banchan – Jellybeans in the City

Underrated yet must-try Korean food from Soban K-Town Grill

Sure, Korean culture has infiltrated the Pinoy consciousness with all the K-dramas, K-idols and K-variety shows almost constantly streaming on our TV screens.

However, there’s one aspect of Korean culture that appeals to me the most: Korean food!

Despite its penchant for pungent fermented condiments and spices, Korean food is known for creating a delicious harmony of flavors.

For years now, Korean food, particularly the samgyeopsal or the Korean pork barbecue, has been capturing hearts and palates of Pinoy diners, with restaurants such as Soban K-Town Grill serving up diverse meats and side dishes such as the ones I enjoyed during a previous visit with the fam.

Soban K-Town, Eastwood — Classic BBQ Combo Set

However, today, I’ll be featuring some of the lesser known Korean dishes which I think also deserves some attention.

Hubby decided to order some dishes via GrabFood to go with the Korean barbecue I’m cooking at home so these delectable dishes arrived to grace our dinner table.

Gimbap (Php110/6 pcs | Php195/12 pcs). Lightly seasoned steamed rice, scrambled egg, chopped vegetables and meat rolled in gim – dried seaweed sheets – then cut up into thin slices prior to serving. Although highly snackable, it’s also a good side dish in any Korean meal.

Jeyuk Bokkeum (Php405). Thinly sliced pork pieces are marinated in spicy gochujang paste along with fresh garlic and ginger, then stir-fried along with vegetables. I like wrapping up the pork in lettuce leaves along with rice and sliced garlic and ssamjang, essentially treating this dish as another form of samgyeopsal.

Banchan Set (Php140 | free with our order). For me, much of celebrated harmony of flavors that Korean cuisine is known for is attributable to its wide array of side dishes also known as banchan. With Soban’s Banchan Set, diners can enjoy six side dishes such as kimchi, scrambled eggs and stir-fried or pickled vegetables that can be mixed and matched with other dishes.

These dishes sure added a lot of interest (and flavor!) to the fam’s dinner, and further strengthened Korean food’s position in our hearts.

Craving for your Korean food faves or want to try something new? Order now from Soban K-Town Grill via GrabFood!

About Grab

Grab is the leading super app in Southeast Asia, providing everyday services that matter most to consumers. Today, the Grab app has been downloaded onto over 185 million mobile devices, giving users access to over 9 million drivers, merchants and agents. Grab offers the widest range of on-demand transport services in the region, in addition to food, package, grocery delivery services, mobile payments and financial services across 339 cities in eight countries.

About GrabFood

Operating under the Grab super app, GrabFood is an online food delivery service that connects local food businesses to people. GrabFood presents a variety of food based on what’s available around consumers: Filipino, Western, Asian, European, Fusion and so on. Today, GrabFood’s services are available in areas of Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Cebu, with plans to continue expanding to reach more areas in the country.

Download the Grab app here.

Unli Korean BBQ at Every Samgyeop, Tomas Morato

For years now, there’s a proposition that’s sure to get me all excited: all-can-eat samgyeopsal.

Ever since I had my first taste of juicy flavorful pork and beef pieces freshly grilled right in front of me, seasoned with sesame oil, salt and pepper, and given that distinct Korean flavor with a bit of ssamjang and thin garlic slices, I knew a new gastronomic obsession was born.

And that obsession holds true to this very day.

This is why I was overjoyed to be invited to a foodie meetup at Every Samgyeop. Not only is it a Korean resto specializing in samgyeopsal and other Korean barbecue variants, it is also located just a stone’s throw away from my office.

I first dined at Every Samgyeop early last year and have eaten there several times since but today was special: my foodie friends from #SaanSaPH and I were being treated to its “Eat All You Can: Unlimited Meat and Rice” set which was not yet in place during my previous visits.

For only Php499/person, you and your friends can enjoy unlimited plain and marinated meats which include:

Samgyeopsal (thick slices of pork belly)

Deepee Samgyeopsal (thinly sliced pork belly)

Soy Sauce Samgyeopsal (pork belly slices marinated in soy sauce)

Gochujang Samgyeopsal (pork belly slices in the traditional Korean spicy sauce)

Honey Butter Samgyeopsal

Hangjeongsal (jowl meat)

Woosamgyup (thinly sliced beef loin)

Soy Sauce Woosamgyup (thinly sliced beef loin marinated in soy sauce)

Gochujang Woosamgyup (thinly sliced beef loin in the traditional Korean spicy sauce)

Bulgogi (Korean sweet beef stew)

Dakdarisal (marinated chicken thigh fillet)

These meats come with special side dishes (called banchan) which include:

Kimchi

Ddangkong Jorim (soy braised peanuts)

Eomuk Bokkeum (stir-fried fish cakes)

Korean Cabbage Salad

Pickled Vegetables

Calamaris

You can also add Php50 to your meal set to get another order of calamaris as well as a bowl of steaming hot ramyun (Korean-style instant ramen).

Aside from its sheer variety of meats available, Every Samgyeop is also notable for its tender and flavorful pork cuts. Their secret is the dry aging process that they subject their pork cuts to which allows the enzymes present to further break down the meat resulting to enhanced taste and texture.

I had so much fun taking my turn to grill our meats, eating my fill and spending time with my foodie friends at Every Samgyeop and I look forward to my next visit!

Every Samgyeop is located at 58 Sgt. Esguerra Street (across ABS-CBN Main Building), Bgy. South Triangle, Quezon City. For inquiries and reservations, call +63 2 6212032 or +63 927 273555.

Disclosure: Together with other foodies from #SaanSaPH, I was invited to join a foodie meetup held at this restaurant. Food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my posts about other Korean restaurants:

Premium Korean BBQ at Fantastic Baka, Tomas Morato

Craving for your fix of Korean-style grilled meats?

Look no further than Fantastic Baka, one of the newest Korean BBQ restaurants to open in the vicinity of the foodie-friendly Tomas Morato area.

Located at the Grandia Place right across ABS-CBN, it offers a premium selection of meats and dishes expertly prepared by three-Michelin star awarded Chef Jang Jungyun, considered one of Korea’s A-list chefs.

At the invitation of Fantastic Baka’s mother company, Tong Keun So, my officemates and I made our way to this restaurant for our pre-holiday lunch.

The resto has a sizeable dining area with grills built in to the tables and exhaust tubes extended down from the ceilings. The combination of dark wood and pine, as well as the black-and-white color theme in furnishings and decor give the place a sleek and modern feel.

Our group of four were served items from the Unlimited Php799 package which includes eight kinds of beef and seven kinds of pork such as plain and seasoned plate, plain and spicy bulgogi, brisket point, plain and seasoned prime chuck eyeroll, hanging tender, regular and thinly sliced pork belly and more.

We requested for several refills of thinly sliced beef plate and the more premium beef variants. We had to grill the meats ourselves but fortunately, our waiter gamely gave us some grilling tips and we managed (thankfully!) to get ouselves fed.

My preference towards Korean-style grilled meats leans towards the unseasoned variants. I just dipped the cooked pieces in salted sesame oil and the savory ssamjang prior to wrapping them in the crisp lettuce leaves provided.

Banchan (side dishes) were generously served, with our group showing marked preference for Jap-chae, steamed egg, stir-fried fish cakes and cole slaw. We also got a taste of Fantastic Baka’s famous cheese sauce in which we dipped some of the cooked meats.

While the regular meat variants are yummy enough by themselves, the premium beef cuts are absolutely superb: they have a tender, juicy and buttery feel as you bite into them.

At Php799 per person for unlimited servings of 15 beef and pork variations, or Php599 per person for unlimited servings of 11 variations, Fantastic Baka might seem a bit pricey but the premium beef cuts are worth it.

With this treat from Fantastic Baka, my coworkers and I were able to embark in another epic happy lunch adventure. We went back to the office smelling like barbecue but you won’t hear us complaining. 🙂

Want to dine at Fantastic Baka but on a budget? Dine from 11am to 4pm on weekdays and get Php100 off on the Unlimited Php599 menu. Kids below 3 feet dine for free and kids between 3 feet to 4.2 feet will be given a 50% discount on the Unlimited sets.

Fantastic Baka also has a Php200 penalty for leftovers so do finish off all the meat refills you requested for.

If Korean Barbecue is not your thing, you might want to check out Fantastic Baka’s Bento Meals. At only Php280, you can enjoy Sweet and Sour Chickeb, Pork Bulgogi or Spicy Pork Bulgogi served with soup, Japchae, stir-fried fishcake, fresh salad, kimchi, iced tea and unlimited rice.

Fantastic Baka is located at 143 Grandia Building, Mother Ignacia Ave, Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila, open daily from 11am to 12 midnight. For inquiries and reservations, call +63 915 8455899.

Disclosure: Our lunch was hosted by Fantastic Baka. The food items mentioned here were served for us to sample the fare and were not paid for by our group.

Check out my posts about other Korean restaurants:

Samgyeopsal for lunch at Oh My Korean Grill and Chimaek

Again, another Korean food joint that set my heart all a-flutter.

Located just a stone’s throw away (if the stone couldn’t get far because you have a particularly limp arm) from my office, the newly opened Oh My Korean Grill and Chimaek resto features an arresting light pine and dark wood facade and industrial minimalist interiors with some K-pop accents. Since it’s newly opened, it doesn’t that greasy-smoky smell that seem to permeate other Korean grill joints, and worse, gets transferred to your clothes by the time you leave the restaurant.

Chimaek, in case you’re wondering, is a portmanteau of “chiken” and “maekju,” the Korean word for “beer.” So chimaek simply means “chicken and beer,” probably a good idea for harassed office workers at the end of a stressful day.

It’s not a good idea, however, for office workers out on their lunch break.

So, together with a couple of friends, I ordered the following:

Samyeopsal (Php250). Thick, fatty slices of pork belly meat.
Chadolbegi (Php300). Thinly slice beef brisket
Plain rice for each of us

While the meats were being grilled at the next table (thankfully, so that our group won’t smell like barbecue when we get back to the office), we were served soup and banchan, side dishes, of kimchi, soy potatoes and dried anchovies.

Once cooked, I wrapped some bits of the meats – seasoned with salted sesame oil and soybean paste, together with some rice and thin slice of raw garlic, in the lettuce leaves provided. To add some kick to each bite, I added some of the spicy kimchi inside the wrap.

The service was quick and efficient, and the staff were warm, polite and helpful. I’m looking forward to trying out its other offerings, particularly those with cheese: the Cheese Kimchi Bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice with cheese and veggies) and the Cheesy Ramyun (Korean ramen with a twist of cheese).

Check out my posts about other Korean restaurants:

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