Eating Addiction - Bibimbap 2

Hello again! 

It's been a long time I haven't posted anything, I realized I have made the draft but haven't posted it....

Here goes part 2 of the Bibimbap edition!!

Just a quick review; yes, Bibimbap is a rice dish from Korea but the Bibimbap I'm talking in this post is a favorite Korean Restaurant of mine located in Bali, Indonesia..

Here's the map directory to the restaurant

Just to let you all know this isn't an advertisement nor an endorsement, this is purely me and my comments.

Moving on...

In this post the 2nd Bibimbap edition, I will be rating all the dishes I have tried in this restaurant; from the taste, texture, and simply what's wrong with it according to my preference. I will also be putting a description on each dishes!! Unfortunately though, I don't have the picture for all the dishes :((, I'll try to add the photos later on when I have the opportunity to visit it again.

A quick explanation on the rating:

X           = NO, don't even mention it
*            = Below Below Average

*            = Below Average

**          = Ok / Average

***        = Above Average

****      = Excellent

*****    = Mind Blowing!!

Here are the list of food; (Please be sure you're ready)

Side Dishes (just the picture)

Dolsot Bibimbap
This is no ordinary Bibimbap, it's a hot stone Bibimbap!
Normal Bibimbap will come simply as rice topped with assorted of vegetables, meat, fried egg, and some Gochujang. Dolsot Bibimbap on the other hand is the same thing but inside a very sizzling hot stone (similar to a black cast iron), where the rice on the bottom is actually being charred by the heat of the stone. Basically it forms some sort of rice crust similar to the one you get in Singaporean Clay Pot Rice, when you eat it, it has a nice crunchy texture not just plain old soft rice. The one serve in this restaurant comes with a serving of chilled Kim Chi soup literally with crushed ice in it.

Flavor: ** 
Texture: ** 
Uniqueness: ** 
Total: ** 
What's Wrong? The rice itself was ok, no special wow flavor. I would say it was quite boring as the rice we get wasn't that charred from the hot stone. The chilled soup was a surprise because when I eat the rice by itself it was boring but then I take a spoonful of the cold tangy sweet soup which was very refreshing, it made me wanted to take another bite of the rice. So, the pair really complimented each other, but not the dish that I wanted to come back for more.


Beef Gimbap
Gimbap is a Korean version of a Japanese Sushi Roll, it basically means rice rolled inside of Gim or Nori (eng: dried seaweed). Any ingredients can be put inside the rice from seafood to vegetables, yet I found that the most common Gimbap always have cucumber, egg, carrot, Takuan (yellow pickled daikon), and some sort of protein. In this case it was beef, I'm not quite sure whether the beef was ground or sliced, but it has a nice mild seasoning of soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil.

Flavor: ***
Texture: *** 
Uniqueness: ** 
Total: ***
What's Wrong? The ingredients can be seasoned a little bit more bolder, and I think that the rice need an extra seasoning. I mean, I think me myself make a pretty good Gimbap, I always season the rice with extra something while it's hot


Pork Gimbap
The filling inside the rice was the same, it's just the meat is different. It's pork, again I'm not quite sure whether the pork was ground or sliced, but it wasn't quite as tasty as the beef.

Flavor: ***
Texture: *** 
Uniqueness: ** 
Total: ***
What's Wrong? It's the same as the beef but if they were to use Spam as the meat, it would probably be a whole lot better. Just because it's Spam, c'mon I mean..nothing can go wrong with a can of processed pork packed with a whole lot of MSG! Once in a while..why not right??


Jjampong
This dish is known to be sold as a Chinese dish in Korea, which you can get at a Chinese restaurant along with Jjajang Myeon. Jjampong is a seafood noodle dish which is quite spicy in flavor. The one I had was by far the spiciest dish on the restaurant's menu, although still to my liking it's not that spicy. It has a nice balance amount of noodle, vegetables, fresh seafood, and broth. Although it's spicy, the flavor was really fresh and addicting.

Flavor: ***
Texture: **** 
Uniqueness: *** 
Total: ****
What's Wrong? Nothing was fatally wrong about this dish, it was delicious yet it's just not up to the level that I have to comeback for more. I'd like to see it with other variety of vegetables as well because I reckon this dish contains too much capsicum as the vegetables.

Bibim Guksu 
Out of all the menu, this particular noodle dish actually caught my attention the most. Why you must ask? Well first of all I prefer to eat my noodle dry and not soupy, this dish was basically that. A simple thin noodle served with glistening red sauce and Kim Chi. I was also very very curious because I've been seeing the other customer enjoying this dish and I'm telling you that it looks mouth watering.

Flavor: X
Texture: **
Uniqueness: *** 
Total: **
What's Wrong? You know that I've mentioned in my other post that I always finish my food unless I'm full or really dislike the food, well this is that case. I dislike the flavor THAT much that I can't even finish half of it. Yes it looks mouth watering but I guess you can't "judge the book by its cover". What I expect was to get a nice bowl of cold noodle that is spicy, tangy, savory, yet have a hint of sweetness to it, but instead all i can taste is full on sweetness. It was just..I'm just speechless..and not in a good way.



Doenjang Jjigae
Jjigae means stew, it's soupy but it's not a soup, it's slightly thicker in consistency yet not as thick as you thought a stew would be. Doenjang is a Korean fermented bean paste very similar to the Japanese Miso. Yet Doenjang Jjigae has a different flavor than a Miso Soup, it's just as fresh but with a whole lot of depth to it. It has a very tiny hint of spiciness, which you can't really tell but it's there. It contains nice chunks of zucchini, leek, sliced chilli, tofu, and beef.

Flavor: **** 
Texture: ****
Uniqueness: **** 
Total: ****
What's Wrong? I've got nothing to say about what's wrong with the flavor because I enjoyed it, it was totally my style! The only thing that I would criticize is the portion which was really small compare to the price.


Yukgaejang
Yukgaejang is a beef soup. It's more on the spicy side with various ingredients in it; ranging from the shredded beef, dangmyeon or sweet potato glass noodle, onion, scallion, to bracken.

Flavor: *** 
Texture: ****
Uniqueness: **
Total: ***
What's Wrong? This was one of the many dishes that I always order. It is however in my opinion a little bit lacking in flavor. It has a little spiciness to it, but depending on the preference, it might be a little too spicy for some, as it has quite a bit of gochugaru.

Samgyeopsal
Everybody knows what Korean BBQ is right, and you can't skip this samgyeopsal when you're talking about Korean BBQ. You will be more familiar to know that this is the belly part, the one serves at Bibimbap has no skin and in big thick slices. You will be asked whether you want to have it grilled in the kitchen or you want to grill it on your own. Of course the set comes with a set of ssam which are assorted vegetables (green curly lettuce, raw nappa cabbage, sliced green chilies, cucumber sticks, raw carrot sticks, sliced garlic (upon request)), and also samjang which is a soybean dipping.

Flavor: **** 
Texture: ****
Uniqueness: ** 
Total: ****
What's Wrong? Well you know for me there was nothing wrong with pure unseasoned pork at all, the fat layered in this cut of meat is flavorful enough. However I find that the samjang was unnecessary at all! I like the meat wrapped with a little bit of kimchi, garlic, rice, chili and it was good enough. But it depends on your preference, so do experiment a little bit.

Bulgogi
Bulgogi  is also another famous Korean BBQ dish, which most of you probably familiar with. It is beef slices that has been marinated with various ingredients. Recipe varies depending on families recipe, a teacher of mine actually taught me on how to make Bulgogi once and he told me that it is very common to marinade the beef using grated fruits (apple, pear, and even kiwi), this works as a tenderizer and natural sweetener. Flavor wise it has a very savory taste and a slight sweetness, it also has a nice flavor from the toasted sesame seed. It is also served with ssam.

Flavor: ****
Texture: ***
Uniqueness: ***
Total: ***
What's Wrong? I personally loves when there's a nice balance between meat and other vegetables, however since its is considered as a BBQ, I would expect a little more meat within.

Dwaeji Bulgogi
Dwaeji means pork, basically this is the pork version of bulgogi. However, instead of the normal bulgogi that has a soy sauce base it has a gochujang base, a red base. I was told by the owner that this dish was a little bit spicy, but it wasn't at all, yet if you can't take spicy at all maybe you shouldn't eat it.

Flavor: ** *
Texture: ***
Uniqueness: **
Total: ***
What's Wrong? Compared to the beef version, this was a little lacking in flavor and it wasn't spicy at all. It is still good though but surprisingly I just prefer the beef version even if it was a little bit sweeter.

Dak-Bokkeum-Tang
This was the bomb! It's basically a chicken stew dish (well it's more like it's been cooked in a thick sauce). To be honest I didn't remember what was in it other than the chicken, because the chicken is truly the main character! To be honest I don't like food that are too sweet, and this was on a sweet side. For some reason I can surpass that because the chicken was extremely tender and juicy which I rarely had. It was very flavorsome as well as the flavor from the sauce just seeps into the chicken. Kind of hard to explain the taste as you have to taste in on your own.

Flavor: *****
Texture: *****
Uniqueness: **** 
Total: *****
What's Wrong? The only thing that I dislike was that it was really too sweet, but maybe that's just their secret recipe of making a wonderful overall dish.

Gamjatang
Gamja means potato, and this is a dish is literally a whole potato stew. It has pork bones and a potato (not cut) being stewed until it is really soft. The sauce has that powdery potato flavor as well, and the potato has absorbed the flavor of the sauce.

Flavor: **
Texture: **
Uniqueness: **** 
Total: ***
What's Wrong? To be honest, I don't like this dish too much, it has an unfamiliar flavor to me. But do give it a try!

Gun Mandu
Korean mandu has always been a favorite of mine since I ever first tried it a friend's place. There are various type of mandu, and the 2 most common ones are the pork and dangmyeon, and the other one is kimchi. Basically it is like a pan fried dumpling; such as Japanese gyoza or Chinese kuotiek. The Korean version are usually more flavorful, it is not as juicy as the other 2 type but instead the juices are trapped and absorbed by the dangmyeon.

Flavor: **
Texture: ***
Uniqueness: **
Total: **
What's Wrong? I was disappointed with the mandu they served here, the shape changes from time to times and it just become worse and worse. It's is not very savory and it's quite dry in the inside and very oily on the outside. Truly disappointed. I'm not sure whether they make their own or bought a frozen one because I always go for a pork version and it was never the same, at one time the skin was too thick at another time the filling was bland. I never tried the kimchi one since I was disappointed with the pork version already.

Tang Suyuk
Have you ever eaten sweet sour pork before? Well..Tang Suyuk is the Korean version of it. I just figured out that sweet sour pork exist in many Countries as a Chinese dish. In Indonesia we also have a sweet sour pork dish and we can only buy it at a Chinese food restaurant or eateries. However the Indonesian sweet sour pork is really different with the Korean version. The one served in this restaurant is dominantly sweet rather than sour. The sauce is brown in color (Indonesian is red because of tomato ketchup), the pork is covered in a really crispy batter, therefore a perfect combination of crispy and sweet sauce.


Flavor: ***
Texture: ****
Uniqueness: ***
Total: ****
What's Wrong? As much as I love crispy pork and sweet sauce, the one served here was not a favorite of mine. I still prefer the Indonesian version because it has a better balance of sweet and sour. I am not sure if this was just because this restaurant's recipe is sweeter or is it just Korean sweet sour pork is just not too sour, so if you do know please leave a comment to tell me :)

-THANKS A LOT GUYS -

Eating Addiction - Bibimbap 1

My love of food is just crazily undeniable!!

And I'm not exaggerating, but I just love food so much that I think I'm insane...

I LOVE to eat and try new food, I also love to cook and experimenting, and most of all I'm so into the world of culinary that I prefer spending my money on buying ingredients (which I won't probably use), buy cooking tools and knife (which i will rarely use), buy recipe books (which I only read and not actually cook the recipe within), all that rather than buy myself a nice pair of heels or a nice dress..

Anywayyyy.. Here goes the first story and just say my Dream umero uno; Food Critics (no.1)

Although I said its number 1 dream, it's actually one of my many MANY dreams , my main dream is actually to be a Chef, so just you know..

But I do love to talk about food, I also love criticizing it, never in front of my friends cause they'll probably get sick of it.

I'm not a picky eater, I basically eat anything edible; vegetables, fish, meat, i don't have any particular likings though, but I have a tendency to crave for a certain food..at certain times..

 I love, I mean LOVE spicy foods, and I prefer something salty rather than sweet.

I always finish my food whether it's delicious or not, unless I'm really full OR I don't like the food THAT much that I cannot bear to swallow another spoon of it..so yea..

First post is about criticizing food will goes to my very recent favorite restaurant in town; Bibimbap.

From the name itself you can tell that it's a Korean restaurant, it's located in ByPass Ngurah Rai, Bali (there you go, I'm currently living in the paradise, the Island of God; Bali, Indonesia). The restaurant is placed amongst the little shops near the underpass just across the Mall Bali Galleria. 

From the outside of the restaurant, is nothing fancy, very humble looking..in fact it looks more like an eatery rather than a restaurant..

It's air conditioned inside so I'll just call it a restaurant,,hehehe

So this restaurant is one of my favorite where I never get bored of the food.

"Why?" you may ask "Is the food THAT delicious?"

To be honest.. I'm not sure that it's the best Korean Restaurant in Bali or not, cause quite frankly I never try any other Korean Restaurant..

But there's something about Korean food that I really love. And NO it's not because I'm one of those K-Pop fans, I mean I enjoy Korean Variety Show compare to the Indonesian show or sinetron (Indonesian drama series), and through these shows I was introduced to Korean cuisine..

From the look of it, Korean food are just fantastic looking (I'm drooling now), and I love the idea of fermented food, it really made me wanted to try the food, that's why i go to this restaurant.

I never been to Korea so I don't really know how Korean food supposed to taste like but I do have a couple of Korean friends. Whenever I went to their house their Mom will always offer me Korean food, i wasn't so into it back then. But then there was a time during college where I would casually stroll around the supermarket and see this unique looking ingredients, which I did taste before at my friend's but couldn't recall the taste. So I decided to buy it.

It was Tteok or rice cake.

I decided to make Tteokbokki or Korean Spicy Rice Cake.

Found a recipe online and add a thing and two to it, and thought it was delicious.

A couple months ago my colleagues took me to this Bibimbap restaurant.

I don't know what to expect, the interior of the restaurant was plain simple, just simple wooden chairs and tables.

It's owned by a Korean family, where the mother is always in the restaurant. The thing that made me really enjoy eating at this place is that it has a homey atmosphere to it. The flavor is also like that, you can taste that it's not made by some sort of Michelin Starred Chef, it tasted like it was made by a housewife, a mother, a very comforting flavor.

Front cover of the Menu

They also serve desserts

As you can see the menu is not much. They pretty much offer some of Korean favorite dishes.

Whenever I went there with my friends we always order the same thing; Pork Gimbap, Samgyeopsal, Yukgaejang (I'll explain these food on my next post). Well it was only the 3 of us who always come here often, let's just call them, Konika and Yaya. 

We were actually curious to try one of their daily menu (at least I was), it was Bossam which is only available on Friday. Unfortunately up until now I never tried it because it was always sold out TT^TT, and it was only 8 pm!!

Table set-up, they even give you FREE refillable cold water

As I told you I always went there with my friends but instead this time I went with my family. It was the 3rd time actually. Well my family are Chinese Indonesian, so we typically enjoy Chinese or Indonesian Food. We rarely eat at a Western or any other restaurant. 

My Brother and Dad does enjoy eating Japanese food though and they don't mind Western Cuisine either. My Mom however doesn't really enjoy it but when I took them here, they unexpectedly like the food (which was a surprise especially for my Mom). 

This time we decided to pick a couple of different dishes.

Ban Chan or Side Dishes

In Korean Cuisine, the food are always accompanied with side dishes or Ban Chan. In this restaurant they always give you 5 different kind of side dishes, with of course the mandatory Kim Chi. As you can see in the picture, this time we got some Napa Cabbage Kim Chi (bottom right). I can't tell you exactly what the others are, but I'll give you my thought of what and how it was.

Starting from Top Left going clockwise;

- Fish Cake??

 It was some sort of pancake or Jeon, I think it was made with some sort of seafood mixture?? it was red orangey color. I can see some red chili bits in it. I'm still not sure what it is, maybe some sort of fishcake? but a little doughy as well. The flavor itself is pretty plain, nothing special, just a hint of umami.

- Stir Fry Cabbage

Quite simple, sauteed cabbage with some carrot and leek, clean flavor. Not heavily seasoned, you can  clearly taste the sesame oil. It's pretty nice actually because you can really taste the natural sweetness of the cabbage and best thing is it's not oily.

- Seasoned Daikon

I'm not sure what daikon is in English, i think it's Japanese turnip / radish. Julienned, blanched really quickly, then it was seasoned with some Gochujang (Korean Red Pepper Paste), chilli powder, sesame oil, and sesame seed. The taste of it again it's pretty light, the seasoning doesn't overpower the ingredients which i really like. The daikon has a subtle sweet taste, you still can taste the 'earthy' flavor though, which I think not many people like.

- Kim Chi

The nappa  or Chinese cabbage Kim Chi, I would say that this is the mandatory dish that you must have while enjoying Korean Food. It's nice and cold, crunchy, salty, tangy, and slightly spicy all at once. The taste of it is really fresh but it has a certain depth to it which derived from the fermentation process. The Kim Chi this time was however not as nice as the one I had before in this same restaurant. It was because this time the Kim Chi we had was still 'young' and hasn't aged that long.

(so you see, aged taste better! The older the better ;) ) 

- Braised Tofu

This one is my favorite for sure! The tofu was fried then braised with some soy sauce, sesame oil, and corn syrup (I guess). I'm not sure what kind of tofu they used but it does taste like the local tofu we have in Indonesia. It has a sweet taste but it's not overwhelming.

 

The first dish that came was the Monday Special which is the Dak-Bokkeum-Tang or Braised Spicy Chicken and Vegetables. Unlike the name, it wasn't spicy at all. I don't know if it was just my tongue (us Indonesian love our food spicy) but there's not a even a hint of spiciness. I'm not saying it's bad, in fact I like the flavor, (like but not love) the sauce of this is really thick and sweet actually. I reckon the thickness of the sauce derived from the potato that's braised along the chicken, because you can slightly taste that starchy powdery feeling within the sauce. The vegetables inside were potato, carrot, and leek. the leek was added just before serving which was quite 'raw' actually, but it does help this dish with a whole lot of freshness and not being too heavy and greasy.

Let me just tell you the best thing about this dish though..the chicken..Oh My God YES the CHICKEN! It was pretty amazing! I never tasted any chicken like it was in this dish! It was juicy and tender but not like the fried chicken greasy juicy, it was actually a very lean clean taste. the seasoning was absorbed perfectly, the chicken was very tender that it actually fell apart in my mouth! I'm not overreacting but it was a very nice well cooked chicken! But I guess you have to try it yourself to know ay..

Next we had the Gimbap, instead of the usual pork, we've decided to go with the beef this time. Gimbap is like a Korean version of a Japanese Sushi Roll, it's just that the Korean version does not have vinegar inside of the rice. Gimbap can contain anything inside, to nothing but just a smear of Gochujang. As long as it has rice that's rolled inside Nori or seaweed, it's called Gimbap! 

For me personally this Gimbap is pretty mediocre, not too brag or anything but i think I make a killer Gimbap! But anyway anything with Takuan (yellow pickled daikon) in it makes me happy, so I'm pretty satisfied with this Gimbap of beef, carrot, cucumber, egg, and takuan.

Next is the Pork Bulgogi or Dwaeji Bulgogi the grill / stir fried seasoned pork. Unlike the Beef Bulgogi which is seasoned with Ganjang or soy sauce, this one is red in color which I'm guessing they used Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste). According to the owner's daughter, she said that this was quite spicy but again it really can't beat the Indonesian Sambal (chilli sauce)! For me this was ok, it was nice and flavorful, garlicky of course, i love my garlic but it doesn't have the strong impact of the Beef version. But if you do love your pork (like my brother) you have to try this.

Along with the Pork Bulgogi you will get assorted vegetables to make a wrap or Ssam. You basically take the lettuce with whatever vegetables you want add the meat, you can even add rice, Kim Chi, anything basically, wrap it then eat it in one go (it's a 'one shot' thing). As you can see they gave us some green lettuce, raw nappa cabbage, carrot sticks, cucumber, sliced green chili, and sometimes blanched cabbage. I always ask for sliced raw garlic though, very nice addition to any grilled meat.

Doenjang Jjigae is our choice of soupy dish. I was dissapointed of the portion, it was really small compared to the price i have to spent. But despite the price this was another bomb!! I'm telling you this Doenjang Jjigae or Fermented Soy Bean Stew is totally my style. It's earthy, hearty, and surprisingly fresh. It has nice chunks of zucchini  tofu, red chili, leek, onion, and beef. If you ever tried Japanese Miso or the Chinese Tauco, trust me the Korean Doenjang is a better version of fermented soy bean paste! 

(no offense to the others, it's a matter of preference ;D)

Our last dish was actually a complimentary from the lady boss! Gamsamida :) 

It was a Jeon or pancake of spring onion, very nice and crispy. Combined with a dipping made out of soy sauce, leek, garlic, ginger, and chili powder, a nice way to end the meal, yumm.. <3

Overall I always enjoy my time at Bibimbap, friendly staffs very attentive, price is worth it (mostly), most of the food make you crave for more, and who am i kidding i love the refillable side dish, lettuce, and water! #freebieslover

Lots of Love,

JJ 'The Wonderer'

Ps. please wait for my next post, about the food that I've tried in Bibimbap