There is a small Korean colony in Novgorod. Although the majority of Russia’s Korean immigrants have ghettoised Volgograd, a bunch of separatists moved north to Novgorod’s leafy ulitsas. Their second home is here at the Asia cafe, where you can discover the quintessence of Korean cuisine.
The decaying premises are called locally in Korean, ‘the house of the falling balconies’. Mind your head.
There appear to be two important differences between Korean and Chinese cooking. First, Korean food is much hotter. Apparently that’s because salt was expensive in old Korea, so they used chilis instead for cooking and preserving. Koreans are kinky about vegetables and bottle them on sight.
The other big difference is that Korean chefs don’t pussy around with lots of little bowls, like other Eastern schools. It’s a one plate wallop – what you might call in Russian a ‘tareolka sabaka’, or in English, a dog’s dinner. Don’t expect even a simple pasta to arrive without fried egg, seaweed and assorted cucumbers.
Now I think about it, there’s another difference between the Korean and Chinese menu. The dishes aren’t numbered. Which does mean it’s difficult to remember what you had last time. Take it from me, however, you wouldn’t want it again anyway.
At the Asia cafe, I stick to the ‘orientalised’ Russian dishes like Plov and Manti – quite good value at 60 roubles a portion and the obligatory, soy-soaked seaweed supplement is easily scraped off on to a spare plate.
By the way, interesting layout at the Asia cafe. The tables are (nylon net) curtained off into little rooms that all look like a geisha’s boudoir. The waitress peeks in from time to time during your meal but, obviously with curtains, is unable to knock first.
