I nabbed a seat at a super wonderful tasting menu the other night at MANDU here in DC to celebrate Chef Danny Lee's 20th year here. He was joined by his amazing mother, Mama Lee as well as Chef Edward Lee, also a well-known figure in DC!
I was escorted to the quieter upstairs section (I did not even know this existed) and my servers Doobie and Jake took over to take me on a Korean food journey that was as memorable as it can be. I like Mandu's Essay Chenin Blanc as it stands up to spice and started with a glass of that as the amuses or snacks arrived:
SOON DOOBU TART came with fermented lemon "chiffon" if you will, and basil oil on a Monaka or rice wafer. This dish was made of whole lemons blanched multiple times and added to soft tofu to make a not sweet, but very tart, lemon chiffon if you will. It was a great palate cleanser and setup for the GESAL MUCHIM or toasted seaweed cracker with MD lump crab, perilla, persimmon vin and gim. The crab was fab and I loved this taste of what was to come (photos on FB).
Starters were a SAEWOO MANDU or Shrimp dumpling in Gochujang Cream, Ssukgat with pear and powdered shrimp paste. This dish was a revelation. While Mandu literally means dumpling and it is a specialty here, of course, this preparation and the blow-your-mind spicy cream was a novel mouthful of east meets west.
Gimmari was a Rice paper tempura fried crispy seaweed "roll" with glass noodles, onion & carrot filling topped with sea urchin and caviar. Decadence at its best indeed and while the seaweed was crispy it was also chewy in a very novel way that made the dish so different. needless to say, the uni and caviar were divine.
The main courses all came together in three plates with BANCHAN to mix and use as sauces or such with mama Lee's Kimchi (the best), Oi Sabagi, Ojinguh Muchim & Yeongeun which amounts to kimchi, pickled lotus, cucumber and a superb spicy squid salad. BIBIM MAKGUKSU was a almost a soup of buckwheat noodles, pickled eggplant, Minari with some apple pieces that popped and a sauce that rocked.
The main plate had two dishes: GALBI JJIM, a prime short rib with sweet, braised daikon, carrot, rice cake, dates and pinenuts. Opposite was a Fondant Potato and while that's as Frenchas it gets, here it was topped with Jajang or black bean sauce and Charred Kimchi--more east meets west! Everything was cooked to perfection with spices and seasonings that tingled and got every taste bud excited.
I had already moved on to red wine and loved the Lodolai Dolcetto d'Alba, Ca' del Baio which is a tad bigger than most Dolcettos with a touch of acidity; a good pairing with these dishes but had to finally return to the much bigger Partridge Malbec, a really great wine on the menu for big meat dishes and spice, too.
Dessert was YAKGWA -Honey Cookie with Ginger Syrup, Vanilla Gelato, Misugaru, and Strawberry Cheong or fermented strawberries which were a real treat. Not too sweet and just right as I was quite full by now, but I had to finish every bite for sure!
Bravo to this entire team who always had on a smile, and I could tell made everyone in the whole house very happy.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
