If you like your Hawaiian food with a Korean twist, then Poke & Bulgi in Pacific Beach is for you.
\nRecently opened at 1420 Garnet Ave., Poke & Bulgi proprietor Sookhee Kim is bringing some of her family\u2019s home recipes from her native Korea and working culinary wonders blending them with trendy poke.
\nA former high school teacher in Korea who taught English, Kim couldn\u2019t find work after coming to San Diego. So she opted to switch careers instead.
\n“Poke is very popular,” Kim realized after a website search, adding she was also drawn to the cuisine because, “It\u2019s very healthy.”
\nIt was also nice that Kim could mix in some Korean cuisine to make her culinary offerings stand out from others along the beachfront.
\nThere are three main dishes at Poke & Bulgi. Those are poke, a raw fish or seafood salad typically made with yellowfin tuna, salmon or various shellfish. Then comes bulgi, Kim\u2019s creative culinary dish and name, which is a marinated beef rice bowl. Thirdly there is bulgogi, “fire meat,” which is stir-fried Korean barbecue.
\nKim said she wanted her restaurant patrons to be able to customize their culinary choices.
\n“A lot of people are not real big fans of raw fish,” she said. “I like to offer them a choice. Also, parents coming in here, many of their kids can\u2019t eat poke. So they can come here and have bulgi or bulgogi.”
\nThe Korean and Hawaiian tastes blend well and complement each other.
\nEating at Poke & Bulgi is a four-step process. Step one is selecting the size: small, medium or large based on fish portions. Step two involves selecting a white or brown rice bowl with either raw fish and seafood or beef. The third step is to select a sauce. The final step is choosing among available ingredients to top off the entree.
\nItems patrons choose from include salmon, scallops, shrimp, spicy or seared tuna and albacore or octopus.
\n“The fish taste is very flat and there is no salt added, so you have to mix the ingredients with sauce which makes it taste better,” said Kim noting other items available to add to dishes include jalapeno peppers, edamame, seaweed salad, wasabi and cilantro.
\nThere is both indoor and outdoor seating at Kim\u2019s establishment. The decor is simple and tasteful employing lots of wood and tile.
\nSo far, Kim said she\u2019s getting lots of loyal local PB customers as well as the seasonal tourist trade.
\n“I\u2019ve got regular customers who are PB residents who are eating here more and more,” she said.
\nThe eatery does not deliver but take-out is available. Poke & Bulgi
\nWhere: 1420 Garnet Ave.
\nHours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
\nInfo: 858-291-8549<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you like your Hawaiian food with a Korean twist, then Poke & Bulgi in Pacific Beach is for you. Recently opened at 1420 Garnet Ave., Poke & Bulgi proprietor Sookhee Kim is bringing some of her family\u2019s home recipes from her native Korea and working culinary wonders blending them with trendy poke. A former […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":260780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Poke & Bulgi offers Hawaiian flavors with Korean spice","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}