Lee's Korean ... For Dinner!

After I found out that I could no longer get my Korean fix during the days anymore at Lee's Korean BBQ, I decided to make a concerted effort to get there during a weeknight. So, after working a particularly long day, I decided to make the trip to Massillon and get my Korean groove on.

As always, the place was dead. I really have no clue as to how this place survives -- even with the merger to Colucci's. I started out with the Mandoo soup for my appetizer. Fluffy beef dumplings in a light broth with ginger, scallions, carrots, and eggs. This was a wonderful way to start out the meal:


Next up, my banchan and white rice arrived. These come automatically with each meal. In the banchan, you have pressed tofu, kimchi, cucumber, and what I believe to be some type of potato dish (left to right, front to back).


And a super awesome shot of my rice:


Instead of going with my normal order of Bi Bim Bap, I decided to go out on a limb and order something different. Looking over the menu, I decided to go with the O-Sam-Bulgogi, which is a mixture of pork and squid in a spicy chili sauce with onions and sesame seeds:


The sauce was quite good, but not particularly spicy, so I asked my server for an extra dish of gozhujaan, or spicy Korean chili paste. Overall, the flavor was spectacular. About 80% of the pork was nice and tender. 20%, not so much. I think it was more of the cut of pork than anything else. Unfortunately, while there were nice large pieces of squid in the dish, it was woefully overcooked and tough. So sad.

I only learned later on after the meal was over and I was settling the check with my waitress that they can make it much more spicy than it came out (and I asked for it spicy). So, the next time I go back, I may give this one another shot and get it "Korean spicy". Well, with my luck at getting food served at authentic spicy levels, hopefully it will come out correctly and not "American spicy".