Another cold and windy Friday. Summer never really made an appearance this year and Autumn seems to be following in her footsteps. Winter, on the other hand, is determined to announce her presence. I've took out Mr Tan's winter clothing and am all ready to start shopping for mine tomorrow.
Wanted to have dinner @ Hutong Dumpling Bar but it was fully booked when I tried to reserve a table this afternoon. Hopefully we'll get to go there next Friday. I miss 小笼包! Next option? Han Guuk Guan. I checked the web for tram services that run near Han Guuk Guan and was pleased to see that #24, #30 and #35 all run along that route. It should be easy to get there but I couldn't be more wrong. #24 and #30 only runs till 6pm from Mon - Fri and doesn't even operate on Sat and Sun. Luckily for us, #35, the free City Circle Line was still running! Lesson learnt - always check the tram's timetables.
It wasn't packed on a Friday night and it was great because that meant the noise level was manageable and you can sit comfortably with enough space. The staff are mostly Koreans and they don't speak much English. There was Chinese, Japanese and Korean food on the menu but we were really there for the Korean food. I placed our orders by telling him the numbers and that proved to be very efficient!
First up, Seafood Hotpot ($32). It looks really good with lots of ingredients - a crab, prawns, tofu, fish, mushrooms and vegetables. But, the pot holding the soup and seafood was so shallow that there wasn't enough soup to reach the crab on top. How can it ever be cooked? The fish were still frozen and the prawns weren't fresh. After almost 20 minutes of waiting, the soup was still not boiling and we didn't even touch the crab for fear that it hasn't been cooked. This is the 2nd time we are ordering Seafood Hotpot and sad to say, it was another disappointment.
Next, we picked 2 items from the BBQ menu, pork belly ($14) and marinated spicy chicken ($14). All of us were a little bewildered when they arrived as we thought the meat would be barbequed at our tables but nope, they actually came on hotplates. I was kinda disappointed and wondered if I ordered it correctly. But on a positive note, that meant no smelly smoke on our clothes and hair. I didn't try the pork belly and only went for the marinated spicy chicken. Jane and Emily like the sauce very much and Jane couldn't stop complimenting it. The tender chicken and flavourful sauce just make you going back for seconds and thirds.
The Jajangmyeon ($10) was next and this is one of their famous dishes. This is the first time that I'm having Jajangmyeon here, I can't really comment how good it is. The noodles were topped black bean sauce filled with potato and veg and julienned cucumber. The starchy sauce was neither oily nor watery and coated the noodles very nicely. It was a huge serve and though each of us took a potion of it, we still couldn't finish it. I would love to have some meat and more cucumber as too much of the noodles and sauce can be a little 腻 but I did enjoy the chewy noodles.
Then came the highlight of our dinner (at least for me), Sweet and Spicy Fried Chicken ($27). The name is enough to make me scream for more. Everyone loves fried chicken and I love sweet and spicy sauce! The picture does not do the chicken any justice. It was really really good. I LOVE IT! The fried chicken that we had at Hallah had a thin batter but the ones here are coated heavily in batter and they were so crunchy. No chicken bones in the chicken pieces and the sauce was so yummy. Reminded me of the sweet chilli that MacDonald's used to have. My fave sweet chilli sauce, THE BEST. Yum.
Finally, Japchae ($??) arrived and by now, we were all full. I shouldn't have ordered this. Too much food! Potato noodles cooked with lots of mushrooms, onions, leeks and black fungus with lots of pepper. Once again, it was a huge serve, at least twice the amount of what we had at Hallah and though it was good, I still prefer the one that we had at Hallah.
We were all so full that we could hardly move. We decided to walk back to the city area to 消化消化. I would certainly return for its sweet and spicy chicken, just the thought of it now is making me drool. Yummlicious!
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