BEST KOREAN MILITARY SOUP EVER!
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Banjoo is a first rate Korean Restaurant and Karaoke Joint.
The restaurant part is absolutely outstanding.
I am the wrong man to be judging whether the Karaoke part is any good.
I loathe, execrate, despise and abhor Karaoke.
The only time you will ever see me in a Karaoke room
Is if there is a tornado or an active shooter
and we are huddling in the innermost rooms we can find.
If there is an active shooter, I doubt we will have loud music and flashing lights.
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But the restaurant part is just fine.
You can stay in the front, eat Korean food and drink Korean spirits without having to humiliate yourself trying to remember a melody.
Up front is pretty nice.
Every wall has at least two TV screens with Korean music videos,
So you can see teams of professional teenage girls
All of whom DO know the words
And can sing all of them perfectly while flirting or having fun in exotic locations.
The kitchen is outstanding.
This being a Korean joint - blow your head off hot is the order of the day.
(And this means temperature wise as well as spice wise.)
The first time I came here, I made the mistake of ordering the blandest thing on the menu - which is their fried rice.
The fried rice by itself is no great shakes.
Dump a dish of the red chili sauce they serve as a garnish for other dishes on top of selfsame bland fried rice ...
And ABRACADABRA PRESTO CHANGE-O !!!
You suddenly have an interesting dish !
Korean hot sauce on fried rice is super good eating.
They will happily get you a dish of the hot red sauce, and you are now officially in business.
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But to really do Banjoo right,
You want to go hot and spicy.
Their military soup will do the job nicely.
Korean Military Soup is Korea's answer to Chipped Beef on Toast.
It is a traditional food served to soldiers that gives them some protein and some starch in the cheapest manner possible.
In World War II and the Korean War, nothing was cheaper than dried chipped beef and white bread toast. Make a gravy and you are in business.
Fortunately, chipped beef on toast actually tastes good.
I loved the dish as a kid when it was served to me in camp.
I love it now.
Military Soup is Ramen noodles in a pork and hot pepper broth with a mix of spam and super cheap sausage providing the protein.
Blood sausage is a frequent addition.
Spam and super cheap sausage ought to be awful.
But with the ramen noodles and the spicy broth and with the flavors mixing from boiling, the dish is actually pretty good.
Korea has a requirement of two years of military service for every able bodied male. So most Korean men have spent two years eating this stuff.
They acquire a taste for it, just as I acquired a taste for chipped beef on toast.
Military Soup is actually one of the more expensive items on the Banjoo menu.
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Banjoo's version is definitely upscale.
They use lots and lots of several different kinds of sausage and pate.
There is no blood sausage.
The meat that they buy is not the rock-bottom-of-the-market criazzap that usually goes into military soup.
So this is Military Soup for chic neighborhoods.
I was blown away on my first bite ...
And I have been blown away by the leftovers that I have been eating for days.
(Your top dollar price payment at the beginning gives you enough military soup to feed a family. If it is just you, there will be leftovers.)
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Banjoo has many other items on the menu and a fine fine looking bar.
I look forward to coming back and exploring all of these.
One thing though I can promise you.
No matter how much beer and soju you pour into me
You ain't getting me into a karaoke room.
I am too busy looking at the K-Pop girls having fun. read more