Myeongdong Yongyang Juk Yongyang Gyoza 明洞榮養粥、榮養餃子 – Seoul

August 12, 2014August 11, 2014Leave a comment

Our friend had a Seoul tour guide book she bought in Hong Kong, so we decided to put it to use and find a good restaurant. Off we went to Myeongdong Yongyang Juk Yongyang Gyoza, which is famous for their porridge and gyozas! It was only half empty when we first arrived, but it soon became packed with office people closer to lunch time. They speak a bit of Mandarin Chinese here, so if you know some, it’s pretty easy to communicate.

Vegetable Gyozas

First, we shared their famous Vegetable Gyozas. One order gives you 8 of these plump dumplings. They are just steamed, so there’s no crispy texture that you may find when they are pan-fried. The wrappers were thin to medium and filled with mainly chives and other green veggies. The chives definitely made the dumplings very flavourful. You dip these into a gyoza sauce that has a little bit of acidity. Very good!

Abalone Porridge

Next up, K and I shared their also very famous Abalone Porridge. In Korea, they call it “juk.” Whereas porridge we have in Canada is usually oatmeal, Korean porridge is usually cooked rice. This is very similar to Chinese porridge as well. Here, they also top it off with roasted ground seaweed and roasted sesame seeds. I should have probably put my spoon in to show the abalone as well. You actually get quite a few abalones in here! However, I found the abalone to be too tough and hard to chew. Would’ve liked it to be slightly softer. The porridge was very flavourful with a seafood taste to it. It also came with a side of roasted seaweed and seaweed salad. A little pricey, but definitely recommend trying an abalone porridge in Seoul!

Seafood and Green Onion Pancake

Since we shared the porridge, K and I also added the Seafood and Green Onion Pancake. Again, this was just average, with the ones in Richmond, like Haroo being much better. This one had squid and shrimp, and they didn’t cheap out on the seafood. I found it funny that they don’t really cut up their green onions, but rather lay them diagonally so it completely fills the pancake. The pancake wasn’t as crispy as I would’ve liked it.

Ginseng Chicken Soup

The other girls each got the Ginseng Chicken Soup. Ginseng is a super popular ingredient to use in Korean cooking, and they are famous for their Ginseng soups. The chicken is a whole chicken and was filled with rice. You should pull the rice out so that the rice is in the broth. Koreans love to eat rice in soup. Yummy!

Overall, I was very satisfied with the food here. A great place to try Korean gyozas and porridge. Average prices and you will get full! They also come with complimentary side dishes like kimchi, which you can serve yourself.

Address: 199-58 Euljiro 2(i)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Korean Food in Myeong-dong – Seoul

August 11, 20141 Comment

Bulgogi

Hungry after a day of shopping in Myeong-dong once again, it was time to look for some food. There’s food literally everywhere on the streets, with many of them on higher levels of the buildings. So many choices that it’s actually hard to figure out what’s good. We ended up walking down the main street of Myeong-dong and closer towards Euljiro-1-ga station, we found a Korean restaurant that featured many barbeque dishes. They barely knew English, but with some hand movements, we were able to communicate. First, we got the Bulgogi, which had an amazing sauce, but we felt ripped off by the meat. Apparently, you are supposed to grill the meat on the grill on our own, but we were lazy, so we asked to have it grilled for us in the back room. We ended up getting a dish of meat that looked like leftover meat. Bits of minced up meat that you could barely pick up with a pair of chopsticks. The sauce however was very flavourful. We felt sort of ripped off since we got leftover meat, whereas other tables had normal looking meat…

Spicy Tofu Soup

Next was the Spicy Tofu Soup. It came in a bowl that would be suitable for a one person meal, but we shared it anyways. A spicy kimchi flavoured broth, with lots of soft tofu. The spice wasn’t too hot, and was delicious when eaten with rice. Tofu was silky smooth. It lacked any other ingredients though. Purely green onions and tofu.

Seafood Pancake

Last but not least was the Seafood Pancake. It came with squid and green onions. No other seafood. We were slightly disappointed with this since we’ve had way better seafood pancakes in Vancouver. This was seriously under average and it wasn’t even cheap. Prices were quite average here.

Overall, we were quite disappointed with this restaurant. I wish I had got the name down, but it was all in Korean. I’m also not able to locate it on Google Maps. But then again, food in Korea can’t be too terrible. It’s whether you want above average or not.

School Food – Seoul

August 8, 2014Leave a comment

The next couple of posts will take you over the ocean and towards Asia! Just a couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan for some leisure travel, which also meant eating lots! We took United Airlines, which had a stopover in San Francisco, so it felt like forever before we arrived in Seoul. Their plane food was one of the worst I’ve had. Here, we have a salad with wimpy leaves, and something called General Tso’s Chicken… Ugh, it was absolutely disgusting. Sweet and spicy, but the chicken itself tasted so bad. The best part of the meal was that brownie… Plus service was horrid. It felt like the flight attendants hated their jobs and they were screaming half the time. I was woken up multiple times because they would roll their carts quickly and scream “excuse me, excuse me”. Never had such poor service on a long international flight before. I do have to note that this was the only case from San Francisco to Seoul. I took United Airlines from Tokyo back to San Francisco, and then Vancouver, and the service was much better.

And then we arrived! These are the streets of Myeong-dong, which is Seoul’s main shopping and tourist district. You’ll find every Korean cosmetic brand you need as well as international fashion brands such as Zara and Uniqlo. I swear we went here half our trip, since there is always a need to shop here! If you need beauty and skincare products – this is the place to go. Etude House, Innisfree, Tony Moly, Nature Republic, The Faceshop… just to name a few! You’ll also find the same store in almost every street. Each store located on a different street sometimes has different deals and products, so be sure to check them out before buying all at once! Another tip is to print off some coupons before hand by doing a quick Google search. You’ll find coupons for tourists for almost all brands.

We came across M Plaza, and a friend said that School Food is supposed to be quite popular. It’s a plaza with food and shops inside, but there weren’t too many people inside. It’s sort of hidden, and I guess tourists don’t usually find their way into here if they’re overwhelmed by the street shops. Anyways, School Food is a food franchise and is known for their tteokbokki and gimbap. They give you a notepad and pencil, and you just write down what you want off the menu. Good for us, since we probably wouldn’t be able to communicate anyways.

Pineapple Soda

We saw the girls next to us drinking this blue drink, so we decided to order it too. It’s basically just soda that’s coloured blue. On top, there are some pineapples. It was a bit underwhelming, since we expected more flavour and surprise. Just tasted more like regular soda to me.

Soup

The server brought us each a soup which was complimentary. It came with these two bean curd like things, which were really good! The soup is a little salty, and reminds me of miso soup.

Assorted Gimbap

And here is our platter of Assorted Gimbap! Gimbap is what I like to call the “Korean version of sushi.” It’s essentially rice and seaweed with various fillings. Here, we had some fillings of shredded tuna, squid, pickles, Japanese shisho leaves and more. The black ones, were squid ink rice filled with squid. Some were also spicy. The majority of them were filled with some sort of pickled veggie, since Koreans love that sour and spicy taste. Sort of like kimchi. On the side, there was a mayo sauce for dipping. It was definitely an experience to try these different gimbaps! My favourite was the squid filled gimbap! I believe the platter was only around 21,000 won, which comes to around CAN$21!

Potato Croquette

Lastly, we also had a dish of Potato Croquettes. Nothing too special, but the batter was light and not too oily. Potatoes were mashed until they were soft and creamy. It also came with a salad with honey mustard in the middle.

Overall, School Food was a pretty cool place to try the gimbaps. It’s very casual in there, and you find many young diners. I’m guessing that their food is not as traditional, so it’s the perfect place to try modern Korean food.

More info:

http://www.schoolfood.co.kr/

South Korea, Seoul, Jung-gu, Myeongdong 2(i)-ga, 31-1
+82 2-727-3377

L’Opera Patisserie

August 7, 2014August 6, 2014Leave a comment

L’Opera is located on Minoru Blvd next to the shops near Hilton Hotel. It’s an odd location for such a fancy looking patisserie. But good for me, since I don’t need to travel all the way downtown for some good pastries! There’s also free parking behind the Sheraton/Hilton parking lot. Anyways, I’ve purchased a pastry for a friend here, but I haven’t actually tried them myself. C gave me a box of L’Operamacarons for my birthday, so I am finally able to write about them! It comes in a beautiful box with a ribbon. The owners are Asian, but had training in Paris, so the shop and decor are all very Parisian.

When you open the box, you have a little note which tells you how long and how to store your macarons. They use natural and organic ingredients, so they can spoil if not kept properly.

Green Tea, Caramel, Coffee, Chocolate, Pistachio, Rose

The macarons were actually quite small in size. Dainty and light. I found them smaller than the ones at Thiery. What I liked about them was that the colours were all very faint and light. It’s a sign that they probably didn’t use food colouring to achieve the colours. Creamy fillings and the shell itself is up to standards. I also like how they aren’t too sweet. My favourite was the coffee. It had such a strong aroma of coffee and I think there were some crushed coffee beans in it too.

Overall, very satisfied with the macarons at L’Opera. They come at around $2 a piece, so quite standard. It’s also super close to home, so I’ll definitely be visiting more often. They also have afternoon tea, which I hear is pretty good. Will definitely give that a try next!

The Cake Workshop

August 6, 2014Leave a comment

On my birthday, my family pre-ordered a birthday cake for me. Instead of going to the usual mainstream bakeries, my dad has been frequently ordering cakes at The Cake Workshop. It’s a bit of a hidden gem, but the baker actually only recently opened an actual cake shop in the food court of Pacific Plaza Mall on Odlin Cres. He started the business at home, but eventually had too many orders and so it was better off to open an actual shop. My dad says he’s an experienced baker and used to bake in Hong Kong for years.

I chose to have the Tiramisu, which came nicely decorated with strawberries and whipped cream. This was a 6″ and cost only $18. Much cheaper than many other bakeries out there. The cakes are simple and nothing too fancy, but of good quality! I think most people enjoy his cakes because they aren’t as sweet as most of the cakes at other bakeries. If you’re someone who finds cakes too sweet, than this might be the choice for you.

The cake part of the tiramisu was moist, light and fluffy, whereas the mascarpone cheese was smooth and creamy. You do need to pre-order the cakes in advance. There aren’t any cakes for walk in sales at the shop. You also have the choice of getting the cake delivered for free if it’s within Richmond, or you can pick up at the shop.

Tropika – Lansdowne

August 5, 2014Leave a comment

Satays

Another birthday dinner, and I made the decision to have it at Tropika last minute. Tropika used to be located at Aberdeen Centre, but recently re-opened at Lansdowne Mall. There’s plenty of parking, which is the main reason why I chose it. I made reservations 30 minutes before heading there, and to my surprise, there were quite a few diners inside. We got seated in the back in the booths, and contrary to what many said about the the service, we actually had some pretty good service! First, we got the Satays. You can choose between the different types of meat, but we went for chicken and lamb. A nice char on the meat, and the satay sauce was filled with peanuts, which I loved. I did prefer the chicken over the lamb.

Roti Canai

Next was the Roti Canai. We got two orders of it, and each roti came cut in half, so perfect for sharing. I found the curry that came along a bit too oily though. I ended up dipping my roti in the green curry I ordered separately.

Pineapple Fried Rice with Ham & Chicken

For our entrees, we had the Pineapple Fried Rice with Ham & Chicken. As usual, it came in half a pineapple. I found that there was more rice than the rest of the ingredients. Definitely lacked on the pineapples, ham and veggies. Therefore, I found it a little bland and it could have been more flavourful.

Pad Thai

C got the Pad Thai for herself, but I tried some of it too. The stir fried rice noodle came with chicken, shrimp and tofu. It had a very tomato-based sauce and was sweet and sour at the same time. Also a hint of spice too! On the side were some bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, and lime.

Thai Style Green Curry Chicken

I chose to order the Thai Style Green Chicken. It came with loads of chicken, along with some green beans in a green curry paste & coconut milk. The chicken was tender, but I felt that it was pre-treated too much, so it didn’t seem very fresh. It had a texture that seemed a little fake for some reason. As for the curry, it was spicy as green curry should be. It would’ve been great with rice!

Sambal Green Beans

Lastly, for veggies, we had the Sambal Green Beans. This was my favourite dish and the green beans were covered with coconut milk and Sambal sauce. A hint of spice, but not too spicy! Definitely very appetizing! Sambal sauce is usually made with a variety of chili peppers, shrimp paste, and fish sauce, hence giving it an unique flavour.

Overall, the food at Tropika was average. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but it seems to be a hit or miss sometimes. As for service, like I said, we had pretty good service. We sat for quite some time and they didn’t try to get us to leave or anything. We even sat for 30 minutes before ordering. The server even offered us free ice cream at the end of the night since it was my birthday. We were way too full to take it, but it was a nice place to have dinner with friends.

Kishimoto

August 3, 2014Leave a comment

On my birthday, I asked to have dinner at Kishimoto. I’ve seen gorgeous platings from this Japanese restaurant for quite some time now, but Commercial Drive isn’t exactly the area I usually drive by. Finally, we made our way here, and there’s surprisingly quite a lot of free parking in the residential areas across the street. There was a line up as usual, and we waited roughly 15-30 minutes before we got a seat. The restaurant doesn’t have many fans, so it was boiling hot as well. Most of the servers and chefs looked and spoke Japanese, so I’m assuming it’s Japanese run. Not a huge restaurant though, so I see why there are always line ups.

Hamachi Ishinabe

First, we got the Hamachi Ishinabe, which I apologize for the blurry picture. It’s very similar to a Korean bibimbap, where the rice is served in a hot stone bowl. It’s topped with hamachi fish, a raw egg, and some seaweed. When you squish the sides of the rice to the sides of the bowl, you get some crispy rice.

The server helped mix the rice for us, and this is the final product. The fish was very soft and smooth, and I love the flavour of the sauce used. It tasted sort of like the unagi sauce.

Salmon Oshi Sushi

Next was the Salmon Oshi Sushi. If you’re familiar with Miku’s signature Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi, then you’ll find the one at Kishimoto very similar. Except it’s a few dollars cheaper! The sushi rice is shaped into a rectangular shape, topped with salmon, a creamy sauce and crackled black pepper and seared with a torch to give it a nice char. It’s then topped with a slice of jalapeno. Everything was great about this dish, but if you’re had Miku’s, then I think that their special Miku sauce still wins. Otherwise, I could settle for this less pricey version.

Chopped Scallop Roll, Spider Roll, Dragon Roll

Kishimoto is known for their plating – especially that thinly sliced radish and edamame flower. I was excited when the rest of our rolls came, since it came just with that beautiful plating. It also came with a candle with a radish sliced into a cylinder. Super cool! You can basically eat all this art too, but I’m not sure how clean it is. On the top left was the Chopped Scallop Roll. Quite average, with a good amount of filling and fresh scallops. In front, was the Dragon Roll, which feature 2 pieces of prawn tempura, tobiko, and avocado and unagi on top. It was flavoured with an unagi sauce. On the right around the flower, there was the Spider Roll, which was filled with avocado, softshell crab tempura, massago, cucumber, and lettuce. It was wrapped around a thinly sliced sheet of radish.

Salmon Sashimi (9pc) & Tuna Sashimi (6pc)

Then came the sashimi, which came in an impressive block of ice. That’s a huge block! The fresh fish were decorated with flowers and leaves. Super pretty! In the back were the Salmon Sashimi, which we opted for 9 pieces. Each were cut at just the right amount to have a a good texture. Very fresh! In front, the Toro Sashimi were curled up like flowers. Again, very fresh and the toro was smooth and buttery.

Plain Okonomiyaki

Lastly, we had the Plain Okonomiyaki, which was probably one of my favourites! It came with a side of bonito flakes. The okonomiyaki was quite thick, but filled generously with vegetables. I loved the flavouring and it was something that helped fill our stomachs.

Overall, Kishimoto lived up to it’s hype. Great food at decent prices. I’m not sure if I would make the trip all the way here that often though. But if I’m in the neighbourhood, I wouldn’t mind coming here for some Japanese food!

Kamamarui Ramen & Don

August 1, 2014August 1, 20142 Comments

J, S, and K had intended to surprise me with an afternoon of kayaking in the Burnaby Deer Lake, but unfortunately, it began pouring. We ended up going to Metrotown to walk around, and the sun decided to come out… As lunch time passed, we got hungry and began looking for food on our phones. After what seemed forever, we finally decided to go to Kamamarui. There’s barely any parking in the lot, so you may need to park somewhere further away. The restaurant is extremely small. It fits probably under 20 diners. It’s also run by only two young Korean men, so service is definitely much slower. One cooks, while the other serves. However, service is friendly and the decor is simple but clean. We waited roughly 15 minutes, and was able to get a seat.

Tonkotsu Cha-shu Ramen

They basically only have 3 types of ramen. Two pork soup based ramens, with one flavoured with soy sauce and one flavoured with miso. The other is the Veggie Ramen, which is miso soup based. Then you have the option to add cha-shu or sliced pork to it. For myself, I chose the Tonkotsu Cha-Shu Ramen, which was pork soup based and seasoned with soy flavour. It had green onions, bean sprouts and cha-shu (sliced pork). You get quite a lot of cha-shu compared to other ramen shops, but they were quite different. These were more marinated and flavoured. They were also slightly seared or grilled on the sides. I enjoy the traditional cha-shu much more than this modernized version. As for noodles, you get a decent amount, and the texture is chewy, just how I like it. On the table, there are three sauces. There is a chili sauce, a spicy sauce, and a ramen sauce. You can add these sauces as you wish if you find that you want more flavour, saltiness, or spiciness. To be honest, I found that the broth lacked flavour and depth. It wasn’t rich like the ones at Kintaro. I found it rather bland, and had to add quite a bit of the ramen sauce to bring more flavour to the soup.

Miso Cha-shu Ramen

J got the Miso Cha-shu Ramen, which is a miso & pork soup base seasoned with miso flavour. Again, it had green onions, bean sprouts, and cha-shu. Both the miso and tonkotsu ramen come to $11.50 if you choose to add the cha-shu. For each ramen, we also added the Special Nigiri Bomb, so the total became $13 for the set. I’ll speak more about the bomb below.

Vege Ramen

K got the Vege Ramen, which was miso soup based seasoned with miso flavour and topped with green onions, bean sprouts and corn. I actually wish my ramen had come with corn as well, but you had to pay for extra toppings for the non-vegetarian ramens. K said her vege ramen was quite delicious.

Soft Egg

I love soft boiled eggs in my ramen, since I love that runny yolk in the middle. Plus, it’s not something I would spend time making for breakfast in the mornings at home. For an extra $1.50, I chose to add the “Soft Egg“. We were all sad to realize that the soft egg wasn’t what we were hoping for. Instead, it came in it’s own separate dish, and looked like it had been pre-made. It had a runny yolk in the middle, and the whites were also very runny. It was topped with a teriyaki sauce and some green onions. I didn’t really like it and wouldn’t order it again.

Special Nigiri Bomb

Lastly, the Bombs arrived! They were seasoned seaweed with rice and teriyaki sauce and they were my favourite part of the meal! The rice was seasoned so well, and it wasn’t too sticky. Absolutely loved the flavouring!

All in all, the ramens are average, but if you’re in the Burnaby area, it’s not a bad choice. I would still choose the downtown ramen shops as I find the broth more flavourful. I really like the bombs though, so that’s something I would definitely re-order. They also have several donburi choices, so perhaps that would be something to try next time.