The only thing I know about Korean food is that I like it particularly when the beautiful Mrs Yom Myungok is the chef and her husband Jung Dong Sik shows you how best to enjoy the unusual flavours and the mix-it-yourself nature of Korea’s cuisine. The Zen Café is opposite the Himalayan Bank in Thamel in the Korean House where three floors are devoted to art, karoake and food.

The Royal Ginseng Chicken Soup is a whole chicken cooked with invigorating herbs including the Ginseng root and besides being delicious, its good for the skin, stamina and for very young babies. The slightly sweet musky taste is from the cinnamon and Susil Lamsal the manager helps Jung Dong Sik to tell you that with Korean food you add any of the colourful ingredients served in small bowls.

Jung and Susil first added just salt. Then a little radish in sauce added a zing and another accompaniment changed the taste all together. The soup is for Korean aristocracy and it took Chef Yom Myungok who worked in a five star hotel in Korea, an hour to prepare.

Nirmal Pokhrel, who has spent years in Singapore, explained that the Hot Stone Rice Dish which he served was a popular upper crust Korean delight. Cooked in a stone pot, it comes beautifully presented with an egg on top of a whole lot of delicious things including separately fried carrots, radish and cucumbers, which are then added to the rice.

Jung, in one magical moment, took a little soup swirled it in the dish, the yellow of the egg disappeared and you suddenly had a red, spiced risotto. “It’s peppery,” said Jung. Susil translated.

Jung and Yom used to communicate with Susil, Nirmal and the very young Amrit Koirala with an electronic dictionary until Korean guests from the embassy and projets taught them a little Korean. For me the dictionary was an example of how far Jung and Yom would go to spread the word about Korean cuisine.

“We have come to Nepal so our children can grow up in an environment of natural beauty and learn many languages,” said Jung, as the Steamed Pork with Vegetables was brought on by Amrit with a mixing of several sauces and as many vegetables. Crunchy with capsicum at one bite, softly chewy with pork the next, the delicacy was wrapped in lettuce and spoon fed to me by Jung, it changed from piquant, to garlicky to chilly filled. The garlic and the chilies and the lettuce came separately served and were deftly put together by Jung. He and Yom have lot of practice in spoon feeding-their children go to Sesame World.

The pork came with a sauce that had reduced soy and soybean it was one of the flavours that Jung fed me, another happened when the tart cabbage Gimchi was added to the lettuce wrapped “ravioli” that was being popped into my mouth.

The Gimchi was explosively spicy. The cabbage is one of the great, universal vegetables. In 850 BC the Greek poet Homer sang about cabbage coming from the sweat of the God, Zeus, who was arguing with himself in a garden.

“We have got a garden on top for parties and we’ve added a continental and Indian menu to please our guests,” said Susil.

It occurred to me as I left that anyone who came and committed the sin of not eating the Korean food was missing out on one of life’s great experiences. Call 4441689 for deliciousness.