The older you get the harder it seems to decide on where to go for birthday dinners. Some people go for the steak and red wine, some for wings and burr, while others might go for the sushi and sake. I have had bbqs for the past few years on my magical day but this year I wanted to do something a little bit different. One of the best tasting foods, other than the wonderful lettuce wraps I’ve created after numerous deviations from the original recipe, are the Korean beef…
sizzle sizzle! mmm!
SIDENOTE – korean beef was the dish’s name introduced to me by my fantastic mother. I’ve learned to take caution when learning recipes or names of dishes from her. On one normal day of Christmas (it really was a normal day because my family doesn’t really celebrate any form of Christmas anymore besides the mandatory Christmas day church but that’s a story for another day) we had a wondefully cooked turkey. Nice and crispy on the outside and had a nice flavour of chinese cooking and found out my mom had it done from some restaurant. My best friend was over having dinner and found it to be pretty good. She asked my mom where she had it cooked and got a reply similar to “from the Chinese.” Since I am one of the few translators of Chato-to-English I knew she meant she had it cooked from a Vietnamese restaurant within a local Superstore called Kim Truong (sp?). The next year the turkey was converted into ham by “the Germans“. That’s a wonderful skill to have. Similar to alchemy, I guess, instead turning everything into ham. Anyway, after an internet search, I found korean beef is the name for the dish but is also known as kalbi/galbi. Apologies for the sidecourse. Back to the story.
…also known as kalbi or galbi. Instead of making it why not go to a Korean restaurant?
chum-churum yum!
My time out eating food and drinking soju with my brother and his friends in a Korean restaurant in Toronto was also a big influence. They introduced me to kampoongi, something something moo-chim, some other good dish and the wonderful world of soju & beer. The atomsphere was hot and humid as hell (assuming hell has some water left for humidity), the food was nice and spicy and the only thing to relieve yourself from the heat was a cold shot of strictly beer or soju. When one person drinks everyone’s gotta drink but these weren’t your let’s-see-how-fast-we-can-get-drunk shots. This was a laid back casual way of tagay-ing the drinks. This was the atmosphere I wanted to create with my friends at a restaurant near my apartment called Right There!.
Right There! is a Korean restaurant that started off as a Korean museum and teahouse and expanded their delish dish list over time. Say that 50 times fast! Located on 472 Stradbrook Ave., this uniquely furnished restaurant is owned by, surprise surprise, a Korean couple. I think the entrance was the museum portion of the building displaying some statues and teapots and such which were for sale. This is where we were greeted by one of the owner’s who seemed like a nice traditional Korean lady (if I’ve ever known a traditional Korean lady). She had a grace that needed to get used to that easily adds to their atmosphere and style. In the background, your ears will be soothed with music dvds from artists like Josh Groban and Celine Dion. Personally, I’d rather listen to soothing Korean music and not understand it but everyone’s got their preferences. It’d be a hoot to watch some hardcore drunk Koreans go at it singing their hearts out to My Heart Will Go On. With dishes appropriately named I Heart Pork BBQ and set menus named Happy Beef, what’s not to love? It makes you just want to hug that carebear sitting on the lacquered tree stump beside you. Yes, you’ve read it right. Their decor makes me envision a nice Korean wood cabin with wooden tables, stumps, I mean chairs, and spoons all heavily protected by clearcoat…well, with the exception of the spoon. Speaking of spoons, let’s head on to the meal.
Their menu selection isn’t vast by any means but they offer enough variety for the beginners like me to enjoy. Unfortunately, they didn’t serve any of the dishes I liked in Toronto but as long as they had Korean beef or kalbi then all was well. One of my buddies, R&E, had been to this place several times and suggested to try the shrimp pancake. He’s a good friend of mine and is one of my go-to guys for asian culture knowledge and is available if any of you ladies reading this are interested! Aaah? Aaah? Nudge nudge. Ahem! They also have a nice selection of Korean sushi although I wasn’t interested in sushi at the time. The Korean lady was very helpful to answer all of our questions although at times we were lost in translation. After several confusing discussions we came to agree we were having 2 orders of kalbi, 1 order of shrimp pancake, 1 order of yummy spicy chicken, 1 order of Happy Beef, and 1 order of Happy Octopus. For alcohol we were going for soju and beer. We found out they were out of beers because of Canada Day. What?! Screw birthday plans next year. I’m hitting this place up next Canada Day! For today, I guess we’ll just be drinking soju and water.
Let’s start off with the water. In some asian restaurants you’ll have tap water or sometimes lemon or even cucumber inside the pitcher of water. The first time I’ve ever been to Right There! I had cucumber water which was nice and refreshing during the summer months. This time around they served us some Korean iced tea water. Mmmm you might think but it was sugarless. Imagine a Korean form of the ice tea you get from the our friends down below the border in the Dakota states. Don’t get me wrong because it was cold and refreshing although the after taste was something I wasn’t expecting. So bring on the soju! Now the nice Korean lady had 4 bottles of what I thought were soju laid out on the center table. I asked what kind of soju they had and she said they only had one type. Confusing as this is, I just looked back at the 4 bottles and said “Ok, I’ll take the soju.” Looking at the menu, they did only list one as soju and the rest were different kinds of wine although I did see one which looked like a chum-churum soju bottle (the one I’ve had with my brother and his friends in Toronto). Anyway, soju is a Korean alcoholic beverage that can resemble sake or vodka but soju is much smoother and a tad bit sweeter. I’m not an alcohol connoisseur, yet haha, but I’d much rather drink soju than sake or vodka straight. After a few rounds of soju shots we tried the plum wine. It comes in a similar bottle and contains some actual plums inside. This was a tamer sweeter drink that the ladies prefered with only 14% alcohol. When we reached the bottom of the bottle a few of us tried the plum. Since it was preserved in this soju mix it made me think about a green olive having a plum’s child in a home sojubath birth. If you can follow me with that imagery you pretty much can imagine the taste without having it. With around $15 a bottle, both can yield around 8 to 10 shots of nice chilled smoothness to compliment the spicy food that’s about to come up.
One form of panchan we had in Toronto
All the dishes started lining up and looked great. I like especially like the serving plates and dinnerware and stone bowls!!! Well, we didn’t have anything with a stone bowl but I did have it before and will be added to this review near the end. All of the dishes came with panchan/banchan which are various Korean side dishes. They come in four different types: kimchee, seaweed, potato, and some white vege (daikon?). Kimchee is a spicy pickeled cabbage and is one of the most well known Korean items. I can taste kimchee in some of the dishes I’ve tried. Some people loved the potato panchan and although I looooove potatoes it didn’t bring anything different to the table for me and all of my previous potato experience. The loser of the 4 was the white vege one as hardly anyone commented on it. My favourite was the seaweed. Some of you might not like it and might even be a little squeemish towards it but I love sushi and seaweed salad so naturally I’m going to like seaweed panchan. We could only do so much with the side dishes and started on the main entrees.
servin' up the shrimp pancake asian style!
My least favourite dish was the yummy spicy chicken. The name really surprised me because it didn’t turn out too yummy or spicy for me. It reminded me of a bland asian chicken stew called yummy spicy chicken. Alright, it wasn’t that bad but I did forget how it tasted like. Next on the list is the shrimp pancake. Now I’ve had buttermilk pancakes and potato pancakes, which are the best thanks to my BFFE for the introduction. This was more similar to ukoy, a filipino dish where you take shredded papaya, bean sprouts and shrimp and coat it in some sort of cornstarch batter (I think) similar to pancake mix but not and deep fry the hell out of the thing. Yes, yes, here we go with the deep fried foods again. The taste was a little different but it was good. I’m glad we ordered it because it wasn’t marinated or covered in sauce like all the other dishes. It came with some sort of soy sauce and vinegar mix with sesame seeds on the side or something along the lines of that. I don’t think I’ll be craving this dish anytime soon though. The happy beef and the happy octopus were set meals that came with the same sides: rice soup, 8 pieces of Korean sushi, japchae, kimchee pancake and salad. If you can imagine how a tamed down watery version of congee or lugaw then you’ve got the rice soup down. My highlight eating this soup was using the wooden spoon…NEXT! I don’t remember how the salad tasted like but I know it didn’t put my tastebuds off and coming from the shrimp pancake, the kimchee pancake was no surprise. The Korean sushi was nice. I saw some beef in the pieces I ate but I’d much rather go to a sushi bar to eat sushi. The only item I am currently craving from this meal set is the japchae. It might have been so good because of the noodles and boy do I love noodles but I’ve got to say japchae is gooooood! Japchae is glass noodles stir fried in sesame oil and mixed with sliced beef and veges. I think soy sauce, a bit of sugar and some spice are also added. Great stuff! Now, the best is yet to come…the korean beef (kalbi)!!! I’ve got to let it out and say Korean beef is my favourite form of BBQ. Nothing else beats it (so far). The kalbi we had here was very good. So good that my chompers took everything off the bone. I MEAN EVERYTHING! Well, that’s how I eat! If you haven’t tried Korean beef and love BBQ go and get it NOW! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If I had to come back, I’d be making my own combo called Feeling the Happy Beef Noodles So Soju Good. In it would be 1 order of japchae, 1 order of kalbi and 1 bottle of soju (an expensive combo I’m sure). After all was down and out, I wasn’t 100% full but was content until I saw the price haha. While it won’t break the bank it is a bit more on the pricier side of asian cuisine. What would a birthday dinner be without some post meal pictures? We asked the nice Korean lady if she could take our picture and she gracefully agreed. “Say kimchee. Sreeee Twoooo One,” she said and snapped a nice picture of us. Boy does that add to their vibe and also adds something else to my photographing repertoire. Say kimcheesy!!! Flash!
Say kimchee!!! Sreeee! Twoooo! One!
Right There! Tea, Food & Wine Korean Museum Restaurant
APPEARANCE ©©©© 4/5
VALUE ©©© 3/5
TASTE N/A
Yummy Spicy Chicken
APPEARANCE ©© 2/5
VALUE ©©© 3/5
TASTE ©© 2/5
Shrimp Pancake
APPEARANCE ©©© 3/5
VALUE ©©© 3/5
TASTE ©©© 3/5
Happy Octopus
APPEARANCE ©©©© 4/5
VALUE ©©© 3/5
TASTE ©©© 3/5
Happy Beef
APPEARANCE ©©©© 4/5
VALUE ©©© 3/5
TASTE ©©© 3/5
Korean Beef/Kalbi
APPEARANCE ©©© 3/5
VALUE ©©©© 4/5
TASTE ©©©© 4/5
I always thought it was called bip bam bop.
Bonus Dish Review – The first time I came here I had ordered Bi-Bim Bap. Sounds like your nephew causing ruckus with that inflatable hammer you got for him at The Red River Ex, I know! This was a dish the nice Korean lady kept pushing. It’s a great comfort food dish that comes in a hot stone bowl. This is like a combo in itself as it has rice, veges, beef BBQ, and a freakin’ sunny side up egg on top! If you like crispy rice like I do (ya know, when you cook fried rice and the part that sticks to the pan and gets all nice and crispy) this dish has something extra special for you. Since the rice is cooked in the stone bowl the part that sticks to the edge is all crispy!!! Wondaful! It looks nice when it’s served but our server suggests to mix it all together and sort of ruins the whole appearance. This is a great wholesome meal leaving your stomach content and satisfied that it had the Bi-Bim Bap experience. One side of caution though. If you tend to stay away from mushy things then you might not enjoy this dish so much. It’s still great but can be a tad mushy when it’s all mixed up.
Bi-Bim Bap
APPEARANCE ©©©© 4/5
VALUE ©©© 3/5
TASTE ©©© 3/5
