[Seoul] Myeongdong Korean Beef Village BBQ 明洞京城炭火烧烤

If you're at Myeongdong, these would be familiar sights. Throngs and throngs of people. Smell of BBQ and bright lights from the shopping malls. First up, getting an egg bread for snacks. It has been years since I last ate one. Would it still be as good?

gyeran bbang seller

계란빵 gyeran bbang (egg bread)

The seafood grill looks good but we didn't get any. Our target for the night was Korean BBQ, so was saving stomach space for that.

yakitori looks so tempting

cat walk

We didn't have a clue of which Korean BBQ to go, so was just randomly walking and seeing which one to go into. Previous visit, I'd done Wangbijib and that was good!

which one?

Then, we were approached by a man and he managed to persuade us to go into his restaurant. Hmmm, I think we were too easily persuaded. Hahaha.

the restaurant is down there

The restaurant was spacious and not many diners in there. Ordered a few cuts of meats and the course set came with bibimbap and mini jeon (pancakes).

our table

someone famous ate here before?

As with any Korean BBQ, we ordered makgeolli (rice wine). Loved that it is served in a pot. Charcoal fire for the BBQ, that's a good start!

makgeolli 막걸리

BBQ commences

first slice

We love meats, so there were orders of pork collar, beef slices and beef tongue. The side dishes of the black beans was quite good. Kimchi, as usual, one of the must haves when eating in Seoul. BBQ meat and makgeolli were good combination. Enjoyed the dinner. Washroom is outside of the restaurant and need to walk up the stairs.

meat

marinated

cooking well

can't wait to eat these!

Besides the meats, the set included some other cooked foods. It was rather nice to have mixed rice after the BBQ. So comforting. Liked the beef soup too.

small bibimbap

mini jeon 파전 (service)

beef soup

It was quite difficult to get the staff attention at this restaurant though. Food is decent. The experience felt similar to eating out in Boat Quay/Clarke Quay area.

明洞京城炭火烧烤

Address: 194-94 Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Business Hours: Daily

Ginett @ Hotel G Middle Road

This was our second visit to this restaurant. Read about our first visit here. Met for dinner and drinks and first noticeable thing, is that the service staff at pretty much occupied most of the time. It took quite a while for the staff to notice those who had queued at the entrance.

We made a reservation via Chope, so no issue in getting our table. The tables are set very near one another hence, intimate conversations are almost impossible.

Nevertheless, this place offers good selection of reasonably priced wine bottles, and tasty food.

tinkle tinkle wine glasses

To start, we had Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc (2014). Grape of the Chenin Blanc variant. Good to note that the 2014 vintage was awarded 1 Star from the Guide Hachette des Vins. The Guide Hachette des Vins is France's oldest and best selling wine guide.

Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc (2014)

The wine itself is light golden in colour, citrussy with a tad of mineral taste. To accompany this, we had the cheeseboard. Am actually expecting like, just cheeses on the cheeseboard but to my pleasant surprise, it did arrive with slices of ham, chorizo, dried fruits and pickles. Yes, I know I am suaku! Hahaha.

cheeseboard @$28++

For the cheeses, we requested for one each of the hard, medium and soft. It was like a surprise board and the staff would choose for us so that it could safely pair with the wine.

Hence, the board has Livarot, Camembert and Brillat Savarin. Super loved the Brillat, so soft and creamy. Drizzle with a bit of honey and lay it ontop of that bread. Brilliant!

closer look at the parma and gherkins

Enjoyed the selection, the easy to drink wine and the light conversations. This was just at mid-week, so it was time for a breather. With a glass wine in hand, taking small sips and light bites with charcuterie, cheeses and bread, and just catching up on the latest on-goings with each other. Lovely.

just chillin'

But of course, we were actually pretty hungry. Ordered a couple of mains to share. Black truffle is in season, so ordered a dish with that to try. Our order were mostly meat-centric. Well, there aren't many vegetables for us in the menu. Oh, actually, there was Jerusalem Artichoke Veloute. Does it count as vegetable when it is in its soup form?

let's eat some truffle

For starters, we had escargot. The snails seemed to have shrunk. First time trying it here. It had been like a few years since I last ate an escargot but they do not seem to be this tiny now. Maybe a different breed?

escargot

For main course, there was beef cheek. Lovely piece of fork-tender meat. The sauce that had seeped right into its core. Came with a bowl of lovely creamy mash.

beef cheek in red wine reduction

mashed potato

For the beef cheek, we had red wine.From Saumur as well and priced at $45++ per bottle. It was much lighter than expected though. Lovely ruby coloured, light and fresh tasting, with flavours of berries.

Domaine des Hautes Troglodytes, Saumur Champigny (2016)

For food, the best dish that night was the Roasted Bresse Chicken (from the Truffle Showcase menu). The chicken was tender, easy to cut and lovely panfried skin. Yums.

Roasted Bresse Chicken @$42++

Thank you Elle, Ivan and Hoong An for the wine times. Let's suss out the next wine spot! See you soon.

Ginett

Address: 200 Middle Road, 188980
Website: https://www.hotelgsingapore.com/dining/ginett
Contact: +65 6809 7989

[Seoul] Ewha Shopping Street and Dakgalbi

We were at the shopping street close to Ewha Women University and was looking for a lunch place. Unfortunately, many were closed due to the Chuseok's holidays. Had to make do with some chicken skewer and Isaac Toast meanwhile.

street side vendor

putting on some sauce

super long tender chicken skewer @ ₩2000

The shop at Isaac Toast had a queue and most tables were taken. So we had to eat it outside of the shop. It was nice but those were not proper lunch. We wanted to go somewhere, sit down and have proper food.

Isaac Toast sandwich

Saw this dakgalbi shop somewhere along the many many rows of clothing/shoes/accessories shops. Unfortunately, we were there rather late for lunch and too early for dinner. At that awkward time of 3pm or so. The shop lights were off and a lady was actually sweeping the floor outside. We enquired and she said they were closed.

We were like disappointed and were discussing on where to go next when she took pity on us and asked us to follow her. So we did. Turned out that the lady was opening her shop for the 5 of us. So nice! Did not manage to take the name of the shop but it has a large standee poster of rooster and the restaurant is at basement level.

restaurant interior

We ordered dakgalbi and ginseng chicken soup to share.

banchans

must take picture first

cooking in progress

gracious boss who opened up her shop earlier for us hungry travellers

spicy chicken, tteokbokki, cabbages

in goes the rice

mix it all up

flatten the rice 

eat!

We thank the sweet lady boss (who looked a bit fierce tho) who was so gracious to let us into the shop although it was not time to open yet. She also did the cooking for the dakgalbi where the process took about 10 minutes.

ginseng chicken soup

Both the dakgalbi and the ginseng chicken soup were comforting to soothe our tummies. We left feeling full. The dakgalbi had a more homely flavours as compared to Yoogane. Felt much better after food, so we went walking and photo taking around EWHA University grounds.

EWHA Women University

so cottage like

nice architecture

look at the slope

Makan-Makan @ Pasir Panjang Food Centre - In search of BBQ Chicken Wings and Ended Up with More!

Was in the mood for some BBQ chicken wings, and we were nearby Pasir Panjang Food Centre so off we went in search for some smokey tasty meat.

There are more than one stalls that offers BBQ chicken wings and with similar pricing, so we decided we'd try 216 Choa Chu Kang BBQ Chicken Wing since the person who stays in CCK, have not tried any CCK BBQ wings. That would be me, by the way. Hahaha!

chicken wings @$9.80 (7 pieces)

The wings did not look like much but it had good flavours. Smokey, well marinated and goes well with that plate of watery tangy chili sauce. Was kind of worried the light plate might flip anytime if a strong enough gust of wind would come our way!

Next up, satay. I mean, who can resist this bite-sized flavourful meat skewers. Maybe vegetarian, but I digressed. Again, there are plenty of satay stalls in this food centre but we zoomed right in to the popular one, which is Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay.

Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay - chicken, beef and mutton (min. order of 10 sticks)

First noticeable thing about Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay was how deeply coloured the satay is. I would imagine that was because all the seasoning and marinade had seeped deep into the meat. The sauce was also thick and looked so inviting. The satay may look tough but it wasn't. Instead the tongue was greeted with a sweetish-savoury marinade with meat that was nicely firm and chewy.

Edges of the meat was also nicely charred but of course, nowadays we shouldn't eat too much of those charred parts. But that's where the essence of the smokey flavours congregates!

Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay

We had placed an order for BBQ stingray from Xin Fu Ji (新福记) but that'll take about 45 minutes to cook. Saw there's one stall (Li Yuan) next to the BBQ seafood stall that sells oyster omelette so we ordered one to munch on while waiting for the stingray.

Li Yuan fried oyster  蠔煎 @$8 (medium)

This stall will hand you a buzzer so that you can be notified when the food is ready. The other stalls seemed to be able to deliver to your table though. The oyster were large but I didn't like the flour in this version. The inclusion of lots of herbs and spring onions were good. Otherwise, its flavours were rather muted.

huge oyster

Actually, there is also a satay stall at where we were sitting and it sells pork satay. Hence, we ordered some to try. By 'some', it meant another 10 sticks! Wow, at this moment, I then realised that we had overdone ourselves and ordered too much.

Hmm, this stall #3 doesn't seem to have a name though I can see words like "Famous Satay" on its lighted boards. It sells BBQ chicken wings, and satay (chicken, pork, mutton). However, the pork satay was too lean for me. It will be good if it could have just 5% more of fats.

Famous Satay - pork satay @70 cents per stick (min. 10 sticks)

Finally, the BBQ stingray reaches our table. The lady was quite apologetic about it. The first-time experience in ordering was also quite awkward. The Xin Fu Ji stall only had this lady to take orders and there is a man inside the very very tiny kitchen to cook all the orders. The lady would be busy bustling around taking the seafood from the ice-box and prepping them on a plate for the man inside. While she was doing all these, the customer would just have to stand around and wait till she is ready to glance at you.

新福记 BBQ stingray @$15 (medium)

The order arrived with side plates and a complimentary tissue pack. I found that a rather nice gesture for a hawker centre setup. Was the wait worth it? At $15 per medium sized stingray, there was an abundance of meat. Flesh was tender though it was lacking in the char department. The sauce was also rather subtle. Leaning more like an assam sauce where it is more tangy than spicy. In fact, the spice level was rather mild. Loved the chenchaluk onion sauce that came with this. This stall was mentioned in Michelin Guide 2017.

All in all, it was a hawker food feast on a weekday evening. We ordered too much and ate a tad more than we should. However, we enjoyed it!

216 Choa Chu Kang BBQ Chicken Wing

Address: 119 Pasir Panjang Rd, Singapore 117424 Pasir Panjang Rd, Singapore 117424
Business Hours:
Daily 5pm to 10.30pm

Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay

Address: Pasir Panjang Food Centre 10, 121 Pasir Panjang Rd, S118543
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yusoff-Haji-Jalal-Satay-Pasir-Panjang-Food-Centre/146365652103947
Business Hours:
Wednesday to Sunday 5pm to 11pm

Li Yuan 丽园

Address: 13 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road, S118543
Business Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm daily. Closed on Tuesday.

Xin Fu Ji Seafood 新福记

Address: 15 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road, S118543

Business Hours:

Daily: 5.30pm to 11.30pm. Closed on Mondays

[ Busan] Hou Yangkkochi 호우양꼬치

We had pork and beef BBQ prior and there's still room for more. So what did we do? Went right into this shop that had lamb skewers! Right, we expect nothing less from foodies...but stressed leh...we ate and ate and ate somemore!

menu

We took the course set on the left; lamb cutlet, lamb chops, lamb skewers and tangsuyuk. No rice, of course. After that, we were surprised when the boss brought out a bottle of Harbin beer. "Service." He said. Which means, he gave us a bottle of free beer. How cool was that! Busan people are really friendly.

beer - complimentary

This BBQ place was more of Chinese-styled. Even the seasoning spices for the BBQ is reminiscent of Xinjiang meat skewers. Liked that the place is spacious, modern and using charcoal grill. Yay!

lamb chop on the grill

left to right: spices: flavoured salt (curry), cumin, chili flakes, pickles, salted peanuts and spring onions

The guy who attended to us, I think he is the boss since he was the one that brought the beer FOC. Pssst...He's also quite good looking. He helped to cook the meat, cut up the meat into chunky bite sized and also distributed the meat evenly towards the two sides of the grill where we are seated.

meat is cut-up to bite size pieces

양고기 meat from the lamb chop separated and ready to eat

The pineapple and rice cake (떡) are then left on the grill to char a bit. The meat was surprisingly gentle to the jaw. Not too gamey. Tasted pretty good with the cumin and flavoured salt. Not forgetting the ice cold beer. Ahhh...that hits the spot.

spiced it up!

And, then the tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) came. It looked rather impressive with its golden brown colour and large pieces. Unfortunately, that 'large piece' were mainly sweet potato flour. The meat was really really thin and tiny. We didn't finish this plate. The sauce was nicely sweet and sour though. What a pity.

sweet and sour pork 탕수육

look at the size and that's not a teaspoon btw

Lastly, the lamb skewers. Amidst the skewers, there was one with gingko nuts. Nice.

lamb skewers 어린 양 꼬챙이

self-rotating skewers

Here's a super short video of the action:

The food and place was nice and with friendly staff. It was just a random place that we dropped by. 맥주 감사합니다!

Hou Yangkkochi 호우양꼬치

Address: 168-150 Bujeon-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan, South Korea
Contact: +82 51-804-1199