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So Gong Dong, a closer look
Aloha!
5/11/09 - Picked up wifey from work the other night and headed over to the McCully Shopping Center on the way home. Would it be Fook Yuen? Phuket Thai? Banana Leaf Pasta? Curry House? A-un? Yotteko-Ya? Aaah, so many great spots to choose from, but on this particularly fabulous evening, wifey was ono for a hot bowl of soondubu, or spicy tofu soup, so we headed-up to the second floor and the doors of So Gong Dong, a Korean restaurant rather well-known for this particular dish. The place is actually a chain found all over Korea and elsewhere, but so far, this is the only location on the island.
The dining room is surprisingly large, with half the property actually used only in over-flow situations, which it didn't happen to be tonight. Like most better Korean restaurants, there are booths complete with drop-down suction fans to deal with all the smoke coming from Yakiniku, or cook-yourself meats and other items, right at your own private grills and tables. Not the most fancy of places, but still, comfortable. And the hours are good, too - 11:30pm weekdays, and 1:30am, from Thursday thru Saturday. It seems the only places open after 10pm, as a whole, are Japanese or Korean restaurants, a few cheaper local spots, and the bar scene, yes? After picking up wifey from work at around 9:30pm or so, when I'm not working myself, it's always good to have a few good go-to spots we can always count on.
Our gracious hostess, who also spoke fluent Japanese, quickly led us to an open booth, where we mulled over what to eat for quite some time. I just didn't want to get the same 'ol bbq meats we're all so accustomed to in the islands. Not that they're bad or anything. In fact, they're delicious here. It's just that I'm always in full-learning mode, yearning for something a little different and trying to expand my knowledge in different ethnic cuisines of the world. And what I found was indeed different, at least to us...
There were a total of seven types of banchan, but one was excluded, a type of muk (jelly) that was the only thing on the table we didn't touch, save for an exploratory nibble. Generally, I don't care for Korean muk at all, whether it be from acorn, buckwheat, mung bean, or any other base, but this one was really bad, tasting and looking like jellied salt water. The rest were great, however, with a fresh, crispy mix of choi sum, cucumber, daikon, won bok, seaweed, and bean sprouts.
As an appetizer, as if these vegetables above weren't enough, we decided upon an order of gyoza, and boy, was I happy we did! These guys were large, plump, well-stuffed, and beautiful, with an outer wrapper that had the same chewy-soft, delicate, yet full-bodied texture that fresh-made wrappers carry - although I didn't know if they were or not. Upon asking, they said that the place (un-named) that makes it for them (So Gong Dong), makes it strictly for them and no one else, as they've tried elsewhere, with more conventional wholesalers, but haven't been satisfied until finding this particular producer.
Good move, is all I can say! Double-order next time!
There are all kinds of soondubu bowls here, all of them coming in a red sauce more spicy and flavorful than most other spots elsewhere, and filled with anything from chicken, beef, pork, and mixed seafoods to beef intestine, sausage, seaweed, and even Spam! Wifey opted for a mushroom choice shown next, before and after dropping an egg right on-top, sunny-side raw. Within the spicy soup lay mostly a mixture of soft tofu and enoki mushroooms.
My order was a bit of a mystery, a bit of a chance, a bit of... all the drama and discovery each new meal should come with! Yeah, it's probably old-hat if you happened to grow-up with a Korean grandmother, but no, I didn't quite have that luxury. Called samgyetang, it's something you especially wanna have when you're feeling a bit under the weather...
What the...? Samgyetang, don'tcha know...???
In other words, good 'ol chicken soup, only this time with a Korean twist and a giant piece of ginseng! Sounded exotic and interesting, it did, but upon first taste, I was thinkin' to myself, "It's gonna be a looong night!"
Oh, well, the explorer stumbles upon many a pitfall, dead-end, or head-hunting cannibal tribe. But don't worry, actually, as the problem was simply that I wasn't doing this dish right, that's all! Wifey, laughing at my eyebrows curling up like a painted-face-man in a two-foot-square box, enjoyed every second of my pain. With a fiendish giggle, she slid another, much-smaller bowl slowly towards me, a bowl heretofore out of my line of sight, filled with a generous portion of natural salt and ground pepper, which was previously hidden behind the giant, boiling vat of black cast-iron itself. Aaah, the silver lining always appears, somewhere, somehow...
Armed and confident with the newly-acquired King and Queen of seasonings, I used them like John Hirokawa uses his magic wand, and suddenly, like a pair of white pigeons emerging from a handkerchief, the true beauty of this dish opened-up in previously unforeseen ways, figuratively and, as you can see, quite literally...
All I read from the menu was Korean young chicken soup and ginseng, and that was all it took to set the hook firmly, but I completely forgot about the word stuffed! Inside the young chicken, which I initially thought to be a cornish game hen but actually wasn't, was a mix of mostly glutinous rice, along with dates, nuts of some type, green onions, and this huge piece of ginseng:
They must've cooked the chicken for quite a while, as not only was it soft and tender, but it also made this piece of ginseng, which I know to be bitter, arrive with almost no astringency whatsoever, and was thrown down the hatch as quickly as a sweet potato, and just as soft! Who knows how much potency was lost in the process, but hey, I'm sure there's still some goodness left-over, yes?
After all was said and done, I don't know if I'd ever order this dish again, but it was still an interesting and enjoyable meal, much of the satisfaction deriving from the fact that I had not so much as heard of it before. Lots to learn, I guess...
Hope you treated your mother to something great yesterday, and, as a matter of fact, every other day of the year, as well! Remember to tell her you love her once in a while, and no be shame, 'cuz it makes a huge diffence to her, lemme tell you. Yeah, yeah, the flowers, the dinner, the gifts... If she could pick just one thing, however, I bet she'd ditch it all for a simple, heartfelt "I love you, mom!"
Take care and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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