Banchan

Today Bob and I met as close to his zone-3 southern location as my travelcard (good for travel on the tube and train in London zones 1 and 2, as well as the bus across all zones) would inclusively take me, and we mostly bussed around from there. While I waited for Bob at Herne Hill rail station, I noticed these dogs enjoying the sun directly beside the station,

and while Bob and I were on the bus, we marvelled at this rather over-the-top sign for a church:
From Herne Hill, we slowly (and I mean slowly!--the second bus that we took only ran once an hour) made our way over to New Malden, where I'd heard that London's Korean population (meant to be the largest in Europe) was centred. There were indeed numerous Korean restaurants, businesses and people in New Malden, but we were surprised that the area didn't seem bigger--maybe we didn't happen across the right streets? In any case, we came to eat, and eat we did, at a wonderful place called You-Me (not the conventional Romanization for the Korean words written in hangul script on their sign, but I applaud them for making use of homonyms!). Spectacular Korean food in surroundings very typical of Seoul budget restaurants (no-nonsense decor, TV playing at the back of the room, handwritten menus on the walls, and plenty of Koreans eating away, even at this odd time of day), we were happy to find out that banchan dishes were included with the main courses. Let me explain: in Korea when you eat lunch or dinner at a restaurant, no matter how humble, you get a certain amount of banchan, or marinated side-dishes, included free with your meal. The number and types of dishes will vary with the type of restaurant, generally with more dishes (and those containing meat or fish) appearing in fancier places, although this is not always the case. In addition, these banchan are limitless, so once your table finishes a given dish (or even before), you are welcome to ask for more. (This concept really got Bob into trouble in Seoul--we like to joke that he ate his weight in Korean food in the ten days that we were there last summer.) Anyway, Korean restaurants in Canada also provide free banchan, with some, but not all, giving bottomless banchan--generally the best places in Vancouver are those that do this, since they cater to homesick Koreans living in Canada who would not settle for anything but! Anyway, I would never expect anything but free banchan with any Korean meal (charging for banchan in Korea would be like charging diners extra to use dishes, cutlery, and glasses--that's how ridiculous the concept would be for Koreans), except for the warning that my parents gave me when I told them we were thinking of moving to London. They visited London for a few days with a Korean group a few years ago and ate in a Korean restaurant somewhere in the touristy part of London. When the meal came, there wasn't any rice, kimchi (pickled cabbage, radish, or cucumber, usually spicy, but sometimes not), or banchan. When my dad asked about this, he was told that all of those items were extra, and that they hadn't ordered them. I don't think I can fully communicate the degree to which any Korean or Korean-Canadian would find this absurd and insulting. These items are not extras; they are essential components of any meal that always come without ordering. After some discussion, I think the restaurant agreed to give my parents' group their rice for free, but still charged for the kimchi and the banchan. This is the anecdote that really highlights the absurdity of London for my parents, so when we first mentioned our London plans, the response I got from my dad was--"But they don't even give free banchan there!"-- of course implying that London must be a terribly uncivilized place and why would we possibly want to live there? So, this next photo is for my dad: free banchan in London!
From the top-left, going clockwise--marinated deep-fried tofu strips, marinated mung-bean jelly, marinated bean sprouts, marinated seaweed, and in the centre, kimchi--all exceptionally good. For our main courses, Bob had dolsot bibimbap (a kind of mix-it-yourself rice, with vegetables, meat, and spicy sauce, served in a blazing-hot stone bowl that fries the rice as you eat) and I had dwenjang tchigae (a bean-paste, or miso, as most people know it, stew with vegetables, beans, tofu, and pork). My parents will be happy to know that not only was the banchan included in our meal, but my tchigae came with free rice and we also got complementary fresh fruit (honeydew and oranges) for dessert. See dad, London isn't such a bad place! Anyway, after we left the restaurant very full and happy, we stopped at a Korean deli and picked up some prepared dishes to have for a late dinner. All in all, we'll definitely be making return trips to New Malden while we're in London; its homey Korean restaurants and businesses are a nice contrast to the upscale, minimalist Korean restaurants that we've walked past in the touristy parts of London. One last observation about New Malden--it had the nicest roundabout that we've seen so far in any London neighbourhood:
We decided not the fight the buses anymore and paid extra to take the train from New Malden (in zone 4) back into zone 2, where we changed trains at Clapham Central
to go one stop to Battersea Park, which we soon realized is a wonderful park with lovely grounds
right beside the Thames.
Two sights that we didn't know existed in the park are its peace pagoda, donated by a Japanese Buddhist order in 1985:
and the inhabitants of this cage, which we walked past the first time, scanned the foliage, and decided there wasn't anything there, before walking by again and seeing two creatures hidden up in the trees:
From Battersea, we made our way back to central London for a record-shop in-store performance by Malcolm Middleton, formerly of Arab Strap:
Now, in Vancouver when someone plays an in-store, it means that one corner of the record shop might have its shelves pushed aside or some folding chairs set up and the musician(s) play(s) under normal store lighting with minimal setup, so we were surprised to find out that this record shop's in-store performances take place in a separate basement café that felt like a regular venue, with proper lights and sound, as well as a bar that served beer, wine, and other drinks. That could never happen under Vancouver's strict licensing restrictions! One odd thing was that a metal roll-shutter was brought down over the café entrance--the only exit?--when the show started, only to be raised after Middleton finished. Anyway, the performance was lovely, but we were both tired afterwards, so we made our way home to settle into a DVD and our late Korean dinner of chapchae (translucent sweet-potato noodles, stir fried with meat and vegetables--one of Bob's favourites), gimbap (a common Korean picnic lunch of sushi rolls filled with an assortment of vegetables and cooked meat), and dteok (chewy rice cakes, sometimes filled or coated with one or another of sweet-bean pastes, sesame-seeds, dates, pine nuts, or honey) for dessert. All three were delicious and expertly prepared and I had meant to take a photo of all three parts of our dinner (mostly for my parents, who I know like to see that we're eating "proper" Korean food), but the food was too yummy and I forgot until it came time for dessert--so here's our dteok:
Our day of Korean food left us with happy and slightly homesick (if I can use that last term for two people who have never lived in Korea) tummies, but at least now we know that the culinary delights of New Malden are there to satisfy future cravings!