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FeedFriday, February 29, 2008
Best Cheap Lunches of the Metro, Part 1
Then all my other favorite cheap lunches sprang to mind. (Like? Cheesesteak at Golooneys, everything at Jasmine Deli or Saigon, roast beef sandwiches at Maverick’s, Eggplant parmigiano at Brianno’s in Eagan….I could do this all day.) I became lost in a philosophical merry-go-round of my mind’s wonderment. I mean, are great lunches like beautiful sunny days? Is it inherent that you love the one you’re with, and immediately hope for another? Or are great cheap lunches more like track-and-field records, with identifiable, quantifiable stand-outs, such that you could say, “Lunch, June 6, 1980: best ever!’?
I stopped wondering once I actually got to Korea Restaurant, because it was time to eat. I’m just saying, though: Whether this place is a beautiful sunny day or a track and field record, it’s a great, blessed, wonderful, memorable, worthy thing—in the under $10 lunch category, that is.
Let me tell you, it ain’t the décor that does it: stained, elderly carpets, a dismal drop ceiling, furniture and lighting reminiscent of a cut-rate auto body-shop waiting room. Bring a magazine. The way the place works at lunch is that you go to the little cash register by the kitchen and order from the dozen lunch specials. They’re all $6.99, except for the kal bi—beef short ribs—which are $7.99. You can also order from the regular menu if you want, which you have to do if you want their signature mandoo dumplings ($5.95).
You pay your money, you get a little number. You put your number on your table, and proceed to the banchan bar. Banchan are the little side-dishes like kim chi, pickled bean sprouts, and potato salad that distinguish Korean cuisine from other Asian cuisines; they’re used to season rice, and Korea Restaurant sets out about half a dozen per lunch. There’s also white rice (it’s traditional to use the metal bowls for this) and a soup. So, you fill your little dishes with whatever looks interesting, and head back to your table. By the time you’ve assembled your gargantuan array of food, someone will have brought you your entrée. Now you sit down and feast.
Today I had the kal-bi, because Korea Restaurant makes a standout version of the thin-sliced beef short ribs. First they marinate them in a sweet-spicy soy mixture made herbal with plenty of fresh green scallions, and then they grill them at about a billion degrees till the ribs are crisp like potato chips, tender like tenderloin, and fatty like ribs, all in alternating bites. I also got the mandoo because that’s how I roll. These pierogie-like stuffed dumplings were elegantly done, the noodle wrapper tender on the inside, crisp on the outside, the filling, made with cellophane noodles, pork, and scallions, homey and comforting. Paired with the banchan buffet it was a meal fit for a king—a really hungry king. I ate seaweed and daikon salad; sweet soy boiled potatoes; traditional firey pickled cabbage kim-chi; marinated bean sprouts; chili dressed parsnips; green romaine salad with carrots and a chili dressing, and a pork and seaweed soup. For $8! Well, $13, actually, but that’s just because I’m nuts (about Korean mandoo dumplings, but, you know, also generally). The $8 part of it would have done me fine. The two college kids at the next table looked at my spread with envy – odd, because they had access to pretty much everything I did, though they had gotten one of the bul go gi (thin sliced meat in a spicy sauce—I personally prefer the pork over the beef, it’s more tender), both cost $6.99. “That’s the kal bi, it’s an extra dollar, but it’s worth it,” noted one of the kids to the other. Who says kids today don’t know the value of a dollar?
Of course, since today was one of my first efforts in blogging, the camera I was toting ran out of batteries after about three pictures. But I think I got one of the sign out front—and yeah, I know the sign says Korea Café, and the restaurant is called Korea Restaurant, but I don’t really feel like doing anything about it. It just deepens the culinary wonderment that is this East Bank hole in the wall. It’s a typo, wrapped in a land-speed record, wrapped in a beautiful sunny day, wrapped in one damn good lunch. Korea Restaurant
211 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis
612.746.0559
Mon – Sat 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; lunch specials Mon – Fri 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.; closed Sundays
Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 in Permalink
Comments may be edited for length, clarity, or appropriateness.
Reader Comments:
You can't possibly be comparing lame Saigon with Jasmine Deli. What a joke! Clearly, being a good writer doesn't mean you have a good palate, given that you can't differentiate between mediocre food and the truly great.
Hmm. Well, I guess great minds will have to agree to disagree; I love Saigon, and when I took Anthony Bourdain there he said he thought it one of the best and most authentic Vietnamese restaurants in the country. Of course, what you like about what you put in your mouth is above all personal, but I'm very curious. What don't you like about it?
Woo hoo! We've got Dara back again! To chime in about Cheap Eats on the East Bank theme, I can remember a number of meals I had at The Lotus. While probably not as good as Saigon, perhaps, it was definitely easy on my undergrad's bank account at the time and quite delicious.
By the way, the only thing lacking on your fancy new blog is an RSS feed.
Never fear, the RSS feed is coming... soon! Thanks for being patient!
@Kory L.
Thank you! I was going to say the same.
Hi Dara,
This is a totally unrelated comment..but would you, the folks at MN Monthly, and your larger sponsors at MPR have any interest in trying to get the great essayist and food writer Calvin Trillin to come to the Twin Cities to test out our ethnic food (esp. along University Avenue) and compare it to that he has eaten in other locales? I think it would make for a fascinating interview and really, who wouldn't want to spend time with Mr. Trillin---he's hilarious. I'd offer to host him!! Heck, I'd even pay for the meals!
I figured that y'all, as an established media block, would have more access and means to get in touch with the man than a lowly resident who is merely proud of her city's eats.
What do you think?
MK Bailey
Hi MK,
That's a great idea! I would love to hang out with Calvin Trillin and eat, that would be a highlight of my year. That said, I have no idea how that would be accomplished, but I'll definitely ask around. Even though I've been here for a whole month now I'm really still feeling my way around. Like, I think I've finally picked a parking garage. Progress!
In any event, thanks so much for stopping by and reading, I'm really thrilled about this new job, and I'm so happy you've come along.
-Dara
I wonder if there is confusion over which Saigon is being discussed. The one I know of is on Lyndale half a block south of Lake, which has always looked sketchy and dismal to me (I have not eaten there -- this is why I need Dara to point out unassuming places like Korea Restaurant to me). On citypages.com I see a recommendation for a Saigon on University in St Paul. And there used to be another one on 38th St at Grand in S Mpls, which was tasty but doomed (I never saw anyone else in the place).
I would like to name the carnitas burrito at Pineda Tacos on Lake as a fantastic cheap meal.
I'm happy to be reading your local reviews again, Dara.
I was talking about the one in Uptown. If that is not the one being reviewed, sorry for the confusion. All I know is that when I was there with Jean Georges and Alain Ducasse, we all were disappointed.
Comment above was mine.