When we first heard of the assignment, Nady and I were at a loss. There were so many things we could focus on to learn more about the Korean culture. We finally got inspiration in the form of a friend pestering us to eat patbingsu with her. We decided to look into popular Korean food sold right here in sunny Singapore and see how it has adapted for the consumers. In a span of 2 weeks, we went out to lunch with some friends a total of 4 times to well-known food outlets offering different types of Korean food.
The first one we tried out was, of course, Seoul Garden at Jurong Point. Despite its name, there was very little similarity to actual Korean barbecue places in Seoul (or South Korea for that matter). We tried very hard to replicate what it would feel like eating in Korea - from grilling as much marinated meat as possible, attempting to make kimchi jjigae (stew) and making lettuce wraps. Of course the most prevalent thing missing was the huge amounts of alcohol, but even if it was offered, we couldn’t possibly get drunk in the middle of the day. The franchise is clearly targeting Singaporean families with young children with their out of place desserts (cheesecake and ice kacang).
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| The kimchi soup |
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| A lot of "Singaporean food" offered |
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| MEAT |
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| As compared to Seafood Stew served in South Korea |
Next, we tried the bingsu offered at One Ice Cafe, a small Korean dessert shop at J-Cube. In Korea, their service and hospitality are definitely top-notch, but this shop clearly did not know that. We were upset at the staff’s lacklustre service, but we were slightly appeased by the delicious patbingsu and great company. However, it’s worth mentioning that the bingsu we tried were mostly suited for Singaporean tastebuds with flavours like oreo and choco banana. If all pseudo-patbingsu in Singapore tasted as good as this, I can’t wait to go to South Korea and actually try the real thing.
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| The different flavours offered at the cafe |
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| Choco banana Bingsu |
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| Oreo Bingsu |
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| PatBingsu |
It wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t try Korean fried chicken, but with so many different outlets to choose from we had to decide on just one (or we would be broke). Due to friends’ recommendations and great timing, we decided to try NeNe Chicken at *SCAPE and didn’t regret it. Not sure if we were just hungry, but the freshly fried chicken with what seemed like a million sauces was such a treat that it made us wish we were going to Korea this summer. The attentive staff was also a plus-factor. The sad thing was that as compared to those in Korea, all the fried chicken outlets here are overpriced (giving us another excuse to go to Korea).
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| The Nene Chicken outlet at *SCAPE |
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| The chicken came with fries and a choice of side dishes like the corn salad or radish |
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| The fried chicken in South Korea with beer |
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| The fried chicken in Singapore (without the beer) |
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| Shoutout to our friendly server |
Lastly, we went to FLO - Food Lovers Only, located in IMM, a cafe/restaurant serving fusion Korean food. The dishes that we tried were definitely worth the top-dollar and the service was great as well. I won’t say too much about FLO as this was Nady’s favourite pick out of the 4 places we tried out.
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| Look at me trying the beef bulgogi sandwich |
As for me, I really enjoyed the fried chicken. But maybe that’s because I enjoy ALL chicken. All in all, this assignment was not only an excuse for us to eat our hearts out - but also a chance for us to connect with our friends (and share a lot of food at a lower cost) and better distinguish authentic Korean food from fusion ones.
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| Omnomnomnom |
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