Chez Kimchi Civic, Canberra. April 2021

Korean Side Dishes

As promised in a previous post, we have now had a chance to review Chez Kimchi.

As you may guess from the name of the restaurant, it is Korean and offers vegetable pancakes, Bi Bi Bap, Bulgolgi etc. It is located in the shop where Sammy’s was originally located.

The hungry group included Harper, Lindsay, Jamie and a guest.

Having read the menu, Harper decided to order Bibimbap with spicy pork in a hot stone bowl ($21.00). Anyone who is familiar with the dish is aware it is not something that can be easily shared.

The rest of us decided to share. The following were the items chosen. For a starter: Deep fried dumplings with veggies ($9.50), then Kimchi pancake ($17.00), Bulgolgi ($20.50) and Tender Long Chicken ($20.00). The menu chosen might indicate hunger, greed or both.

Before the meal was served we were provided with Kimchi and other Korean tastes (love the potato). Very nice and welcoming.

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Jamie
Unfortunately for my table companions, they were disappointed by the dumplings…

because they only received one each and I ate the rest. They were small, crispy in a good way and delicious. There was some mention of ordering more but I was quickly told that there was more than enough food arriving and if I was still hungry after that I could order more. (Why did I agree?)

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Four were served but I was hungry.

I pointedly ignored the Kimchi pancake. It ignored me in return, but was greeted with delight by other people.
Shortly after the Bulgolgi and Long Chicken arrived, looking delectable. Hesitating meant others reached the food first but that was fair after my behavior with the dumplings. Heaping my plate with the chicken, some rice and meat, it was hard to decide which to try first. My chopsticks reached for the chicken without any thought, which I dipped into the accompanying sauce. Quickly conveying it to my mouth I bit to find a crunchy coating, tender chicken in a lovely sauce. The chicken was wonderful without the sauce but it added an extra tang.

I ate another piece but noticed the Bulgolgi was looking a little disheartened. How could I treat it in this way? I quickly ate some and enjoyed the flavor I remembered so well. It reminded me of the first time I’d tried the meal in South Korea and how much I’d enjoyed it. The addition of pear works so well in the marinade.

I kept eating, enjoying the meal and conversation but sadly became full so could not order more dumplings. Sadness. But also happiness at how much I’d enjoyed the food.

I didn’t clean my plate, but my attempt was not half hearted.

Score: 4.9/5

Harper

I like BiBimbap and food in a hot stone bowl. I’d never added spicy pork to it until now, but felt like a change.
Jamie grudgingly gave me a veggie dumpling and watched me consume it, possibly waiting for it to be passed back. I didn’t because I enjoyed it.

The bowl was hot. The pork: spicy. Mixing it around, I added a little Kimchi and tasted. Spicy, hot, fresh flavours all mixed with the paste and egg. Very tasty. I ate contentedly and then tried the Kimchi pancake. It was tasty but a little too oily. Not the worst I’ve had and if it had a little less oil, I would have enjoyed it more.

I cleaned my plate and thoroughly enjoyed the Bibimbap.

Score: 4.8

Both Lindsay and the guest enjoyed the meal but have not yet provided their input due to other commitments. As we attended this restaurant in April, rather than wait any longer, a decision was made to post the review.

Overall
Chez Kimchi provided good quality and tasty Korean food with many options and side dishes. The food was served promptly and the staff were efficient. We will return.

Overall Score: 4.8
If Lindsay has time to contribute the review will be updated.

Random Recipes: Japanese Favourites by Angela Nahas (Number 2): Beef and Asparagus Skewers and Grilled Leeks with Miso and Sesame

Apologies, this cook book has been reviewed previously but due to brain fog or very bad planning (or both) it accidentally was reviewed again.  To make up for this there is a bonus recipe for Butter Rice included.

This book was purchased the first time Lindsay and I went to Japan which is a number of years ago.  Eating in Japan was a challenge due to allergies to fish and seafood (and seaweed), pork and other ingredients commonly used in Japanese food but I did fall in love with the egg sandwiches found in most 7 11, Lawson and Family Marts.

One thing which attracted me to the book was it provides an explanation about commonly used ingredients for example burdock with which I was not familiar.  However it does label umeboshi as pickled apricots when in fact they are usually pickled plums and an acquired taste.

For this Random Recipe, it was decided to choose two recipes so the book could immediately know its fate, rather than be on tenterhooks of whether it retained a place on the book shelf or not.  (No discussion on whether books have feelings will be entertained.  You can have your own beliefs and I can have mine.)

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To accompany the two recipes chosen, Butter Rice was chosen as the ingredients were available and it takes little time to prepare.  A quick recipe of the butter rice is included.  (Thank you Midnight Diner.)

Beef and Asparagus Skewers and Grilled Leeks with Miso and Sesame were chosen as the recipes are simple and looked appealing.  Vegetable stock was substituted for the dashi stock.

In the usual tradition of Clean the Plate the recipes were not completely followed: first the dashi stock substitution and the beef and asparagus where not placed on skewers.  The asparagus was very thin, due to the season and Oyster Blade steak was purchased from a local Korean Supermarket.

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After brushing the rolls with the sesame oil and soy sauce, the steak was wrapped around the asparagus and placed under the grill.  Due to their size they took little time to cook.

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The leeks were grilled at the same time but took a little longer because of their size.  The preparation of the Miso and sesame sauce to accompany the leeks was also simple.

Butter Rice Recipe

30-50 grams butter

1 cup cooked rice

¼ cup frozen peas

¼ cup frozen corn

1-2 cloves garlic

Splash of mirin

Shallot/spring onion if desired

Soy sauce to taste (and if desired)

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Method

Melt butter in frypan.

Add peas and corn.  Cook until no longer frozen.  (If shallots/spring onion is used add them at the same time.)

Add garlic and rice and mix thoroughly. 

When heated through add a splash of mirin and mix thoroughly before serving.

The Eating

Usually with butter rice I place the soy sauce on the table rather than add it while cooking so each person can make their own adjustment.

The leeks were pleasantly charred on the outside and the sauce was tasty and judged to be a good mixture of flavours and textures.

It was felt that the asparagus should be larger if prepared in future but the mixed flavour of the beef, asparagus, sesame and soy sauce was very good and the simple tastes were very pleasing when combined.  I decided that in future sandwich steak should be used as the local butcher makes one without fat or gristle which needs to be removed as was the case here.

Harper happily ate as much as possible but leftovers remained, which tasted pleasant when later consumed.

Verdict

“Whose Cuisine reigns supreme?”  (Iron Chef Japan)

The book will remain, not only because it provides pleasant memories but it also contains other recipes including Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and Chicken Braised in Sweet Soy which sound interesting.

Japanese Favourites while you may not reign supreme, because the other cookbooks will become jealous and no infighting is permitted on the bookshelves in my kitchen, you have earned you place. 

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Further apologies. Currently I am not well acquainted with the latest iteration of WordPress and find the constant changes to picture files, blocks etc confusing. With furt

Random Recipes: Stuffed Zucchini (Hobakseon) From “Korean Home Cooking” by Soon Young Chung.

Korean food can be very good, if you like octopus, kimchi, seafood or potato chips with sweet cheese. Unfortunately I am not fond of any of the previously mentioned food but do enjoy some recipes from Korea e.g. Bibimbap.

This cookbook has been on the shelf for some time and in the immediate queue of 5 cookbooks which are due for the Random Recipe test.

The people tasting this meal, Lindsay and Harper were not averse to the idea of this recipe (which is good as Lindsay did not show any interest in one of the previous choices. In that instance Lindsay was correct.)

Random Recipes: Marinated chicken with red pepper (capsicum) From “Chopsticks on Tour” by Pamela Chen Moore.

This is the second dish taken from the cookbook last reviewed. For those people who have been experiencing stress or distress from the suspense, hopefully this will bring some closure.

Random Recipes: Egg and Tomato Stir Fry from “Chopsticks on Tour” by Pamela Chen Moore

There will be two recipes reviewed from this very small cookbook. There are only 12 recipes and is a recent addition to the cookbook library as I had the good luck to watch Pamela Chen Moore cook some of these recipes.

Malaysian Hot Noodles with Tofu (Mie Goreng) From “Great Vegetarian Dishes” by Kurma dasa

Warning: The format of this review will be slightly different because I want to change the style.

This book is written by a chef of the Hare Krishna movement.  He had a television show in Australian a number of years ago which is why this book ended up in my cookbook library.  At the time I had aspirations of becoming a vegetarian and this book did not really help with that aspiration.

The use of asafoetida is very evident in the recipes and I recall keeping the powder in a glass jar as the smell is very pungent.  In my opinion the taste did not compare with the use of garlic, onion etc. which are not used by the Hare Krishna movement.

I used the book on a number of occasions and can remember all too well the attempt to create Polenta (Italian Fried Corn Bread).  Briefly the process took over an hour and the result was disappointing.

This is a long preamble but it seemed wise to give some background on this book as it was given one final chance to remain on the cookbook shelf.

(Impatient people who cannot stand the intolerable suspense of the fate of the cookbook may skip to the final decision, if they so wish.)

Cinnabar, Kingston Foreshore, November, 2017.

Since the Lakeside development many restaurants have opened to attract the trade created by the new development.  Cinnabar is located in one of the more popular areas in this precint, not far from Beer and Barley and Sammy’s.

As both Alexis and Lindsay were busy, Harper accompanied me which meant we could not try as many dishes as normal but we decided to make an effort.

Random Recipe: Pyogoieon (Stuffed Mushroom with Beef) from Korean Home Cooking by Soon Young Chung

For the interim we have moved some of the cookbooks off the sagging shelf as the ‘random recipe’ challenge is taking more time than expected.  Some of the overflow is now piled on top of the freezer and in order to try to decide which books should be kept, random recipes may appear more frequently.

iPho, Garema Place, Civic, November, 2016

This restaurant is situated in Garema Place, Civic.  It serves Vietnamese food, primarily Pho.  All the seating is outside but is covered.  For budget eaters, iPho is on the higher side of the brief as the food costs between $10.00 to $15.00

Random Recipe: Sumo Wrestler’s Stew (Chanko Nabe) from “A Taste of Japan” by Lesley Downer

It is bewildering how many recipes books seems to use the word ‘Taste’ in the title, or perhaps it is the way the random selection works; except the random nature of the selection is not to blame in this instance.

Lifeline had a book fair in this month and we attended and for some reason acquired more cookbooks.  (Yes, of course we could have ignored the cookbooks and not bought any, but where is the fun in that?) Due to the shelves already being full we have decided on a new protocol for dealing with the new books.  Each book will be tested before it is shelved and if it fails, then it will be returned from whence it came.  Lindsay and Alexi have agreed to assist in this venture so we can weed out those cookbooks who wish to find new homes sooner.