After months of my stepmother and one of his sisters being obsessed with Korean dramas, my stepmother was desperately looking for a place in Puerto Rico that made Korean food. She found this place (Tako) which is apparently the only one in Puerto Rico that makes Korean food.
Anyways, it was finally the day and we finally arrived. My first impression was "Well, this is SO not what I expected." 'cause it was like entering a Subway or a Panda Express. For some reason, I thought we were going somewhere fancy. After that first impression we took like 10 minutes to finally decide what to order. Of course, each one of us ordered something different. But since our goal was tasting Korean food; there were only 2 things on the menu that screamed true (or as close as the true thing) Korean food.
We ordered 2 Bibimbap and 3 Gimbap. Now, don't worry. You don't have to get the Google search, I will give a description on each based on what we got served (and what they explained to us). Images are from Google since I totally forgot to take pictures that day.
Bibimbap:
It's a plate or bowl with 1 layer of rice at the bottom and on top, the 2nd layer, is a mixture of vegetables.The one they served had cucumber, carrot, egg, kimchi, letuce, mushroom and onion (I think that was it). They were arranged alongside the border of the plate. You could order meat with that (steak, chicken or sausage -chorizo) which was placed right in the middle.
Gimbap:
This one is very easy to explain 'cause you just have to imagine a Sushi of vegetables. That's basically what the Gimbap is, but here you can order it with meat. So it's a Sushi of meat... And again: steak, chicken or sausage-chorizo. Each order of Gimbap brought 10 pieces in a rectangular plate; on one corner there was letuce with a mildly spicy sauce and on another corner was kimchi.
Kimchi:
This was actually the main reason to come to this place. According to my stepmother there is always someone eating Kimchi in a Korean drama, so this was the thing she most wanted to try.
I still don't understand too well what exactly Kimchi is, so here's what the wiki said:
"Is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, scallion or cucumber."
Well, the one they served there was cabbage with a mildly spicy sauce.
Review of the Food and Place:
I only have 3 complains:
- I felt there was a lack of options. Only 6 dishes to choose and 2 of them were actual Korean food (even if the other ones had Korean ingredients in them. I mean, a Taco/Burrito is from Mexico and rice with meat on the side is everywhere).
- I was very lost at the time of ordering. All of us were, actually. When you get to the counter there is only a big poster with "steps" to order your food (like in Que Pasta! or Subway). There was no description of anything, just images and the names. There wasn't a list of the beverages we could order and I still have no idea if they sell dessert. I remember I saw a board with something about Tea... It had a weird name, I think it was something Korean related but I have no idea. No, I didn't ask 'cause I don't like tea anyways so I wasn't gonna order it. I'm just saying they need a better way to show what they are serving and mark some line to what is the actual Korean food; because that's actually the reason people go there.
- The rice had no taste at all. Like we say in Puerto Rico: "Estaba super soso!". It didn't taste bad at all... Only because it had no taste at all. I have to note that this problem was noticeable with the Bibimbap only, 'cause the lack of taste in the rice went completely unnoticed in the Gimbap.
Aside from that, everything was actually very delicious. Yes, the rice had no taste but the side sauce they gave you and the spiciness of the Kimchi compensate it. The price was moderate and and the service was excellent; very patient and amiable.
The Bibimbap we ordered were both of steak and it was delicious. I gave the idea to use the sauce it came with and mix it with the rice to give it a little bit more of flavor. And being a lover of mushroom, I have to note that it was exquisite. The 3 Gimbap we ordered were each of one of the meat. The best one was mine, which was sausage-chorizo, 'cause it had much more flavor than the other two. Steak was second best and the chicken one wasn't that good 'cause the chicken didn't have much taste. As for the Kimchi, I had to eat it alongside something else because I don't like spicy food and I'm not fond of cabbages; but it tasted very good so that's how good it is.
As you may have noticed, Koreans are apparently very fond of vegetables. Every dish was served with only vegetables and you had to add meat if you wanted to. I don't think they cook with lots of spices and flavors, which for us Puerto Ricans can be very bland since we use spices until the food can hold no more of it. But they make up for it in sauces which are all spicy.
In other words, it was a really good place after you got past the initial confusion and lots of questions to the poor employers. I was also very happy that I finally found a place where they made the rice like actual Asians would do it: sticky in a way you can take that rice up with the chopsticks easily enough.
I know this may probably never compare to going to Korea and taste the actual stuff, but I think it's a nice close and it makes up for not being rich and able to go to every place in the world and taste their awesome food.
