100 Favorite Dishes: Kimchi-Jeon at Seoul BBQ

No. 94: Kimchi-Jeon at Seoul BBQ
Pancakes for Sunday brunch are a time-honored tradition, but if you find yourself in Aurora looking for a midday meal, a different kind of pancake at Seoul BBQ beckons and could become a new weekend tradition. Once seated at this Havana Street mainstay, you'll want to indulge in some tabletop cooking (the specialty of the house), but start out with a platter of kimchi-jeon from the appetizer list to fend off hunger until the main event.

Kimchi-jeon is a simple dish that combines sliced kimchi — the fermented-vegetable staple of Korean cuisine — with a flour-based batter and fresh greens. The pancake owes its orange shading to kimchi brine mixed into the batter and its fierce flavor to chilies used in the making of the condiment. Seoul BBQ serves its version sliced pizza-style into wedges and sided with a sweet and tangy sauce the color and consistency of motor oil. (No, there's no maple syrup.)

And like every good Denver brunch, this dish is designed to go with booze. A bottle of potent but smooth soju — think amped-up sake — for the table is a soothing accompaniment to cool the heat and balance the saltiness. And because of the color, the kimch-jeon is the perfect pre-Super Bowl snack for superstitious Broncos fans who only eat orange on game days. You're on your own for blue food though.

Throughout this year, we'll be counting down the best dishes in the city — from longtime classics that keep us coming back to new additions that have caught our attention. If there's a dish you think we need to try, tell us about it in the comments section, or shoot us an e-mail at [email protected].

Hungry for more? All the dishes in our 2016 countdown are linked below.

No. 100: Masala Beef at Biju's Little Curry Shop
No. 99: Bacon Shrimp and Grits at Bacon Social House
No. 98: Porchetta and Kimchi Sandwich at Brider
No. 97: Squab-and-Sunchoke Tortellini at Abejas
No. 96: Housemade Burrata at Viand
No, 95: Schweinshaxe at Rhein Haus