Friday, February 18, 2011

Hwasarang (fire love) Galbi

Next up (and last but definitely not least!), galbi!! This by far has to be my favorite galbi place in Korea yet: Hwasarang (fire love). It’s located in Yeongtong Park near the aforementioned Ciudad de Mexico at the base of the foot bridge right below Yuppie bar.

I would eat here once a week if I could, but I have very few people in my neighborhood with which to go out to dinner. I can occasionally bribe a friend from work to go with me after work, though. This place is more expensive than your mom & pop galbi places, but the quality of meat and side dishes more than make up for it. The price for one serving of meat can range from 12000 – 24000 won, but it is definitely worth the price: the meat is tender and very good quality. I typically order the beef since I’m not a big fan of pork, so I can’t attest to how good the pork is here. In addition to the typical lettuce and sesame leaves, you also get a kimchi jeon, some soup, salad, corn dish thing, and random little odds and ends. Depending on the season, you get fruit (typically apples) in that strange mayonnaise dressing that Koreans tend to be so fond of. I can’t express how much I love this place…mmmm, galbi…. All I really have to say about it is that it’s delicious (I’ve never used that word so much in my life until I moved to Korea – the land where everything is “delicious”).
Another good thing about this place is they don’t tend to hover over foreigners and watch you eat and try to cook your meat for you like they do at the smaller shops. A friend that used to live here and I tend to like our meat a little more well done and would have to shoo away the ajumma before she would try to take it off the grill and throw it away. For dinner, it’s better to get there before 7pm if you don’t want to have to wait for a table – it fills up pretty fast.

So If you’re looking for a good galbi place in the area, this is definitely the one to choose!

Cooking the meat. I was so intent on the food and talking with my friends that I almost forgot to take a few pictures.

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