Baek Ri Hyang: Chinatown’s Hidden Gem
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Baek Ri Hyang | 3390 S. State, South Salt Lake
(801) 883-9693 | baekrihyang.menu.com
Mon-Tue: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. | Thurs.-Sun. 11 a.m.-9p.m.
In Salt Lake City, finding Korean food at all can be a challenge, but finding really good Korean food is rarer still. Baek Ri Hyang seeks to offer a wide variety of authentic Korean and Korean-Chinese dishes for your eating pleasure. I can’t speak on the authenticity of the dishes, but the flavor and texture are elements every foodie can understand. And Baek Ri Hyang is a great place to be a foodie!
Right away, the restaurant’s complete lack of any westernized name tells you they are not screwing around, and one glance at the menu only reaffirms this. The menu items are all listed in romanized Korean (phonetic transcription of Korean into the Latin alphabet). For the uninitiated, your only hope of knowing what’s going on is reading through the descriptions and referencing the photos. While this may sound intimidating, nervously telling the waiter you would like the “oo-go-jee hey-jan-gook” brings a more authentic atmosphere to your Salt Lake dining experience.
Once you order, you’ll get banchan-supporting dishes. My visit included kimchi (you simply can’t go without it), spicy cucumber salad, fish cake, marinated tofu, seaweed salad, white seaweed salad, soy marinated mushrooms and stir-fried mushrooms. I had the pleasure of trying multiple dishes with which I paired Baekseju ($14.95), a fermented rice wine flavored with herbs and ginseng. It was served in a bottle with a small glass for each person. I preferred it over soju for this meal for its lower alcohol content and complex flavor built up by the variety of herbs. It was a perfect pairing for the meal, complementing the heavier and spicier dishes beautifully.
With dinner, I had to explore the main food groups: soup, rice, meat and spice. My soup of choice was the aforementioned Ugeoji Galbi Haejangguk ($20.95), a “hangover” soup with beef ribeye, which was served still-boiling in a stone bowl with rice on the side. The broth had a very clean and light taste to it, with a subtle fish-like flavor. While I was slightly disappointed that there were only three pieces of beef in my soup amidst a sea of cabbage and white and green onions, each piece of the ribeye was a flavor-packed, perfectly tender bite of heaven.
Baek Ri Hyang offers one rice-based dish called Bibimbap ($16.95), which translates literally to “mixed rice.” A bowl of fluffy white rice is topped with a myriad of delicious vegetables, beef bulgogi if you choose and a fried egg, served with a spicy sauce on the side so you can tailor the dish to your taste. The plethora of vegetables makes you feel like royalty: zucchini, mushrooms, radishes, carrots, soybean sprouts, spinach and other greens line the edge of the bowl, circling the golden egg right in the middle. And if you’re dining in, you can take the experience up another notch by ordering the Dolsot Bibimbap ($18.95), which is the same dish but served in a hot stone pot that creates a crust of the rice on the bottom, adding even more crunch to the already complex palette of textures in this dish. In my opinion, it’s the best way to have bibimbap.
Lastly, I rounded everything out with Ojingeo Bokkeum ($22.95) — stir-fried squid — and Tteokbokki ($24.95) — squishy rice cake cooked in a sweet and spicy gochujang sauce. Served as a meal, the tteokbokki comes with ramen noodles, fish cake, vegetables, fried dumplings and two soft-boiled eggs. The tteok (rice cake) was cooked to a flawless squishy texture, and the classic sauce was rich in flavor with a nice kick of heat. The squid was served with rice and had a firm and chewy texture and a light oceanic flavor. Served in a thick red sauce with lots of onions, it was wonderful with a spoonful of rice followed by a swig of Baekseju.
Baek Ri Hyang’s online presence is quite limited (another sign of them not screwing around), but you can order online for takeout. I recommend giving them a call at (801) 883-9693 to get yourself some warm and comforting takeout today!
Read more food reviews by Joni Bianca:
Two-Bit Bistro: Not Just a One-Hit Wonder
Hot of the Skillet: Breakfast with a Venezuelan Twist
