Monday Munchies- Korea House
Most of my diet revolves around spicy food. If it isn’t a sweet breakfast treat, I probably want to throw some type of spicy seasonings or hot sauce on it. In my opinion, it just makes everything better (and it’s a calorie-free way to enhance your food in a world of perpetual “dieting”). In middle school, my mom told us the story of going over to a friend of hers’ house in high school all the time after school and just eating the whole time she was there. Her mom had stored hundreds of pre-made dumplings (Yaki Mandu is what they’re actually called) in the freezer. Come to find out, this mother of my mom’s friend opened a restaurant on the north side of Clarksville, literally called Mom’s Kitchen. It was pretty cool to be able to see my mom surprise and reunited with “Mom” and get to enjoy her food again. And even better, the food quickly became a weekly staple worth driving an hour round trip to get every Friday basically until I graduated high school. Unfortunately, Mom’s Kitchen has since closed, and I’m obviously not in Clarksville anymore. However, and thankfully, we had Korea House ready to swoop in and save the day to give Hillary and I our fix for my favorite Oriental style cuisine.
I’m going to start off by going over the traditional dumplings appetizer. “Yaki Mandu” literally means fried dumpling in English, and I have yet to find a similar style dumpling in Nashville. Most of them are of the steamed variety, which based on the popularity is more of the custom (and also healthier). Korea House’s dumplings (Goonmandu) are pretty lightly fried, and delicious. It’s a beef and veggie mixture with a soy-based sauce for dipping. You get an order of twelve you order them and Hillary are usually fighting over who can eat more and then the customary “oh, you can have the last one. It’s fine.” happens and the person that eventually doesn’t reciprocate the response is the obvious winner. Some other popular appetizers, and a bit more of the traditional variety, are Putkong (edamame) and Tteokbokki (rice fingers, w/ vegetables, fish cake and a boiled egg in spicy sauce). Hill loves edamame, but I don’t know if either of us are adventurous enough to anything that contains a fish cake.
For as long as I have been eating Korean, chicken bulgogi has been my go-to. I’m a big spice guy, and Mom’s Kitchen always did their best to try and keep my stomach in knots for at least 48 hours after consumption. Korea House is no exception on the heat. Even their baseline bulgogi is prepared with a gochujang sauce (spicy Korean bbq sauce that has an underlying sweetness to it). Hillary has gotten that as well a couple of times, and also gotten the fried rice (an enormous portion size). A friend of mine got the Galbi one time that we went, which is spicy beef spare ribs marinated in a secret sauce with sliced onions on top. I would be remised to not mention their most popular dish based on Yelp reviews and photos, the Dolsot Bibimbap. It is a dish that is cooked in a stone pot containing a mix of fresh veggies and rice, topped with either beef, tofu, or chicken, and finished off with an over-easy egg. The pictures look pretty incredible, even for someone that doesn’t necessarily enjoy the taste of vegetables. It makes me wish that I did. All orders of entrees also come with an endless amount of traditional Korean sides that are refilled throughout the meal.
One of my favorite things about Korea House actually isn’t the food. To preface, this place has won best Korean restaurant in Nashville for basically the past decade. And because of that, it is constantly packed; especially with Korean college students on the weekend. If you’re not there at an off time, prepare to have to wait twenty minutes or so. Despite the constant busyness, I have never not had over the top friendly customer service. The restaurant is run by three people, a set of parents and their daughter, and they work every day. A couple of years ago we went their for our wedding anniversary and they gifted us with a couple of Korean beverages on our way out. While a small gesture, it was a very kind one. If you ever end up deciding to go after reading this, please let me know as I would love to tag along and go with you! I would never pass up the opportunity for bulgogi and dumplings.
SCORE: 9.0/10