Gamasot, Rotterdam
Another favorite of ours for a quick meal is Gamasot on the wonderful Pannekoekstraat, where you also find Beijing Bao. Gamasot is a small Korean restaurant with seating for only 20 people and a small menu of only 14 items. By now we’ve had everything on their menu and nothing has disappointed us so far. We keep coming back because the food is simply delicious.
One of our favorite items on the menu is the dae ji bulgogi (pork). It is spicy and the best parts are the slightly charred and crunchy bits of tender, fatty pork. It’s served with pickled cucumbers, pickled bean sprouts and Korean white rice. Even the rice they serve is at a whole other level of deliciousness. Slightly sticky so you can easily pick it up with chopsticks, and size wise it is in between short grain Japanese rice and long grain pandan/Thai rice. We fell in love with Korean rice because of this place and buy our giant 10kg bag of rice at the Korean supermarket next door. We also always order the man du: crispy fried pot stickers with a refreshing soy dip with spring onion and sesame seeds. Not sure if they’re made with pork or chicken but the meat is tender and flavorful.
This time I decided to go for the tuk bok gi, rice cakes in a spicy chili sauce, since I hadn’t had it in a while. The first bite cleared my sinuses right up, and by the last bite my nose was starting to run. But it’s a good and addictive spicy, with slightly sweet and sour notes as well. You find yourself dipping and re-dipping your rice cakes to get as much sauce as possible on them before taking a bite. A side of kimchi helped cut through the heat by providing a tangy, sour intermezzo every few bites. The chap chae I had with it actually couldn’t stand up to the strong spicy flavor of the rice cakes. The glass noodles with beef have a much more delicate flavor and I probably should’ve started eating that before I went for the rice cakes. But I solved the problem by dipping my noodles and vegetables in that awesome sauce. My brother-in-law offered to give me 5 euros if I drank the rest of the sauce as well. I politely, or maybe not so politely, declined.
The place is run by a Korean couple and usually one extra waitress. The husband is the chef, working away in his small kitchen with some truly impressive knife skills. I’ve watched him work a spatula in his left hand while chopping vegetables with his right. He doesn’t even look at the chopping board and just moves at lightning speed. He is helped in the food prep by his wife who also does some of the serving of the food. In previous visits we’ve seen the nana standing behind the counter keeping a watchful eye over the activity in the kitchen and restaurant. A true mom and pop shop that is absolutely worth repeat visits!
