Can you handle red-hot kimchi? Tangy-hot soups? Fancy a night out at a restaurant where you can cook your own food at your table? Then Arirang is for you.
This authentic Korean restaurant in a cute square in Óbuda doesn’t hide the fact that the venue used to serve up steaming pörkölts and paprika chicken, goose liver and bone marrow on toast. The new owners hung up pictures of Korea and colorful souvenir items, installed a karaoke system in one of the larger rooms, and kahm-sah ham-nee-da (thank you very much), welcome to Korea.
The place is perfect for small parties – it is a virtual warren of private dining areas, from which laughter could be heard and the occasional slightly tipsy patron stumbled out on his way to the loo. Since we were just two, we sat in the main room next to a pair of Japanese businessmen – Japanese people love Korean grills and the spicy change from their milder home cuisine.
I chose bibimbap, one of the simplest and yummiest of Korean dishes because it combines all that’s good about it in one dish. Served in a steaming-hot bowl, the rice at the bottom cooks onto the side and becomes crunchy-chewy, yum. Atop the rice sits a raw egg – just stir into the hot rice or press against the side of the hot bowl to cook it. Other condiments and veggies decorate the rest of the bowl, from marinated bean sprouts to tangy stewed spinach. Mix them all in or taste them separately, as you like, but be careful with the dollop of spicy hot sauce – this Korean cousin of Hungary’s Erős Pista paprika paste really packs a punch. Bibimbap comes with a bowl of miso soup with tofu.
My companion chose a hearty kimchi soup that tested his tolerance for spice. It, like nearly every dish at Arirang (and any Korean restaurant) came with rice and almost a dozen little dishes of vegetables, from garlic-marinated mushrooms to bean sprouts to two kinds of kim-chi.
We chose not to grill our own meats this time, but we’ve tried it elsewhere, and the scent of the sumptuous steaming meat at our neighbors’ table was tempting… It’s certainly a fun change from being served. Order your choice of thin-sliced meats (I recommend bulgogi beef), usually marinated in a sweet sauce, and the waiter will help you grill it on the round-topped grill he’ll install at your table. Take a leaf of fresh lettuce, fill it with rice, top with meat and any of the dozen vegetables and condiments, close the lettuce leaf around it, and pop it in your mouth. Scrumptious!
Adri Bruckner
Arirang
1033 Budapest, Hídfő utca 16
Tel.: +36.1.240.5531