Doh Si Rak

This is the food court at the Carrefour hypermarket. It is typical of many such food courts located within shopping malls and departmental stores in Korea. This particular foodcourt has approx. 30 stores serving all types of Korean food.



Food courts are great if you're unfamiliar with Korean food, because the stores have mock-up of the dishes displayed at the counters (as depicted below). Tonight's dinner was doh si rak. Basically it is a bento-type set meal comprising of soup, rice, main dish and a variety of side dishes. There are many types of doh si rak to choose from, depending on your appetite and budget.



I chose their most expensive "special" set (KRW6,000). It had a diluted yuk gi jang(spicy beef soup), fried fish, a bulgogi/spicy bulgogi (thinly sliced beef) combo + assortment of side dishes. The interesting thing was the rice. It is not your typical white rice variety, but purplish in color. This is quite common in Korea, along with rice mixed with grains like oats, barley etc. Thumbs up. Real nice.



Desert? OK OK, if you REALLY must know . . . . . . .



One observation though - whenever Koreans ask me what's my favourite food, and I tell them it's doh si rak, they look at me bewildered or in disbelief! Am I suppose to answer bulgogi? Or galbi? But I really do like doh si rak. Why is this? Anyone?