Do you also feel the need for some end-of-summer total cheer? Then I advise you to go and eat Korean somewhere – nowadays you can do that in almost all Dutch cities. Korea is large and its culinary culture complex and very regionally determined, but in general I think it can be safely said that the South Koreans are world champions of cheerful taste.
The entire toolbox of what makes food dazzling, exciting, invigorating, savory, spicy and delicious is taken out of the cupboard. The umami and layering of soy and pepper pastes are ubiquitous, such as doenjang (miso-like soy paste), ganjang (a type of soy sauce) and gochujang (a pepper paste that you can also find at well-stocked supermarkets these days). In addition, the freshness of ginger, spring onion and garlic are present, as well as the addictive baking taste of barbecued meat and hard-fried garlic. And then there’s the characteristic dairy-fresh savory of pickled vegetables that are part of virtually every meal. Kimchi (spicy, lactofermented cabbage, tuber, cucumber or sprouts) is therefore the national dish of South Korea, for which most households even have a specially equipped refrigerator.
Man Nam
Goudsesingel 39A, Rotterdam
www.mannam.nl
Digit: 8-
Korean restaurant with numerous traditional and more modern dishes to share: fried chicken, stews, soups, dishes from the table grill and the impressive Korean shaved ice dessert bingsu.
infectious atmosphere
The restaurant kitchens are just as lavish. Korean barbecue, Korean fried chicken, and Korean dumplings (mandu) have long been loved in the United States, where many major cities have a large Korean community. Here too, the dishes and ingredients are now on the rise. At Man Nam, by the South Korean born Rotterdammer Donny Kim, you can enjoy a range of dishes, both traditional and more modern.
Kim left his well-paid office job to open the restaurant, which has a small terrace sandwiched between a Beter Horen and a sun protection specialist. The place is spartanly decorated – on a table with action figure and a ‘Save water drink sojuneon lamp after. The festive atmosphere comes mainly from the food and the guests; both have been brought in in large quantities. It’s a cosy, full house of activity: groups of friends serving large table grills, girls in colorful headscarves eating giant ice creams and piles of sticky fried chicken after extensive photographing. Eating with chopsticks, with hands, with hands in plastic gloves, with forks, scooping from large ladles and slurping from bowls – the atmosphere is definitely infectious.
The basics of a Korean meal
The basic structure for a traditional Korean meal usually consists of rice (bap), thin or more substantial soup (tang or guk), supplemented with, for example, a stew (jigae) and/or roasted, grilled or steamed meat or fish dishes. Food served with alcohol is called anju. The hip sticky fried chicken is excellent with beer, and a dish like stir-fried kimchi with tofu (dubu-kimchi) is considered the perfect accompaniment to the insidious rice distillate soju. Small side dishes called banchan are always served: pickled vegetables, pieces of omelette, dried fish or steamed fish farce.
Also at Man Nam we immediately get a plate of vegetables: pickled cucumber, a bean sprouts salad and a very small tuft of kimchi, which nevertheless tastes good. There is blond house beer and Asian beer on the menu, different kinds of soju and soju cocktails and also the Korean milky rice wine makgeolli with different flavors. The map is large, everything is for sharing and choosing is difficult. The service is not all equally well informed about the size and content of dishes, but the owner, who has a chat at almost every table, explains it to us enthusiastically and helpfully.
Lavish, tasty and super festive
We start with the yang yeam chicken (€16.40), a hefty portion of crispy wing parts, wrapped in a sweet-spicy sauce of gochujang, garlic, sugar, spices. There is a whole list of types of fried chicken on offer, from very spicy (‘The Angry Korean’) to sweet, with yogurt and onion or with honey and butter. Dairy and American preserved meats are quite widely used in modern Korean cuisine. Dakgalbi (€ 29.40, spicy, stir-fried chicken dish) under a thick layer of melted cheese is also on the menu here. And Anthony Bourdain’s acclaimed ‘Korean Army Stew’, which is normally full of canned meats like spam, comes to Man Nam with house-made sausage. A kimchi pancake should be super crispy, brick red and addictively savory; it has been here for a while and we find it rather corny and too expensive for that (€ 14.40). Japchae (€13.40) is a stir-fried dish of light yellow glass noodles made from sweet potato starch (dangmyeon) with various vegetables and mushrooms and flavored with sesame and soy. Yummy.
There’s a whole list bulgogi dishes (literally: fire meat) from beef, pork and also from oktopus (around €20). The table grills are very nice, where the meat, whether or not marinated, can be grilled and rolled in lettuce with side dishes and condiments. We eat a great tofu stew (Soon Bubu Geon-Gol Special, €29.40). The spicy soup is richly filled with large pieces of soft tofu, pork belly, egg, rice cakes, vegetables and mushrooms. The Beef Shortrib Soup (€ 17.40) in a delicious meat broth that immediately improves your taste, also tastes excellent.
Bingsu is Korean shaved ice, which is made with a machine that shreds frozen condensed milk into sweet snow. Man Nam serves a variety of flavors from red beans and sesame to strawberries and chocolate. On the advice of the owner, we choose the one with mango (€ 13.90). The bingsu is also to be shared with the whole table: it is a giant mound of snow on a plate of ice and seems intended as dessert for a giant toddler. It has fresh, tasty mango and it is decorated with a large red candy and a sprig of mint. Lavish, tasty and super festive.
Take a look at keeping up with an autumn dip.
Butter, cheese and kimchi
The opinion of East Asian cuisine is that there is hardly any dairy consumption, but South Korean cuisine is a notable exception. Butter and cheese are commonly used ingredients, yogurt is also used, as are American preserved meats such as spam and hot dogs. In fact, the country is one of the largest importers of ‘American cheese’, the cheddar-like yellow factory cheese often found on hamburgers. These interesting additions stem from the large US military force that was stationed in South Korea during the Korean War. In the scant years after the war, factory products were a welcome addition to the diet. That cheese and meat preserves can be found in all kinds of dishes, stews and kimbap (sushi-like rice rolls), and even in Korean instant ramen, melted cheese is a surprising (and tasty) addition.