Korean Eatery Sorimmara Opens Next To Smoothie King In Highwoods Preserve! 

Photos by Charmaine George

If you’ve never heard of Sorimmara, which just opened next to Smoothie King at 17501 Preserve Walk Ln., off Bruce B Downs (BBD) Blvd., you’re probably not alone. 

Sorimmara is a fast-casual chain based in South Korea, where it has more than 200 locations. The only other U.S. location is in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles, CA. 

Despite its Korean roots, most of the menu at Sorimmara is made up of Chinese dishes that have been given a Korean twist. Confused? Just what until you visit! 

Sorimmara offers a large variety of raw meats (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, etc.), seafood (shrimp, clams, fish, etc.) and veggies (everything from broccoli and collared greens to Napa cabbage, baby corns, a variety of mushrooms & much more). 

You wait to be seated, but you’re immediately invited to grab a bowl and fill it with as much “stuff” as you like — but you’re told you need to have at least 1 lb. of ingredients in your bowl because the restaurant charges by the pound ($14.99-$18.99) for its six main entrée options, including malatang, which is a spicy broth cooked similarly to the popular Chinese hot pot soups, except the restaurant’s kitchen cooks it for you and brings it to your table in a metal bowl placed on top of a lit burner. 

Charmaine enjoyed her malatang (top photo), but we both included way too many ingredients because we didn’t know until the restaurant weighed our bowls how much “stuff” we had. There’s also creamy rose malatang available. 

I also liked my tomato xiang guo (below left), or “stir fry dry pot,” which is like a stir-fry dish at a Korean or Chinese restaurant. 

When I visit Sorimmara again, I plan to try the guobaorou, which means “fried pork” in Chinese, but also is available in crispy, sweet- &-sour chicken, shrimp, cream shrimp and mala mayo shrimp varieties. There’s also four actual Korean street food options called tteokbokki, which features tube-shaped rice cakes that are described as a blend of sweet, spicy and savory. 

One piece of good news for less adventurous diners is that all of the dishes at Sorimmara are available in five levels of spice, from mild to super-spicy. There’s also a sauce bar with pre-made options like a delicious creamy sesame sauce and make-your-own options where the restaurant provides you with the recipes! 

There also are Chinese standards like egg fried rice and egg rolls, as well as unique spicy mala and mala mayo fried rice, mala and mala mayo rice balls and flying fish roe rice balls. 

Sorimmara is open Mon. & Wed.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. & 5-10 p.m. It’s open Sat. & Sun., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Closed Tues. For info, call (813) 252-6643 or visit SorimmaraTampaBay.com. — GN

New Restaurants Add More International Flavors To New Tampa

For everyone (including yours truly) who has been waiting for more mom-&-pop-owned restaurants in our area, a few newcomers have debuted over the past 30 days and all are worth checking out.

Hungry Crab Juicy Seafood

Although I’m (sadly) allergic to more than half of the items on its menu, the second location of Hungry Crab Juicy Seafood Restaurant & Bar has opened in the former location of Kobe Japanese Steakhouse (and several other eateries) at 19601 BBD Blvd. at the front of the Pebble Creek Collection.

Thankfully, I was able to try at least one of Hungry Crab’s make-your-own seafood boils — with 1/2-lb. of snow crab legs and 1/2-lb. of small clams (two types of shellfish that I don’t get allergic reactions to) in garlic butter. The seafood boils come with red potatoes and corn on the cob with your choice of flavor (I chose garlic butter only) and they all arrive at your table still tied up in a boil-in bag.

There also are fried starters like calamari and crab cakes and fried baskets, none of which I could try because all of the fried options are made in the same fryers. There’s also Hungry Crab festival options which are huge platters of everything from blue and dungeness crabs to lobster tail, green and black mussels and more.

For more info, call (813) 388-2862 or visit “Hungry-Crab-Juicy-Seafood-Bar-Tampa-FL” on Facebook.

Tessa’s Sweet Kafe

Although we told you it was supposed to be open as our May 31 issue hit mailboxes, it was another week or more before we could sample the delicious, homemade Korean food, desserts and boba teas at Tessa’s Sweet Kafe, now open in the former location of Gu Wei Noodle House (and Sukhothai before that) at 18101 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., Suite 100, across the street from the AMC 20 Movie Theater.

Tessa’s is owned and operated by Jennifer and Rory Kempink and features Jennifer’s takes on authentic Korean fare like kimbaps (Korean-style cooked sushi with beef bulgogi, pork katsu and other fillings), fried rice with your choice of beef, chicken, shrimp, egg or veggie, dumplings, coconut milk (which was awesome, by the way) and black tiger milk boba teas, strawberry and several other flavors of Korean bingsoo desserts and what may now be my favorite bone-in fried chicken in our area (middle photo, also by Charmaine George).

Although you also can get boneless or bone-in fried chicken with your choice of sauces already on the chicken, try the bone-in “Gary’s Way,” with the sauce on the side. The chicken is so crispy and crunchy outside, but moist and tender inside, that I will need a “fix” of it pretty much every week. I do love the sweet & spicy sauce (and the Korean radish salad that comes with it), but can easily eat this huge portion of chicken with no sauce at all. 

For more information, call (813) 898-0277 or order online through UberEats or Postmates.

Oishi Express Sushi & Hibachi Grill

Another newcomer is the very tasty Oishi Express Sushi & Hibachi Grill, which opened last month in the space previous occupied by Luv Fresh (and Petra Mediterranean Express before that) at 17503 Preserve Walk Ln., Suite B, in the New Tampa Commons plaza.

Although they don’t put on the show by making your hibachi steak, chicken (photo), shrimp, salmon or veggies tableside, everything is freshly made to order and delicious, using quality ingredients. 

Jannah and I also have enjoyed Oishi’s California roll, but be sure to try the thick-sliced red snapper sashimi — it’s excellent.  Looking forward to trying more sushi, appetizers (I’ve only sampled the tasty gyoza dumplings so far) and even the chicken katsu. For info, call (813) 866-1300 or order online through UberEats or Postmates.— GN

Korean Church Continues To Grow

Pastor Rev. Dr. Sueng Lin Baik says his stewardship over the thriving Tampa Korean United Methodist Church on County Line Rd. has been a blessing. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

In an age when many churches are seeing declining numbers, the Tampa Korean United Methodist Church (UMC) on County Line Rd. in Wesley Chapel continues to flourish.

Since outgrowing its previous location in Tampa and electing to take over the space previously occupied by the Crossroads Community Church in 2014, the Tampa Korean UMC has grown from 150 members to more than 400.

That growth led to a $1.5-million expansion last year — a debt paid in full by a fund-raising campaign — and more expansion could be on the way.

“We are still growing,” says Pastor Rev. Dr. Sueng Lin Baik, the church’s Pastor since 2010.

The secret to the church’s success, he says, is providing a spiritual home to New Tampa and Wesley Chapel’s Korean community, as well as opening the doors to others with English-language services as well.

“I am blessed to be able to serve a church that continues to grow,” says Pastor Baik.

While there are traditional Korean services every day at 5:30 a.m., a typical Sunday sees the parking lot slowly fill with eager churchgoers.

They will tell you to come, sit down, and enjoy some bibimbap after church services are over at noon. 

Pastor Baik and his staff have successfully gone back to an old time concept — ecclesia — which simply means a gathering of people. Whether or not groups of people gather at the newly expanded activity wing for interesting and meaningful fun things to do, or if they meet in private homes for singing, eating, praying and study, church activities are accomplished on a week-long basis.

This has the effect of doing what churches like to say they are in the business of doing — serving the needs of people in times of crisis or offering due congratulations for achievement. Having an early-warning system built in, with groups such as this, makes the church seem like far more than just a place of worship.

With this powerful degree of unity built in, along come the two major components Korean people have traditionally loved most — food and music.

For centuries, Koreans back in their homeland have fallen back on wonderfully prepared food and the sanctity of song, no matter the hard times. The local Korean community has core values here in Florida.

“Music is my life,” says Susan, a Zion Choir member.

“I don’t have a musical background,” says Hyun-su Kim. “I sing because God gave me a second chance and I can sing in service to God.”

Sonia, a powerhouse of a first soprano, also says she loves to sing: “It’s a Korean thing.”

The Zion Choir can beautifully render tunes as moving as “Give Thanks” to modern compositions of Christian music rife with zesty harmonies and fancy piano keyboarding.

At church, they sing in Korean. If they were performing elsewhere, it would be in English. It matters little which language they employ when it comes to their precious music.

This notion of singing heavenly tunes for Korean-Americans is likely a product of that “Korean thing” of adoration of music and lifting one’s voice to heaven in song. Indeed, Koreans adapted with enthusiasm to the general style of American worship and this has changed the fabric of that formerly heavily Confucian nation.

Now, churches of every denomination are everywhere in South Korea, including Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Pentecostal, and the more traditional Catholic, Baptist and Methodist. Of course, in Florida they are here as well, with a Korean slant but dogmatically identical, no matter the country.

So, a kind of reverse missionary work has happened. It’s common for visiting pastors from many places and countries to come to church and have a chance to preach. Visitors from Korea who come to Tampa will likely reserve a Sunday date for a church service here if they prefer the liberal principles of this Protestant faith.

Hundreds of bowls of delicious Korean fare are prepared every Sunday morning for Tampa Korean United Methodist Church churchgoers to enjoy afterwards. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Thus, there are three prime reasons for the church’s expansion: Unity, fellowship, and service. 

The Tampa Korean UMC Church faithful are perfectly willing to commit time a day ahead and go into the church kitchen to cook and prepare for the next day’s post-service fellowship. 

Jun-sung Kim is the man in charge of what is often a prodigious weekly project of buying and getting the proper ingredients, making sure the team is in place, and firing up the kitchen stoves to cook food in mass quantities. 

“We love the fellowship,” Kim says. “This past Sunday, we served 270 people, but in winter it will probably go up to 300 or more.”

This food is carefully prepared and approximates Korean food served in restaurants. For those in the know, specialties that the congregants regularly feast on after church include japchae (glass noodle stir fry), ssambap (rice lettuce wraps), bulgogi (grilled beef), bibimbap (a bowl that combined rice, seasoned vegetables, meat, egg and a variety of other toppings) and galbitang (beef short rib soup).

The traditional Korean side dishes will be there too, like kimchi, rice and pickled radish. And, listeners may hear a congregant slide from one language to another at any time.

“People here come from all over,” says Pastor Baik. Common places of origin for congregants are from anywhere in South Korea, as well as California, Illinois and New York state. Many personal backgrounds were in Buddhism. Some of the older congregants were born in North Korea before there was a North Korea.

This past summer, the church hosted a large contingent of Christians who made it out of the repressive North Korean state. These people have had a much harder time learning English, due to the educational restrictions and liabilities of the North. But, they love the notion of religious freedom and were amazed at the size of the fellowship hall at TKUMC and the graciousness of the congregants.

“It’s my job to get a kind of synergy here,” Pastor Baik says. By that, he is referring to the tricky and seemingly neverending task of melding older and newer approaches to the Bible’s meaning, along with the use of music and singing, which is so generationally oriented.

Pastor Erik Sue is a player in getting this synergy going with an English-only service. He tends to serve the younger crowd and caters to their urge to do upbeat Christian music in English that employs a “band-style” approach. 

So, what can you expect if you show up for a service at Tampa Korean United Methodist Church?

You will have contact with folks who go back and forth between two complex languages without missing a beat. You may have your name mentioned and a song sung your way by the congregation, led by Pastor Baik. And, best of all, you are immediately ushered post-service into the gigantic fellowship hall with a plateful of superb Korean vittles, where you can chat and chew to your heart’s delight.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.