Posted by Kanga
The Axis of Evil, in case you don’t remember the details, was Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
We’ve eaten at multiple Iranian and Iraqi restaurants which is easy to do because they are all over town (our part of town, anyway). This week we completed the triangle by eating at the new North Korean restaurant in town.
It started with me discovering this article Dubai Restaurant Offers a Taste of North Korea. It was an easy and quick conclusion that we must investigate and drag our friends along.
So, Sunday evening we arrived at Okryu-Gwan. Our friends arrived a few at a time over the next hour and a half. (There is a “no photo” rule, so you will have to imagine for yourself what it was like.) The staff (on the evening we were there) was all female. They were dressed in lovely traditional Korean dresses, called Hanbok. The dresses were pastel colors, predominantly pink. The waitress was delighted when DaddyBird used the few Korean words he remembers.
We poured over the menu which was full of delightful and unfamiliar items. Most of our group ordered some sort of soup – kim kee, spicy beef, seaweed, etc. I was entranced by the picture of the cold noodles (sorry didn’t get the full name of the dish). It also looked like it would be (or could be) non-spicy.
My cold noodles were the last to arrive at the table and required some assembly by the waitress. She asked “spicy?” I turned to look, saw a bowl of red paste in her hand, and my outcry of “no!” shocked her a little. So, we skipped the fiery red stuff and she added vinegar, mustard, and other things I don’t remember and stirred it all up. It was yummy. Next time we go back I should get something else and expand my knowledge of Korean food, but I will be sorely tempted to have the noodles again.
At 8:00 pm, the floor show began. It started with two of the waitresses dressed in their pretty pink hanboks dancing and singing in Korean. Followed by another woman dressed in a western style dress singing in English. Followed by another Korean number, etc. All of the numbers were displayed Karaoke style on a big TV screen next to the stage. The music became progressively modern including Beautiful Sunday (by Daniel Boone) and 500 Miles (by Peter, Paul & Mary). The finale was sung in Korean, so I’m not sure what it was, but it involved an electric guitar, drums, an electric piano and a flute. All in all, quite entertaining.
So, I highly recommend Okryu-Gwan and we will be going back there soon.
Living the Travel Channel 