So I will be the first to admit, I had a very diverse upbringing when it comes to different culture’s cuisines. My dad especially was always encouraging us to try new things, whether it be sushi when I was 9 (and a mean wasabi trick that has been burned into my memory, but don’t worry I got over it and love it all the more today), Thai, Indian, and a score of others. The logic behind all of this is you need to try something at least once, no matter how different or visually unappealing it may be; in the end you may be pleasantly surprised.
So coming to Houston, it could be said that my tongue was already well traveled, but some days you just have to take it a step further and branch out yet again. That is how my food quest wound up at Kimchi’s Korean Café located on Barker Cypress just north of I-10. I had never experienced Korean food before but fortunately I had read an article on Yahoo once about the dish known as bi bim bap, a rice bowl with veggies and meat topped with a fried egg.
(Unfortunately there is no photo of that since I did that one long before I started this.)
It was delicious, the food comes out in a hot stone bowl that continues to cook the rice and meat as time passes, so by the end you get some nice crispy pieces that are kind of a fun change in texture and flavor. The dish is also served with a bowl of miso soup (same thing as the Japanese version, basically a nice salty broth) and a small tray of kimchi (fermented cabbage which sounds gross but I was instantly addicted to it) which both complement the hot rice meal great.
I went back to Kimchi’s at a later date, and the cute old ladies who run the joint recognized me right off the bat. As I debated the menu and decided to go back to the faithful bi bim bap I was quickly corrected by the cook. “You no get bi bim bap today, you like spicy you get #7. You like it very much”. Who am I to argue with the 60+ year old Korean lady cooking my lunch?
That is how I discovered bokum bap (or the English version Kimchi Fried Rice). It is a delicious stir fry with pork, kimchi, and other veggies all served up in the hot rock bowl and topped off with yet another fried egg, I do like the Korean’s style when it comes to cooking.
So after this little café rocked my taste bud’s world, I have become a regular to that place, and ever since that fateful day I have been following the instructions of that wise old woman, and ordering extra kimchi. This has become one of those moments in life when you establish a relationship with a random person passing through your life, her father in Korea was ill (he is 92 so they were preparing for the worst) and she was gone for nearly a month and a half, while her children filled the void adequately with banter and good food, it just was not the same, so when I saw her again the last time I visited Kimchi's once again had that warm feeling to it and the world was just a little better place that day.
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