Opened last September, DOEUN, located in the upscale Menteng neighborhood of Jakarta, offers its guests a taste of Korea through an assorted menu, including its signature barbecue and jeon (Korean savory pancake), stew and traditional dishes such as japchae (stir-fried glass noodles) and bibimbap.

“Of our menu, less than 10 percent of the dishes directly contain sugar and salt. The first thing I realized when I came to this country was that the food tastes overly strong, salty and sweet, using too 스포츠 much artificial flavor enhancers. Even the Korean restaurants here were like that, which gave way less sophisticated images like street foods,” Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times at the restaurant on Aug. 19.

“Not that it’s bad, but as someone proud of Korean cuisine, (I regretted) that the locals who haven’t visited Korea really can’t know the more sophisticated side of our food. I wanted to change the simplistic view Indonesians here have of Korean food.”

Kim, who has been living in Indonesia for 13 years, shared that she got into cooking by chance when she was spending time with her family in Shanghai after giving up her pilates career due to a serious injury.