Amongst the fantastic kitchen that Vietnam has to offer, every now and then it feels nice to take a little side quest in cuisines. Not that I am fed up with Vietnamese food, far from that actually. But it is good to make some change in cuisine every now and then.
After all, while being in the Netherlands...you also don't eat Dutch food every day right?
So we went for a little side step and tried the Korean BBQ concept. I had heard of this, but never tried it before. Lets have a look!
So the idea of Korean BBQ is that you have your own little grill and prepare your own food right at the table. You can put all kinds of food on the grill, but some meat and shells totally feel about right.
After grilling you also have all of these different sauces to dip in. And together with your bites are some kimchi (fermented cale) and some carrot or horseradish.
Every good meal starts with quality products and as you can see this meat platter was just a bunch of super tasty stuff. Some pork in there and different types of beef and those are marinated in decent sauce. Yummy!
Then next that we also ordered some scallaps which came right on the shell with some garlic and spring onions. You just put the entire shell on your little grill and when sauce is boiling that also means your scallop is boiling. (Or when the shell gets so hot that it bursts, but I dont think that is how it is supposed to be haha)
Then also with some grilling of carrot sticks and whole garlic cloves, it makes a super cool addition!
The whole idea on why this is fun to me is that you are actively working on your own food. It is not just order, sit and wait but a whole ritual of preparing everything.
It is share everything, and pass on all of the condiments, and take the time to wait until your little piece is cooked. I like these kinds of things and they remind me a bit on a Dutch tradition we call 'gourmetten' which is a bit of the same thing but the on an electrical grill versus charcoal.
This Korean grill place was also just in a fun theme as well. Everything was with rockets and stars and there were even some cool murals inside as wel as stargazer. Love it!
Looking back on this first Korean BBQ experience I was happy with it! The concept is fun, the food is good. What else would you need more when taking a little side step from the Vietnamese food.
