A conversation with Jina Park – Hangang Korean Restaurant
In Strathfield, you’ll find a plethora of Korean restaurants that will serve you a variety of your essential Korean staples. Towards the Easterly direction of Strathfield Square, a family-run restaurant has been serving some of the most traditional Korean delicacies over the last 7 years. Popular amongst the elderly Koreans and those who have been watching traditional Korean meals on YouTube, Hangang has become a household name for many in the food community being synonymous with traditional Korean dishes such as the soy raw marinated crab and fish stew. All the dishes are prepared by Regina Park, affectionately known as ‘Mama Park’ and supported by her husband, Song-Hee Park, and her daughter, Jina.
With Hangang set to close its doors (at this location) at the end of the week on the 7th of November, I’ve been to the restaurant twice recently to eat and only regret that I didn’t discover this restaurant sooner. Great stories deserve to be told and for the Park’s (with the help of Jina’s interview), that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
D: “How long have you guys been around for?”
Jina: “We’ve been around for 7 years now. Before that, Mum, she had a clothing store and a side dish store. She used to do catering for the local Church group that she used to go. So she’s always been around food!”
D: “Where did she learn how to cook?”
Jina: “What she told me was that she got married and then she came to Australia when my Dad’s family migrated here together. Mum was the youngest of 6 children and never cooked much because she was the baby of the family. So cooking came out of that typical traditional cultural and familial duty to cook for the family. So she had to learn and would call my Grandma to ask for tips on how to cook certain dishes. She would always remember how my grandma’s dishes taste and she said she realised she had a passion for food. I mean it resonates with me too because when I cook I always base it off how my parent’s dishes taste.”
D: “Yes, I feel that’s the case with most cooks and I certainly experience it when I cook, our cooking is often based on our parent’s palate.”
Jina: “Yes! Our parent’s palate. My mum is quite traditional so nothing is too overly sweet or salty. We don’t use beef or fish stock to enrich or ‘amp up’ our stews because we try to get the real authenticity of our ingredients. I think that’s why we’re quite popular with the older Korean crowd as well because we know they’ll complain if something is overly salty. So yeah, there’s no recipe books and that’s hard because I’ll try to ask how to make certain things because we base our cooking on how many ‘cups’ we need of certain items. But my Mum will be like just ‘ I don’t know, I just know how much marinade I need for this much amount of meat’ and I’ll be like… ‘that does not help…’”.
We both share a laugh because I can relate to that with my own mother. Everything is quite intuitive for our parents and often seasoning will just be based on a ‘taste and see’ basis. Nothing is ever recorded.
D: “What inspired you guys to open up Hangang?”
Jina: “My mum always had an interest in cooking and the opportunity arose to take over this restaurant – this was an existing restaurant before (where Hangang is located at the moment). My mum was in her early 60s then and she figured if she ever wanted to run a full restaurant and showcase what she can do, this was the time to do it. She always used to say Strathfield had changed a lot and she wanted somewhere that will do homestyle authentic Korean. I mean we do barbecue here as well, but the main focus of our restaurant is the authentic Korean food that you might see at other places. Our foundation is banchan as well, we do all the traditional banchan.
Jina gets up to serve more people who’ve come in for lunch. A flurry of middle-aged Koreans come in for lunch and it appears to be a more popular time for them! Jina says her mum makes more of the traditional banchan for lunch in order to cater for this demographic.
D: “What’s your favourite dishes on the menu? And, for your parents?”
Jina: “My favourite thing is the fish dishes! Things like the fried flounder because I grew up on this type of food. My dad grew up eating fish so I grew up eating a lot of fish. I really like the fish stew and the spicy marinated crab. Her braised beef ribs are really nice as well as the spicy beef and leek soup. It’s all the food I grew up eating. My mum and dad love the spicy fish stew. I mean that’s why we ate it so much because they love the traditional stuff. We even like this really stinky soybean soup – it smells… but I grew up eating it so I love it!”
D: “When coronavirus first came around, how were you and your parents feeling at the time?”
Jina: “Oh, we were stressed! My parents didn’t really understand the situation and didn’t know how to adapt. It was hard to contact the landlord because it was new for them as well. For my parents, they’re so used to working so it was hard to just suddenly stop. We would adapt to doing takeaway and going on Uber. Those were hard and long days trying to adapt to that situation. I was trying to be prominent on social media. When we were doing takeaway that’s when we got super popular with the raw marinated crabs.”
“We were really thankful for our regulars. We had people coming from Bankstown, Penrith and Blacktown to put orders in. They were here to support my Mum and Dad who were still working 7 days a week. Mum was just cooking by herself and my dad and I would be doing the packaging. Everyday was an ‘unknown’ so we just had to get through it.”
D: “When they finally allowed limited dine in again, did things get better?”
Jina: “It did but things were still a bit unknown at this stage. It was hard because we had to let all the staff go and by this stage, most of them had gone back to Korea or found part-time jobs elsewhere. We kind of had to start again. They only allowed 10 people to dine in so it was still me and my parents working the restaurant. We had a dip again when the covid-19 cases rose again in Melbourne. So, that was scary for us again because we didn’t know what was going to happen. I remember asking all the customers to be patient with us. It was hard but we’re still here.”
D: “What’s your most fondest memories here?”
Jina: “Our fondest memories are with our customers. People like Cory (a Hangang regular who is seated beside us) here and people like you! I really meant it when we didn’t want to stop. People have been supporting us and coming to see my parents and giving them hugs. That’s what I’ve loved. Ever since the news of us moving, people have been coming here to support and giving us gifts and really encouraging us to keep going. This isn’t a place where you ‘come in, eat and pay for your food’, it genuinely feels more than that. And those will be my favourite moments.”
D: “For me and my audience, what’s next for you guys?”
Jina: “What’s next for us? We want to continue! Lots of people have been telling us that they still want to eat my mum’s food and that they come to us specifically. Hopefully in Strathfield as well or nearby. We’ll be selling traditional Korean food by Mama Park. We’ll still be ‘Hangang’ but just selling the traditional food and side dishes. Hence why I’ve been asking everyone to keep following us so they know what we’ll be up to next. We’ll probably ask our followers what their favourite dishes are and what brings them back to us. So, that will be our next project will be.”
To keep up to date with Hangang, follow their Instagram here.
D: “So, you’re continuing on!”
Jina: “Yes we have to! What else are we going to do?! We’re going to keep going”
Yes, you read that right! The Park family intends to keep Hangang going albeit in a different location and with more of an emphasis on their traditional Korean dishes and side dishes. Whilst it’s unfortunate that this location will be serving its last customers this Saturday, I still feel a resounding sense of hope for their next venture. Clearly, many want Hangang to fight on (myself among the masses) and hopefully, Mama Park will continue to cook us some of her Korean favourites one way or another.
If you haven’t visited Hangang before, make the time this week to visit them for the last time at their current site. The Park family are nothing but friendly, humble, and eager to give their best to you. One of the most endearing families I’ve come across in Sydney’s hospitality scene, I’m certain you’ll leave Hangang with the same opinion.