South Korea Voyage: The FOOD (Part 2)

NOOBUL

Besides Korean BBQ, we also tried the other delicacies like the Korean hotpot. This was at Noobul restaurant (could also be found in Singapore), fronted by Psy and some fair leggy lady. We were at the iPark Mall branch at Yongsan Station (龙山). As I could not take spicy that well, and since some of us had mild food poisoning, we ordered one spicy seafood and one slightly spicy vegetable and meat hotpot. We also ordered a cheese plate, which comes uncooked and had to be cooked on the spot with the cheese added in last.

I have to say that this meal satisfied us on that particularly cold winter’s day. It was hot comforting fare that warmed the cockles of our hearts and melted our frostbitten toes. The spicy seafood stew was really spicy, as in blow-your-head-sky-high type of spicy. I tried a sip and it was all that was needed for an instant defreeze. It is potent stuff. 

Spicy seafood stew.

The mildly spicy stew was a godsend. It lands comfortably at your palate and sits there cosy, with just the right amount of spiciness to get your taste buds working. 

Mildly spicy stew.

The cheese plate is made up of Korean rice cakes (ddeokbokki/딱 볶 이) in a bring orange-red spicy sauce cooked with loads of vegetables, chicken and topped with plenty of cheese. 

Cheese hot plate.

Look at the cheese! 

Personally I found the cheese, the rice cakes and the spicy sauce to be a strange mix. I do not like it much. Other than the cheese plate, everything else is fine. 

KOREAN GINSENG CHICKEN SOUP

Another dish that we tried was the famous Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup (Sam Gae Tang/삼 계 탕). Nobody who visited Korea can leave without trying it. We had ours at Namiseom Island, the place made popular by Winter Sonata, where the snot-and-tears drama was filmed. 

Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup.

The soup is made of a whole small-sized chicken stuffed with a few ginseng roots, glutinous rice and an assortment of chestnuts/red dates/beans that are broiled in a semi-milky semi-clear broth. It has a slight bitter taste courtesy of the ginseng, and the glutinous rice has been reduced into soft mush. The chicken is tender and comes out easily in strips. I would say that Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup is the ultimate comfort food in winter. You feel so warm and nourished after downing a bowl (for the record, I shared a bowl with another person and both of us could not finish it). It is not the most flavourful of soups but in freezing temperatures it should be more than welcomed.

BIBIMBAP

Another Korean specialty that we tried at Namiseom Island was Bibimbap/비빔 밥 (mixed rice). Again, you cannot leave Korea without trying Bibimbap. I love it. The Bibimbap I ordered was served with the rice on the side, meaning that the vegetables and paste are in one bowl and the rice is by itself in another bowl.  I immensely prefer it this way because usually when I mix everything together (rice, paste and veggies) I could not finish the meal. If separated, at least I could leave the rice and just finish up all the vegetable-plus-paste goodness!

Bibimbap!

All those veggie goodness.

                                                                                       

So Bibimbap is actually made up of an assortment of raw strips of vegetables, to be mixed with spicy bean paste. There are variations to this dish where a raw egg could be added on top, or slices of raw fish, or cooked meat. It could come in a hotpot or in a normal stainless steel bowl. It depends on where you eat it and what you ordered. The one that I had was really good in the sense that the vegetables were all fresh and the bean paste is of a spiciness that I can handle. Also, since it is not mixed in with the rice, the vegetables remained cold and crunchy in spite of the bean paste. It is Bibimbap made for me. Never have I tasted Bibimbap so good (at least not yet in Singapore) and I really regretted leaving South Korea without having Bibimbap one more time. 

South Korea Voyage: The FOOD (Part 2) to be continued...