Cho Sun Ok Korean BBQ Restaurant (Hamilton, ON)

273 King Street East
Hamilton, Ontario
905.526.0889

I've always noticed Cho Sun Ok Korean BBQ on Queen Street but for whatever reason I was intimated to go in. I think I imagined that I would be forced to sing karaoke. Don't ask why I got this idea. Anyhow, when a new location opened very close to A's place, we talked about checking it out. On the Friday evening before I left for Montréal for a week, we went downstairs to eat Korean.



We were greeted by a television playing relatively loud Korean music videos. We were also seated right underneath it. The videos and dancing really amused us and kept us entertained. Going through the menu, it was difficult to find a vegetarian option for A. After many questions and responses along the life of "Is there meat in this?" "No, just beef", our cute little waitress conferred in the back and informed there was one item that was not on the menu that had no meat, nor fish. I decided to order the bibimbap.

Luckily, the jeon (Korean pancake) the waitress served us was vegetarian. We had a hard time eating the jeon with the thin, flat metallic chopsticks, at which point the waitress brought out a fork for A only. HA!


Jeon with carrots and zucchini.

The waitress then came out with a cart of banchan, including kimchi, that were also all vegetarian.


Six small plates of banchan in the background.

A was slightly disappointed that his dish consisted of cold noodles. It was good but I think he didn't expect a cold dish. I quite liked the spicy red sauce that he had to mix in with the noodles. The bibimbap came hot in an earthenware bowl. Unfortunately, I could not share any with A since it had ground beef. I mixed in the accompanying sauce with the various vegetables and ground beef into the rice, as well as the fried egg on top. I liked that the rice got crusty when in came into contact with the surface of the bowl. It was a lot more than I could eat but I did my best!


A's mystery vegetarian noodles and my bibimbap.

I definitely would like to try this out again, maybe check out the japchae. It was a bit hard to communicate but that added to the experience (with the loud Korean music).

P.S. All pictures were taken by A since I didn't have my camera with me. This explains the better resolution!

For other Korean restaurant posts:
* Baramibunei, Hamilton, Ontario
* Road to Seoul, Los Angeles, California

Road to Seoul (Los Angeles, CA)

1230 S Western Avenue
Los Angeles, California
323.731.9292

Two nights before the wedding, Cathy, aka the Gastronomer, and her then fiancé, Vern, aka the Astronomer, hosted Frenz Nite for all their friends from out of town! For the occasion, we went for all you can eat Korean BBQ ($16.99).



We were first served banchan, including the Korean staple kimchi, pickled Napa cabbage. Going through the wikipedia descriptions, I think there was also dubu-jorim (tofu), as well as different dipping sauces and coarse salt. There was also Korean potato salad (not pictured) which I thought very amusing!


Banchan (including kimchi at the bottom).

They also brought complementary gyeran-jjim (steamed egg) and pajeon (scallion pancake). There's nothing like freshly fried jeon dipped in soy sauce!


Gyeran-jjim (steamed egg) and pajeon (scallion pancake)

For the BBQ part of the meal (gogi gui), Cathy ordered galbi (short ribs), bulgogi (beef), pork belly, squid and the long tubes you see on the grill below were intestines. They tasted like they looked, quite chewy and we preferred them more on the well done side, and in fact verging on charred!


BBQ meats in their uncooked and grilling state.

My favourite was taking a thin rice (I'm guessing) sheet, filling it with pork belly, lettuce and kimchi and dipping it in sauce. What can I say? I'm Vietnamese and I always prefer rolling my food!


My perfect little meat package!

I had great fun grilling my own meat even though I came out of the restaurant smelling like a piece of meat! I was quite full and was worried whether I would still fit into my bridesmaid dress...!



For my other California posts:
* Bánh Mì Chè Cali & Tea Station
* NYC Seafood Restaurant
* Nem Nướng Ninh Hòa
* Quang An Duong Herb Store & Kim Ky Noodle House
* Oomasa Restaurant
* Fish tacos at Señor Fish
* Mario Batali's Pizzeria Mozza
* Crawsfish at The Boiling Crab
* Rehearsal Dinner at La Grande Orange Café
* Wedding Banquet at Capital Seafood Restaurant

Vegetarian Stuffed Inari

I volunteer as an English tutor at the public library, as part of a program to help new immigrants. My "student" C is a Korean woman whose English is actually quite good. Sometimes when we meet around lunch time, she makes us treats! Last time she made kimbap (Korean sushi), which differs from Japanese sushi; its filling had ground beef and fish cake. This time C brought us rice stuffed inari's.

I've had inari before but not quite like this. The rice tasted like sushi rice, seasoned with rice vinegar. C used brown rice because she is very health conscious. She also added some finely diced carrots and red peppers. Finally the filling was dotted with black sesame seeds. It was quite a filling treat! C tells me you can buy inari (hollowed out tofu pockets) at the Korean grocery store. C promised me to go for a stroll at the nearby Korean grocery store to show me all the treats!

Korean Style Short Ribs (Kalbi)

Not only did my mom make thịt nướng (Vietnamese style short ribs) for dinner when I came to visit, but she also made Korean style short ribs (kalbi). This was my first time trying it and I really enjoyed it. My friend C came over for dinner and thought they were quite addictive. Korean style short ribs are unique in their cut: ribs are cut lengthwise across the bones. My mom recently discovered that you can buy this type of short ribs at supermarkets. Before that, she said she'd only seen it in Asian markets in California. I was discussing this with my Korean student and she mentioned that she just asks the butcher to cut short ribs this way.



Korean Style Short Ribs (Kalbi)
Once you buy the Korean style short ribs, the rest is easy. Just like the thịt nướng, it's a matter of mixing the marinade ingredients and let it sit overnight.

* 1 kg of Korean style beef short ribs
* 1-½ tsp salt
* 3 tbsp sugar
* about 5 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 tbsp sesame oil
* 1 tsp dried chili flakes
* 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 5 green onions, white parts chopped very finely
* 2 tbsp sesame seeds
* a pinch of baking soda (less than ⅛ tsp)

Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a large bowl.
Add the beef short ribs and allow to marinate overnight.
Grill on barbecue or broil in the oven.
When one side is cooked, turn the ribs over and cook the other side.
Serve with sticky rice. (We just ate it with bún but my mom assures me it's great with sticky rice. I'm not sure when she turned Korean...)
Tada!

Short ribs from the supermarket are marinated and then grilled.

Oja Noodle House

689 Yonge Street
Toront, Ontario
416.944.8371

I met up with my friend C in Toronto while I was in town for a round of interviews. I was lucky that she lives only a few blocks from the hotel where the interview was taking place. For lunch, we agreed on going to a Korean/Japanese on Yonge Street. (the longest street in the world). We were temporarily swayed by Spring Rolls next door, but decided to stick to Oja.



Oja offered many lunch specials, spanning from Korean fare to sushi to various bento boxes. C & I both decided on a tempura bento box (who can resist deep fried goodness?) for $9.95, hers with bulgogi and mine with spicy chicken. The special came with a hot and sour soup that I thought was quite hot, and I think my heat tolerance is above average. Yowser!


Very spicy hot and sour soup.

Supposedly, C is the perfect person to order tempura with because she does not love seafood. I thus inherited her two shrimp tempura, with my share totalling four! She even joked that I should mention in my post that the bento box does not come with 4 tempura shrimp. We did not want to create false expectations.

My bento box, stacked with four shrimp tempura.

Other than the shrimp tempura, there were also zucchini, acorn squash yam tempura. It was hot and crunchy. I do love tempura. The bento box also included yam rolls that I quite enjoyed and a little salad that was average.

Tempura close-up.

Yam rolls.


Boring salad.

My spicy chicken was sweet rather than spicy. I actually thought the artificial red sauce was overly sweet and I did not finish the chicken. What I did enjoy were the glass noodles, with a soy and sesame oil dressing. I have had this before at Korean/Japanese restaurants and have tried to replicate it with poor results. Does anyone have a good recipe?

Spicy (Sweet) Chicken.

Lovely glass noodles.

As we left the restaurant, we encountered a march to mark the 50th anniversary of Tibet's uprising against China. They must have felt passionate about the cause, having to march in a cold drizzle. According to C, there are protests regularly on Yonge Street.

Protest for 50 year Tibet.

I had a great time seeing C again. I had last seen her over a year ago. Who knew that neither of us would be working at the same company?! Hopefully, we get to enjoy food in Toronto again!

Baramibunei

16 Jarvis St.
Hamilton, Ontario
905.577.4652

As my sister L was heading to Hamilton from her trip to Quebec City, she suggested Korean BBQ for dinner. Having just been in Seoul for a few hours the previous week, I thought I could try more Korean food and I knew just the place to go. Baramibunei is a little Korean restaurant in downtown Hamilton. It's right by a parking lot on King St. which makes it very convenient to visit.


The restaurant is in an old building. I am digging the old vault. Tables are set up with a hole in the middle for BBQ'ing and walls are adorned with Polaroids of customers.

I do not have much experience with Korean food so I let my sister L lead the way. She absolutely wanted an order of the bindetuk (Korean pancake). In fact, my mother also loves this dish and often orders it as take-out. Our family just cannot resist fried food! The pancake was very good and it reminded us of turnip cake (that I am planning to make next week when I go to my mom's!). We also ordered steamed dumplings that were ordinary. L stated that her friend's mother makes much better Korean dumplings. If only I was so lucky!


Complimentary banchan (Korean side dishes) - our best guesses (starting top L, clockwise): stir fried vegetables, kimchi, gelatin flavoured with soy sauce and scallion, seaweed and fish sticks.


Bindetuk (Korean pancake), $3.99. The pancake typically contains seafood, most often squid as in this case.


Mandu (steamed dumplings), $4.99.

The restaurant offered different table top BBQ and hot pot dishes. We decided to go for BBQ in the form of bulgogi (marinated beef served with vegetables and potato noodles). The meat was very well seasoned and took a very short time to cook. L had the good instinct to take it out before it overcooked. The potato noodles were clear noodles like glass noodles but were very chewier in texture. This dish was served with lettuce and Napa cabbage to roll. We rolled up the beef, vegetables, kimchi and Korean chili sauce ssamjang (that I forgot to photograph). I loved the ssamjang which had a hint of fermented taste; with some research, I found out it's due to the doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and gochujang (fermented hot sauce). The kimchi had a hint of sweetness that I thought was lacking in the kimchi I had in Seoul.


Bulgogi (marinated beef served with vegetables and potato noodles), $14.99.

We also ordered a noodle dish at my request. The bokkumguksu came with shrimp and a choice of beef or chicken. We picked chicken. L and I enjoyed the fat noodles. If you're wondering, all this food was for three people: myself, my sister L and her boyfriend D.


Bokkumguksu (fried noodles with shrimp and chicken), $7.99.

At the end of our meal, the cute waitress came with complimentary rice cakes explaining that it was Korean Thanksgiving, i.e. the Moon Festival. Searching on Wikipedia, I found out that the Korean Moon Festival is called Chuseok and the rice cakes are called songpyeon, which are "half-moon-shaped rice cakes filled with sesame seeds or chestnut paste steamed over a layer of pine needles, which gives them the fragrant smell of fresh pine trees." The white cake was very bland and had a tiny, tiny bit of sesame filling. The black one had a more generous bean filling.


Complimentary songpyeon for the Moon Festival.

I am so glad I visited Baramibunei; it seems like a hidden gem. Hopefully, it can attract more customers as it was only half full on a Saturday night. If you want good, affordable Korean food in a nice and interesting setting, this is the place to go. Admittedly, I have not eaten at many Korean restaurants, and none in Hamilton until now. They also offer a lunch menu that is very affordable.