Bring friends - soju, salmon and menbosha are made for sharing at Gaja in Ponsonby Central. Photo/Dean Purcell
Bring friends - soju, salmon and menbosha are made for sharing at Gaja in Ponsonby Central. Photo/Dean Purcell
In Korea, drinking food is a serious business. Restaurant critic Kim Knight samples the stomach-lining fare at Gaja in Ponsonby Central.
In their own words: Gaja is "Korean with a twist. A special place where gochujang meets duck, beer battered meets kimchi and ssibal means spicy."
First impressions: That's notthe door! Gaja is in Ponsonby Central, down the back where the butcher shop used to be. Unless improvised mime is your thing, look for the entrance down the little internal laneway that opens on to Brown St. Gaja works as both a bar and a restaurant, with a slightly elevated dining area, ubiquitous indoor neon word signage and tiger-crane-et al artworks. On a cold night, it was freezing. Wear a jumper or order a soju, stat.
Inside Gaja restaurant. Photo/Dean Purcell
On the floor: The warm and accommodating waitperson more than compensated for the room temperature. What is soju, I asked? "You could compare it to a flavoured vodka," he replied. "We serve it in small glasses and we recommend sharing because it can make you very drunk." Sold, said my chattering teeth.
The neighbourhood: A pandemic might have changed the world forever, but young professionals in Barkers shirts and Zara dresses still need somewhere to eat deep-fried eggplant. That place is Ponsonby Central on a Wednesday night where the crowds look as thirsty, hungry and ambitious as they did when Corona was just a refreshing summer drink.
Neon lights and well-stocked shelves at Ponsonby Central's Gaja restaurant. Photo/Dean Purcell
The menu: Small, medium, large, you know the drill. Our table of three ordered every dish from the "medium" column, plus some "smalls" that turned out to be quite substantial. Everything seemed very saucy; if you've gone big on the fried stuff, add a plate of the cured salmon for a clean palate refresh. Don't bother asking about dessert because (a) they don't offer it and (b) you could just get a cocktail instead.
Best bite #1: In Korea, drinking food has its own nomenclature. "Anju" are the salty-spicy-crispy stomach liners that set you up for the next round (and the round after that). Order the yum yum chicken (it's great) but don't miss that eggplant. Is there another vegetable in the world that pairs better with a deep-fryer? Crispy batter, gochujang glaze, a scattering of almonds (bonus crunch) and a slightly acidic lemony-yoghurt drizzle made this the most hotly contested dish on our table.
Menbosha aka prawn toasties aka the best fried bread in Auckland at Ponsonby Central's Gaja restaurant. Photo/Dean Purcell
Best bite #2: When I was little, my mum would shallow-fry slices of white toast bread, then cut them into triangles and serve them alongside a stew made with beef mince, onions, cubed carrot and green peas. I loathed the stew and loved that bread - the way the crumbs shattered and the hot fat flooded your mouth. Gaja's menbosha is like that, but so much better. The little triangular toastie is stuffed with minced prawns and pickled daikon; it is the pinnacle of prawn toasts and the best fried white bread I've had since I was 7.
The jury's still out: Cucumber salad is cucumber salad - unless it is the middle of winter and then it is unnatural.
On the side: Your dinner guests are late? You're starving? That pomegranate soju you are not sharing is going straight to your head? Order a bowl of ddukboki, aka thick, springy and extremely snackable pieces of rice noodle. Gaja's are dredged in a bone marrow-infused gochujang, and sprinkled with tempura crumbs, because two carbs are always better than one. This dish is basically a bouncy castle for your mouth.
Perfect for: Drinking and eating and then drinking and eating some more.
It's not like you go to a Korean restaurant to geek out over the wine list, but one thing's for certain, you'll likely leave Gaja as an expert in soju. Soju's a clear, 16-45% alc, distilled spirit that also happens to be the most popular liquor in South Korea, with the nation drinking an average of 13.7 shots of it per week. In fact, Jinro Soju ($16 for 330ml at Gaja) is the top-selling alcohol brand in the entire world according to CNN. Soju can be distilled using almost anything, though rice, wheat and potatoes are the most common. It's colourless and tastes a little like vodka and it's almost always taken as a shot. Another common way to drink soju is to pour it into your beer ("mekchu" in Korean) or do what Gaja do and serve theirs as the base in practically all their cocktails. Cocktails are a big deal at Gaja. The Espressoju Martini or the Soju Negroni both use Hwayo soju, whereas you'll find peach, yoghurt, green grape, strawberry, pomegranate, blueberry and cherry-flavoured sojus scattered throughout the cocktail list. For wine but not as we know it, 375ml of Bokbunja Black Raspberry Wine will set you back $32 — which is a decent price for adventure. For the zero-alc fans, there are Welch's, Milkis and Bong Bong's to try (grape and pear-based beverages). Have fun!
