UNA CANCIÓN COREANA: COULD THIS BE THE BEST, MOST AUTHENTIC KOREAN FOOD IN BUENOS AIRES?
The Cost -$20 per person at the official exchange rate paying cash
The Atmosphere – Una Canción Coreana is located about a thirty-minute drive from the popular Recoleta, Retiro and Palermo neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in an area called Flores, home to the city’s small Koreatown. The restaurant has upgraded its interior in a few ways over the past few years, but it is still nothing to write home about, especially if you are sitting in one of the narrow back annexes. In addition to the indoor dining, there is now seating outdoors in a covered area on the street. The restaurant does not take reservations so to avoid a potentially long wait, show up on the earlier side of dinner service which, for Argentina, is around 8 o’clock.
Buenos Aires is a city known for its steak and dulce de leche, the amazing caramel-like sauce made with milk and sugar, as well as its incredible Italian cuisine brought to Argentina by Italian immigrants fleeing the country after World War II. It is not, however, a city known for its Asian cuisine, but on a night when I was craving some I decided to venture out to Una Canción Coreana, a family-run Korean restaurant, for some authentic, homemade Korean food.
The Order –Tortilla Habichuela (half portion), Bulgogui Cheyok Bokum “Ban Ban”, and Japche con Carne.
The Fantastic – The Bulgogui Cheynok Bokum “Ban Ban” is a dish made up of one-half bulgogi, a very popular Korean marinated beef dish, and one-half jeyuk bokkeum, a spicy marinated pork version of bulgogi. In between the two piles of meat is a mound of sliced green onions and flat circular pieces of daikon, a white radish popular in Korean and Japanese cuisine. The idea here is for you to make a taco-like bite with the daikon forming the taco. This was a bit messy and not as easy as it seemed given the size and feel of the daikon and so I just ate the meat, green onions and daikon together with chopsticks. The bulgogi was a very good version of the typical Korean dish and the jeyuk bokkeum was excellent. It was the perfect amount of spicy with a touch of sweetness from the fantastic marinade. Alone, the bulgogi would have earned a great rating while the jeyuk bokkeum would have earned a fantastic rating. There is the option of getting each of these meats as individual entrées if you prefer one over the other, but it was nice to be able to try both of them in one dish.
The Great – If you have never had japchae before or you are a japche fan, Una Canción Coreana is a very good place to order it. The typical Korean glass noodle dish is made with stir-fried glass noodles and thinly sliced vegetables like mushrooms and carrots with pieces of egg. At Una Canción Coreana you can get the traditional vegetarian version of the dish or you can order it con carne, which means “with beef.” I enjoyed the beef as an additional texture and savory flavor to the already very tasty noodles. This dish is highly recommended for those who are eating Korean food for the first time, vegetarians, and anyone who does not like spicy food.
The Good –The Tortilla Habichuela, or bindaetteok in Korean, are fried mung bean pancakes served as an appetizer. The half portion at Una Canción Coreana come with two large pancakes which have a number of things mixed into the mung bean batter including tofu, kimchi, pork and vegetables. Visually, they look like flatter potato latkes and texture-wise they resemble a fried zucchini pancake. The flavor is good but is a little bland and I wished that the flavor from the pork and kimchi came through a little bit more. There is a good amount of oil used to make this dish so if that bothers you, skip this one.
The Verdict – Una Canción Coreana serves up excellent, authentic Korean food and is a fantastic place to visit while you are in Buenos Aires, especially if you are a vegetarian or if you are looking for a break from the traditional Argentinian steak. The restaurant is a great value and is an even better value if you pay in cash as they offer a 10% discount to those who do. It might sound a bit strange to some to go to a Korean restaurant while spending time in Argentina but there is a good chance that Una Canción Coreana is serving up better casual Korean food than wherever you are from.