There's something about Korean food that i'm curious about. It's the slightly sweet spiciness that i can never find in Japanese food but among all, it's their grilled meat that i heart the most.
Just yesterday, we celebrated the occasion of Mother's Day at a very nearby Korean restaurant that we frequented a lot. It's funny when i think of it, i had never initiated to take my camera along in our past visits although i had ranked it one of my most favourite restaurants in BJ. Since it was Mother's Day, this time round i had my camera with me but sadly, we didn't order any grilled meat set, instead we had typical Korean cuisine (at least i think it's original, unless they fuse it to suit the Chinese's tastebud). The restaurant itself is famous for their Korean grilled meat. Gas grill burners are built into each table and the waitress would grill all meat as you sit and enjoy. Fresh lettuce and good dips are available for wrapping the grilled meats. Almost like eating Hakka Kiu Nyuk. Apart that the marinated or seasoned meat can range from sirloin to pork to chicken. Yummzz. I'm sorry as i do not have any photos to show but i promise, on my next visit i will definitely capture some.
A Korean meal is never complete without kimchi, or pao chai, their fermented vegetables. To be honest, my first time eating kimchi was dated few months ago when a good friend of dad-in-law kindly brought us some. I had no idea it was kimchi until i saw exactly the same thing in this restaurant. It was like cold cabbage marinated in a special sweet and spicy chilli sauce. The taste of the sauce itself is very uncommon to my taste bud, nothing like Thai chilli sauce or the local sauces that i'm known to, but i fall in love with it. Doesn't taste at all like the comments I had heard since young. Later on, I did a bit of research and discovered that the Koreans actually mixed in red pepper powder instead of any sauces i had initially thought. The vegetables which can be any form or type, ranging from cabbage to radish are soaked in brine for a few hours until they are softened before the spices are added. One thing that amazed me is, i don't find these preserved vegetables salty at all! Very unlike the Chinese ones. Then again, I saw how they made kimchi in a Korean serie i'm currently hooked to and it kinda put me off in a way. Hub claimed they are not very clean, yet so far, i've not got any diarrhoea due to eating kimchis. Putting these thoughts behind, we decided anyway, to order a plate of kimchi, which came in cabbage and radish. Very good, slightly sweet and spicy as how i like it.
Next was this 'Korean styled' stir fried vegetables. At least that was what they claimed. If I wasn't aware that it was a Korean restaurant i was dining at, i would have thought this is a Chinese dish! They even added black fungus, or mu er! A bit on the salty side, but pretty good.
Korean Stir Fried Rice Cake! A popular street food in Korea, you can even notice it in some Korean movies! These are actually rice cakes stir fried with carrots, peppers, and onions and then stewed in a Korean sauce known as 'gochujang'. People who love sticky snacks like nian gao or nyonya kuihs would love this. Slightly sweet and spicy also, but can give you a 'pukey' feeling if you had too much.
Hub ordered this bowl of Korean 'zha jiang mian' (fried sauce noodles) to compare with those locally sold in BJ. As predicted, nothing in comparison, and taste wise definitely not as good as Chinese Zha Jiang Mian! (Zha Jiang Mian is thick wheat noodles topped with a mixture of ground pork which had been stir fried with fermented soybean paste) 
Last dish was beef tenderloin stewed with ginseng. The gravy was also a bit on the salty side, but in overall i think it was pretty good. Not much meat to be found though, seems like more bones.
This restaurant gives out free ice cream sticks and fruits as dessert, which we happily 'ta pao' home as we were too full by then (only three of us and five dishes!).The next time i decide to dine at this restaurant again, i'll make sure we order the grilled meat because that's perhaps the only thing that's worth eating when comes to Korean food. No offense, I do like Korean food in a way, but not so much of my preference unless it's grilled meat!