“Just moved to the county and I’m already missing the city’s restaurants,” read a recent online sentiment from some local commentator. “Everything’s so predictable,” offered another.
We thought about that tired trope when we sat down for a dinner at Chef Ma’s new digs in Overland, and again the next night when we found ourselves at another place, Pocha STL in St. Ann. Last summer, after Seoul Garden relocated to Creve Coeur, the family behind the Korean barbecue restaurant, Kyung and Dong Moon and their daughter, Joyce Moon, debuted the new concept, featuring Korean pub food specialties and fusion fare. Fans of the original Kimcheese (owned by the same family) will recognize the dark wood and Korean farmhouse interior.
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Pojangmacha—shortened to pocha—are a street-side way of eating, mostly late at night, with soju or beer to wash things down. Like sake in Japan, soju has its own lore and rituals, including anju, dishes typically consumed with alcohol. Pocha STL features some of the expected classics: kimchi pancakes, deep-fried dumplings, chicken feet, cheese skillet… Wait, what?
Yeah, here’s the other thing about pocha-style dining. Given the presence of U.S. military bases in Korea for many years, one of the more unusual hybrids of cuisine has been the influence that American GIs have had on Korean street fare. The most famous is undoubtedly budae jjigae, or “Army stew,” which mixes Korean ingredients with Spam and sausage. Pocha’s version also includes bacon and tofu, along with kimchi, chilies, onions, and ramen, all in a broth hot enough to get your palate’s attention without melting your taste buds.
The cheese is, of course, another American contribution to this style of Korean food. The cheese skillet is a casserole with rice and a choice of chicken or pork, marinated in Korean pepper sauce and topped with that familiar cheese. The same cheese appears over fries, a truly Seoul food version of poutine with spiced pork, green onions, and a slather of mayo kick-started with kochujang (a paste of chili powder, soybeans, glutinous rice, and what appears to be molten lava). It’s in most Korean dishes at Pocha STL but restrained. (Match the loaded fries with a few too many Hite Korean beers, and at about 2 in the morning, you, my friend, might experience some visions from dimensions you never even knew existed.)
Canned corn is another ingredient you don’t normally think of when contemplating Korean food. For the cheese corn starter, a flurry of grated cheese covers the corn. It’s unexpected but good—definitely not one of the snacks you’d consider as an accompaniment to drinking.
Stews are also associated with drinking in Korea. Pocha STL’s menu spans many of the most popular options. Tteok-bokki is iconic pocha fare. Little Vienna sausage-shaped links of glutinous rice are tossed with slices of fish cake and boiled egg in a kochujang broth. The rice cakes absorb the flavor of the broth; their texture is delightfully chewy. Soon dobu (pictured below) is a famous stew; the tofu is nearly a pudding, the stew thickened with chunks of fatty pork. It has a zing, but the heat’s not overwhelming (although you should be careful with that first spoonful of the tofu, which holds cooking’s heat like a blob of custardy flame).
Then there are those wonderful Korean scallion pajeon pancakes. Some places use finely chopped scallions, though they’re cut longer here, with the length making the batter stick better, forming a crust and pleasant interior texture. Typically, kitchens use buchim garu, a sort of premade mixture of flour and starches. If Pocha’s taking this shortcut, they’re using a good one—the pajeon tastes homemade. These are just splendid accompaniments for drinking beer or soju, particularly with the dipping sauce, a fragrant combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and a touch of chili pepper. Pocha STL’s pancakes are so good and so apparently simple, you might try to make your own at home and discover just how tricky they are to get right.
Another classic anju is chicken feet. Drenched in a hot, slightly sweet, garlic-laden sauce, they’re not a whole lot different than chicken wings. Nibbling the gelatinous meat from the bones is pretty much the same. (Pocha STL also has pig’s trotters, but we’re not going to push our luck by touting them as well.)
The most popular dish at Pocha STL is, perhaps not surprisingly, the bulgogi (pictured below). Barbecue-lovin’ Midwesterners were always the perfect audience for the Korean version, and the platter of meat that arrives at your table is a creditable example. The meat’s tender, sliced thin, succulent.
Bibimbap is equally fine. Getting this beautiful combination of rice, vegetables, egg, and beef served in a heated stone bowl’s going to set you back another dollar, but it’s completely worth it. The dish arrives hissing and crackling, with that incredible scorched rice nurungji and its crusty texture.
As for the drinks, if you haven’t tried soju, imagine a slightly sweeter vodka. Pocha STL offers a few mostly flavored soju brands. We’re hoping that the pub will expand its selection since some of the fruit-flavored drinks are more reminiscent of cocktails than what you’ll find in a serious soju bottle. That said, Pocha has introduced a noteworthy dining and drinking option to St. Louis.
And oh yeah, you’ll find it well beyond the city limits, where there’s supposed to be nothing more interesting or exciting than a fast food hamburger.
