How This Emirati Brought the Love for Korean Food to Ajman

The love for Korean food has become a cultural phenomenon in the past few years because of the popularity of K-dramas and K-pop.

The popularity of K-food is what led Tahani to open her fine-dining Korean restaurant, Rice Station, in Al Humaidiya, Ajman.

Image source: @rice_station.ae.

She had been working in the public sector for 14 years before she decided to open a restaurant. When she first tried to start her business, she struggled to manage it alongside her job, therefore she dropped the idea. However, she eventually resigned from her job and focused full-time on her business. Tahani started Rice Station in 2020, but the smooth operation of her business was impeded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the delay caused by COVID-19, Tahani eventually opened the restaurant in 2022, serving Korean and Japanese cuisine. Although, Tahani started the business on her own, she was eventually joined by her sisters.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Rice station (@rice_station.ae)

“My sisters visited Korea and when they returned, they came up with the idea of bringing Korean food to our society.”

When asked about the inspiration behind starting a Korean restaurant, Tahani said, “My family likes to watch Korean and Japanese series…so they like to have the same food [as their favorite Korean or Japanese characters].”

The restaurateur’s hometown, Ajman, did not have any authentic Korean and Japanese eateries, which motivated her to pursue this business idea and bring it to fruition, serving her community an authentic selection of East Asian dishes from their favorite shows.

Although the UAE is home to various Korean and Japanese eateries, the curation of the menu was a tough process. Initially, the menu featured a wide range of Asian dishes including Indian dishes, but the sisters eventually narrowed it down to Korean and Japanese delicacies.

“I have a kitchen team and a helper…I have taught the recipes to the chefs and helper so they are trained to make the dishes like I do.”

Foodies can find viral street foods and dishes from Korea available at Rice Station such as tteokbokki (rice cakes) and ramen (noodles), featuring a personal twist from Tahani. The restaurateur found some Korean and Japanese dishes to be too sweet, so she developed recipes that fused the Arabic piquant flavors with the sweetness of East Asian flavors.  The fusion of flavors is what inspired Tahani to develop Rice Station’s Western-East Asian fusion burgers.

 

 

 

 

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The delicious American burger comes with a Korean or Japanese twist such as bulgogi sliders and chicken katsu sliders. “We decided to give the Korean twist to the burgers, so whatever Korean or Japanese burgers or sliders we found during our research, we made it in our restaurant…but if there were any changes or any addition needed in those recipes, I made those changes.”

Other than everyone's beloved burger, Rice Station has introduced the Warak Enab Noodles which is a mix of both Middle Eastern and East Asian cuisine. The dish features ramen noodles topped with Arabs’ favorite stuffed grape leaves. The dish became viral on TikTok in June this year and has been trending since then. The huge fan-following for the dish led Tahani to introduce it on her restaurant’s menu as well, which has made it a popular dish among restaurant-goers, “we receive so many orders for this dish,” the restaurateur shared.

 

 

 

 

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With her restaurant becoming a go-to spot for locals and expats alike, Tahani hopes to expand the business and open more branches in other cities of the country to cater to the ever-increasing popularity of East Asian cuisine.

“Even my kids love Korean food,” the Emirati restaurateur shared laughingly, emphasizing that the popularity of Korean food will only keep increasing in the future. 

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