sk eats... 충무

충무김밥

Chungmu Gimbap

Chungmu, across the street from Judy's school, is one of the first restaurants we ate at in Ulsan. It was delicious, cheap and they had an English menu, so it was an instant favorite at the beginning. For the first few months it was a weekly (at least) stop. Since then, our frequency has gone up and down with it as we've branched out our Korean dining, but it was always there to rely on.

Looking into the kitchen

The Korean Menu

If there is a pen on the table or you have one on you, you just mark your order, if not, you call a waitress over and she'll do it for you.

짬뽕라면 - Jampon Ramyun

Ramen noodles with seafood and vegetables in a spicy broth.
One of Judy's favorites!

The Side Dishes
From top left: kimchi, cucumber kimchi, radish, fish cakes, fried tube ham.
The cucumber kimchi and the fish cakes are the best.

*blogspot is being a bigger biatch than normal and keeps rotating the next two photos, sorry.

비빔만두 - Bibim Mandu

Fried dumplings with vegetables and chili sauce.
Before the salad is mixed.

After the salad is mixed (as the picture was being taken, the fan blew our check up onto it, and before another picture could be taken, the waitress was filling the table with other dishes).

김치찌개 - Kimchi Jjigae

A favorite of both of ours. It is a spicy stew made of kimchi with pork (sometimes tuna) and tofu. A standard Korean dish eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Almost everyone knows how to make it, and probably 80% of restaurants sell it. If we're ever unsure of what to order or of what we want, the kimchi jjigae rarely lets us down.

충무김밥 - Chungmu Gimbab

Andrew had seen people eating this and always wanted to try it, but never knew it's name. Sometimes he would just order randomly from the gimbap menu in hopes of getting it. This particular visit, the guessing paid off, and he finally got it. He wasn't really interested in the rice part of it, but the radish kimchi and the fishcake salad are what intrigued him. As it turns out, none of it was very good. You'd think the dish sharing the name of the restaurant would be a winner, but sadly it wasn't. :(

A close up

When you order anything that's not a soup, you get this bowl/cup of awesome, peppery broth. It is so simple and delicious.

김밥 - Gimbap

Various ingredients wrapped in rice and seaweed. Like a Korean version of a sushi roll, only nothing raw inside.

On the left: 소고기김밥 - Sogogi Gimbap

Ground beef, carrot, egg, radish, Spam, cucumber and a sesame leaf. *Normally this is a pretty good one, because the beef is cooked in sesame oil and garlic, but here the beef was really strange. It was really dry and tasted like Jerky Chew (if anyone remembers that popular snack of the 90's)!

On the right: 참치김밥 - Chamchi Gimbap

This is the most magical gimbap in all the land. It has the same ingredients as the beef, but instead of beef it's tuna with a healthy dose of mayo. It is the never-let-you-down gimbap, no matter where you get it.

Perfection!

오뎅탕 - Odang Tong

Assorted fishcakes in a salty broth with onions, peppers and garlic. It can sometimes put you into odang overload, but it never disappoints on the flavor. This one, like the kimchi jjigae and the tuna gimbap, is pretty much delicious anywhere you order it.

Fishcake goodness!