Kimchi - Dahra, Bond St, Wellington

Dahra, a self described Korean Bistro that opened maybe a year or so ago down on Bond St, which for an ugly little side street is doing alright for itself on the food front.*  Fork & Brewer just a couple of doors down is a great place to grab one of a wide variety of local & imported pints.  Then there's also Fisherman's Plate which multiple sources have as the best Vietnamese food in Wellington - I'm hoping to get there soon suitably hungovered so I can try their Pho.

Located under Lovelocks - which I think is still a pub, and also believe that's where the Hell Pizza franchise moved - Dahra serves up a combination of Japanese & Korean food.  I'm a big fan of Seoul House on Dixon St, but Dahra is a different style of restaurant to most of the other Korean places in town and appear to be trying to produce a somewhat more sophisticated style of food.

Anywho, for some reason you order your Kimchi separately here, instead of having it arrive as a standard component of the meal.  It was a little pricey at $7 for the plate, on which you get four different kinds to sample.  They were all pretty, though I think I preferred the more traditional variety on the left.  But what interested me was that you could make such wildly different kinds.  I guess that makes sense, its pretty much just pickled and slightly fermented vegetables with a chilli sauce.  

This has given me some ideas for the next time I make Kimchi of my own; though I guess I should find a way to get through the jar still leftover from the last time first!

* Also on Bond St there's a cafe down the Victoria St end, a cake shop, a Wholly Bagels, across on the Eastern side of Victoria St a People's Coffee outpost called Lamason, or for less interesting coffee a Mojo.