Dubu House Korea, Gloria Outlets, Taipei

Korean lunch at the Gloria branch of Dubu House Korea (3rd Floor, No. 189, Chunde Road, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan).

Banchan has nice kimchi, nice (albeit sweetish) potato salad, bland bean sprouts and the wood ear fungus has ginger. Variety is kinda limited. One item not featured in the picture was nori which we got multiple refills of which was good eating with the kimchi (which we got multiple refills of as well) and the potato salad.

A pretty decent sparkling rose Americano to start. Surprisingly drinkable coffee.

This truffle cheese omelette had loads of truffle paste inside. Nice with the nori too.

Gyeran jjim with cheese and tobiko. And also baby corn. Not bad. Cheese added a needed saltiness which made it delicious.

This was their thick haemul pajeon. Seafood pancake. Nice. 👍🏼 Loads of seafood in it. It felt like eating a seafood quiche.

Pretty surprised to find lamb as a protein option in their kimchi sundubu. Not bad. I liked that the flavour of the meat was infused in the broth.

This was supposed to be their oyster seaweed sundubu. Never even noticed that there wasn't any seaweed in it. Anyways, I loaded it with a lot of nori because it was kinda bland.

I don't know if it's customary for them to serve dessert after meals. We didn't order but got some sweet bean curd.

Tofu G (豆府記 두부젤라또), Mandarin Gallery

Came across Tofu G (#03-30 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 8970 6493) recently and tried a couple of their tofu gelato. Apparently, they're the first tofu gelato here and the spot they're on is a pop up. Nicest looking pop up I've seen.

The lavender coloured one was Korean sweet potato - if you asked me, it tasted like yam and coconut. The Sandy coloured one's pistachio with its unmistakeable nuttiness. These were a lot lighter compared to regular dairy based gelato. Not bad.

Back at SBCD Korean Tofu House

Happenstance dinner at SBCD Korean Tofu House. It's been a lot longer than I realised since the last time. This was a combo with spicy chicken and their original beef soontofu/sundubu.

Their spicy chicken's kinda nice. Charred, smoky and sweet. The heat wasn't as intimidating as what most people might imagine. We almost thought this was the teriyaki chicken served by mistake.

That original beef soontofu has sliced and minced meat. Noticed substantially more tofu than I recall ever getting from the last times. This pot was great with rice.

Re-visiting Jeong's Jjajang

There were a couple of things we wanted to come back to Jeong's Jjajang for. The first was to try their jjampong and the other was to get their delicious mandus again. And then we also found something else this time. 

I love the smoky aroma infused in their jjampong's broth. It's exactly the same soup as what they gave us on the side the last time we were here. It's so good. Will try the stir fried one next.

There's kalguksu which I hadn't noticed on their menu the last time. The in house made soya bean broth was deliciously bean-y. 

Possibly the best mandus we've had to date. Not that we've had that much but the quality is obvious and the stuffings, generous.

Song Gye Ok (송계옥), Telok Ayer Road

These guys (113 Telok Ayer Street, tel : +65 8088 3850) are a chicken specialty shop from Korea. According to them, they're really popular. And they're sister to the current samgyetang belle of the ball Modu, so we came here for samgyetang.

But first some sikhye. Flavour's sweet, malty and oat-y.

Middle's salt and pepper, not brown sugar. The cabbage on the right is baek kimchi with yuja/yuzu. Nice. The other green preserved vegetable thingy on the left...not so memorable.

We were here for samgyetang but I was also curious about their grilled chicken parts because that's what they were known for. We decided we'd try one part and went for the heart.

Those little hearts were grilled table side.

Mouthing silent squeals with mouths they don't have while they sizzled to our delights.

Came with some dips and salt. Though I like salt best because that's the condiment where the flavour of the heart and the char aroma came through, the others dips were not bad.

Truffle was shaven on serving for the truffle samgyetang.

The broth from it tasted like a tangy mushroom soup...not exactly what I imagined. No discernible ginseng flavour. It wasn't bad though. Chicken was slurp off the bone tender.

In retrospect, I liked the oat-y earthy flavour of the perilla samgyetang better. The collagen broth that they use for refills has that ginseng taste I was thinking of. Both banchan and soup are refillable.

Super Star K, Funan

The last time we were at Super Star K, I was pretty sure there wasn't kong guksu on menu. Apparently, there is now. At least there was for their branch at Funan (B02-22A/23 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6320 3813). Was happy with it and also glad that they served with sugar on the side without us having to ask for it. Note to self: We enjoyed their gogi mandus.

Jeong's Jjajang, Killiney Road

Have heard of Jeong's Jjajang (75 Killiney Road, tel : +65 9832 1525) being mentioned so we're here to try the food.

Some peach makgeolli while waiting.

Jjajangmyeon was fine. The sauce was savoury sweet and onion-y. While we didn't think badly of this, I'm also thinking that I prefer the ones from O.BBa Jjajang and Wonderful Bapsang.

Decent kimchi bokkeumbap. This tasted like kimchi integrated with fried rice rather than kimchi fried rice if that makes sense.

Not bad kimchi jjigae.

Their mandus rocked!🤘🏼 Stuffings were pork, chives and mashed tofu I think. They were also huge. These were much more memorable than the ones from Noodle Star K. Note to self: come back for the jjampong the next time because the wok hei infused broth also rocks!

Paik's Noodle without noodles

Back at Paik's Noodle. Their savoury and smoky shrimp fried rice was pretty good tasting. Didn't think it needed the chunjang at all. 

I've been curious about their mapo tofu and finally tried it. Not as salty/beany as the Chinese rendition. Loads of onions in this one and the meaty gravy was slightly starchy. Not bad tasting but also not as intense and moreish as I imagined.

Tuna bibimbap from Ssada Gimbab (싸다김밥)

My first tuna bibimbap. From Ssada Gimbab. I wanted to keep it simple but ended up adding mozzarella cheese which on hindsight might not be the best idea since the warmth from the rice could only do so much before the cheese hardened again. What would seriously elevate this is a drizzle of good sesame oil. Definitely serviceable still.

More lunch from Fish & Bones

The burger's no longer available at Fish & Bones for lunch. It's...regular Korean food now.

Banchan's refillable. The one with cucumber was refreshing. Bean sprouts have a nice sesame oil flavour. Kimchi's kinda young-ish without the tang I was hoping for.

Hoedeopbap - there's salmon and a white fish which I think might be halibut. Fish here is kinda chewy.

I think this is their gochujang. Didn't taste like most gochujang. Not as beany, tasted more fruity and also more refreshing.

Those vegetables aren't great for mixing. Too bulky and doesn't wilt. Didn't dislike the hoedeopbap but I don't think I'll get it again.

Don't think we've had Korean abalone porridge before. I was expecting something abalone-y but it did not taste like abalone. Tasted like...something we can get from Ah Chiang. 😂 I'm not sure what I'm tasting here.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Decent miso marinated hamachi collar.