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As you may have realized by now from reading my blog, I adore Hungry. So when her birthday came around, I asked her where she’d like to go.
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She said Sik Gaek, gave me a guest list, and I happily planned a large group outing to this mystical place where you can eat live octopus, other live sea creatures, and Anthony Bourdain had once visited (so I’m told; I don’t watch that show). Do note that we went to the one in Sunnyside, because it’s closer to public transportation than the one in East Flushing. We wound up a group of about 12 people, taking up three tables stretched in the middle of the seating area of the restaurant.
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No birthday at a Korean restaurant would be complete without watermelon soju, served in a watermelon!
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Korean cole slaw? I ate this mostly as a way to get some veggies in on this meat-heavy night.
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Lots of meat – if you order only one order of any Korean BBQ meats, they cook them in the kitchen and bring them to you, already cooked. But if you order 2 or more, they will cook it in front of you like you might be used to. While it was hard to take pictures of everything and remember things, I do recall that the kalbi was really good, while the pork belly was only so-so. I don’t remember what else other people sitting near me ordered, but I do recall that I liked most of what we got.
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The main reason Hungry wanted to visit? This giant seafood pot, which came to the table and was laid on top of a big flame, for us to watch cook and pick at slowly. Um, there was a lobster in there that made me super uncomfortable because I watched it die. It basically flipped its tail at us, repeatedly, then began slowing down; because there was no lid to hold in the steam, the death came very slowly. Very… very… slowly. It was disturbing, to say the least.
There’s been a lot of talk about this seafood hot pot dish, but at the end of the meal, I felt it was more about the show than about the actual dish. As it was, since it took so long to cook what was on top, what was on the bottom wound up overcooking before we even had a hope of a chance of getting close to those morsels. I tried a few pieces of seafood, and while some was good, some was hopelessly overcooked and rubbery. Blegh! I did like the noodles I could find in there, though those also eventually overcooked. In my opinion, not worth the $99… BUT. Huge caveat: perhaps it would have been better shared among 4 people, a smaller group, where I could sit closer to the pot and pick at it myself instead of relying on a friend to pass me tasty tidbits!
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Spicy pork, or dwegi bulgogi – pretty good, but not that spicy.
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Of course it’s not a party until someone empties the watermelon soju into their mouth, straight from the watermelon…
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Deep fried ‘sushi’ – this caused an ‘argument’ between TT and myself when he said it was deep fried kimbap and I said “no, there’s no rice in there!” (bap means rice in Korean) – in any case, these were japchae (glass noodles) wrapped in seaweed, then deep fried and drizzled with a weird sweet ketchupy sauce. Interesting but not what I’d call good…
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Another item of interest – once the seafood hot pot is done, rice is added to the pot and left to absorb the juices that have been left behind, then fry a bit to harden and create that ‘socarrat’ that we love so much from paella, a crisp rice crust. I don’t know if it was impatience or what, but we didn’t get quite a crust on it, and I only thought this part was OK. Meh.
Yvo says: I really wanted to like our meal, but overall, nothing was that great. Some was good, some was okay, some was just weird… I doubt I’ll be returning any time soon, and I definitely won’t go out of my way for this.
meh
TT says
i wasn’t arguing with you. the menu said deep fried kimbap. as someone who eats kimbap at least once a week for lunch, i know what it is. 😛 yes, what we got was not kimbap.
a fun place for a group meal. too bad i was the only one willing to try the live octopus. maybe next time?
Happy Birthday (again) Hungry!
Feisty Foodie says
Whoops, I must not have understood what we were talking about then, or remembered wrong… both very likely possibilities 🙂
sugarbutter says
Ooh, I went to the one in East Flushing but with a much smaller group and enjoyed the experience quite a lot, but I agree with you very much about the bottom layer of seafood overcooking by the time you get to it. That was a disappointment. I liked the brininess of the broth, but we didn’t get rice at the end, we got udon instead, which was okay with me because I’m not a crusty rice fan. By that time, we had no more room in our bellies anyway. Probably would have helped if we hadn’t ordered the spicy rice cakes to go with our meal. :X
I think the next time I go, I’m going to ask for an empty platter to use as a holding cell for the top layers of seafood while the the bottom layer gets fished out and then just toss the uncooked stuff back into the pot.
Happy birthday, Hungry!
Feisty Foodie says
Not a bad idea!
T.C. says
Nice place overall to celebrate Hungry’s bday.
I liked the flavorful seafood rice at the end even if it wasn’t crusty enough.
Feisty Foodie says
I think what I got was too soggy… I don’t remember actually, haha.
hungry says
By the way, the lobster was already split in half when it was added to the seafood pot so it was probably dead already. You just saw residual reflexes when the pot heated up.
Also, I was the only one attaching the seafood pot in a hurry b/c I know things would overcook. I think everyone was being modest.
Feisty Foodie says
Ah… yeah, I think you mentioned that. Still creeped me the heck out… eek.
Another reason eating in big groups or with people who don’t know each other very well can be annoying – the ‘modesty’ of letting other people eat first. So much food gets cold that way! Wah. 🙂