Korean Garden Grille
Korean movie series are my soju. It’s for celebration, depression, even seeking motivation. I got motivated to learn Korean and to try Korean food. I made a couple of attempts in College Station, but it’s not a good idea to judge Korean cuisine from a local Chinese restaurant. The urge to understand why their food looks so appealing in movies overtook the resistance against chili pepper. So we went to Bellaire the first weekend I got home, to a Korean buffet.
Korean Garden Grille has a spacious feel (again, something of Texas that I will miss). I made a point to sample everything, and I almost accomplished my goal. I tried “beef seaweed soup” (no beef was visible, so I assume it was beef flavored seaweed soup?), 11 kinds of kimchi (not knowing most of the Korean names nor the veggie names), bulgogi, japchae (stirfried cellophane noodle), 7 kinds of fried egg/veggie (again, not knowing either the Korean names or the veggie names). The kimchi was mostly sour (a little more sour than pickled daikon and carrots, not as salty as pickles, much less aggressive on the back of the throat than the French pickled cornichon).
Above image: From left to right, first row: napa cabbage (wombok/baechu/cải bách thảo), don’t-know, don’t-know radish, bean sprouts; second row: not-sure seaweed, daikon-maybe? kohlrabi, no-idea. I tried a couple of angry-looking-red-peppered kimchi the angry-looking red-peppered odeng (first thing in the image below), but they weren’t too spicy (well, at least not in small quantities), the fried octopus (red, bottom right) was quite tongue-catching actually.
I finished a half mini-bowl of rice with just one piece of those. Now I’ve never been to a Korean restaurant before nor have I any Korean friends, so I’m just judging from the Korean movies I’ve watched: this place is typical Korean, rice is plentiful and brought out at the beginning (just like water), since (again, movie trivia) Koreans consider good eats cannot be without rice.
It’s also nice that the place has a grill at the table, and we can sizzle as much meat and shrimp as we want. Spicy smoke, fatty sound, savory emanation. Right next to a plate of fresh green-leaf lettuce (that’s right, not iceberg lettuce).
The meat is a little sweet, which is perfect. I am never a fan of eating uncooked veggie with cooked food. I think putting fresh bean sprouts into a bowl of hot phở is hideous, the textures just don’t cooperate. But nothing beats a lettuce wrap with beautifully-browned, well-cooked, well-seasoned meat inside. It’s marvelous. Although busy gorging I was, I also watched the Korean hostess got herself a plate: she wrapped a spoonful of rice and a piece of meat inside a lettuce leaf, making it the size of a tennis ball, and put the whole thing in her mouth at once. Now that is skill.
Fried veggie and egg. Beside the obviously must-be egg, I could pick out squash, but that was about it. Barely seasoned. No oil streaming out as I took a bite. They were all tasty appetizers.
The seaweed soup is warm and slender, almost like refreshment. Little mom preferred the daikon soup. Many thumbs up. I will definitely try more Korean food. Now, for spice-inclined diners, the taste might be a little too plain (except the kimchi) compared to other Asian cuisines, and it seems like not much salt was used. Cost: about $60 for 3 people. Sure, this is much higher than Chinese buffet, a notch above Kim Son Vietnamese buffet, but the quality is well worth it. I have proof.
UPDATE (July 2010): This restaurant is now closed, replaced by Saigon Buffet (opened May 2011).
you’ve gotten an amazing blog right here! would you prefer to make some invite posts on my blog?
1I believe you have mentioned some very interesting details, appreciate it for the post.
2Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!
3I’ll right away seize your rss feed as I can’t to find your e-mail subscription hyperlink or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please allow me recognise in order that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
4I got good info from your blog
5Thank you for any other informative web site. The place else could I get that type of information written in such a perfect approach? I have a project that I am simply now operating on, and I have been at the look out for such information.
6Hi my loved one! I wish to say that this post is amazing, nice written and come with almost all important infos. I would like to peer more posts like this .
7I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road. All the best
8Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. It will always be stimulating to read content from other writers and practice a little something from their store. I’d prefer to use some with the content on my blog whether you don’t mind. Natually I’ll give you a link on your web blog. Thanks for sharing.
9I am glad to be a visitant of this double dyed web blog! , regards for this rare info ! .
10I like this site its a master peace ! Glad I observed this on google .
11I got good info from your blog
12Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. It will always be stimulating to read content from other writers and practice a little something from their store. I’d prefer to use some with the content on my blog whether you don’t mind. Natually I’ll give you a link on your web blog. Thanks for sharing.
13Fantastic website. Lots of useful info here. I am sending it to a few friends ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thank you on your effort!
14Great line up. We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the good writing.
15You are my inspiration , I possess few web logs and very sporadically run out from to post : (.
16Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! “Dreams are real while they last. Can we say more of life” by Henry Havelock Ellis.
17The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.
18Sweet internet site, super pattern, real clean and use genial.
19I am impressed with this web site, rattling I am a fan.
20Thank you for another informative blog. Where else could I get that type of information written in such a perfect way? I’ve a project that I’m just now working on, and I’ve been on the look out for such info.
21I and also my pals have been studying the nice guidelines found on the blog and so unexpectedly developed a terrible suspicion I had not thanked the blog owner for them. My young men are actually so joyful to read through them and now have absolutely been enjoying them. Thanks for indeed being considerably thoughtful and for opting for varieties of high-quality subject matter millions of individuals are really desperate to understand about. My very own honest apologies for not expressing gratitude to sooner.
22My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on various websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it? Any kind of help would be really appreciated!
23I think other website owners should take this web site as an model, very clean and good user friendly style.
24But wanna remark on few general things, The website style is perfect, the articles is real excellent. “If a man does his best, what else is there” by George Smith Patton, Jr..
25Generally I do not read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice article.
26I’ll immediately take hold of your rss feed as I can’t to find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly allow me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
27Very interesting topic, thank you for putting up.
28Can I just say what a aid to seek out someone who actually knows what theyre speaking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know tips on how to carry a problem to mild and make it important. Extra folks have to learn this and perceive this facet of the story. I cant imagine youre no more fashionable since you undoubtedly have the gift.
29I simply couldn’t go away your website prior to suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the usual information a person provide on your visitors? Is gonna be back steadily in order to inspect new posts.
30Very good visual appeal on this web site, I’d rate it 10 10.
31I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was wondering what all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very web smart so I’m not 100 sure. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
32Someone necessarily lend a hand to make severely articles I might state. That is the first time I frequented your web page and up to now? I surprised with the analysis you made to create this actual submit amazing. Wonderful job!
33Some truly excellent articles on this web site, regards for contribution.
34Hiya very nice site!! Man .. Excellent .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I am glad to search out numerous helpful info right here within the post, we want develop extra strategies on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
35Together with everything that seems to be developing throughout this subject material, a significant percentage of points of view happen to be very exciting. Even so, I beg your pardon, because I can not subscribe to your entire strategy, all be it exciting none the less. It seems to me that your remarks are generally not totally justified and in simple fact you are generally yourself not even wholly confident of your argument. In any event I did appreciate reading it.
36I’m impressed, I have to say. Really not often do I encounter a weblog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you may have hit the nail on the head. Your concept is outstanding; the difficulty is something that not enough persons are talking intelligently about. I am very joyful that I stumbled throughout this in my seek for something regarding this.
37It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
38I have been surfing on-line more than 3 hours as of late, but I by no means discovered any fascinating article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made excellent content material as you probably did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before. “We are not retreating – we are advancing in another Direction.” by Douglas MacArthur.
39After study a number of of the blog posts in your web site now, and I truly like your method of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark web site record and will likely be checking back soon. Pls try my web page as well and let me know what you think.
40Woh I like your articles, bookmarked! .
41Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
42When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Many thanks!
43Some genuinely fantastic content on this site, regards for contribution.
44Pretty! This was a really wonderful post. Thank you for your provided information.
45he blog was how do i say it… relevant, finally something that helped me. Thanks
46I believe this web site holds some rattling wonderful information for everyone. “A man’s dreams are an index to his greatness.” by Zadok Rabinwitz.
47Magnificent site. Plenty of useful information here. I am sending it to some friends ans also sharing in delicious. And obviously, thanks for your effort!
48I like what you guys are up too. Such intelligent work and reporting! Carry on the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my web site :).
49I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the structure of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
50