116140 Sun Jun 20 00:36:08 -0700 2004 3 7 Chicago Area 0 634213 I went to an excellent Korean Style chinese restaunt last night. Great Sea is a chinese restaurant as you would find in seoul. I guess it's pretty inauthentic, its not yunan or szechuan, or cantonese, It's korean. And it is part of its own delicious genre. In another light it is organic culinary fusion, which I tend to prefer to culinary school fusion (ie wasabi/yuzu creme drizzled food art.) It was actually quite reminiscent of chinese food in kyoto. Perfectly executed unsophisticated fun food. Anyway enough noise. We ate: Shark fin soup; A nice ocean infused cornstarch laden clear soup with clear threads of shark fin, shitake's, wood shrooms, shrimp. A bit bland to be honest. Black bean noodles; a noodle 1/2 way between ramen and spaghetti dressed with a pleasantly fermented sweet and salty black bean paste. Revel in the funkiness. Reminiscent of natto. If you like anaerrobic metabolism (which I do) you'll love this. Kam Poon Gi; Wonderful chicken dish. Chicken legs are somehow trimmed so that when they are fried the meat contracts towards the thick end forming a playful ball on a stick form. they are then stir fried is a ridiculously salty sweet spicy garlicky sauce that coats every crevice of the meat. I felt like a kid in the ice cream parlor as I took bites of this succulent, obscenely flavorful meat. I felt a little bit more adult as I dipped the boney end in the sauce and crunched upon the boney/marrow. A calcified korean dorito treat. Certainly low culture at its highest. Shrimp in the kampoongi sauce. Same sauce different meat. Each shrimp is battered and fried so that it forms a little sphere of crispy saucy batter enclosing a tender little pink morsel of shrimp. It is so damn pleasurable eating this guilty treat that I think I could easily finish 2 plates of this dish by myself. People you have got to check this place out if you haven't already. It is pure playful fun. Eating it feels like fast food felt before you realized that fast food dindn't taste all that good. Itaa Daki imasu alexi Sun Jun 20 00:36:08 -0700 2004 0 Ponzu 1 634219 Not inauthentic at all. Authentically Chinese as served in Korea. For an earlier discussion, see the link below. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/115860#632527 Sun Jun 20 12:52:41 -0700 2004 634213 0 Ann Fisher 2 634220 Thanks for the link. your point is well taken. I guess authenticity is a tricky term. One could make an analagous statement that Panda Court is not inauthentic, it is merely chinese cuisine as it is served in north american malls. I guess the point I was making is that it is not a true chinese regional cuisine, but rather a natural fusion spawned by ethnic migration. But certainly in the category of "Korean Chinese." It is entirely authentic. More importantly it is entirely delicious. Sun Jun 20 13:34:21 -0700 2004 634219 0 ponzu 3 634222 Ponzu. Here's another discussion of Korean Chinese, although much less enthusiastic about Great Sea. You might want to respond. Link: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=303 Sun Jun 20 16:32:37 -0700 2004 634220 0 Ann Fisher