Within the universe of Asian cuisines which are broadly accessible in America, Korean is an anomaly. Chinese language, Japanese and Thai eating places got here of age earlier within the twentieth century — and with them, the sticky-sweet, Americanized dishes that turned related to every (Normal Tso’s, teriyaki, Pad Thai). Korean eating places, however, catered little to American palates. They stored their menus genuine and thrived totally on enterprise from different Koreans.
Consciousness of Korean meals amongst non-Koreans in America actually began taking off in New York’s Koreatown (close to Penn Station). Within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Koreatown turned a gathering spot for cooks and line cooks of all ethnicities, who would come for after-hours eating and ingesting and uncover the spectacular vary of deep flavors in Korean delicacies.
Then, lastly, got here the semi-Americanization of the style. In 2008, Roy Choi, a former avenue thug who goes by “Papi,” after coaching on the Culinary Institute of America and Le Bernardin (arguably America’s greatest restaurant), opened a meals truck in Los Angeles referred to as Kogi and launched America to the “Korean taco.” Choi’s tacos changed Mexican carne asada or carnitas with Korean grilled meats; and changed the salsa with kimchi, Korea’s nationwide staple of fermented cabbage with purple chili (it’s like sauerkraut, however a lot extra advanced). Earlier than lengthy, foodies in LA, after which throughout America, have been going ga-ga for bulgogi (thinly sliced, sweetly marinated beef) tacos. Korean fried rooster, vibrant purple and intensely candy and intensely spicy, has additionally grow to be a nationwide sensation.
I really like all of those variations of Korean meals — from the completely genuine to the completely Americanized — however right this moment’s column focuses on the place to get actual, conventional Korean meals round right here.
“Gohyang” means “hometown” in Korean, and Gohyang restaurant, on Route 9 in Hadley, delivers on the promise of actual dwelling cooking. You received’t discover bulgogi tacos right here, however somewhat a menu of true classics. It’s a haven for worldwide college students who miss their mothers’ cooking. Just like the delicacies, the room is cozy and homey and intimate, with easy picket tables and wainscoting.
A standard Korean restaurant meal often begins with a free assortment of “banchan” — a bunch of small, largely vegetable-focused plates. Gohyang’sbanchan are fairly primary (pickled radish, garlic spinach, bean sprouts), they usually solely include dine-in orders. Amongst starters on the menu, kimbap (Korean-style seaweed-wrapped sushi rolls) hit the spot. A “samgyumpsal” model pairs crispy pork stomach and rice with candy egg, spinach, shredded carrot, cucumber, pickled daikon radish and surimi (imitation crabmeat) for a posh however nonetheless gentle chunk.
The place Gohyang’s kitchen excels most is with their hearty meal-sized soups and stews. My favourite of those is tteok manduguk, a deep, garlicky, barely milky beef broth with tender items of lean brisket, slippery glass noodles, and immensely satisfying do-it-yourself dumplings whose mushy filling melds collectively meat, pickle and root-vegetable flavors into a beautiful mess.
Dwenjangjjigae, a stew of fermented-soybean inventory, has a very totally different however equally homey taste. It’s a soothing mixture of tofu (soybean on soybean!), clams, potatoes, onions, mushroom slices and zucchini. Different winners on the menu embrace kimchi jjigae (spicy kimchi stew), soondubu (tofu stew), and bibimbap, Korea’s most well-known dish, the place you self-toss a scorching stone pot of rice with a backyard’s value of greens, meats, fried egg, and candy chili paste.
The enjoyable on Route 9 doesn’t finish with the restaurant: subsequent door, in the identical constructing (which as soon as housed Hadley’s submit workplace), are “singing rooms” for after-dinner karaoke. Observe that Gohyang doesn’t serve alcohol, however BYO is welcomed.
One factor Gohyang doesn’t do is cook-at-the-table Korean barbecue — a practice like none different. Cana, in Chicopee, is the place for this.
The meal-deal steal at Cana known as “Combo A,” which for $80 will get you a meal that simply serves three, perhaps 4. You’ll begin with a wonderful scallion pajeon (pancake), so wealthy and crispy that it’s straightforward to refill on an excessive amount of of it, to the exclusion of the remainder of your huge meal. As a “facet entrée” you possibly can select a mushy, comforting soybean stew, veggie stone-pot bibimbap, or fried rice. The combo even comes with wine or beer at no additional cost.
Cana’s assortment of banchan and condiments is especially vast. For Combo A, you decide 10 of them from an illustrated card. These embrace glorious cabbage kimchi, daikon-radish kimchi, candy shredded potatoes, and an entire lot extra. Considered one of your 10 selections needs to be lettuce leaves, which can function a wrapping on your meat.
Then comes the principle occasion: the barbecue. The pleasant employees will activate the grill for you as you’re having fun with your starters. The meat involves the desk uncooked, thinly sliced, and also you cook dinner it on a steel grill for 2 or three minutes. Then, with the assistance of scissors and tongs, you collect it, wrap it in an enormous lettuce leaf (ideally with fermented soybean paste, uncooked garlic and herbs), and go straight to meat paradise. Galbi (brief rib) is the traditional. There’s additionally beef or pork bulgogi, beef brisket, wealthy jeju (black pig) pork stomach and a few rooster choices. Finest is a mixture of a number of of the above.
Cana’s ambiance is fashionable and minimalist, with nearly manifestly vibrant white observe lighting. On the partitions, a photograph set up of scenes from Korea enhances a couple of conventional artwork objects.
There are a couple of different good Korean choices within the space. In Greenfield, Manna Home is a straightforward, quiet, white-walled, lacquered-wood-tabled, very-high-ceilinged, BYO Korean restaurant that does an important job with kimbap, steamed tofu, seafood scallion pancake, and stews that includes kimchi and/or tofu.
Downtown Amherst’s Home of Teriyaki, in a cute room warmly lit by Japanese lanterns, serves a brief however candy Korean menu to go along with its longer Japanese one. The highlights embrace seafood pancakes, spicy Korean fried rooster, soondubu (tofu stew), spicy galbi tang (spicy short-rib stew), and, in fact, bibimbap. Seafood jjangbong is sort of a Korean tackle bouillabaisse, however its spicy orange broth will get its coloration from chili somewhat than tomato or saffron. Costs are very cheap.
Additionally in Amherst, Kisara, reviewed in my final column, has a couple of Korean dishes within the “home favorites” part of their menu, together with bibimbap, galbi (grilled marinated brief ribs), ribeye bulgogi (marinated thin-sliced beef), and quite a lot of kimchi-based dishes, together with, most uniquely, kimchi bacon tacos. Riff’s Joint, in Easthampton, reviewed earlier within the yr in my gastropubs column, additionally does an important (if candy) job with Korean tacos and different fusion.
Lastly, Grasp Chef, in South Hadley, has the ambiance of a take-out lunch counter, however the pan-Asian menu consists of some Korean classics (bibimbap, galbi, bulgogi) and meta-Korean fusion (kimchi ramen, kimchi fried rice). Each day specials are often attention-grabbing, and the employees’s acquired tons of allure.
Robin Goldstein is the writer of “The Menu: Restaurant Information to Northampton, Amherst, and the 5-Faculty Space.” He serves remotely on the agricultural economics college of the College of California, Davis. He could be reached at rgoldstein@ucdavis.edu.
