The crunch when biting into fermented Chinese cabbage (called kimchi) and the spicy bubbles that rise up your nose. The neutral softness of glutinous rice. The smoothness between sweet and spicy of the pork sautéed with green onion. The sweet stickiness of transparent noodles with vegetables. The sizzle of thin strips of bife de chorizo and pork belly on the griddle in the middle of the table. The steam rising from the bowl of spicy fermented bean soup with tofu. For me, Korean food in Buenos Aires It is like a seesaw of taste and smell contrasts that fill the belly and the heart. And after fifteen years of trying it regularly, I think any curious Creole palate can appreciate this asian kitchenif you try and know where to go.
various options
The tour could well start with the “korean grandma cooking” de Bonga, located at the end of a corridor of a house in Flores (Av. Asamblea 1812), and culminating in Chacarita with the signature cuisine of Na Num (Roseti 177), for which the chef and entrepreneur Lis Ra created –among other things– a dish that blends humita criolla with “kimchi”. In between there is a lot.
In kyopo (Dr. Juan Felipe Aranguren 3053), by chef Pablo Park, right in the commercial clothing area of Avellaneda Avenue, the brief menu that unites fusion and fast food offers “bibimbap” (boiled rice bowl with a variety of sautéed vegetables, marinated meat and fried egg) with mango, avocado and cilantro. In a korean song (Av. Carabobo 1549, Flores) there are careful classic dishes with less spiciness, which perhaps has made it the most popular community restaurant in the city.
Trace of American influence since the war that divided the peninsula from Korea in South Korea and North Korea in 1953 it was fried chicken, eaten with a typical spicy fermented chili sauce, “gochujang”. There are several places in Flores and Floresta to give yourself the guilty pleasure of trying it: the ones recommended by the Argentinian Koreans with whom I spoke are KU:L (Av. Carabobo 1107) and kikiriki (Terrero 1525). I tried (and approved) the tasty breaded chicken from Azith (Felipe Vallese 3135, only for dinner).
There’s also kitchen “chosunkok”, which are Chinese dishes adapted by the descendants of Koreans who immigrated to that country prior to their arrival in Argentina. As in Han Gang (Páez 3044) that works in a house without a sign outside. They have “jjamppong”, seafood noodle soup, somewhat spicy; “jajangmyeon”, noodles with black fermented soy sauce and small pieces of meat, and “tangsuyuk” (pork bites breaded and fried with sweet and sour sauce). Menu with a similar style is that of bulmat (Pasaje Ruperto Godoy 731, Altura Páez at 3100), led by chef Francisco “Pancho” Kim, where the “bokumbab” (similar to the Chinese “chow fan”) with fried egg, seafood soup and fried empanadas ( mandu), stuffed with pork, tofu, ginger and green onion.
Korean grill is available in The Kunjip (Felipe Vallese 3209), nestled in the middle of Floresta’s textile shops, with its gas grills for browning meat on each table and the various side dishes (in Korean: “banchan”) that include “kimchi”, rice and soup .
In Argentina
There is a legend that accompanies Korean food a la porteña. He says that in 1966, one of the first five immigrant families to arrive by boat from South Korea was punished for cooking. The story is told by Graciela Eun, a member of that group, who was 12 years old at the time and she remembers that when they went ashore people looked at them as if they were “weirdos.” “We went to the market in front of the Retiro station and, after two months of the Chinese food that they gave us on the ship, my mother’s eyes lit up: there we bought vegetables, meat and fish. They began to cook soup with a heater in the room of the Bajo hotel where we were staying, but in the end it didn’t go well: they took us out because there were complaints about the strong smell. We had to move to another hotel, on 25 de Mayo street.” Today a producer of apples, cherries and walnuts based in Lamarque, Río Negro, tells that they had brought “gochujang” in their luggage, and that her mother prepared “kimchi” on the boat with the cabbage that she got on the scales. In the end, the homeland is food.
Time gave the grandchildren of these immigrants their revenge: almost 60 years after their arrival, “there are between 50 and 70 restaurants that serve Korean cuisine in Buenos Aires,” says the Argentinian Korean cook and teacher Sandra Lee. For Lee, what remains is the change: “What is traditional Korean cuisine? The first ‘kimchi’, there are written references from more than two thousand years ago, was made with turnip and salt, and it did not have chili pepper, because chili pepper is from America and was incorporated later”. And she concludes that the kimchi “It is also fusion, because it is made with a variety of cabbage that comes from China. The central thing in our kitchen is not the recipe, but the dedication in the fermentation and the sauces”. Beyond the evolution, according to the owner of Na Num, Korean food still has a long way to go to reach wide acceptance in the country. “It’s a fragrant kitchen, and Argentines ask for more ‘bulgogui’ (marinated and salted meat) and ‘bibimbap’, – she says – they don’t like spicy soups so much. But I think that in about five years they will like a greater variety of dishes”.
With his mind on greater dissemination, Pablo Park has been preparing for months the opening of a Korean-inspired gourmet restaurant in Villa Crespo. It will be called Han (word that defines the “collective sentiment” of Koreans). “Obviously I am going to target the general public, not just my community, people who have traveled. There are going to be twenty seats, with a cover that is not cheap”.
Beyond the various ways in which it is presented, Korean food in Buenos Aires attracts more and more Creoles. And he does it because he has an intense and well-defined personality. It may go through a lot of fusions, but it will still feel Korean.
by Ricardo L. Mosso
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