Myung Ga Korean Restaurant: Quality Kbbq

Myung Ga is a kbbq restaurant that serves quality meat. The restaurant also hires korean waitresses who will go around helping customers to cut up and grill the meat. I guess it's all about the authentic kbbq experience.

Apart from meat, they also serve a variety of cooked korean dishes as well.

Japchae

Ddeobokki

Honestly, I cannot recall what we ordered but there were beef short ribs and a lot of beef items. There was also M9 wagyu beef as well. The restaurant claims to be the only one that imports M9 beef in Hong Kong. Sure, the beef melts in your mouth. Everything served here was great, although I'm not sure if I will ever return here if I had to pay for it. Oops.

M9 Wagyu Beef

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Yellow House Cafe: Themed Cafe in LA

I think pictures can speak for itself. It has a really sweet and calming atmosphere. Food isn't particularly expensive either, but they mainly serve korean fusion food.

I didn't really order much because we weren't hungry enough to demolish their large portions for main orders. We ended up ordering potato string fries and korean dumplings.

Potato string fries

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8 Korean BBQ: 8 different flavours

I had limited opportunities to get KBBQ because it requires a lot of time to dine, and most of my floormates were always preoccupied with studying. Perhaps I'm a bad student lol but then again, freshman year is a breeze compared to being in Hwachong. I just wanted to travel and try all sorts of food and things when I was still in LA.

Thanks to a certain "prince" who got us a fancy ride, I got to try 8 Korean BBQ. It was interesting cuz the ahjumma who served us lifted the top of our stools and asked us to put our belongings in it. That will prevent our bags from smelling like kbbq and from spills and stains. This restaurant also offered an 8% discount if we paid by cash. Oh, but best part was that the person who drove us around even paid for my meal. Gentleman much. (Now go grab Taiwanese guys everyone.)

We ordered Combo 1 (USD$49.99), which came with 8 different flavours of pork belly, kimchi, beansprouts, seafood soup and kimchi fried rice (made with leftover soup like at Gamja Gol). We also ordered steamed egg to share as well for $2-3. I thought everything was pretty well done. We also had minimal cooking to do, because the waiters would help us to grill and cut the strips of pork belly as well. Bonus points for service. 

The 8 Flavours of Pork Belly: were cooked in the order that was recommended by the them as follows:

1. Wine: Wine (in moderation), lowers the risk of heart disease, and opens blood vessels for better circulation.
2. Original: All natural with no additives. Unveiling pork’s natural flavonoids, rich in Vitamin B1.
3. Ginseng: Ginseng stimulates the metabolism and promotes general wellness of health.
4. Garlic: Garlic lowers cholesterol and high blood pressure, and helps the body’s natural flow.
5. Herb: Natural herbs alleviate stress and depression.
6. Curry: Curry’s complex components prevent Alzheimer’s disease, as well as certain cancers.
7. Miso Paste: Miso Paste is rich in flavonoids and beneficial in circulating the body’s natural biochemistry.
8. Red Pepper Paste: Gochujang contains protein, healthy fats, Vitamins B2, Vitamin C and carotene.

I've also seen 8 Korean BBQ in The Central at Clarke Quay in Singapore, But the prices here are so much higher than in Los Angeles. I believe it is priced at SGD$98++ here.

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Honey Mee: Honeycomb Milk Soft Serve

Chanced upon this when I was done with dinner at BCD one day. My friend said that this was highly raved in Los Angeles, and so I decided to get one to try. I believe this was about USD$4.50. This is just a small stall in front of Boiling Crab. It resembled an old school ticket both for movies that is often depicted in cartoons.

Milk soft serve with honeycomb

This thing was really sweet, although I think the one with honey drizzled is even sweeter. Anyway, I don't know if I got it wrong, or that it is almost impossible to eat the honeycomb without taking bits of plastic-like things. They weren't exactly chewy so I had to take them out after chewing the honey away. Nevertheless, the milk soft serve was really good. It was also interesting to try the honeycomb. It was a pretty good way to end the night. It was satisfying even though this small cup was shared between 2 people.

I know there are similar stores in Singapore like Honey Creme and all that sort of things, and I'm looking forward to trying them here. Hopefully things are cheaper in Singapore, while the quality remains the same.

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SYNC Korean Tapas Bar: Delicious Fusion Korean Food

Found this hidden gem when I was searching for places near home for Fathers' Day. Although the service was slow the first time we went, it was pretty quick on our second visit. Perhaps it was past lunch hour when we first went for Fathers' Day lunch. We ended up being at the restaurant from about 1.45pm to nearly 4pm. That's way too long, but I guess we weren't in much of a hurry, and they were understaffed at that point in time. We went back again for dinner 2 weeks later to celebrate my mum's birthday, and the crew was much larger. It's great to see all the young faces running the show as well. 

I thought the food was very well done, although the prices aren't exactly cheap. But it is definitely worth it for the lunch sets under $10 for those in the area. Oh, and they don't charge service charge here which is 10% saved. 

I loved the ddeobokki served here. The sauce was thick and cheesy, while still maintaining a hint of the traditional spicy red pepper sauce. There was also a generous amount of sliced sausages

Topokki  ($7.90)

Baked Rice Cakes in sweet and spicy sauce, Smoked Sausage, 3-Cheese

The steak here was very well executed. My dad wanted it medium, and it was. The meat was also very tender. It was worth its price and it is way better than some of the steak houses in Singapore. 

Rib-eye Steak ($29.90)

The fried chicken was delicious and was very crispy. I also liked how they sprinkled a generous amount of seaweed on it. 

Dak-KangJung ($12.90)

Deep-Fried sweet and spicy Chicken Bites, Ricotta, Chili Tempura

The ribs were one of the best that I've had. Maybe not in terms of taste, but it was so tender that you could pull off the meat easily with just fork and spoon. 

Pork ribs ($22.90)

The chicken paella claimed to serve 3-4 pax. However, the portion really wasn't that large. We had leftovers enough for another person, but that was because we ordered a bunch of other food. I think this would serve 3, or 2 people with huge appetites.

Dak Gar-Bi: Chicken Paella ($38.90)

I think we totally did not expect the octopus to be something like this. The picture on the menu did not show any kimchi or sauce. The sourish taste of kimchi is also pretty strong.

Sautéed Kimchi Octopus ($9.90)

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Gam Ja Gol: Authentic Korean Gamja tang

Although I absolutely love korean food and Ktown, many of the restaurants are ran by Koreans who are unable to speak much English. Getting a table and ordering food is a struggle if you aren't Korean. It is always helpful to have a Korean friend who knows what is on the menu and successfully grab a table. Additionally, they are the ones who knows what's best in the area because they learn about the area from Korean taxi drivers.

One of the places that my Korean friend brought me to was Gamja Gol. Apparently gamja tang refers to potato soup, which I initially thought referred to pork bones or something. Anyway, if not for him, I would never be able to get a table or order anything because it was ran by ahjummas who spoke Korean all the time. I'm not sure if they could understand English because every table had someone speaking Korean that night, so all orders were done in Korean. 

Banchan

We ordered a set of gamja tang for 2 pax, and it was served with a mini stove that kept our soup hot. It was a little bland in my opinion, because I was expecting it to be more spicy. Nevertheless, it was good. The potatoes were soft, although there wasn't that much meat because the bones were pretty random. Or maybe I'm not as skilled as my friend in picking out the meat.

Gamja Tang ($29.90)

When we were finishing the soup, my friend suddenly waived for the waitress to come and he told me not to finish the soup. The ahjumma came and poured in 2 bowls of rice, additional kimchi and seaweed into the remaining soup. She skillfully used a pair of scissors and a metal spoon to dice everything while she flattened the fried rice onto the pan. My friend explained that this was the best part of eating gamja tang hahahaa. Flattening the rice onto the pan was supposed to help the distribution of heat and to crisp the rice a little.

Not sure where I can experience this in Singapore, but I wish Singapore had more varieties of Korean food.

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BCD Tofu House: Best Supper and Comfort Food

Singaporeans will always crave for something spicy. I wasn't a fan of the Mexican hot sauce, and I did not really fancy the sriracha chili sauce that is highly raved by Asian Americans. I turned to Korean food whenever I craved for something spicy.

Although BCD Tofu House is a chain restaurant, there aren't that many and I believe they actually make their own tofu. It is smooth and silky, and it does not have a pungent taste like most American tofus. Trust me, Asian tofu tastes way better. 

Additionally, BCD Tofu House is open almost 24/7 (depending on location). This is definitely comfort food for supper, and to help college students pull through the night. Splurging on getting this is way better than ordering something from TG Express, which serves very oily and weird tasting Thai and Chinese dishes. Or maybe it was just the pad thai that I had.

Combo Set: Assorted Spicy Tofu Soup + Spicy BBQ Chicken ($20)

I ordered a combo set which proved to be too much food the first time I visited BCD for dinner. Nevertheless, I was so intrigued by the spicy chicken because it was really really spicy, and the portions were so generous. My tongue was burning but I was so satisfied getting my spicy food fix. 

Kimchi Dumplings

We definitely ordered too much on my first visit because we even ordered kimchi dumplings to share. We had a pretty hard time finishing our food, especially when they actually provided banchan like kimchi, potato salad, fish (that tasted like the one in nasi lemak), and marinated shellfish.

Beef BCD Soon Tofu ($10)

Oh and all tofu soups are served with rice, fish, and banchan.

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Healthy Zone Jook Hyang: Abalone Ginseng Chicken Soup

Had massive cravings for ginseng chicken soup towards the end of the academic year. It's strange because I never really had any ginseng chicken soup in Singapore, but I kept thinking about the delicious ginseng chicken soup I had in Korea when I visited Seoul when I was much younger. Anyway, thank god for the fact that Ktown was right outside USC. My cravings were easily satisfied.

Headed to Healthy Zone Jook Hyang because my friend had recommended it, and it was family style cooking. Well, it was true and it also meant poor service because it was family-owned. But it's not a big deal. I just wanted to enjoy the food. They also served a large variety of banchan, which I appreciated. 

We ended up ordering ginseng chicken soup with fresh abalone, because we were deprived kids who missed Asian food and soup. It also proved to be no salt nor MSG added, because the soup was rather bland and salt was provided on a small dish so that we could decide how much salt to put in. 

Fresh Abalone Samye Tang ($22)

I believe a whole small chicken was used in the soup. It was also stuffed with some seasoned glutinous rice, which made us very happy because glutinous rice is hard to come by in Los Angeles.

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