A Fat Girl's Food Guide to Eating in Korea

Posts Tagged ‘Spring rolls’

12
Nov
2012

Buddha’s Belly

categories: Restaurant Reviews

You may already be sick of me telling you about all the wonderful restaurants that I am lucky enough to live by, but I figure one more can’t hurt. As previously stated there are lots of dining options within my neighborhood. However I’m  not always in the mood to eat out, I just want to go home and eat my dinner whilst lying on the sofa and watching telly. This is usually on a Monday when I am still hideously hungover. Delivery food is quite plentiful in Korea (see my previous article) however it is generally plentiful of the Korean variety, which doesn’t really get my juices flowing. It’s that or pizza and as you may know if you’re an avid reader of this blog I always eat my pizza on Sundays (that’s why I call it pizza Sunday, hangover Sunday, or Sunday funday depending on my mood).

Back to the point of this blog, just by our bus stop on the way home is the  Buddha’s Belly which provides a lovely takeaway service if you pick it up. We have the number saved in our phones and the menu ingrained into our minds. One quick call on the bus home and its ready to pick up when we arrive. It’s a great option to have on those lazy nights. As you may have heard I miss Chinese takeaway more than anything in the world, it almost makes me want to live at home again. However Buddha’s Belly is luckily doing its bit to keep me in Korea.

By far and away our favorite dish on the menu (and we have tried quite a few) is the Pad See Eew – blackbean fried noodles 9,000. Before you go getting visions of jajangmeyeon this dish is nothing like its Korean counterpart. To be fair there’s hardly ever a blackbean in it. But either way it’s deliciously tasty. Large flat noodles, stir fried with egg, chicken and vegetables with a slightly sticky sauce coating.

We are also big fans of the Thai green curry 11,000. This is always a favorite dish of mine and this one’s pretty decent. The green Thai curry pastes available to buy in Korea are poor at best. Although it’s possible to source all the ingredients and make it yourself, it’s not always that easy or cost-effective and the one at Buddha’s Belly can certainly satisfy your cravings.

The springrolls are rather good too 2,000, a decent size with lots of good filling. I do like a good springroll. We also enjoy the fried rice 10,000.

Word of warning not everything on the menu is to my liking. The chicken cashew dish 9,000 was very disappointing, the sauce was just way too hot and not remotely sweet. I practically lived on this dish when I traveled in Thailand and this one tastes nothing like the one found there. If you enjoy your food hot you may like it. But even Niall wasn’t that keen and he likes food to blow his head off.

We also tried the sour and spicy chicken 9,000 which was very strange for want of a better word. It just tasted very very odd, kind of like feet, it must have an ingredient that makes it taste like that.

Whilst Buddha’s Belly does not make the best Thai food in the world, it’s fairly decent and a good choice if you’re looking for something different and you live in the area. They also have seating for about 6 people if you wish to dine inside.

Buddha’s belly take-away is located in Kyungnidan. Take a train to Noksapyeong station (Line 6) and come out of exit 2. Walk straight for about 200 yards until you come to an underpass. Go through the tunnel under the road and take the exit on the left. Bhuddas Belly will be right in front of you. If you already know the menu you can call them on 02-793-2173 to arrange a pickup. There are also two other restaurants in Itaewon. One is located just above Berlin and the other is on the street behind the Hamilton Hotel.

20
Oct
2012

Pho Mein

categories: Restaurant Reviews

I like to think of myself as very lucky food wise. Living in HBC I am surrounded with foreign food stores and restaurants. Even the shop across the road stocks everything I could want for any western dinner. As well as all this goodness I am blessed to work around the corner from Pho Mein.  Pho Mein is the best Vietnamese restaurant in Korea ever. Just walking past that place on my way to get a vanilla latte has me drooling.

I don’t think you could go to Pho Mein without trying the pho. They had various varieties of these soup noodles on the menu.  We opted for the Pho Meins Pho (9,500). The pho arrived in a huge steaming bowl with the various accompaniments. The broth was very tasty and full of flavor. Some pho that you have really need a good amount of the hoi sin sauce in them before they get tasty but this one was fine on its own. It had a generous amount of meat which was good too. Although you couldn’t compare it to the pho we had in Vietnam, there was just something different about those, it was very good.

We also ordered the shrimp rolls (5,000) They are king prawns wrapped in a crispy coating and served with a sweet chili sauce. I think we all know by now that I enjoy anything deep fried and these are no exception they have a great texture and taste. They also have various other spring rolls and wedding shomais on the menu.

This time I was keen to try to the fried rice, they had several varieties on the menu and we chose the pineapple shrimp fried rice (10,500). It was everything I hoped it would be. I had the true taste and smell of an authentic fried rice, which bok um bab (korean fried rice) just can’t seem to replicate. There were plenty of chunks of pineapple and shrimps. We had this to accompany the cashew chicken but it could easily stand alone as a main dish.

Lastly we ordered the pièce de résistance – fried cashew nut chicken (16,500). I literally could not fault this dish, it is absolutely perfect. The chicken is coated in this amazing crunchy batter. There’s a generous portion of cashew nuts and the vegetables are fresh and crisp, just what I look for in a dish like this. The sauce is perfect too, sweet and spice balancing in perfect harmony. If you enjoy kung pao chicken at home then this is the dish for you. China factory could learn a lot from this place. I think this one is also even better than the one at Ho Lee Chow, but I would have to do a taste off to make sure.

As you can probably tell I am a huge fan of Pho Mien, they have served me some of the best westernized asian food I have eaten in Korea. The price is also fairly reasonably, considering the amount we ate. We visited the Bangbae location but they have restaurants all over Korea. Take a look at their website to see the menu and find your nearest one. You won’t be sorry.  http://phomein.com/Main/

07
Aug
2012

Vietnamese Spring rolls

categories: Recipes

If you weren’t already aware (how many times have I gone on about it now?) I have just been on a jaunt to Vietnam. Whilst there I partook in a cookery class. It was great fun and I even learned a few things too. The first dish they taught us to make was these little beauties. Although I have made them at home before they did not turn out quite how I expected. I have honed my skills and so now I can make far superior ones.

The key to making this dish is not soaking the rice papers for too long which was what  I was doing wrong before. You can put anything you like into to these so let your imagination run wild, I just used what I found at my local supermarket.

Ingredients

Rice papers (They have these everywhere, Homeplus and small supermarkets)

1/4 Shedded carrot

1/4 shredded cucumbers

1/2 a sliced red pepper

100g of cooked rice noodles (I bought mine in the foreign food mart, but you could use any kind of noodles instead)

A handful of bean sprouts

10 king prawns or some cooked chicken or pork

Fresh herbs if you have them (Cilantro, mint or Thai basil work well)

Sweet chilli sauce for dipping (I’m not going to make my own, its a bloody monday but feel free to if you wish).

Directions

It’s up to you how many you want/ have the patience to make, but the ingredients listed will make about 20. Start by shredding the carrot on a mandolin if you have one (I got mine at Daiso), you could just as easily grate the carrot though. Chop the cucumber and pepper into long thin slices. The length of the slices should be about half the width of your rice paper. Then slice your king prawns in half lengthways (you can use any meat in these if you prefer). With all your ingredients close at hand you should be ready to go. Dip your rice paper into the water and rotate it so all the sides have been dipped into the water then take it out. If the middle is still dry rub some water on it with your fingers so that it’s also a little wet. Put your roll on to a plate with the edge hanging over the side of the plate closest to you. Start putting your vegetables on the roll in the middle on the side closest to you, two or three pieces of each max.  Don’t be too generous with your stuffing, less is more in this case. They will be far easier to roll. After you have put the veggies on add the rice noodles and begin to roll. The picture below should give you a rough idea of the amounts.

Fold in the sides and add the king prawns with the color side facing down so it can be seen through the paper when you have finished rolling it. The trick of these is getting the paper soft enough to work with as when they are too hard they rip. In our cooking class we used the larger rice papers which I found much easier to work with, so in this case bigger is better.  If my ramblings have confused you then here’s a video from youtube which should answer any questions you have.

17
Jul
2012

My Thai China

categories: Restaurant Reviews

Located in the alleyway behind the Hamilton Hotel is the delightful fusion restaurant My Thai China. The menu has a good balance between Thai and Chinese dishes. This second floor restaurant gazes down upon you looking warm and inviting to those on the outside. Take a journey up the stairs to find yourself in a Thai den of iniquity full of dark wood and flickering candles.

The menu is quite substantial and has a lot to offer, all the Thai favourites seem to be there as well as the more westernised Chinese offerings. We opted for the set  menu (55,000)which included spring rolls, the choice of two main meat/fish dishes as well as a rice or noodle dish and 2 complementary soft drinks. For an extra 30,000 you can upgrade it to include a bottle of wine.

The spring rolls were crisp and tasty and reminiscent of the ones I ate in Thailand. It’s very hard to find good  spring rolls in Korea but these guys cracked it. The sweet chilli sauce accompanying them was also very good. It had the right balance between chilli and sweetness, and it tasted homemade.

 

Next were our main dishes, we chose the fried chciken with mushrooms and cashew nuts and the fried shrimp with pineapple in red wine sauce.  The chicken was lightly fried without batter in a spicy sticky glaze, there was a generous amount of cashew nuts sprinkled on top of the dish. I really liked this dish, but my boyfriend said it fell short of the Kung Pao at Ho Lee Chow as he felt it was too dry, perhaps a little bit more sauce could secure them a victory.

The real star of this meal was the fried shrimp with pineapple in red wine sauce. It was so good I don’t even know where to begin. The king prawns were large and juicy and covered in a divine thick crispy batter. It reminded me of the same batter we get at home on our fish and chips, The pineapple was juicy and the sauce was a nice take on the sweet ‘n sour, I would have licked the plate clean!

Our last dish was the soy fried chicken rice but it turned out to be rather disappointing. There was far too much soy sauce for a start and it was too heavy on the garlic, both flavors I usually enjoy but they completely overpowered any other elements in the dish. I love fried rice but this one was worse than the Korean fried rice(볶음밥).

Overall I would certainly go back to My Thai China, it would be worth it for those king prawns alone, but there were plenty of other dishes on the menu I would like to have tried. The decor is dark and romantic, it would be a nice place to take a date and it’s not too expensive, our food could have easily fed three people.

To get to My Thai China come out of exit 1 and head for the alley behind the Hamilton Hotel, it’s just opposite Scrooge’s pub. It was quite busy on the Thursday night we were there so it might serve you well to make a reservation to avoid disappointment. Telephone number 02-749-9287.