Kim Chi Grandma

Going to Grandma’s is a weekly Sunday night ritual. Visiting the wisest lady in the family, sitting around that round table, enjoying home cooking tasting of a culmination of a lifetime’s worth of experience. There is another grandma around, with homes at Box Hill, Carnegie and the city. Nothing special about the typically furnished restaurant in that classic Korean style of forest in various stains. How she does please her grandchildren is by intimately knowing exactly what the favourite dishes are and doing them well.

Japchae, those wet, slippery, fine strands of translucent glass noodles and equally thin slices of carrot, onion, spring onion, beef all stir fried with sesame oil and soy is a sweet example of this. Bibimbap was not what I expected, with a sunny side egg and pre stir fried contents. The hotpot was a bystander than actually charring the rice, meat and vegies and it more or less had that same sweet soy flavour as the Japchae until you added the chilli sauce. Unusual, lacking its simplicity and freshness, perhaps this more “exciting” version appeals more the wider community. Red pepper is more than apparent both visually and on the palate when that capsaicin hits your tongue from the chicken bulgogi. Spicy, yes, but not overly so that you need slam down five Cass, Hite or OBs to remove the chilliness or make you forget about it.

Go any day of the week, Kim Chi Grandma’s waiting for you.

3 / 5 yums!

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Where? 125 Koornang Road, Carnegie; 970-972 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill; 145 Bourke Street, Melbourne

What? Average Main - $15

Left to Right : Kim Chi, Japchae, Chicken Bulgogi, Bi Bim Bab