Bada E-Yagi uses family recipes for everything from its homemade, barrel-cured spiced crab to the sauces for its robata main dishes
Stephanie Yuen
Sun
Bada E-Yagi owner Sang Yeol Sohn holds hwang tae jim ‘healthy food dish,’ of naturally dried pollock with the house’s special seasoning. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
Most Korean restaurants in Metro Vancouver serve cook-your-own tabletop barbeque meals. So, when I found out that Bada E-Yagi Korean Restaurant in Burnaby focuses on home-style Korean dishes, I had to check it out.
On a cold and wet Sunday evening it took us some effort to locate the place because it doesn’t have any eye-catching lighting or dominant signs. Normally, exterior conditions like this would have turned me off but since we were meeting two other friends there, we went in, and were glad we did.
Everything in the restaurant indicated a family operation: simple design and setting; untrained floor service. Under the supervision of owner Sang Yeol Sohn, the daughter waited tables while his wife cooked in the kitchen. At this point, those Korean customers occupying most of the tables were inevitably a reassuring sight.
Any doubt about the quality of the cooking slipped away when we tasted the side plates of kelp, bean sprouts, daikon cubes, julienne seaweed and, of course, kimchi. Unlike the generic cold appetizers found in other Korean restaurants, Bada uses their own family recipes with special attention to detail.
We had became quite comfortable by the time our first order arrived: pork chop soup with assorted vegetables and special spicy sauce, served hot-pot style on a butane stove.
I had no idea that Koreans were so big on soups: beef bone soup; pollack soup; goat meat soup; pork chop soup and noodle soups — they were all available at Bada.
“These are all homemade with hearty ingredients,” said Sang. “They are very good for cold days. Koreans eat them all the time; they keep you warm and make you strong.”
Koreans also enjoy cold, marinated, raw seafood, like the blue crab soaked in Korean chili and spicy sauce we had as our second appetizer. Sang told us, “We use wooden barrels to marinate these and store them in a cold corner, same way we make kimchi.”
I enjoyed the whole saba (mackerel) grilled to a golden brown and skin-crisp on a robata (hot-plate). This boned fish was marinated before landing on the cast-iron hotplate and came sizzling with distinct flavour.
From the robata section of the menu, we also ordered the stir-fried squid and vegetables, and the BBQ Combo B, which consisted of beef, pork and short ribs. Two robata plates, two different tastes and condiments: the squid and vegetables were tangy-spiced while the combo meats were teriyaki-seasoned. Both were equally satisfying.
The next course, the stir-fried seasoned potato noodles with beef and vegetables, silenced the group for a moment with its unique texture and mega flavour. The noodles were so fine and delicate that it was hard to relate them to potatoes.
“It takes a long time to make the noodles,” said Sang, who was obviously proud of his wife’s culinary skill. “You can use different sauces or put it in soup.”
My favourite of the evening was an omelet-like pancake made with seafood and served on a hotplate. This unassuming dish was partly tender, partly chewy and had that enticing sensation that kept me going for more. And because of the hotplate, the temperature and aroma lasted until it was all gone.
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BADA E-YAGI KOREAN RESTAURANT
6408 Kingsway, Burnaby
604-432-9342
Open daily for lunch and dinner
Price: $
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
