Honey Pig - My Adventure with Korean Barbeque

I've always been curious about Korean cuisine but never adventurous enough to try and penetrate it by myself. I've had great authentic home-cooked Korean food before and enjoyed it thoroughly. But without knowing what anything was called, its tough to go to a restaurant and order blindly. I've also had a few bad experiences with Kimchi, a staple condiment of the cuisine, so was not eager to repeat that. Luckily a co-worker and friend who happens to be of Korean descent knew of a great place called Honey Pig in Annandale (7220 Columbia Pike, Annandale, VA 21003) that she has taken friends before. A small group of us went, a mix of experienced Korean food eaters and novices, and it was truly a great eating experience. 

I believe the full name of the place is Honey Pig Gooldaegee Korean Grill, and they have other locations in Centreville and Ellicott City. As I mentioned, this place is in Annandale, in the heart of the area's celebrated Korea-town. Walking in to this place, which I learned is also open 24 hours, I could easily picture it packed with smoke and noise and people enjoying themselves. The tables have grills set into the center and large ventilation hoods in the ceiling above. 

As soon as you sit down they immediately start placing the condiments and accouterments (called panch'an). You can see them above. From top down there's a salad (pictured left), bean sprouts, pickled radish, seaweed (partially hidden by the lettuce), and kimchi. Plus the lettuce leaves to wrap your meats in and a bowl of white rice. I enjoyed the salad, the dressing was light and flavorful, not too much of it. 

I am given to understand that we ordered the #2 and the #7, which are pork belly and beef. We also ordered some fried dumplings. The dumplings were crispy on the outside, perfectly pan-fried to a golden brown. The filling wasn't specified, but tasted like the standard pork and cabbage fare that is common in Asian dumplings. It was quite good. The dipping sauce they give you is a little thicker in consistency than soy sauce, with seasonings and a slice of pepper and some seeds to give it a little kick. I found the sauce to not only add to dumping's flavor, but I liked it enough to try it on other parts of the meal too. 

Our beef came out first, possibly because we ordered two of them. The staff lit the grill and poured the tray of meat right on. The smell of the meat cooking right there on the table was excellent. As it cooked, I thought it would be smokier, like standing near an open grill, but the ventilation hood right above us significantly reduced the ambient smoke around us. As the smaller pieces became done, the staff appeared and started sorting them out to the people at our table. Each person had a dish of special sauce and the beef went directly from the grill to the sauce. I suspect this has the dual purpose of flavoring the meat while still hot and simultaneously cooling the meat a bit so its ready to eat. 

Once you have the meat, you take a lettuce piece, and wrap the meat plus whichever of the panch'an you want to add. I was particularly fond of the pickled radish and the bean sprouts. I also enjoyed the additional sauce they brought out, which was more of a paste, that had a really great flavor balanced between spicy, sour, and smoky. It really made a great compliment to the beef. So with rice, panch'an, meat, and sauce secured in the lettuce leaf, you wrap the whole thing together and eat it. 

Once we'd polished off the beef, they switched out the wire rack grill for a more solid surface and brought the pork belly out. I'd never had pork belly before to my knowledge and was interested by it. As the meat went on the grill pan, they also brought more kimchi and started grilling that with the pork belly. I'm told that grilled kimchi (below) is better than regular kimchi. I can confirm that it is better, but I still don't care for it. It's apparently an acquired taste. The pork belly itself wasn't bad, good texture and flavor. One of the reasons I'd never tied pork belly is the high fat content, which I find difficult to eat and cook with. This didn't taste fatty though, so it was very pleasant. Although, if forced to pick, I would say I preferred the beef over the pork. According to my Korean friend, this is not an uncommon reaction from folks unfamiliar to Korean cuisine.

All in all, I really enjoyed myself at Honey Pig. I'd definitely say I hope to make a return here someday. There was a lot going on through the whole eating experience and the whole process is very visually and tastefully stimulating. Go ahead and give Honey Pig a try, you won't regret it!

http://www.eathoneypig.com/