Camera in the Kitchen: E-Mo

If you are easily distracted by the flashy signs and lights that decorate most of Korea Town’s restaurants on 32nd Street, you would easily miss E-Mo, a hole-in-the-wall that only sells kimbap, the Korean take on Japanese sushi. As much as we love sushi, we prefer kimbap because its hefty size resembles sushi on steroids and actually fills up our stomach, while dainty sushi inexplicably makes us feel hungrier.

E-Mo’s kimbap come filled with jalapeno, beef, spicy tuna, tuna, kim chee, cheese, vegetable, mushroom or squid and is only $4.50 or $5 per 12-13 piece roll. Besides the main ingredient, each roll neatly wraps up burdock root, pickled turnip, perilla, carrot, parboiled spinach, and -- aside from the vegetable roll -- some kind of processed ham product that has the texture of kamaboko. Although we love spicy tuna, our mouth wasn’t ready for E-Mo’s stinging, burninatingly hot version, which was awesome aside from the loss of feeling on our tongue. Until we build up our tolerance, we’ll stick with the regular, non-pain inducing tuna.

One roll is enough for a satisfying meal that is unlikely to result in any stomach discomfort. Two rolls might be pushing it unless you’re really hungry. If you want something extra, they also have soup.

Since each roll is made to order you may have to wait a while, but it’s worth it for freshly made kimbap. You can eat inside E-Mo if you don’t mind standing up and possibly squishing up against the metal counter that juts out of the wall that isn’t adorned with praise from actor Joong-Hoon Park.

Grab a Korean or Japanese drink while you’re there. We prefer Pocari Sweat, not so much because it tastes good (which is a debatable opinion), but because it tastes kind of…weird. And it’s oddly refreshing. Or maybe we’re just intrigued by the unappetizing name.

E-mo is located at 2 W. 32nd St. (between 5th Ave and 6th Ave). 212-594-1466

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By Robyn in Food on April 20, 2007 10:43 AM

Comments [rss]

roboppy

Dino, or anyone else who thinks the nori had turned to rubber: As the person who ate the pictured food, I can assure you that the nori had not turned into anything remotely resembling rubber. But thanks for assuming.

dino

ugh that looks terrible. the rice is too 'wet'. it's turned the nori to rubber.

Ben

Okay, I've just returned from a trip to E-Mo and have to second the fact that the cheese kimbap is really really good.

jmb

i like to tell people that the not-so-secret ingredient in pocari sweat is the sweat (duh) of pocaris, which are marmot/nutria-like creatures that once roamed the mountains of japan, but are now largely kept in pocari factory farms where their sweat can be harvested in a efficient and sanitary manner.

Josh

Damn you! It's not lunchtime yet and you're making me hungry.

(Which is to say, that looks good.)

ek

I love this place. The cheese kimbap sounds weird but its SO good! Koreans love putting cheese on everything. The other night I had ddukboki with cheese on it.