Korean in Berlin: ARIRANG

I am pretty familiar with Korean culture since I was a little kid. I remember I used to watch Winter Sonata – undoubtedly one of the famous Korean Dramas ever followed by Endless Love. I recalled I watched it with my mother and somehow after it, I imagined myself as the leading girl in the drama and pretending that there was a rich handsome young Korean guy wanted me to be their gf (lolz). I was a huge Korean Drama for sure but my highest peak when there was a famous drama called Boys Over Flower. The main female character, Geum Jan Di, had bob hairstyle (please google her) and Jan Di’s love interest was rich handsome man named Gu Jun Pyo. No doubt and of course I liked him. And because I liked the series so much and somehow I hoped I had a life like Jan Di, I decided to have my hair cut like Jan Di. Result? Disaster.

If you hope that I am gonna show you how I looked like with Geum Jan Di’s hairstyle in this post, you definitely hope too much and somehow unrealistic. It is like hoping that Justin Timberlake will go back to Britney Spears (which I secretly hope but it's just impossible). But since I am nice girl, let me give you a hint: just imagine a ballon with bob hairstyle. That’s it. That’s literally how I looked like because at that time, I was super fat (no kidding), and of course, with bob hairstyle on round bubbly face, it's just like a balloon with a wig. I am not trying to despise myself here (no worries), but that was the reality. I was into Boys Over Flower too much and hoped I would have Gu Jun Pyo in real life so I did it. I was hopeless romantic. Until now actually.

Luckily, now I already moved on from those dark periods and I grew up as a pretty sane girl. I mean I am still weird and could be an extreme fangirl sometimes, but I won’t cut my hair just because of some character. Oh wait a minute, when Kick Ass released three years ago, I was so into Hit Girl so I have had my haircut again like her, bob hairstyle. Well, I think I am pretty sane.

But let’s not talk about it too much because I can write a full book about silly things that I did during college year. Let’s talk about other thing like food since I love food too much like most people knew it already. Let’s talk about my first encounter with my very first Korean restaurant in Berlin, Arirang. Just because it was pretty sweet thing to remember.

The first time I ate in Arirang was around 3 years ago. I remember I was still living in Cottbus and a friend of mine asked me to eat in Arirang. It was definitely compulsive decision but worth every penny. I fell in love with Arirang ever since.

Arirang might be not the prettiest restaurant ever. Somehow when you look at it, it is definitely too shabby for german standard. But, when it comes to food and the price they have, Arirang is a good place to visit every now and then since they serve huuge protion of food with decent price. Some even said that their food was pretty authentic as well. For me, Arirang is a good place to hang out with friends when I don't want to spend too much money.

Last Saturday, me and my friends which happened to be Cottbus Disco Gank (CDG) went to Arirang for lunch. Actually, I lost count on how many times I visited Arirang because I went there quite too much. When we were there, there were even some tour group from Korea and suddenly you will feel like you were in Korea. Unfortunately, no Gu Jun Pyo there but it was pretty cool, still.

Without any doubt, we just ordered grill plate that consisted of bulgogi and spicy squids. It was really huge and was goddamn delicious. We ordered Seafood Pancake as well but, this time the pancake wasn’t that special. This is one thing that I don’t like about Arirang, sometimes the quality was super good, but sometimes it was standard. Nevertheless, the bulgogi and the squids were awesome last weekend though the pancake was so-so.

So if you want to experience some real Korean dining, you must add Arirang to your must-visit-restaurant in Berlin. I know the place somehow unappetizing but when you get the food, you can understand why I like to go there!

You can find Arirang here:

Google it! ;)