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The taste of home for hungry Koreans

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MRS Kim, en route from New York to Seoul, stopped off for dinner at the Korea House Restaurant in Sheung Wan and left happy.

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So, on any night of the week, do whole tablefuls of Koreans, some talking shop and others simply talking - but all eating some of the spiciest, most garlicky food available in Hong Kong.

What makes Korea House, which also has outlets in Kowloon, such a crowd-puller? Clearly if it is to appeal to Korean nationals it must be authentic (it is) and if it is to attract regular customers it must have variety (it does). Non-Koreans will be won over by the range of different tastes on offer and appreciate the less spicy dishes.

The place offers value (three can gorge themselves for $600, washing their meal down with a light Korean beer), plus pleasantly brisk service that has a certain grace. The staff are a mix of Korean and Hong Kong Chinese.

Sample the barbecue, if only for the superior quality meat, and explore further. Hong Kong Korean restaurants are often guilty of believing that barbecue-maketh-Korean - and that is simply not true. The dol sut bibimbat (stone pot of mixed vegetable and rice) is one of Korea's finest dishes, served with dash at Korea House. It is robust and earthy, with the rice crunchy where it meets the heat of the bowl; and has strips of beef tangled up with cucumber and other vegetables. Stir in a smear of red-hot chilli paste for a flavour-packed meal, and you could easily dine on this alone.

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No Korean meal is made up of just one dish. In attendance come a dozen little bowls of appetisers: fermented cabbage and garlic kimchi, a clean-tasting soupy version of the same, tiny little fish no thicker than a shoelace, salty bean paste wrapped up in crisp leaves of cabbage, mung bean sprouts and spinach, squid with braised celery and carrot, and sardine blanketed in a searing red sauce.

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