Jang Mo Jib (外母屋) @ Aberdeen

Boo… Kimchee soon doo boo

 

This is a rarity – a food court post. I don’t do food courts. It’s gross, and fast food is not really food. But on the rare occasion, maybe you feel cheap. Maybe you feel like having that not-really-food food, and enjoying the frenzied food court ambience with your plastic tray, on your plastic chair, at your sticky table. And leaving feeling hungover, dirty, and stupid over your momentary lapse in judgement. “Food prostitution” – it happens.

That brings us to Jang Mo Jib (外母屋) at the Aberdeen Centre food court. There may be better choices, but at the time this seemed like a safe choice for lunch. (1. Customers present. 2. Run by Koreans. 3. Two Jang Mo Jib eat-in restaurants in the city.) They are also avid supporters of their national conglomerate, Samsung:

 

There appeared to be some variety with the 19 items on the menu. Several samples are present for the shy, lazy, and mute to just point and pick. And look! “Today Specail“!

For the banchan picks: kimchi, bean sprouts, pickled radish, marinated kelp, or potatoes. Typical stuff, plain looking. Everybody gets to pick two banchan, but the lunchbox people get three. Maybe because they are … “specail“. For the meals you can choose from 4 grades of spiciness: Spicy, Medium, Mild and Not. Service is fast and accurate, with minimal speaking from all, and a lot of smiling from the kind Korean lady.

 P’s Beef Boolgogee lunchbox ($7.95) 

 W’s Chicken Boolgoee lunchbox ($7.95)

  My Kimchi tofu pot @ mild spicy ($6.95)

 

I don’t think it says much when the best thing about the meal was the very ordinary banchan, and the second best the sticky rice. The third may be my can of Diet Coke. Nothing much in the Kimchi tofu pot: A sprinkle of green onions, a lot of tofu, and two pieces of kimchi. The soup had tiny bits of pork in it. And unless an egg looks like tofu, there was no egg as promised on the menu. At least they didn’t lie about the spiciness – The mild was mild, ie. just red looking and not at all spicy. (I also don’t notice any real vegetarian options here. Maybe you can tell them to omit the meat in the tofu pots but it looks like part of the soup base.)

Definitely on the B List, this one. I have never eaten at the actual Jang Mo Jib restaurants but now I don’t really want to.

 

 

Jang Mo Jib  (外母屋)

Take out: Aberdeen Centre Food Court , Richmond

2xEat in: 8320 Alexandra St, Richmond, and 1719 Robson St, Vancouver