korean meals

In the past weekend while I had quite a bit of Korean meals. It all started with a shopping trip to a local Korean grocery store which I bought a nice kettle days ago. I like this Korean store in particular because the lady cashiers always politely greet you with a pleasant smile. It also has a big selection of Korean cookwares for a cookware junkie.

In this grocery store there is a very casual restaurant on the upstairs. I had always been curious about their food and this day was the day. I haven't have lunch and it is just perfect to give it a try. Most of the patrons are regulars and most are Koreans (with Korean ancestry) and many eat here while doing their grocery shopping.
typical clienteles

 an unassuming place

 wall of menu with sizable pictures - just what i need

 a dish of seasoned cooked potato, small amount of kimchi; the chili sauce is for dipping with the pancake

I ordered the seafood pancake which has both squid and Korean oysters. It is the size of a small pizza and I could only eat half so I took the leftover home. It is delicious while not spectacular. It is quite similar to a variety of Chinese oyster pancake except it adds pieces of squid.

the lady server was very nice and she gave me refills of teas and more kimchi that i asked for

After lunch I shopped for grocery there. The store has a lot of vegetables on special that are perfect for a Korean barbecue.
looking down from the restaurant is the store proper

 still more of the store

left over pancake and my purchase of Korean vegetable for hotplate barbecue

That night I made this Korean hotplate barbecue. Instead of using a butane stove on the table I used the kitchen range taking advantage of the vent hood to pull the oil vapor/smoke.

slice beef sirloin, smoked bacon bits, sliced garlic, asian chive,  twister pepper, enoki mushroom, another mushroom which i didn't note the name, perilla leaves; and left over seafood pancake

shimeji mushroom - it has a rather pungent odor

closeup of all the raw ingredients (except the leftover pancake)

i prepared the dipping sauce with homemade hot pepper chili, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame paste, and a dash of white pepper

i used this sesame paste from japan - very high quality and you use so little

the bacon bits release enough fat to get the BBQ going

i polished them off in short order - a symphony of delicious flavors

these pictures are from another meal the next day, showing the sequence better; i added pineapple and kimchi san leftover seafood pancake

 

 all good things come to an end

9/22/10 update
Ever since originally writing this post I had countless meals of the Korean hotplate barbeque. Here are some more pictures from different dates.

what i leant from koreans is there is no such thing as too much garlic; tired of peeling so much garlic i sometimes buy the pre-peeled ones; however the unpeeled ones have more flavor

i went back to the korean supermarket i bought this japanese sesame paste - alas they no longer stock them; i did a bit of online search and seems this item is rarely available in the united states now