Nam-Doo’s Dining Ventures

Oldest Zest of Korean fare in Austin

By Nam-Doo Kim

For a host of Austinites who can’t tell what the authentic Korean food is like, it’s a surprise there are more than 20 restaurants run by Koreans in Austin. Perhaps it’s not that surprising, because all of them aren’t featuring Korean style. Instead Japanese, Chinese, or even American fast food is sometimes colorized with a more or less Koreanized zest.

One restaurant whose name says it all, "Restaurant Korea House & Sushi Bar," better known simply as "Korea House," and located in Village shopping Center on W. Anderson Lane. It serves unique Korean food and extra Japanese food such as Sushi and Sashimi. Just as the Anderson Lane is one of the oldest streets in Austin, so is the 21-year-old restaurant; it’s one of the oldest Korean-styles in this city.

If you’ve never been to a Korean eatery before, you need to know the peculiarity of Korean table setting system. Typically, it consists of four components - featuring dish (the name listed on menu), an array of itemized small dishes (Pan-chan, a bowl of steamed white rice (Bab, it’s equivalent to Western bread), and a bowl of clear soup (Gook, alas, it’s been replaced with iced water in America). It means you will be served with all of those dishes and bowls at one time. Additionally, a spoon and a pair of chopsticks will be offered instead of forks and knives. Handling chopsticks will give a Western novice a little trouble, but a spoon with its fork-end alone can do both jobs.

I chose the Beef Bul-go-gi($9.95), the thinly sliced beef marinated in Korean sauce, which was one of the most popular and well-known dishes. It was accompanied by a bowl of rice and 7 traditional dishes that included fresh bean sprouts, tofu with a spicy sauce, spinach sautéed in sesame oil, sesame leaves with a spicy sauce, marinated potatoes, and two kinds of kim-chee(cabbage and radish dish, both of which were fermented with a spicy sauce).

The Korean menu includes more than 30 kinds of Korean dishes; mostly several types of Bul-go-gi(beef, pork, or chicken one), Tang(a bowl of spicy soup with beef or fish), Chi-gyae(a bowl of spicy stew with tofu, vegetables, and/or tofu), and noodles. Prices come usually less than $10. An extra tip: here noodles are quite different from Chinese or Japanese noodles, or even Korean instant Rae-myun. Most likely, they’re a particular type of noodles called Naeng-myun, a bowl of cold noodles mixed with really hot sauce, vegetables, and sometimes raw fish (Hoi-naeng-myun).

If you’re a little disappointed at finding no starter on the Korean table, you can additionally order in advance Japanese Sushi or Sashimi from the Japanese list. A Sushi combination of 16 pieces I ordered extra, for example, will cost you $19. Not the best quality, nor expensive for its worth.

To the tongue of an epicure from Korea, the "Korean" fare in Austin has become more or less westernized - less spicy, more sweet than the original. Korea House, of course, is not so far off from the general trend. That’s a part of the reason why this spot has been successful in attracting many non-Koreans. "Roughly two-thirds of the regular customers are Westerners," says Kim Hwang, the owner of this restaurant.

Still, this restaurant has established its fame among Koreans, especially Korean students at the University of Texas. The reputation partly came from its "Lunch Special," a low-price offer during lunchtime. A combination of Bul-go-gi and one of three small dishes comes at just $4.95. Many Koreans are being tempted day after day.

Address: 2700 W. Anderson Ln. # 501, Village Shopping Center, Austin, TX, 78757.

Phone number: (512) 458-2477

Owner: Kim Hwang

About Nam-Doo:

Nam-Doo Kim is a Ph.D. student studying media sociology, political communication, and digital media communication at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a life-long resident in Seoul, Korea before he came to Austin, Texas in 1999. He received his master’s degree from Seoul National University in the same year. He has an undergraduate career of a reporter and an editor at Seoul National University Press. Now he works as a translator for a Korean publisher Media Lab, which has the license of publishing a Korean version of a by-weekly magazine Business 2.0.