacha) should.
Korean drinking culture, written about at length here at nearby Old Days Corp., must involve surrounding yourself with good friends and good food. Actually the food needs to be good, but the friends can become good by the end of the night.
As usual, some kind of heat source is at the table for a combination of dishes to arrive and be prepared. Some require stir-frying, mostly for effect at the table right before eating, which is all handled by the staff. On a recent visit the dish below was put down and a couple seconds went by before the server asked "Don't you want to take a picture first?"
Having only a party of two for this meal, the options for a full feast were limited, but the stir-fried pork belly and squid ($35, above and below) was a great choice that provided for quite a bit of leftovers as well. Once the fire was on and our server mixed everything together, each bite was full of many textures and flavors, all brought together by the lovely spicy sauce.
The menu included a few pub food-type favorites that were served in a bed of melted cheese like the marinated spicy baby back ribs with melted cheese ($26, below). It was unfortunately almost obvious that these would not be so delicious upon arrival though, as the sauce appeared to be a sticky sweet glop.
The taste was not much different from that description, although the rib meat was tender and fine. The afterthought of a sauce was just such a disappointment. While certainly not fancy cheese, the stringy hot bed of it was enjoyed at least by half of the table. At some places you will see the server wrap the cheese around each rib and place them on your plate, but here is completely do it yourself, which is probably better for those wanting higher quantities of one part.
Cheese seems to be something you see more and more of over the years in Korean restaurants as spice levels of dishes are tempered with it. The newer generations of Koreans seem to love it far more than their parents and grandparents.
For a true sense of the scope here, a return visit is looked forward to to try more and pair things with soju.
Picked clean.
Go home, you're drunk.
🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.