Take Me Down to K-Town.
I was pretty sure I’d never had Korean food when I wandered into one of K-Town’s finest last week, Gahm Mi Oak, with a few out-of-town friends.
Gahm Mi Oak is an easy find, not too far down West 32nd Street, with a simple and tasteful decor. You could sit traditionally— sans shoes and on the floor, but they likely assumed that four Americans would want chairs, and at the end of a long day, I was okay with that. We were “starving” and pored over the menu, making our choices post-haste.
I should have known better with all of the Asian fusion restaurants this days, that in fact I have had Korean food… and my favorite dish at a fusion restaurant in Burlington, Vermont is Korean: Bibim Bap. My sense of adventure went flying out the window when I realized I could try an authentic version of a favorite.
But the menu offered more daring options like gelatin of cow knee (Dogani Moochim) or Sul Long Tang- an oxbone soup, or Yook Hwe- seasoned raw beef, all of which are praised in reviews. We shared Bin Dae Dduk, a fried pancake made of ground mung beans, carrots, scallions, group pork onion and bean sprouts that is crispy on the outside, but soft and full of flavor inside.
Gahm Mi Oak starts you out with a plate of delicious kimchi and it took no time at all for our main dishes to arrive. They were fresh, full of flavor… and gone in a matter of minutes!
Being a hot summer day in the city, a cool Heineken and small cup of sake topped it off right.
I love these little pockets of authenticity in New York City and the ease with which you can stumble blindly in to the best. 
