In our seven years in Chicago, we've walked by Jin Ju approximately one million times. It's on Clark Street in Andersonville, the main drag that we frequent almost every week. It's always looked interesting, but for no particular reason we never actually made it inside to eat, making this a perfect place to start! From the outside, the restaurant looked mildly trendy, especially for this somewhat laid back and homey area of Chicago. On top of that, I wasn't even sure what kind of food they actually served thanks to the minimalist presentation to the street. We walked up on a Saturday night to check it out and looked at the menu, which immediately looked interesting with some names that were obviously Korean but descriptions that gave a pretty good idea of the food. So now we begin our little culinary adventure...
DRINKS
Any good meal starts with drinks, and we got try something new here. The cocktail menu prominently featured soju, a Korean liquor made from sweet potatoes. It was used in place of vodka or gin and it made for some tasty cocktails. Beth started off with a Jinjer, a light take on a martini with some lemon juice and a ginger liqueur. Neil had a lemon flavored soju cocktail with chambord that was light and tasty. With dinner, Beth tried a sample of bek se ju, or ginseng wine, which seemed an awful lot like the Korean answer to white lightning. I guess every culture has to have one. Neil had a Korean beer with dinner, but the label proudly hailed the malt and hops as being 100% German. Not surprisingly, it tasted a lot like a beer.
FOOD
Part of the reason we chose to start with Korean food was because our knowledge of it was mainly limited to what we saw on M.A.S.H. This would be outside of our comfort zone. Beth had been talking about having soup for dinner and the menu offered a couple of options. When her dinner, yook gae hang, came out, it was what she affectionately called "swamp soup." It was red colored from the pepper paste and had the heat to match, but was full of greens, sprouts, rice noodles and shredded beef. The flavors were nicely balanced. White rice was on the side to help cut some of the heat, which definitely built up on you. Neil ordered the most complicated thing on the menu with a ridiculously long list of ingredients. At heart, it was a "bi bim bap," which the waiter described as a saute of "stuff mixed with rice." The saute in this was a mix of scallions (which appeared all over the menu), sprouts, onions, red bean paste, scallops, squid, kim chee, and other assorted things. The finishing touch was a raw egg on top. It was served in a super hot stone bowl and the waiter offered to break up the egg and mix it in for me. The idea is that the egg mixes in and cooks on the stone and the super hot ingredients. In the end, it added a great consistency to the dish. It was hot from the red bean paste, not nearly as hot as Beth's, and made for a satisfying meal on a winter night. Along side Neil's dinner came a small bowl of bean paste soup, which was basically miso soup and was a nice compliment. For the table, we received a side of kim chee and a plate of three side dishes. They were steamed broccoli that was finished with a bit a sesame seed oil, bok choy, and a potato salad that appeared to feature green apples and possibly some type of sweet potato. It was an interesting array of flavors and textures along side the very flavorful entrees.
OVERALL
When we arrived at prime time on a Saturday night, we had about a ten minute wait on a table, so we enjoyed our first round of drinks at their small bar. A couple next to us was finishing their dinner there, so bar eating is an option. Once we received our table, it was in the back and the primary thing of note was how dim it was. I guess you call it mood lighting, but it is also to blame for the lack of pictures of food in our posting. It was a bit loud, but it was Saturday night and it wasn't overpowering. Our waiter was helpful and answered several questions about the menu and stirred my bi bim bap for me. As he said, I could do it myself or he could do it and it would be better. I never doubted that. Overall, the service was polite but not too intrusive and offered good help and advice. The atmosphere is a bit dark and trendy, but not uncomfortable. All in all, this was a good choice to start our culinary adventure!
FOREIGN FACTOR (1= feels like mom's kitchen; 10 = we've somehow landed on another planet)
4: while much of the food was new to us, it was well described on the menu and the wait staff was patient when we asked questions. The overall decor was not at all specific to any culture or cuisine, but felt like any fairly trendy restaurant which had opened in the past 10 years or so.
WHAT WE LEARNED
We had only tried Koren food one other time, so getting to explore more of the dishes was interesting. The soju, Korean beer and ginseng wine was also a totally new experience. Also, Beth really needs to brush up on her chopstick skills.
MORE
We found these videos about how to cook Korean food very informative.
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