Tripping with Bong.

When we lived in Washington, there was a little restaurant in the basement of our building owned by a Korean couple. It was a typical diner-style joint, serving up pancakes, coffee, strips of bacon, eggs, hash browns and burgers. Also on the menu were bulgogi and kimchi, which the owners added when they took it over from the previous owners. We got into the habit of going downstairs on Saturday mornings for breakfast. I would order pancakes and Andy would order kimchi and rice. Not unexpectedly, the Korean woman came to really, really like Andy. Every time I shuddered when he ordered kimchi for breakfast, she would assure me that this is perfectly normal behavior.

I wanted to find some good kimchi here in Paris. In my search (which surprisingly yielded several dozen Korean restaurants in Paris), I came across Bong. I read that it's away from touristy areas, that it's very popular with Koreans here, and that Korean-Americans who come to Paris on vacation go out of their way for it. Sounds good to me. So we made our reservation and went.

The restaurant is fairly nondescript and hidden on a quiet street. But the owners and their cuisine fill their place with charm. If it's location, location, location, this place loses out. I doubt most tourists have ever heard of it (not that tourists even know there's a 15^th arrondissement) and most people flock to the Opera area for Korean fare. So when we walked down the deserted rue Blomet and walked into the deserted Bong, we were hoping that the (very few) reviews out there about this place were right. I had read that little-known Bong serves up authentic Korean cuisine. And even though I've never been to Korea, I couldn't agree more.

We sat in the back dining room, a room lacking in Asian flavor (very much unlike a place like Arti that makes you feel like you've left on a trip to the Orient). We ordered the 12-euro menu that comes with a starter, a main and either a pitcher of wine or green tea.

We started with crepe kimchi (kimchijeon) and dumplings, each served with a different dipping sauce. We were playing with our new MacBook and actually not paying much attention to the food at first. That is, until we took a bite. And then away we put the MacBook (sorry, Steve) and concentrated on the food. Oh my God, I exclaimed, after I took my first bite. It was amazing. I peeked back into the kitchen and someone's Korean grandmother was cooking our main dishes. This woman knows how to cook.

The ingredients are obviously fresh and not laden with too many flavors or cooking oil. The kimchi is probably too hot for Frenchies, but I can handle it just fine. The dipping sauces were so good (not soy sauces and honestly I have no idea what they were), that when we finished our starters, we turned up the little bowls of sauce as if we were children finishing the milk from our cereal bowls.

Then came the main course. A woman appeared from the kitchen carrying a huge tray of several white bowls and started placing them on the table. Eleven bowls of food. Andy said, oh oh, we didn't order these things. And we hadn't. They just come with the food. We asked the owner to please tell us about each item. Collectively they are called banchan and they are typical Korean side dishes. Bowls of rice, two different kinds of kimchi, kong na-mul (bean sprouts), gochujang (a very spicy paste made of rice, soy and chili peppers), ggakdugi (a fermented root known as the daikon), shi-geum-chi (spinach), kim (this sheets of roasted seaweed), fresh spinach, and soup.

Then our main courses were brought out. Andy had the bibimbab, a traditional Korean rice dish. After the waitress brought it to our table, she showed Andy a spoonful of Gochujang and asked, you like? Yes, said Andy. Good, she said and mixed it into the bibimbab, stirring for several minutes before presenting it to him. Nice and spicy. Bibimbab includes rice, root vegetables, sprouts, mushrooms, eggs, and sesame oil.

I had the beef barbecue, which is similar to bulgogi but not quite the same. I'm not so sure I tasted the difference as their barbecue was nicely seasoned and spicy. I added different banchan to my plate and we had such a fun time eating all of these different tastes. At one point, the owner came over to show me how to lay a piece of kim (the sheet of seaweed, which is thinner than the Japanese nori) over my rice and roll some of it up with my chopsticks. What he did looked like artwork. What I did looked bad but at least tasted the same.

We happily stuffed ourselves with fresh, spicy, tasty Korean food at Bong. The owners and their staff are very nice and talked with us about the food, explaining everything to us. I highly recommend a visit to Bong for an interesting, unique lunch or dinner that you won't soon forget.

The tables at Bong are equipped with cooking surfaces, so you can barbecue your own meats and vegetables if you wish. I personally don't like going out only to cook my own food, but a lot of people love doing this and it makes for a fun evening out with a group of friends.

Bong is a restaurant that we will continue to visit over and over and over again and again and again and we promise to take out-of-town guests, too. Your treat!

Bong is located at 42, rue Bomet. For reservations, call 01 47 34 73 62. Your closest Metro is Volontaires.