Choga Korean
Editorial
The Han family arrived in Hobart from Seoul in 1992 for the father to set up the Han-A-Rum Trading Company specialising in seafood exports. His wife, Young-Soon, and daughter, Myungtsun, run this small and homey restaurant. Myungtsun says that most Westerners have the false impression that all Korean food is hot and spicy. “Like other parts of Asia” she says, “our food plays with the five flavours - sweet, salt, sour, hot and bitter. But like anywhere else, how hot you make things, whether you use those little hot chillies or a milder chilli powder depends on personal taste”.
Their personal taste in the restaurant clearly leans towards the milder. For example, there is no buldak (Korea's favourite exocet dish) on the menu and Young-Soon makes her kimchi using a very mild chilli powder. Her kimchi jjigae has sugar added to counter the chilli and salt, and both the bulgogi pork and kitchen-made chilli sauce are decidedly sweet, the sauce carrying just a slight residual bite on the finish. Rather than a sop to perceived local tastes, Myungtsun says lighter and sweeter spicing reflect the latest food trends in Seoul, her words evidenced by three young Korean students who seem perfectly happy with the way things are as they demolish Young-Soon's pizza-like pancake in record time.
Graeme Phillips, July 2007
User Feedback
Your Feedback
0 User review (add yours)