This year around new year of 2024, we visited Picnic Korean Restaurant which is located at Thamel to savor the Korean delicacy. Korean cuisine is a diverse and rich tapestry of flavors, colors, and textures that has become incredibly popular all around the world from Korean dramas to K-pop and movies.
They have friendly staffs with comfortable seating arrangements. You may either choose to sit on the floor in cushions or choose tables and chairs to dine as per your preference. We choose to dine on comfortable wooden chairs and tables which had brighter lighting and natural sunlight.
The staffs welcomed every diners with a smile and friendly gesture. First they served warm water along with the menu book. I was over all the items on the menu as I love Korean cuisine. The Korean soup and their special sauce delights my heart.
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We ordered the Tuna Kimbap, Fried chicken Lunch Box, Potato Pan Cake and Bulgogi Dolsot Bibimbap. They served Tuna Kimbap along with the side dish such as kimchi and dipping sauce. No Korean dish is complete without Kimchi. Kimchi is basically a combination of fermented vegetables mostly cabbages or radishes seasoned with garlic, chili peppers. Kimchi not just being the side dish but serves as a staple of every Korean Kitchen. Kimchi Tuna Kimbap consists of steamed rice, tuna and vegetables such as carrot and cucumber, wrapped in seaweed sheets. The sesame oil and sesame seed in the dipping sauce enhances the flavor of the dish.
The fried lunch box is the combination of steamed rice along with the side dishes such as spinach, fried chicken, cucumber pickle, egg roll, mushroom, tofu, lettuce along with carrot, onion and cabbage salad. The fried chicken is the star of the dish as it is marinated and double fried giving the perfect brown texture that is juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. The steamed rice perfectly blends with the side dish which leaves an indelible mark on our taste buds.
The Korean Potato Pancake, also known as Gamjajeon in Korean is something new that we ordered this time. The potato pancake is usually made with thinly sliced or grated potatoes and mixed with various seasonings such as salt and pepper. The toppings such as garlic, onion, green onions, carrots, flour and egg is mixed and pan fried until it turns golden brown. I simply loved the dipping sauce that they served with the potato pancake. It was mixture of chilly sauce along with sesame seed and soy sauce. The sauce complemented well with the potato pancake.
While we were about to order the famous Korean dish called bibimbap, the staffs there recommended us to order the Bulgogi Dolsot bibimbap instead. When we asked the difference they mentioned that its similar to bibimbap but the only difference is that the dish is served in a hot stone pot (called Dolsot) which is coated with sesame oil and cooked with rice until the rice at the bottom of the pot gets browned and crispy. A mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic and other toppings such as spinach, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts and a fried egg is mixed with thinly sliced beef to make bulgogi. The combination is then blended with hot gochujang sauce. You can feel the explosion of savory-sweet flavor in your taste buds in every bite you take. The advantage of having this dish is that it remains hot till the end as it is served in a stone pot.
Korean Cuisine highlights shared mealtimes and the skill of balancing tastes and textures, that captures their cultural significance.
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