Columbus a great place to sample Korean flavors

Don’t be misled by the name. Golden Chopsticks isn’t a Chinese restaurant.

Rather, it’s the best Korean restaurant in Columbus. That’s saying a lot, because the range of choices, the quality of tastes, and the authenticity, make the city’s Korean restaurants among the best of the city’s Asian cuisine.

Why this is true is a surprise to many. It’s because of the size and diversity of the city’s Korean community.

A diverse community

Columbus doesn’t have descendants of the 19^th Korean laborers who emigrated to Hawaii, nor the picture-book women who emigrated to marry them. But, among the 2,600 Korean immigrants in Columbus, there are:

• Spouses of U.S. soldiers, some still living from the Korean War, where the U.S. deployed 327,000 troops, but many more who married U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea after the war.

• Orphans who settled in Columbus, among the 400,000 Korean orphans who emigrated to the U.S. from 1953 to today.

• Professionals and those with specialized skills who came to Columbus under the preferences of the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act.

• Republic of Korea soldiers who train at Fort Benning.

• Korean executives at Kia’s West Point plant who come for five years, then return to Korea, and Korean graduates of U.S. engineering schools who come to Kia for a green card.

Dr. K. Seon Jeon, an associate professor of applied linguistics at Columbus State University, has observed the Korean community since coming to Columbus 10 years ago from Washington, D.C.

“They are diverse in their interest, profession, background and past experiences,” Professor Jeon says. “When I first moved here it was mainly military families and their relatives. However, now we have professionals – college professors, medical doctors, accountants, engineers, business managers and students – in different fields.”

And, well, they’ve got to eat.

The $2 billion U.S. Korean restaurant industry exists, primarily, in big-city Koreatowns, including Atlanta. Some 5,000 Korean restaurants, according to IBIS World research, employ 30,000 workers, and are expanding about 3.5 percent annually, faster than the economy.

Here as elsewhere, most are located in shopping centers.

Korean cuisine is “unspoiled” in American restaurants, says food writer John Surico. There’s no brand-rich Pad Thai or General Tso’s Chicken equivalent. “That’s great for purists curious about traditional Korean cuisine, but it also slowed down the time line of acceptance.”

That’s changing. David Chang’s 10-restaurant chain, Momofuku, is on the cover of food magazines. There’s the PBS show “The Kimchi Chronicles.” And, everyone who follows the food-truck movement knows about Roy Choi’s Korean taco truck.

What to eat

If you’re new to Korean cuisine, here’s what you need to know.

Everyone has a list of the “five most-popular Korean dishes.” Some are based on what Koreans eat at home, others what Koreans eat in restaurants. Chefs have their lists, so do the food critics.

My favorite is a list compiled last year by Korea tourism authorities based on interviews with Westerners returning home through Seoul’s airport. It’s the kind of survey I might have taken – and the answers I’d have given – after a 12-day visit to Korea last year.

Consolidate the lists and here’s what you get:

• Bulgogi – Seasoned beef in a savory sauce, sliced thin and broiled, grilled or stir-fried, producing a smoky sweet taste. Served with lettuce leaves and, for those who can take the heat, red pepper paste.

• Bibimbop – Mixed vegetables over rice often with a fried egg on top. The emphasis is on freshness, variety and color of the vegetables.

• Kimchi – Cabbage, radish or sprouts fermented in salt, red-pepper powders, ginger, chilies. This national dish of Korea is served with all meals. It’s worth noting that Westerners polled at the airport “disfavored” kimchi as “too spicy” and for its “unpresentable look.” It’s an acquired taste.

• Sam Gae Tang – A fragrant chicken-with-rice soup, flavored with ginseng, garlic and chili paste.

• Banchan – Not one dish, but the four to six side dishes that accompany your meal. The banchan typically includes fish cakes, bean sprouts, cucumber and kimchi.

Want to make these dishes yourself? Click here to find local ingredients in Columbus and get some cookbook suggestions.

Where to eat it

All of the Korean restaurants in Columbus serve their version of these main and side dishes. But there are differences worth knowing.

• Golden Chopsticks – Try the lunch specials. Dishes ranging from daeji bulgogi to bibimbob, from mandoo to hot stone bowls, come with at least five small bowls of banchan, including a cabbage kimchi. Note the careful knife work. Scrupulously fresh. Koreans in the kitchen. Ask the owner’s son about his grandmother’s hot sauce. If offered a taste, wet the tip of a toothpick and lay it on your tongue. You’ll know in a few moments whether you can tolerate the heat. T-shirts for sale: “Got kimchi?”

• Koreana – This is the best place to try bibimbop, the traditional mix of egg, vegetables and rice. A fried egg is on top, the rice on the bottom, an array of vegetables in between. It comes to the table sizzling hot in a traditional stone bowl called dolsot. One waitress explained to me that Koreans chop up the egg and mix the yolk with the vegetables and rice. I hestitated. Moments later, another waitress grabbed a spoon and fork and showed me the way. When I asked her to describe one of the ingredients, she said she could do so in Korean, but not English. Don’t be misled by the décor. Koreana was formerly the Japanese steakhouse, Hibachi, and still looks like it.

• Korea House – Lunch here is a low-cost way to sample many Korean tastes, with an emphasis on barbeque. The beef barbeque lunch plate comes with salad, a fried dumpling, two slices of mixed beef and vegetables wrapped in dried seaweed, sweet potato noodles and rice. Plus, there is a plate of banchan that includes fish cakes, bean sprouts, cucumber and kimchi. Ten tastes for $7.99. This family-owned, five-year-old restaurant also caters.

• Seoul Garden (formerly Seoul Oriental) – Not strictly Korean: Chinese and Japanese, too. But 15 Korean dishes promoted as the “Korean Chef’s Specialties,” including bulgogi, bibimbop, stir-fried pork and chicken, hot pots and noodles.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Columbus a great place to sample Korean flavors."