What were these "side dishes" I was served at a Korean restaurant?

Cafe Society
1

Awhile back I was given a $20 Groupon for a “Korean BBQ” in Tacoma’s Korean neighborhood. I went in to use it tonight. It was pretty obvious it wasn’t the kind of restaurant that caters to American tastes - the menus were in Korean first and Engrish second, I only saw one other Caucasian person dining there, and I had to ask the waiter for a fork instead of chopsticks. Nonetheless, I felt like trying something different, and ordered what turned out to be a “hotpot” with rice, vegetables, a fried egg, fish eggs, octopus, and some other kind of seafood I couldn’t identify (eel, maybe?). I didn’t care much for the octopus (too rubbery), but the rest of it was pretty good.

Along with it, though, the waiter brought me seven tiny plates of what he referred to as “side dishes”, which I was assured I could get refills on for no charge. For the most part, they didn’t resemble anything my western brain identifies as “food”. I felt too embarassed to ask what they were, but I tried all of them and they were mostly tasty. I tried to take a picture so I could post it for identification, but my phone didn’t save the picture for some reason, so i’m hoping someone more familiar with Korean food can identify these from their descriptions.

-Big chunks of a crisp, reddish-white spicy vegetable. I assume this was kimchi.

-A pile of small, rectangular slices of a brownish vegetable (I think it was a vegetable, anyway), with a crisp texture and mild flavor.

-Tiny stalks of something that looked like celery, with strips of seaweed and some sort of red sauce smeared along the underside.

-Slices of cucumber and carrot in a sour dressing.

-A pile of tiny fish which had been fried whole. They were crispy and salty. I thought it was a vegetable at first, but didn’t eat anymore after I noticed the vegetables had eyes.

-Greyish-brown wedges about the size and shape of pickle spears, which appeared to have a thin sauce and sesame seeds on them. This is the only one I didn’t try, as it looked like some kind of raw fish, and not in the good way like sushi does.

-Some sort of long, white sprouts with large yellow pods on one end.

Anyone have any idea what these goodies are that I was served?

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The term’s bancheon, but I believe they vary quite a bit depending on what’s in season, and what the chef happens to like to make.

Kimchi is a sort of Korean sauerkraut with hot pepper paste added- it usually looks like limp bok choy with red stuff on it to me. I think you got it right based on your description.

The sprouts are a sort of bean sprout- the “pods” are actually the cotyledons of the sprout.

I don’t know what the rest are, although I’ve had the second one you describe, and liked it- I don’t know what it’s called though.

Incidentally, if your hot pot came in a stone bowl and had crispy rice on the bottom, it’s called Bibimbap

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The local Korean place has the cucumber-and-carrot salad you mention, but they just list it as “cucumber salad” on the menu (even though most of the dishes bear their Korean names).

And as I understand it, kimchee can be pretty much any vegetable, though cabbage is the most common one.

Bi-bim-bob is one of my usual orders, but the version around here is beef-based, not seafood.

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Can you match up the food you describe with the items in this article?:

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I see the cucumber salad in the top picture, and the white sprouts and the green stalks in the picture of namul. The reddish-white vegetable was clearly kimchi. The other three don’t correspond to anything mentioned in there as far as I can tell.

bump - It was indeed a bibimbap. The waiter had called it something starting with “B” but I didn’t catch the term, and the menu only described it as “Steamed rice with vegetable and assorted seafood in a stone pot”.

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I eat bancheon about three nights a week, because I work with an international high school girls’ program in Koreatown, and they usually invite me for dinner in their dining hall. To be honest, half the time I have no idea exactly what they are, but they’re always good. My favorite is the crispy red chewy, stringy stuff that’s kind of sweet.

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Sounds like these could have been sliced bamboo shoots - naturally creamy-white in colour, but often brown if they’ve been sti-fried with soy sauce.

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hahahaha
awesome

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I checked the wiki, some of those sound good, and some of those sound like something someone ate for the first time on a bet :eek:

I have a similar problem when I go to indian restaurants when they bring out a pile of papadum and 3 bowls, brown slime, green slime and red-orange chunky stuff.

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Those little side dishes are a staple of Korean restaurants, and each restaurant tends to have its own stuff. Kimchi is my personal favorite; the first time my soon-to-be-wife and I ate at a Korean restaurant, she told me it was good but didn’t warn me it was spicy hot, and I took a heaping great mouthful as she watched with a smile. (We’re still married, 40 years later.)

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Here’sa beautiful website with lots of pictures, recipes and videos. I found it after I gave up trying to figure out on my own how to make some of the Korean foods I remembered eating at my friend’s house when I was a kid, and that I’ve had in various restaurants.

Go down to the Banchan link to see if some of the items are there. As far as I can tell others have given a pretty good guess at what most of the stuff probably was.
-A pile of tiny fish which had been fried whole. = Stir fried dried anchovies

-Greyish-brown wedges about the size and shape of pickle spears, = Could have been potato. the Korean side dish potato is cooked about half way, so it’s still slightly crunchy, then put with a salty sweet sauce.

-Tiny stalks of something that looked like celery, with strips of seaweed = Could have been celery and seaweed. I’ve had something like that before.

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What problem is that? They’re just different sauces; I’d suspect that the brown and red-orange sauces are probably fruit based, and the green one is kind of a cilantro/mint/yogurt sauce.

Good stuff!

Oh… and as for the bibimbap; the place my wife and I went last Saturday (Korea House in Austin, TX) has 2-3 different varieties- beef, mixed seafood and pork (I think; it might have been chicken). I got the mixed seafood, and my wife got bul gal bi- great meal all around!

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What is the “problem” here and how is it “similar” to Korean food? The “slime” is just a sauce and the chunky stuff is just a relish. Any sauce served with a panpar (papadam) is going to be free of any animal-based ingredients.

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Tamarind sauce, mint chutney, and onion relish.

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Oh, I miss Korea House. I haven’t been there in years (since I now live way out of state), but that was my first exposure to bancheon.

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“big chunks of a reddish white crispy vegetable”

Sounds like my favorite, which is cubed Korean daikon radish, slightly cooked and pickled in a red chili sauce.

Korean side dishes are awesome, and different restaurants trot out different assortments according to the expertise of their cooks. I always order the soft tofu soup, and have seconds on the bancheon. It’s a tasty way to get a giant dose of vegetables.

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I love Korea House too - now I’ve got a hankering to go there and have some tonight. I do particularly like their bibimbap (though I also have a weakness for their samgyeopsal).

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the red orange stuff didn’t taste oniony <shrug> I like the brown goop and the orange stuff, but cilantro tastes like soap to me. I would like to be able to make the brown goop and the orange stuff at home.

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“Tiny stalks of celery” could be baby bok choy.

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You can buy them at the store.

So how is this similar to the Korean restaurant problem again?