Kyong Bokgong

I had the most amazing culinarily delightful weekend!! It all started with my desperation for Sushi. I started researching online for Japanese restaurants and found two – Dahlia and Akasaka. Akasaka was way out there in Thiruvanmaiyur (God knows how to spell the stupid place) and Dahlia was completely booked up!I was peeved with life but continued my search until I noticed another name popping up with the Japanese names. I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer for my sushi and badgered Bananna and Bambi to accompany me to this strange sounding place that wasn’t Japanese at all!!

Kyong Bokgong Restaurant – Korean Specialty
No 10, Chamiers Road, Near Nandanam Arch, Nandanam, Chennai (044 42113345)

The whole place was made up like the typical Japanese/Korean eateries with individually enclosed spaces for the privacy of every diner’s party. It looked a tiny bit dinky but we marched in with great purpose! The best part of the décor were the cutest teeny weeny waiters from the North East of India and Nepal, ‘kawaiiiiiiiii’ !! :D

I glanced through the menu in my Friday night euphoria, and my heart sank. There was nothing on the menu for less than 400 bucks! I started feeling just a tad bit guilty that I had browbeaten Bananna and Bambi to indulge my eccentric taste for the orient!

Then our delightfully cute little waiter came to help us choose our entrée’s and main course. The poor little wood nymph (our waiter) had to stop me from going crazy and ordering the whole damn menu! Finally we settled on an Octopus and noddle thingamajiggy, a sweet pork dry thingy with salad wraps, Prawn sweet and sour dishamajig and Pork dumplings (Wohoooooo!!). We settled in for our usual 15 minute food-wait.

Exactly a minute after our order, our wood nymph waiter wheeled in a trolley full of small bowls with several alien concoctions. As he laid all the colourful items on our table, he noticed our blank expressions and decided to magnanimously let us know that these were the side dishes. Side Dishes? What the hell are side dishes?

The side dish spread looked more amazing than any meal I had had in the last 1 year! We had sautéed mushrooms, tiny fried prawns with a hint of sweetness, cabbage kimchi, horse raddish kimchi, some sort of white germ jelly with a sprinkle of flavoured seaweed, boiled eggs cut in halves in a delicious sweet sauce, something that looked like a sliced sea cucumber elegantly sautéed, a mashed potato and vegetable thingy that looked like an omelet but tasted a bit like a pancaked hash brown; all served with a variety of sauces! And the best part, UNLIMITED!!

I was in heaven!

We filled ourselves up just with the side dishes and groaned when we saw the main course servings. Every item had a unique flavour and adding that to the exotic visual aid was definitely a wohoooooooooo moment! To finish off, we had a dainty serving of fresh fruit and cold coffee (all on the house!) We were all stuffed like turkeys on Christmas Day; and the bill, just 600 bucks per person.

I never did have my Sushi, but I couldn’t have been more satisfied!