Posts Tagged ‘banchan’
arirang, liang seah street
Friday night started off questionably since neither myself nor Steph had any good ideas of what to eat. I was slaving away at work while Steph was drying herself off after having lost a battle with one of Singapore’s rainstorms (that of the sideways rain variety). Undaunted by or indecisiveness, I suggested Liang Seah Street which Steph had never been to and has tons of places to choose from.
After one quick promenade up and down to survey the scene, we decided on Korean food and had two choices: Arirang or Mario’s. We choose Arirang. Why? Do you know a Korean person named Mario? I don’t. Also, Mario’s was pretty empty while Arirang was bustling with people. We set our sights on the bbq buffet which costs about SGD23 per person. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
We started off with the requisited banchan parade which I forget how much I miss. These banchan paled in comparison to that of the Korean restos (or even groceries) in the Bay Area but they were not half bad. My faves were the kimchi and the bean sprouts. The squash (foreground) and the radish (towards the front right) were lacking in the heat department and that mound of green stuff was steamed but lacked any real flavor.
tofu house, palo alto, ca
If we’re friends I probably have made you eat at Tofu House. (It goes hand and hand with my love for kdramas.) This time I dragged the other Joann, Lizzie, and Julia. Well, not dragged. Joann asked – PVH or Tofu House? Seeing as that I was the only one that voted… I won! One of the best things about Korean places is the banchan. In this case we got mung bean sprouts, sugary potatoes, regular ol’ kimchi, seaweed with hot sauce, and chapchae. At this particular TH you get purple rice with beans (in the metal bowl). You can also ask for regular rice if you like to keep things simple.
banchen testing
The apt smells like a mixture of cake + banana leaves because I’m trying out the bibingka recipe from Memories of Philippine Kitchens. I’ll need to do a taste test so more on that in another post.
A few days ago I made a quick run to Han Kook Market which is (not that I’ve been to any other Korean market) one of the finest Korean grocers in the Bay Area. It’s big and clean and has lots of fun stuff to try out and experiment with. In addition to the weird Pocky (see post below) I also picked up some quickie eats- a must since it was a late Friday afternoon at work with more work the next day. What better time to see what the kmarket has to offer.
Feed your reader! 
