60 Korean Dishes Every Singaporean Should Know

Myung Ga serves is the only place I know in Singapore which serves deulkkae kalguksu or perilla seeds noodle, a little known Korean noodle dish.

Perilla is a uniquely Korean ingredient. Their leaves are usually accompany barbecue meats and the oil is usually added to soups or blanched vegetables. Besides adding a rich intense flavour to the dishes, perilla is a super food full of omega-3 fatty acids and is widely used in Korean temple food as a natural flavour enhancer.

To prepare deulkkae kalguksu, crushed perilla seeds is first added to anchovies or chicken broth to make it rich, creamy, wholesome and robust. The thickened broth reminds me of carbonara but is a lot more tasty and flavourful.

The noodle soup is usually topped with squash, vegetables, mushrooms and sliced potatoes. This dish is super addictive and I found myself slurping strands of noodles without stopping.

Ddonkkaseu (or Korean fried pork cutlet) has 3 rather unique characteristics: (1) it is huge compared to the Japanese, Chinese and Western cousins; (2) the meat is relatively thin and lean, and the batter thin, like the Austrian schnitzel; and (3) it is usually served topped with a savoury, sweet and sour demi-glacé sauce.

Myung Ga is a homely Korean restaurant at Bukit Timah Plaza, which serves a good and enjoyable version of it. The meat is tender and juicy and the sauce adds a refreshing twist to the pork cutlet.

At $16, its relatively pricey considering the location but the portions and quality make it worthwhile!

Miss K has been super stressed and busy recently so when I saw Su young-sshi's honey mayo tteokbokki, I knew it will be sure to cheer her up. You know you have reached the crowning glory of your short, brief and uninspiring culinary career when Miss Korea says that your tteokbokki is better than anything store bought and she will have it any other day.

@suyoung_ryu is my favourite celebrity chef on @funstaurant_kbs as his recipes are so easy to follow and makes use of simple everyday ingredients. He is also super funny and inspires me to cook for Miss K more often in the future.

Tteokbokki is a relatively simple dish but you need to put in some extra effort to elevate it to the next level. In his recipe, Chef Ryu recommends that you cook the spring onions, the tteok, the cocktail sausages and prawns separately so that they will be perfect taste-wise on their own and even better together. He also recommends that the oil from the spring onion be used to give the dish the extra oomph and aromatic notes.

To prepare the crabstick garnish, I had to shred crab sticks into strips before deep-frying them for the extra bit of crunch to contrast with the soft chewy tteok.

Last but not least, Chef Ryu recommends finishing the dish with a honey-mayonnaise sauce which can be used as a dip or drizzled over the dish. This, for me, is the key to this dish.

It is not doing my waistline no good but this rich, creamy concoction balanced the slightly salty and spicy gochujang sauce (which is usually used for tteokboki) and is just perfect for this dish.

The essence of Chef Ryu's dish is his use of contrasting textures (the crispy deep fried crabstick and the soft chewy tteok) and flavours (the salty and spicy gochujang and the sweet rich creamy honey mayo sauces) that elevates this dish to the next level.

어남선생, 고맙습니다. We really loved your tteokbokki!

Chicken chicken winner dinner!

@88chicken_sg is a new korean fried chicken joint which opened in a mixed development in the Potong Pasir area recently. They serve their fried chickens 3-way: original, yangnyeom (spicy) and ganjang (soy sauce).

I have tried both the yangnywom and ganjang flavours. Compared to my personal gold standard, Waker Chicken, 88 Chicken's KFC is visibly smaller. The batter is also thinner and less crisp. The meat however is tender and better marinated. The sauces are also mellower.

Miss K prefers 88 Chicken. I am kinda on the fence because I do like Waker's shattering crisp chicken skin (even when you do a takeaway) and portions but 88 Chicken has an edge in terms of the texture of the chicken meat and the sauces (if you like it milder). I think it boils down to a matter of personal preference as to which is better! Though you get to enjoy 88 Chicken in air-conditioned comfort and they apparently serve a good kimchi jjigae and haemul pajeon (seafood pancake).

Do let me know which do you prefer!

It has been raining all morning and is just perfect for warm, comfy bowl of ramyeon.

I usually hate having ramyeon outside because you end up overpaying for instant food in a MSG-laden instant soup.

I will however make an exception for Han Bing Cafe's signature kimchi ramyeon. Their soup broth is made from scratch and is both intense and addictive. You can easily slurp up the entire bowl of soup without fear of a dry mouth / scratchy throat as no MSG is used and salt is used sparingly.

Han Bing Cafe is actually more famous for its bingsu. There is no fear of overeating because they serve both standard and mini portions. The bingsu is decent tbh and could use a little more
Injeolmi and soy bean powder.

This is worth a visit and needless to say, I have been back!

It was raining heavily and I was kinda looking forward to something warm. Jjampong therefore made perfect sense as it is red hot spicy and comforting in this wet weather.

Annyeong Chicken is more famous for their tornado fried rice and jjajangmyeon but I was really craving for some jjampong. Their jjampong was just okay. I felt that their soup was way too mild for my liking and there was not much ingredients in there.

I will be back to try their signature dishes but their jjampong is a 아니요 for me.

Gogiyo has several outlets islandwide but their Toa Payoh outlet is located in a food court on the 2nd floor of an industrial building along Braddell Road.

For around $7 to $8, you get a bowl of rice topped with a generous serving of chicken teriyaki, beef bulgogi or kimchi pork, and an onsen egg. And guess what, you get to enjoy 1-for-1 #burpplebeyond deals for selected donburis.

Both Miss K and I enjoyed their kimchi pork don. The portions were big and the meats tasty. Yes, it is kinda tweaked to suit our local palate (i.e. sweeter and more savoury marinades) but in terms of pricing, it is really worthwhile!

Seriously, you can never go wrong with ssamgyeopsal. I like dipping the pork belly in sesame oil and salt before wrapping it in perilla leaf with some young kimchi.

How about you?

Mention Korean food and most people would think about the stretch of road along Tanjong Pagar which are populated with Korean restaurants.

What most people don't know is that there is another little enclave of Korean food in the Beauty World area. Besides stalwarts such as Kim's Family and Woorinara, Beauty World itself is home to several hole in the world Korean eateries such as Pink Candy and Joo Mak.

Three Meals A Day is one of these homely Korean eateries located along Chun Tin Road. The food is good and affordably price. I really enjoyed their soondubu-jjigae which was on the milder side but tasty and savoury. Just perfect for a rainy day lunch. One of the better soondubu-jjigaes I have had in town and definitely worth the buck at $10.

We also shared a plate of their special beef bulgogi. The hot plate was topped with slices of sweet marinated tender beef, glass noodles and rice cakes. Reallly good though slightly more expensive at $35.

There is often a queue outside Three Meals A Day so do try to pop by a little earlier if you are checking them out!

Jokbal is a korean dish made by braising pig trotters in a sauce consisting usually of soy sauce, spices, garlic, ginger and rice wine. It is slow cooked to allow the meat to absorb the flavours and until it becomes fall off the bone tender. The meat usually tasted subtly sweet with a nice rich aftertaste. A good jokbal is one which has managed to the gaminess of the pig trotter and infused the complex flavours of the braise into the meat.

I think texture is an underrated component of asian cuisine and this is one of the dishes where the texture really shines. The tenderness of the meat, the luscious fat layer and the gelatinous skin combines to enhance the 口感 (literally mouthfeel) of this dish.

The food at Joomak is good and homely. Portions are a little on the small side but I will recommend their pancakes and jajangmyeon!

Go K-BBQ is a korean bbq restaurant that serves aged meats.

We shared one of their bbq platters over lunch which came with three types of meats and 2 stews. Boys being boys, we ordered a seafood pancake and an additional order of meat as well 😋😋😋

I really enjoyed their beef short ribs. The flavours were rich and intense and every bite was bursting with juices. The seafood pancake was also really good.

Compared to some of the Korean bbq restaurants in the area but this is the price you pay for better meat quality!

As promised, here's a follow up post on the one particular dish which Miss K and I really enjoyed at Hangawi last Sunday.

Hangawi's soondubu-jjigae (순두부찌개) was really good and warms the cockles of our hearts. The broth hit all the right notes, striking a good balance between spicy and savoury. We loved that they used a slightly firmer tofu which gave the dish a lot more texture. I am not 100% sure but it could be egg tofu as there was a subtle "eggy" aftertaste.

This is definitely one dish I highly recommend you check out when you are there!