It is my first Korean cuisine post! I am really excited to write about Korean food because I love Korean food. The meat, the vegetables, the kimchi, oh the kimchi. Korean cuisine can be very spicy but it is so full of flavors. If you have never been to Korea before, I highly recommend going there. It is a cheap and fast flight from Japan. There are many things to see there, and the food is spectacular. Hopefully you can go after this pandemic is over.
Korean vegetables have to be my favorite vegetables in the world. If you walk into a Korean restaurant, the first thing they do is give you a bunch of small plates of tasty, spicy looking vegetables to try. Japan's Korean restaurants are a bit different. They usually do not give you those small dishes but everything is still delicious. Whenever I get a craving for Korean food, I head up to Hitachi Naka and visit my favorite place, Danran.
Danran
Danran is about a five minute walk from Katsuta station. It is near a Lawson convenience store on the street where Donki Hotte is so you can't miss it. There are pictures of Korean dishes all over the windows and it even says Korean dining in English.
The wife had just finished work and it was dinner time. I had come to pick her up from work and we decided to have Korean food for dinner that night. We both walked from her job to Danran and got ready to have ourselves some delicious Korean food.
That's a lot of Soju
When you walk into Danran, it feels like you are walking into someone's dining room. You could sort of see the kitchen and the staff who work there. But the walls are covered with bookshelves full of manga, Korean alcohol, and other Korean goodies. The table and chairs all feel like a dining room set so everything feels very personal.
Full House
Danran was packed that Saturday night. We both sat at our table and debated what we were going to order. There were a lot of people enjoying their Korean dinner around us. There was a particular group that didn't have a volume button and were just loud the whole entire night. The pair next to that group were most likely on a date and were super annoyed with the loud group. The lovely couple were having a delicious looking cheese and meat platter which is called cheese taccarbie. I made a mental note to order it.
The Recommendation Menu
The menu is pretty big and I apologize for not being able to take a picture of all of it. I did take a picture of the おすすめ osusume menu, or recommendation menu. Good news to my non Japanese and non Korean speaking readers, the menu is also in English. At the top left of the menu, you have the sweet and spicy chicken cheeseburger. I have no idea why that is on the menu but it looks good. We decided to try that another time. What I really wanted to eat was what was under the chicken cheese burger, the cheese taccarbie. If you have been reading Ibaraki Eats thus far, you probably predicted I would order this. Cheese? With meat? Hell yeah. I was also interested in the other dish under the cheese taccarbie which was the UFO chicken. It looks like the cheese taccarbie but instead of beef it has karage and different vegetables. That would have to wait for another time. The middle of the menu has different kinds of chicken and fried chicken. The left side of the menu has a Japanese/Korean fusion sushi section. If you have never tried this sushi fusion, I highly recommend it. It can be a little spicy but it is delicious. I ordered the cheese taccarbie but the wife ordered her favorite Korean dish. She always orders this without fail.
Chijimi Menu
Chijimi is great. If you have ever had oknomiyaki then chijimi might seem familiar to you but it is different. It is flatter than oknomiyaki and instead of having the sauce poured on top, you grab a piece of chijimi and dip it into a sweet sauce. The chijimi menu is as follows, cheese kimchi chijimi, kimchi chijimi, seafood chijimi, cheese potato chijimi, potato chijimi, chijimi with chives and red peppers, and oyster chijimi. The wife chose the seafood chijimi and we were both really excited to try it.
Makgeolli
I was driving that night so the wife decided to order a cup of makgeolli. Makegolli is a Korean alcoholic beverage made from rice and a special Korean fermentation style. I am not a super huge fan of this drink but I don't dislike it. A lot of Japanese people actually drink this at Korean restaurants. I am more of a soju man myself. Soju is also made from rice and it kind of reminds me of Japanese nihonshu, but it is a lot smoother going down. It is a dangerous drink though, prepare to get hammered quick.
Small warning, please don't do what I did the first time I ordered Makgeolli many years ago. The Japanese pronunciation is makori, but the first time I ordered it, my Japanese friend tricked me into telling the sweet young waitress that I wanted mokori. The waitress turned red and laughed. I had just told her I wanted an erection.
Seafood Chijimi
When the chijimi hit our table, the wife's eyes lit up with excitement. This is her favorite Korean dish. We always have it in any Korean restaurant we go to and sometimes at summer festivals. This chijimi was filled with shrimp, squid and a lot of different vegetables. We each took a piece of the chijimi which is precut into squares and triangles, and dipped it into the chijimi sauce. The sauce is a bit sweet with a lot of toasted sesame seeds in it which goes perfect with the chijimi. The Korean style pancake with the sauce was great. I really enjoyed the mixture of seafood, vegetables and that delicious sauce. The wife was in heavenly chijimi bliss. She was starting to wonder if we should order another chijimi but then came our taccarbie.
The Taccarbie
The staff brought over a big hot plate with different delicious looking ingredients. The taccarbie came with cheese in the middle, lots of cheese. On the sides of the hot plate were roasted potatoes, long kind of chewy mochi, and beef all covered in amazing smelling kimchi sauce. The staff turned on the gas to the hot plate and we watched the cheese melt. Once everything was ready, the staff told us to "enjoy" and we started dipping.
So cheezy!
I enjoyed every part of this taccarbie. Everything was a little spicy and mixing all those ingredients with that melted cheese was amazing. The potatoes were so soft and flavorful, the mochi was extremely delicious and the meat was spicy and tender. Put all of that together with melted cheese and it is pure ecstasy. I was very impressed with the long mochi thing (sorry I don't know the Korean name). The spiciness, chewiness of it with the melted cheese was amazing and just an awesome party in my mouth. The beef was the star of the show though. Taking a bite out of that beef with melted cheese wrapped around it made my day. The wife and I really enjoyed the taccarbie and decided that we would order it again time.
After we were done with all our delicious Korean cuisine, I asked the wife if she still wanted to order more chijimi. She didn't answer me verbally, she gave me the "I am super full so stop joking around" face. We thanked the staff for the lovely meal and headed back to Tsuchiura very content with our spicy and delicious .
If you have never tried Korean food, I implore you to give it a chance. Unless you cannot handle spicy food but otherwise, I believe you will have a fantastic meal. And what better place to try Korean food than Danran in Hitachi Naka. Who knows, you might see me there, sharing the UFO chicken with the wife in glee.
Enjoy!
For more information on Danran, check out their website:
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