In the mood for a culinary adventure? Try Annandale’s other ‘fast food’

By James Moon

When it come to fast food, Annandale has many of the major chains. But if you’d rather have something that doesn’t come with fries, you might want to give Korean-style fast food a try. Which brings us to a small house-turned-cafeteria next to Fairfax Auto Parts and behind the Giant. (The street address is 7217 Columbia Pike.)

This little food shack, which doesn’t seem to bother with an English name, offers the sort of fare that Koreans call bunsik (pronounced “boon sheak”). Bunsik means flour-based foods because wheat has historically been cheaper than rice. But the term has come to refer to all kinds of cheap and quick foods served by street vendors or hole-in-the-wall restaurants, such as ramen noodles, dumplings, gimbap, and tteokbokki.

Gimbap (pronounced “keam bahp,” see photo on left) is a food made with sticky sushi rice and various ingredients wrapped in sheets of dried seaweed. The rolls, which are similar to California rolls or Japanese makizushi, are sliced into colorful bite-sized pieces and can be dipped in soy sauce. The most common ingredients in gimbap are fried egg, pickled radish, carrot, and spinach; they usually don’t contain anything raw. The tuna gimbap we ordered came shaped like raindrops, which my Korean companions said was somewhat unique and seems to be a variant popping up in Annandale.

If you come here with Koreans, you’ll probably have no choice but to share a dish of tteokbokki (pronounced “duhk bohkki,” see photo on right), the quintessential bunsik that’s made from chewy steamed cakes (made from wheat or rice flour), fish cakes, various vegetables, and egg broiled in a sweet and spicy sauce. Tteokbokki has a big place in Korean culture, especially among young people or anyone who loves to snack.

Don’t come in to this restaurant with big expectations—this is fast food after all, not fine dining. Bus your own table, help yourself to barley tea, order at the counter, and pretend you’re at your Korean friend’s house. The gimbap was decent on our visit, but next time I’m craving dumplings, I might opt to get frozen gyozas from Trader Joe’s and cook them myself. If you’d like to try fancier bunsik (sort of an oxymoron!), try Cafe Muse or, better yet, Myung Ga in Fairfax.