A Korean Restaurant

in Berlin

 
 
 

Vocabulary

owner	despite	renovate
leek	as far as	concerned (2)
trendy	kind (2)	roots (2)
district	equally	fascinated
inspire	dish (2)	degree (3)
phase	covered	test phase
radish	location	fall in love
prince	terrible	right away
tile	interior	turn into
ugly	culture	architecture
former	princess	partner (2)
sleek	at least	bon appétit
appeal	clientele	gastronomy
hire	amazing	implement
brand	topping	take a look
beef	popular	traditional
tofu	prepare	marinade
syrup	extract	season (2)
onion	miss (3)	reference
paste	zucchini	mushroom
fried	cabbage	authentic
menu	base (2)	establish
appeal	add (2)	chopstick
spoon	literally	side dish
mix	concept	wonderful
ruin	setting	reluctant
fail	venture	immediate
eatery	solidify	fermented
garlic	used to	nickname
seed	area (3)	delightful
stir

 
 
 
 
 

Video: A Korean Restaurant in Berlin

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Young-Mi Park-Snowden, Restaurant Owner, Kimchi Princess: “When I came to Berlin, it was the best city in the world, as far as I was concerned. But I really missed the kind of food I ate in Korea, and it was nothing like what I had at home.”

Young-Mi Park-Snowden’s family moved to Germany in 1966. She was born in the German city of Wolfsburg in 1979.

After finishing high school, she spent a year in the South Korean capital, Seoul. That helped solidity her Korean roots.

Today, she feels equally at home in both cultures: Germany and South Korea.

In 2009, Young-Mi opened a restaurant, Kimchi Princess in the Kreutzberg district of Berlin. Although she has a degree from drama school, a friend inspired her to make cooking her profession.

At first, she sold her dishes at a local Christmas market. This test phase turned into a huge success. But it took another four years for Young-Mi to find the right location for her concept restaurant.

Young-Mi Park-Snowden, Restaurant Owner, Kimchi Princess: “I walked by here, and I thought it was great, and that it didn’t look like a restaurant. I fell in love with it right away, despite the fact that it looked terrible.

Everything was covered in orange tiles. The interior was completely ugly, but the architecture fascinated me. I also liked that it was on two floors.

It was love at first sight.”

Together with a business partner, Young-Mi spent three months renovating the former nightclub. She wanted to create a Korean restaurant with authentic food in a sleek and modern setting that would appeal to an international clientele.

She hired a gastronomy expert to help her implement her ideas.

Young-Mi Park-Snowden, Restaurant Owner, Kimchi Princess: “It was amazing the way it all developed. In the beginning, some of my guests said things like, ‘Where is Korea, anyhow?’ or ‘What is Korea?’ He had no idea.

Sometimes I thought, ‘Take a look at your cell phone; that’s actually a South Korean brand. But in the last four years or so, forty or fifty Korean restaurants have opened in Berlin.

It’s a great feeling; seeing it become so established.”

Bibembap is a traditional and very popular Korean dish. It can be made with vegetables, tofu or beef. If you use beef, the first step is to prepare a seasoned marinade.

Ingredients

1. Nashi pear
2. Sesame oil
3. Chunga rice wine
4. Rice syrup
5. Pepper
6. Plum extract
7. Sugar
8. Soy sauce
9. Garlic
10. Onions
11. Ginger
12. Beef
13. Green onions and leek
14. Radish
15. Carrots
16. Cabbage
17. Shiitake mushrooms
18. Zucchini
19. Marinated beef
20. Sushi rice
21. Gochujang chili paste
22. Fried egg
23. Roasted Sesame seeds

The meat should marinate for at least an hour. The word bibembap literally means “mixed rice” which is the base of the dish. Then you just add a few of your favorite toppings, whatever appeals.

Unlike in some Asian countries, in South Korea, the rice is eaten with a spoon; chopsticks are only used for side dishes.

At Kimchi Princess, Bibembap is one of the most popular dishes on the menu.

Young-Mi Park-Snowden, Cookbook Author: “It looks wonderful when it’s served and you also get a soup with it. You don’t eat the soup first the way you normally do in Germany: the soup is eaten with the Bibembap.

Another important thing is that you first season it with spicy paste and then mix it well with your spoon. Many guests are reluctant to do that because it looks so pretty, and they don’t want to ruin it. But it really should be stirred.”

When she opened her restaurant more than eight years ago, the immediate neighborhood didn’t have all that many restaurants. Many of her friends thought the venture would fail.

But the area has since become trendy.

Kimchi Princess was what Young-Mi’s friends used to call her. The nickname is a reference to kimchi, a fermented cabbage dish that’s popular in Korea. When Young-Mi opened her restaurant, she knew pretty quickly what she would name it.

Meanwhile, she’s opened two more eateries in Berlin.

Young-Mi Park-Snowden: “Hello. Here in the Kimchi Princess, we make a delightful Bibembap.

Bon appétit!”

Questions

1. For Young-Mi, New York and London are the best cities in the world. True or false? Was Berlin perfect in every way?

2. Where was she born? Does she feel at home only with German culture?

3. Young-Mi studied culinary arts at a college. Is this correct or incorrect? Why did she decide to became a restaurateur?

4. Did she build her restaurant from scratch?

5. They demonstrated how to prepare and cook a dish. Is this right or wrong? What dish did they feature?

6. In the beginning were Young-Mi’s friends optimistic or pessimistic about the success of her new venture? Where did its name come from?

7. Nowadays is Korean cuisine popular in Berlin?

 

A. There are (many) Korean restaurants in my city. Yes or no?

B. What other foreign or ethnic restaurants are there?

C. Do you know anyone who has started or owns a restaurant? Describe it.

D. I would like to open my own restaurant. Yes or no? If yes, what kind of restaurant would it be?

E. What will happen in the future?