[Jeju] Samseonghyeol Haemultang 삼성혈해물탕 본점 @20 Seondeok-ro 5-gil Seogwipo

Travelled to Jeju for the very first time with my foodie/travel buddies and was excited for the first meal in Jeju. Read about our non-food related activities via this post of where we went for our rental car as this was a continuation from there.

It was late lunch after we had gotten our rental car and fueled it up. It was time to fuel our famished tummies. Tracy had chosen our lunch spot before hand and it was on purpose to be near the rental car place. Let's go get some seafood stew!

Samseonghyeol Haemultang

live octopus

Was half expecting to be turned away as it was way past the last order time and the shop was ready to take their mid-day break. Fortunately, the boss indicated that we could dine in if we are able to finish our meal within 45 minutes. Ok, challenge on!

interior

Ordered a seafood stew good for 3 pax and a portion of abalone porridge. This was us being cautious as we were unsure of the portion size in Jeju. Plus we wanted to maintain some space for dinner, which will happen in a few hours time, haha~

Was ordering easy? Yes especially after the staff asked us if we could converse in Mandarin instead. Haha!

Banchan was served right after our order. Speedy service as we were the only ones in the restaurant.

six types of side dishes

We were given two sets of banchans and each set consists of 6 varieties. And yes, you could ask the staff to refill those that you preferred. The outstanding side dishes were the anchovies (tasted super nice/fresh) and the potato pancake. Kimchi was mellow yet not overly fermented. Whets our already active appetite!

tasty anchovies

favourite - mini potato pancake

feels healthy

And when the main dish was presented, it elicited plenty of 'oohs and aahs' from the entire table. A large stew pot, filled to the brim with seafood that's practically still moving.

Seafood stew (haemultang해물탕)

The pot consist of abalones, different types of clams, crab, mussels, beansprouts (lots of it!) and onions. The stew was probably at spice level 0.5 out of 10.

The nice staff, Ms Nie, enquired if we would like to have the stew brought back to the kitchen to speed up the cooking process since we were already famished and so we agreed. She took the pot back to the kitchen and reappeared with the pot bubbling.

huge clam

She also advised us to eat up the octopus first before it gets all chewy. We obliged and yes, the texture was perfectly tender with a good gentle bite.

boiling away

Oh, there was abalone porridge too. Although am not a fan of abalone porridge in general, this bowl was impressive due to its sheer size. So much porridge for the 4 of us!

abalone porridge 전복죽

On hindsight, this place does have a more flavourful abalone porridge as compared to other places later on.

Haflway through, Ms Nie brought out a plate of a small grilled fish. Complimentary, she said. Wow, thank you to the boss for giving us this. She said it is '港口鱼' when asked about its type, to which literally means sea port fish? Ok!

grilled fish

Whatever this fish is, I liked it. The flesh was soft, and subtly sweet. I suppose with Jeju being so close to the sea, freshness is a daily occurrence.

Then, Tracy did her customary thing which is to add ramyun as the finale of the meal.

instant noodles

One of the tips given by the staff when eating this seafood stew, is to remove the shells after all the seafood had been cooked, to avoid it continuing to flavour the soup as prolonged boiling with shells in will eventually make the soup saltier (and that with the evaporation of the water).

finished in 40 minutes

All in all, we were satisfied with our meal and the service experienced by the friendly staff. Spent ₩101,000 for our late lunch (including non-alcoholic drinks). This was about SGD35 per pax.

one hallabong drink a day in Jeju

Samseonghyeol Haemultang 삼성혈해물탕 본점

Address: 20 Seondeok-ro 5-gil, 특별자치도, Cheju, Jeju-do, South Korea

Contact: +82 64-745-3000

Business Hours: 

Daily: 10 am–9 pm

Mid-day break: 3pm

[Tasting] George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer 乔治 海鲜 New Menu @ 81 Boat Quay

Was invited to try their new signature dishes, so let's get right to it. Looking at the variety of dishes in its new menu, diners now have the option of not only being able to enjoy traditional Penang dishes that its known for, but also more fancy dishes of lobster, A5 wagyu, caviar and abalone to name a few! Chef Michael Khor Choon Keat, culinary maestro with over 25 years of experience, is now helming the kitchen team at George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer.

Let's have a look!

Black Truffle Sauce Lobster

Black Truffle Sauce Lobster @$68++

plump with hints of truffle

A thing to note of this dish was that the aroma of truffle was really subtle to the nose. Only when it lands in the mouth that one truly taste the truffle.

Foie Gras with Caviar

Foie Gras with Caviar @$38++

Always wanted to impress your dining companion with foie gras and a glass of wine at a tze char place? Now you can!

The salad looking dish consist of duck meat cubed and slightly spicy. Interesting.

Lemon Butter Prawns in Yam Ring

Lemon Butter Prawns in Yam Ring @$38++

yam

The prawns at George Town has always maintained its standard this was no exception. The sauce was nicely thick though lemon taste was somewhat barely there.

Black Pepper A5 Wagyu

Black Pepper A5 Wagyu 120g @$48++

The sauce of the wagyu dish is strongly flavoured so, get ready with your drinks for this one.

Supreme Lobster Paofan

Supreme Lobster Paofan @$68++

clams, fish, baby scallops

lobster

And I think I have said this before, after all the drinks, it is really nice to have a bowl of comforting soup. The paofan here is our favourite dish that night. No, not because we had a lot of drinks (I had 1 glass of beer) but because the broth was flavourful and hovering between light and medium bodied. Seafood in there like the baby scallops, lobster and clams has a subtle sweetness and the crispy rice puffs made it all fun eats.

Abalone, Sea Cucumber and Mushroom

Abalone, Sea Cucumber and Mushroom 至尊三宝  @$38++

This dish of deliciously braised abalone, sea cucumber and mushroom combination is one that I may find in a wedding banquet but you can also enjoy it at George Town!

While not new on the menu, do watch out for their $1 chili crab promotion too and do enquire about the terms and conditions when ordering.

Chili Crab

chili crab

Lobster Mixed Platter and 3-Litres Amber Lager Tower

Priced at $88++, it's a delightful combination that's likely will appeal to the social drinkers in this area, looking for a great night out with their buddies. This combo works great for a group of 4 pax.

Lobster Mixed Platter, serves 4 pax limited to one per table

cheers!

lobster meat

prawn rolls

tako balls

Gobo sticks

deep fried octopus

mentaiko

The Lobster mixed platter consists of snacks that goes well with the beer. You may want to enquire on what are the small plates for that day before ordering.

Thank you Jennifer (Jennifer Yeo Consultancy ) for the invitation and George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer for hosting the tasting. Special thanks to their friendly staff who attended to our table that night.

George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer 乔治 海鲜

Address: 81 Boat Quay, Singapore 049869

Website: https://george-town-tze-char-and-craft-beer-boat-quay.business.site

Contact: 6535 6277 

For bookings: Whatsapp 96823826

Business Hours:

Daily 12pm to 3am

[Tasting] BULGOGI SYO @ Bugis Junction

It has been a long long while since I last dined at Bugis Junction. And when Hence kindly extended an invite to try Bulgogi Syo, it was a chance to get reacquainted with the mall once more. 

Bulgogi Syo is  the brainchild of Chef Chul Park, the founder of SEORAE. 

From the name of the restaurant, one could expect fire, meat and with these two combined, an interesting table-side dining experience as part of the show (syo). It boasts of an unprecedented 3-Step Hotstone grilling process; Sear, Torch and Flambé.

The restaurant is located at Level 2, along with a cluster of other restaurants. It is the first one you'll encounter after crossing the short bridge to the restaurants cluster.

Visited on a Saturday and the place was super busy from the weekend lunch crowd. We opted for a late lunch at 2pm. 

glimpse of weekday lunch specials

Have observed that when there's a queue formed outside of the restaurant, the staff will be proactively interacting with diners, giving out the order chit in advance in order to shorten the process of ordering later on.

As I was waiting for my dining companions, spotted Gong Yoo's advertisement for Terra. Weather is perfect for a glass of cold beer. Drink responsibly as always.

Soon, we were all seated in the restaurant and is ready to order. Simply indicate your order in the order chit and pass it back to the staff.

order up!

We got ourselves these mains; Spicy Baby Octopus (@$25.90), Oyster Blade Bulgogi (@$27.90) and LA Galbi (@$39.90). For sides, we had the Cheesy Tteokbooki with Kimari (@$17.90)  , Bacon Kongnamul Pancake (@$15.90), Cheesy Gyeran Jjim (@$10.90) and Seafood Sundubu Jjigae (@$18.90).

While waiting for the mains, diners could self-service at the Banchan Bar where on the day of visit, there were 4 options available; kimchi, tomatoes, macaroni and yellow pickled radish. The macaroni and pickled radish were evidently sweet, so suggest to go easy on those.

macaroni (front), pickled radish (back)

tomatoes (front), kimchi (back)

We could see some cooking action at the open kitchen where some of the dishes were cooked on the hot grill and torched prior to it being served at the table-side.

When the LA Galbi was served, we were warned to keep all the paper napkins, handphones away from the table before the 'show' begins.

The fire will surely elicit some 'oohs and aahs' from the table. 

flambe action

Oh, when ordering rice, staff recommended the seaweed rice which I found to be flavourful and lovely to eat with the mains.

yummy seaweed rice

galbi on rice

 

The galbi was tender as expected. The food at Bulgogi Syo is generally strong flavoured with majority of the food leaning towards the sweeter side.

The other dish that was torched at the table-side was the Cheesy Tteokbooki with Kimari.

torching the cheese

The cut-up fried seaweed roll (kimari) that came with the tteokpokki made it an interesting texture and flavour with the familiar taste of the tteokpokki. The rice cake was not chewy and easy to eat. The sauce was not spicy.

kimari that looked like meatballs

Currently, there's a 1-for-1 Terra beer promo for its 330ml bottle. Cheers to that!

Terra 330ml @$6.90 (Usual Price)

The cheesy steamed egg made a good interlude amidst all the heavier tasting foods. Top layer was laden with cheese and one might even get to see a cheese pull out of it!

Cheesy Gyeran Jjim

One thing to note about the kimchi on the hotplate, was that it tasted more sour than the ones from the Banchan Bar. The bulgogi that we had that day, tasted too beefy/gamey to my liking.

Oyster Blade Bulgogi

I was amused by the smoking hot appearance of the nakji bokkeum (Spicy Baby Octopus). Smoke everywhere and fogging up our cameras and spectacles. Hahaa!

Spicy Baby Octopus

The onions and sauce from this hotplate made a nice gravy for the seaweed rice. Added oomph! The baby octopus was of a tender chewy kind, so I enjoyed it.

First time trying beansprouts pancake with bacon. The pancake here had a crisp exterior with soft doughy interior. Bacon provided the salty relish that most people liked hence, no sauce was really needed although it was provided. The amount of beansprouts in the pancake was minimal to just give it that slightly 'raw' sprouts taste profile. It kinda jolted me to remind again, that hey, I was eating beansprouts pancake and not just bacon pancake!

Bacon Kongnamul Pancake

Seafood Sundubu Jjigae

peeking at the seafood

One of the dishes that I enjoyed at Bulgogi Syo would be the seafood tofu stew (Seafood Sundubu Jigae). Don't be frightened by the redness of the stew as it turned out to be way less spicy than it looked. In comparison with the rest of the food that we ordered, the stew would be the most 'spicy'. In terms of a spicy scale of 10, I would say this was a level 1 for me.

All in all, the staff at Bugis Junction are kind and efficient. Thank you Hence for the invite and special thanks to Bulgogi Syo Bugis Junction's crew who attended to us that day.

BULGOGI SYO 

Address: Bugis Junction: 200 Victoria Street, #02-49 Bugis Junction, 188021

Website: https://www.bulgogisyo.com/

Contact: 9880 9719

Business Hours: 

Daily: 11:30 am–10 pm