Recipe: Pork belly tteok

I love Korean food like wow and love to share the obsession with my friends. This homely comfort food dish is warm and delicious, you can use just about any protein and vegetable combination but this is one of my favourites.

You can buy Korean rice cakes (tteok 떡) at most Asian supermarkets, they store in the freezer for months so you can buy up and use them whenever you like.

Pork Belly Tteok

200g sliced pork belly
500g (or 1 packet) tube style rice cakes
4 eggs (or 1 per serving)
2 tbspns gochujangg
2 tbspns tomato puree
2 tbspns white sugar
2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
2 sticks of celery
1 capsicum
4 spring onions (scallions)
1 tbspn minced ginger
2 tbspns sesame oil

Method

• Before starting the main dish boil the eggs to your preferred doneness
• Dice the celery and capsicum then heat the sesame oil in a wok or large saucepan
• Add the celery and sweat until transparent, then add the capsicum and continue to stir fry
• Once the capsicum is soft add the pork belly and fry all items until the pork is slightly brown
• Add the ginger and stir to coat all the vegetables then add the rice cakes
• Combine the wet ingredients (stock, tomato, gochujangg) in a jug until a consistent texture and colour
• Add the liquid and the eggs to the saucepan and simmer to reduce
• Add the sugar and scallions once reduced, leave some scallions for garnish
• Serve with cold Asian beer

Recipe: Bacon gochujangg tteok

Inspired by a similar dish served at Mok Bar in New York's Chelsea market this is an amazing fusion taste combination of smokey pork and sweet spicy gochujangg Korean chilli paste. This is an amazingly quick dish to prepare and absolutely wows.

Bacon gochujangg tteok

4 rashers of bacon
250g fresh Korean rice cakes (tteok)
2 sprigs of Spring onion
2 tbspns Gochujangg
1/2 cup cabbage Kim Chi
1 tspn sesame oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbspn grated ginger
2 eggs

Optional:
1 tbspn black or balsamic vinegar
2 tbspn Mirin

Method

• I buy Jinmi Napa Cabbage Kim Chi if local fresh products are not available
• One of the best things about this dish is the toothy al dente texture the rice cakes take on in the bacon fat. For best effect use the flat disk style garaetteok rather than the tube tteok so that a greater surface area is fried.
• Use a large flat pan with as much surface area as possible for frying. Dice the bacon into small pieces and fry until the fat has rendered into the pan.
• You must use room temperature tteok for the crispy chewy fried texture to work, if you buy frozen rice cakes make sure to defrost before cooking.
• Pour the rice cakes into the pan, try to maintain a single cake depth with as many rice cakes as possible touching the bottom of the pan.
• Leave the rice cakes to turn slightly transparent before turning. Use an egg flip to turn the rice cakes, resist the urge to 'stir' them as this will activate the gluten and you are just as likely to end up with one sticky ball of rice cakes!
• Start to fry the eggs sunny side up at this stage, this should ensure that your eggs are fried at the same time the rest of the dish is complete.
• In a small bowl mix the gochujang, ginger, garlic and sesame oil plus 1 sprig of the spring onions diced.
• Add the gochujang mixture and kim chi to the pot then mix until the rice cakes are well covered. Taste 1 cake for texture and taste.
• Depending on the brands of gochujang and bacon you use this can be a quite salty dish.  If desired add vinegar and Mirin until the dish is seasoned to your taste and cut through some of the salt and fat.
• Turn the rice cakes off the heat and then serve in a flat bowls
• Top with the fried eggs, remaining scallions (spring onions) and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Review: Stone Korean Kitchen, San Francisco

There's nothing quite like dinner and a movie for a date right? The Landmark at Embarcadero is one of my favourite cinemas in San Francisco, all documentaries and indie films and reminiscent of the Dendy in Australia. I'm always on the look out for good food nearby little theatres like this and so we stumbled upon Stone housed in a small back building near the tourist district of San Francisco. 

Like many business dristricts this area is quiet at night but the restaurant has mostly Korean diners and is packed by the time we're served dinner so this is always a good sign.

Korean alcohol like Cass & Hite beer are available. Most Korean beer is very light in flavour and designed to be drunk ice cold with steaming hot spicy food.

Banchan - free with meal

Small plates of pickles, vegetables and small fish are provided before the meal and refills are available. 

Spicy pork belly $21USD

A healthy serving of pork belly is marinated in gochujang chilli and vegetables. This isn't the best spicy pork I've ever had as the fat hasn't been rendered enough out of the pork. I'd skip this and get more beef or a bipimbap bowl.

Kalbi $21USD 

Beef short ribs are cut across the bone and marinated in a sweet soy and sesame dressing then grilled hot with brown onions. I prefer it when they leave the meat strips along the rib ready to be rolled out, but you can't have it all this is still a solid redition. The meat quality is fairly good and the marinade is not overpowering. 

Ssam for 2 $52

If you're going to get barbecue I definitely recommend this as the way to go. Two barbecue proteins with lettuce wraps, chilli, miso, sesame oil and salts and a serving of bowl of tofu kimchi stew. 

Ssam means "to wrap" and this is how you should eat Korean barbecue, take a piece of lettuce then spread with some chilli and/or miso. Top with hot vegetables and meat and then wrap the lettuce and eat whole like a taco. Delicious!

Cheese corn $7USD

In Japan this kind of food is known as yoshoku but I don't know the Korean name for it - essentially it  is "Western Food" but it is generally unrecognisable outside Asia. Gratin is a common form of yoshoku and corn served with mayonnaise and cheese is a fairly common side dish or topping. It's delicious though and a good accompaniment to all the meat. 

Soon doobu $16USD (or included with Ssam set meal)

Soon doobu - soft tofu stew - is one of my all time favourite dishes. Soft fresh silken tofu is cooked with vegetables and meat in a tomato, malt and chilli stew and topped with a raw egg. Served in a sizzling hot pot the egg cooks in the steaming stew. This is a very good rendition rich and spicy but not overpowering. Various levels of hotness are available, this dish comes default with seafood but we request it vegetarian. 

The service is fairly quick and the food is decent but not amazing. The Korean food in Japantown is definitely better quality but the soon doobu is excellent and I intend to return for some of their other homelier dishes rather than barbecue. They have various options of dolsot bipimbap - sizzling rice topped with meat, egg and vegetables that beg a return.

Stone Korean Kitchen

http://www.stonekoreankitchen.com/

Embarcadero Center

4 Embarcadero Center

San Francisco, CA 94111

Recipe: Beef Bulgogi

Things have been a little quiet on the gourmande front because I'm losing weight at the moment, but that means plenty of room for good low carb recipes. This is one of our home favourites.

Beef Bulgogi

2 tbspn of soy sauce
3 tbspn of water
1 tbspn of Mirin 
1 tbspn of honey (or Splenda for low carb)
2 tbspn of sesame oil
2 chopped green onions
4 cloves of minced garlic
pinch black pepper
500g Sirloin Steak

To Serve

1/2 cup ssamjang
leaves of 1 head of romaine

Method

• Cut the beef into very thin slices; for best effect chill or freeze slightly so you can cut thin strips
• In a bowl mix the soy sauce, water, mirin, honey, sesame oil
• Add the green onions, black pepper and garlic then mix thoroughly
• Add the beef strips and stir to ensure that all the beef is covered
• Marinade for at least 4 hours

• Heat a BBQ or a flat grill until very hot. For best effect I tend to oil the pan slightly with more sesame oil and a little salt
• Grill the meat in small batches, it will cook quickly so be ready to flip and transport off the grill.

• Serve with cold lettuce leaves and ssamjang. You can buy ssamjang at most Korean and Asian supermarkets or you can make some fresh 
• Place a piece of lettuce in your hand, slather on some ssamjang and then 2-3 pieces of meat. Wrap up the lettuce leaf for low carb Korean deliciousness

Recipe: Gochujang jjigae

Regular readers will know that have a huge weakness for Korean food, so I thought it was time to start making it at home. Gochujang is the delicious fermented soy and chilli paste that appears in many Korean stews and BBQ dishes. This is my take on a traditional Korean stew, sweet and spicy it's not for the feint hearted but I personally will be making this a regular rotation in home cooked meals from now on.

Gochujang jjigae

1 onion
1 capsicum
1 carrot
2 cloves garlic
1 cup potato or sweet potato
3 tablespoons gochujang
1 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 packet firm silken tofu
oil for frying

Method

• Prepare your vegetables; Dice the onion, julienne the carrot and capsicum, crush the garlic and cut the potato into cubes. 
• Heat a pan with a small pool of your favourite vegetable oil. 
• Stir fry the onions, then the capsicum. When the peppers are soft add the carrot and the garlic and stir fry until the garlic is soft. 
• Add the gochujang and stir fry to coat the vegetables. Add the water and stir so that the chilli paste forms a sauce. 
• Add the tomato paste and the sugar, stir until well integrated into the sauce. Taste at this point to balance the flavour, add more sugar or chilli to taste. 
• Add the potato and cover the stew, boil until the potato is soft. 
• Dice the tofu and add to the stew, cook for a further two minutes and then take off the heat. 
• Let the stew rest for 2 minutes and serve with rice and your favourite pickles. Serves 4.
• Great for vegans and vegetarians but for a meaty twist add diced fish cake in with the potatoes. 

Review: BBQ City, Sydney CBD

Readers of this blog will know how much I like Korean food, but what then is my fallback, the restaurant I go to time and again? It's this one BBQ City, a rowdy staple filled to the brim with Korean students and their families merrily chomping away.

Like many of the best restaurants in Sydney it's not at ground floor, look up opposite the entry to World's Square on Liverpool St.



BBQ City is not the place to go for an intimate meal, it's rowdy and has a party atmosphere with lots of clatter and an army of staff. If you're looking for an informal dinner party or a shared team outing however it's a great option. Rather like yum cha the more people you add the better the experience and the wider the variety of the food.

There is a party room if you're so inclined but it books out in advance so be prepared to book it early and for tables of 10 or more only. If you do get it it's a formal Korean dining room rather like a tatami room at Japanese restaurants so be ready to shed your shoes and sit on the floor.



Assorted banchan - included with the meal

Banchan at this restaurant are varied, seasonal and can be refilled on request. There's usually some form of fresh seasonal vegetables such as radish or sprouts, a potato or pasta salad and the ubiquitous sweet simmered potatoes.



Kim chi jeon $18

The kim chi pancake is rather thick and heavy, no light start to a meal but crisp and not oily with plenty of chilli kim chi. A spicy vegetarian delight.





Mandu Fried or Boiled $18

The dumplings are akin to Japanese gyoza filled with pork, chives and glass noodles. They can be ordered fried for those drinking or boiled for those who are calorie conscious. They're both excellent and served with a umami dipping sauce that I tend to want to put on just about everything.



Spicy marinated pork stir fry $18

Chilli and fermented soy beans are stir fried with onion, carrot and large slices of green sprouts. This is moreish and the fermented soy adds an excellent umame savouriness that has me coming back for more time and again. It's particularly excellent served with the Korean plum wine and rice.



Tofu Hot Pot $21


Most people in the west associate Korean food with meat filled BBQ madness however most peasant dishes from Korea are vegetarian. If you can convince a vegetarian to come and watch you consume the meat dishes at BBQ City there are plenty of options. This hot pot is steeped in chilli and vegetables and makes a satisfying if adventurous dish. 




Gochujang tteokbokki with Cheese $22

This bowl is huge, enough to feed 3 on its own comfortably. You can choose to have it cooked by the kitchen or have them bring you the hotpot to cook yourself. While not my favourite rendition of this dish - Best Friend and Darling City take this crown for me in Sydney - this is definitely a solid rendition. Thick sausage like rice cakes similar to a gluten free gnocchi are served with fried fish cake, capsicum and carrot in a sweet ultra hot sauce and topped with cheddar cheese. Delicious - but sometimes regretted after the fact!

If the dish prices look steep please be aware that they are very hearty and not designed for one person, this is where having a large group comes in handy since the meals are mostly 'family style' and designed to be shared. 

But while I love some variety in my food surely you come to BBQ city for the BBQ...



Assorted meat platter $42

This is intended to share and this picture is after an entire BBQ has been filled with meat. There's easily enough meat to have 2 people eat 2-3 rounds of ssam or a larger group to each trial the meat. You can order meat dishes separately for around $18-$22 each. If you're taking this option I would recommend the pork marinated in wine, the kalbi marinated ribs and the thinly sliced pork neck. Alternatively for large groups I would recommend 2 meat platters to ensure everyone eats their fill.



The meat is cooked on small gas filled BBQs set into the table. I prefer to cook my own and this restaurant will happily leave you to it if they can see a leader performing the role well. If you're a little trepidatious they will cook it for you on request. Note the rolled out kalbi ribs with the bone still attached, just delicious! Mushrooms, onions and whole cloves of garlic can be added to enhance the experience.

Once cooked the meat is cut into small pieces with kitchen scissors, spread with sauce and wrapped in lettuce to be eaten. This is the source of the word ssam which means - to wrap. This is a food designed to be eaten with the hands and wrapped in leaves.



Here you can see three sauces, the light brown sauce is the standard ssam sauce which is partially mashed fermented soy beans. I've also asked for two types of chilli sauce, one which is a sweet hot sauce which may appeal to those that like American BBQ and the other is gochujang the hot hot hot sour chilli sauce that brings much of Korean food its flavour.




This is the sign of a Korean BBQ attended properly and with gusto. Lots of dishes everywhere and not much food left in sight!

This place is great for a party, they serve plentiful Korean and Japanese beers (including Sapporo and Hite for $8), bottles of soju for $12 and Korean Plum and Raspberry Wines at $22 a bottle. Highly recommended.

I eat out a alot, I explore restaurants a lot, and this is a favourite; not particularly outstanding in the world's food but a great example of its cuisine and solid in both food and service. It's good for a large party but not good for a quiet date. Unless you're super keen on Korean food as I am this is a terrible choice for summer since the number of people, the hot BBQs and the chili laden food make this an adventure in sweat during the Summer months. Doesn't stop me though... I just order more beers and carry a folding fan.

BBQ City

Rowdy fun atmosphere
Fully licensed, Asian alcohols only

116/120 Liverpool Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9267 5155 ‎


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Review: Best Friend (Chung jin dong), Sydney CBD

Continuing on for my current love of Korean food I recently went to one of the more casual offerings Best Friend on Pitt St.

It has all the tell tale signs of a good city Asian eatery; it's humming with young couples and groups of friends and the crowd is primarily made up of the ethnicity of the restaurant. Any Korean eatery where the primary menus and signage are in Korean is always a good sign. We're by no means the only anglo people in the room but I can't help wondering how many of the boys here were introduced to the food by their girlfriends.

Like many similar city restaurants there's a large screen pumping out variety shows and Kpop videos in the background, this is always a love hate relationship for a diner. Kpop has all the glitz and choreagraphed dancing of similar Japanese Pop offerings but with a slightly more 80s feel and often a lot more humour. While we're eating a clip shows where the protagonist sings a heartfelt love song while wearing a chicken suit, sadly I failed to get a decent photo of it.

Banchan - included with meal

The dinner is more casual than many Korean restaurants and I gather a bit cheaper so the Banchan are hardly fancy but still welcome. A small salad, kimchi, fish cake and rice jelly are brought out with our drinks.

Boiled mandu 10 for $6.60 or 20 for $9.90

When boiled these mandu dumplings are more akin to wanton than gyoza but they remain one of my favourite relatively guilt free starters. Minced pork, shallot and glass noodles are wrapped in a wheat based dumpling skin. The soy/chilli/sesame sauce served with these is filled with umame and one of the better examples of dumpling sauce I've tried.

Special set - spicy pork $13

Best friend has a number of bento style casual meals available at a reasonable price. This comes with a spicy pork bulgogi, rice, salad and miso soup for $13 making it a great place for a quick reasonably priced bite on the way home. It's not ground breaking food but for a quick pre-cinema meal or post drink dinner it's not a bad option.

Gochujang tteokbokki - Korean rice cake with chilli sauce $19.90

This dish is my current obsession, I could eat it day in and day out and the version at Best Friend is a great rendition. Soft sausage shaped rice cakes are reminiscent of rice based gnocchi, they're soft with a pleasantly chewy texture. This is then cooked in a gochujang chilli sauce not for the feint hearted - if you don't like spicy food stay away from anything Korean and spicy, they like it super hot one of the reasons I love their food! This version has a bit of texture too it so I suspect they have used tomato in their sauce, it is also laced with chunky vegetables and slices of fish cake. Being lactose intolerant I can do without the cheese but it does go well with the sweet spicey sauce.

Be warned this meal is huge, it's designed for 2 people - or me and my lunch tomorrow! If you are going to heat it up make sure to use a wok or oven with a little extra water as the rice cakes lose moisture over night and can be chewy. Definitely avoid microwaving.

This and Darling City are easily two of my favourite casual Korean diners, great for a quick bite at a reasonable price but nothing fancy. Great for when you're sick of Thai food in Sydney. For those out for a rowdy evening $9 bottles of soju and meat dishes bound to soak up the drinks are a great pull as well.

Best Friend (Chung jin dong)

Google Places entry

377 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000
(02) 9261 8326 ‎

Fully licensed (Asian alcohols only)

Casual family atmosphere

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Review: Doorae, Sydney CBD

Sydney has differing Asian communities to where I grew up which leads to some interesting cuisines that I don't have much experience with but I have come to know and love Korean food.



Doorae is one of the many ssam Korean BBQ restaurants in Sydney and is conveniently close to the Red Oak beef cafe on Clarence St, making it perfect after a few drinks. That being said Korean BBQ is perfect drinking food anyway, plenty of pickled nibbles, meat, salad and fruit wines!



Seoljungmae Plum Wine $21 and Bakseju (Soju) Gold $22

Plum wine is a definite weakness of mine, the Korean version is lighter and dryer than the Japanese umeshu making it perfect in Summer or in the heat of the table BBQ. This Seoljungmae brand has become the default version sold at most restaurants in Sydney, sadly they do not have the "gold" version which comes filled with green picked plums.

Soju is too tart for my tastes, it's like a rougher stronger version of the Japanese shochu, like drinking cheap grain vodka. Nonetheless my friends drink it merrily by the glassful. Thankfully Korean standard is to also serve a large bottle of cold water with all meals as the short sharp shots of alcohol are deadly without it.



Fried mandu $10

Dumplings are one of my all time favourite foods and these fried snacks don't disappoint. They're fried in light oil with a thicker pastry than Chinese jiao zhi, filled with minced meat and glass noodles they're the perfect drinking snack.



Kim chi jeon $15

'Jeon' just means fried things and this one is a fried Korean pancake similar to a chong you bing (scallion pancake) in Chinese cuisine, however pancakes are usually more heavily laiden with fillings in Korean cooking. This one is mixed with kim chi to give it a vinegared chilli taste that brightens the pancake to a bright orange colour. The taste is excellent but I admit that I'm used to Korean restaurants serving much larger and more perfectly rounded jeons than this version.





Assorted banchan - included with meal

Most ssam restaurants will bring small dishes (banchan) to accompany the meat included in the price of the meal, some of the better ones in Sydney will also refill these endlessly. Here pictured is Miyeok muchim - dressed seaweed, Musaengchae - raw white radish cut into stripes, Baechu kimchi - Pickled and spiced cabbage leaves and Gamja namul - glazed sweet soy simmered potatoes.

As this is a BBQ restaurant we order fresh meat which is then grilled on a coal fueled hot plate set into the table. I like to grill it a little at a time as we talk and drink however some restaurants don't like patrons to do their own BBQing and the serious looking woman who comes to turn our meet confirms that this is indeed a restaurant such as this.

Pork belly marinated in Chinese style wine $18
Marinated short rib (yang nyum kalbe) $19
Fresh fillet of beef (saeng deakshim) $19

I absolutely love beef cooked in the Korean style, and the kalbe marinated short rib is a must at any Korean BBQ. The lean meat from across the flank is left attached to the rib and can be rolled out like a carpet on the grill rather than smaller strips of meet left along the rib as with American style BBQ. Of course a good quality fillet steak is thrown in for good measure.

Pork belly also done on the BBQ is marvelous in these thin fatty strips which caramelize in the intense heat to give a sweet and salty taste despite the relatively quick cooking time.

The meat is eaten laden with ssam sauce - a thick umami heavy paste made from fermented miso beans wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves which are welcome in the heat. It's rich and heavy food however and I am soon full.

Sadly Doorae does not have any sweets on the menu and I am not in the mood for the cold buckwheat noodles that traditionally finish such a meal so instead I settle on more fruit wine.



Bok Bun Ja $22

I've never tried this Blackberry wine before but I shall be having it again. Ice cold after the hot meal it's a great finish to the evening, sweet without being overpowering.



The service at Doorae is much like many similar Korean restaurants - efficient rather than friendly, though they gently attempt to tell us when we are attempting to order too much alcohol at once without being rude so I think this is merely cultural difference rather than any kind of rudeness.

I prefer not to eat at any ethnic restaurant not filled with people of that ethnicity and Doorae is no different, it seems mostly to be filled with Korean families having celebration meals.

The environment is nice, if not lively, and I would say that Doorae is a comfortable but not excellent example of the cuisine. If you're in the vicinity or can't handle the loud erraticness of Shinara or BBQ City this is definitely an option but I wouldn't go out of my way to come here.

Doorae Korean BBQ

209 Clarence Street
Sydney 2000, Australia
Phone: (02) 9290 100

Fully licensed
Family atmosphere - no carousing students or Korean pop videos to be seen.


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Review: Shinara, Sydney CBD

Sometimes I find that walking on certain streets of the city and just trying somewhere random works out very well. Pitt St and all its Korea-Town glory are definitely high on the list. Mostly we were after somewhere we could get a drink and dinner in the same venue, not sure if we wanted to drink or eat more. Most of the Korean places looked a little crowded and then we chanced across Shinara.



We were a little put off by the number of nationalities listed on the poster, but all you can eat grill? Well we had to give it a go, especially when we spied the stocked looking bar in the bottom room.

Upon entry we were eyed a little suspiciously by the staff, it's Friday night, they're packed and we're white... they're not quite sure what to do. They're ever so polite though and place us at a table and take a drink order while they clear a table for us upstairs. Before we've even received our drink we are whisked upstairs to a table.



The whole place is packed solid with international students and families, all Korean; I'm not sure why they bother with the other nationalities on the poster, you can tell who the market is here. The whole place is very Asian from top to toe; the grill inset tables, the cups of rice tea and sujo scattered across every table, girls with long nails tapping bling covered smart phones; if you could chainsmoke in the restaurant it would be like just about anywhere in Osaka.








The premise is much like an ishiyaki - you order small dishes to grill in the table and hot or cold side dishes, desserts and drinks from the menu. To make matters better this is an all you can eat place.

There's two main "sets" the Standard Buffet for $29.50 contains a number of very common Korean dishes such as bipimbap, nori, vegetables, beef loin, pork belly, chilli chicken and the like.

The "Premium" Buffet which we go for is $39.50 and contains all of the standard items plus wagyu strip and sirloin, ox tongue, croquettes, tempura, kyoza, sashimi, ice cream and more.

Unlike a Western buffet this is more of the yum cha style approach, you press a button, the waitress comes and you order several small dishes which come out one by one. Generally by the time one set is mostly cooked it's a good idea to order the next. You have 90 minutes to order as much as you like, though unless you're drinking solidly I would be surprised if you manage to put away more than about an hour's worth of food.

There are two other Caucasians in the room, but they're with a couple of Koreans and I suspect may have been a "meeting the family" scenario. The Maitre'd is very sweet and tries to explain the system to us without being too condascending and is surprised when we talk merrily about food adventures in Asia and order plum wine. His initial cynicism immediately melts away as we enthusiastically order dishes of kim chi, dumplings and tofu in a way that defies our heritage. Our female waitresses are as easily impressed by our comfort and I see a couple of them sneaking looks at the fact that we can deftly handle the pincer like flat metal Korean chopsticks; they're all very helpful and seem remarkably happy that the Westerners were so keen on the food. All in all the service is quite rushed, but very friendly and helpful and far exceeds the speed you would expect on a busy Friday night.



Bohae Plum Wine - $22 for a bottle

I have a serious weakness for plum wine (ume-shu in Japanese). The Korean equivalent is much less sweet than the Japanese type but it's still damn drinkable, though I'd have preferred it on the rocks as I usually drink it, the Koreans only seem to understand small flat liquor glasses. If you aren't drinking alcohol then there's various cold teas and water included in the buffet.

And on to the actual buffet food...



Marinated Wagyu Sirloin and Wagyu Steak

I mostly left the wagyu steak to the boy but the sirloin strips went amazingly well with the sweet Korean soy dipping sauce.



Kim chi (of course!)



Beef sirloin and pork belly

Really the pork belly needed to be cut before cooking, but we'd worked that out by the second round.



Kyoza



Agedashi tofu

It's never as good in Korean restaurants and the sweet soy was a little much but I do like fried tofu nonetheless



Grilled pork neck



Buttered corn



Garlic cloves in Sesame Oil



Ice cream

There was other food but I seem to have gotten too involved in eating it and not enough in photographing it! Croquettes, chilli and shallot jeon, chilli chicken, green tea ice cream and really about 3 rounds of every dish above seemed to appear. I would have liked some sashimi or similar but not in the heat from the BBQ.

Shinara was a real hit with us, but we love authentic Asian cuisine and are used to the hustle and bustle of immigrant eateries. There are some reviews out there on the internets that are quite poor but these seem to be from the kind of people who wanted elaborate table service and loathe a waitress with poor English skills; We are not those people. If you like a rowdy good time, reasonably priced drinks, table cooked food and hearty Asian eating then I highly recommend. This is definitely going into my regular rotation of casual eateries to meet up with friends in the city.

Shinara Grill and Lounge
Shop 1, 338 Pitt Street
Sydney, 2000
(02) 9262 9218

Fully licensed
Rowdy student atmosphere
Booking not required by expect to wait on a busy night for a table