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The Gossiping Gourmet: Tang at the perfect temperature

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I recently had a delicious dinner at a small Korean restaurant in a mall in Irvine. The restaurant is called Tang 190. The word “tang” means soup, and 190 stands for the ideal temperature for eating Korean soup.

I think most people are more familiar with Korean barbecue-style restaurants than those that feature soups as the main dish. Mind you, these soups are very hearty. The menu here features 10 different kinds of soup as well as a variety of other dishes.

Traditionally, your food arrives with a generous array of small side dishes served from a cart that goes around the room. These dishes are called banchan. You can select what you like or let the very helpful waitress give you suggestions as to what dish is good with which sides. Servers will come around again if you require refills.

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These little dishes include sauces and various kinds of vegetables, some spicy, some pickled, some sweet and some with all those characteristics. Seasoning is provided, or the food can be eaten as is. It seems that in this type of restaurant, the idea is for you to add the condiments to suit your taste.

My dining companion and I each chose a different soup and switched halfway through. I selected the ginseng chicken, called Sam-Gye-Tang, which was actually a whole Cornish game hen stuffed with sweet rice and simmered for a long time, making the meat very tender. Lending flavor to the broth were garlic and ginseng. I added a touch of heat and salt as well. The broth was excellent. The rice soaked up quite a bit of it, adding flavor to the rice.

Our other soup was the one recommended by many people, Gal-Bi-Tang, made from back ribs with green onion, dry jujube, a small amount of thin noodles and fried egg strips. As with the Cornish hen, getting the meat off the two big bones was a bit of work but well worth it. The meat was flavorful and tender but with a pleasant little chewiness. We both thought it was delicious, especially when we added the sweet hot sauce that our waitress recommended for this particular soup. Either of these would easily make a meal.

Calamari lover that I am, I couldn’t resist ordering something called Nak-Ji-Dol-Sat (Calamari Rice Plate). It is described as spicy calamari “BiBim-Bop with a variety of toppings.” BiBim-Bop means mixed rice, and the dish can have endless variations.

This version had rice studded with tiny bits of calamari, as well as onions, cabbage, crunchy vegetables and pickled kimchi. A flat cooked egg rested on top. It was seasoned with spicy red salt. Despite the fact that the calamari was only in tiny bits, I loved this dish, especially when I added several condiments that lent it sweetness, saltiness and heat. Oddly, it came with a side of potato salad.

Pork and Kimchi Wrap would easily be a plate to share with several people. A large platter came with small slices of slowly simmered pork with a thick edge of fat. Also on the plate were big pieces of slightly pickled kimchi cabbage, shredded turnips, soybean paste and shrimp sauce. The idea is to take a slice of pork, wrap it in the cabbage leaf and add your own extras.

The restaurant is actually nicely done. The décor is pleasant with a pretty wall of glass at one end, beige stone walls, dark wood flooring, black marble tables and banquettes. It is small, but it shares a large outdoor patio with the restaurant next door. It is a very family-friendly place.

Tang 190 does not have any desserts, but it does handle takeout orders.

We are looking forward to coming back here to try some of the other items.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at m_markowitz@cox.net.

Tang 190

Where: 14121 Jeffrey Road, Irvine

When: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Prices: $8.98 to $21.98 for entrees

Information: (949) 651-1901

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