It's literally been years since my last post and it is amazing how time flies! It feels like yesterday that I wrote my last post, the flavours and memories as fresh as if it were yesterday.
It has been an eventful few years, full of sorrow and happiness, intensely sad farewells and wonderful new beginnings. Food had taken a backseat for a while now, and life's fast twists and turns had drowned my enjoyment of food.
Since I moved to Bangalore, I have had many moments of nostalgia, a yearning for Abu Dhabi, the city I called home for most of my life, for its nuggets of food tucked away in inconspicuous corners. Today, I finally had a moment of true food inspiration, a day made so wonderful by good friends and good food that I just had to come back to my blog. I hope that in the months to come, I am able to document more such discoveries within the city I now call home, Bangalore.
Today I'm sharing my experience at Hae Kum Gang, Korean restaurant.
Now I usually go to restaurants in India with low expectations and definitely not expecting authenticity. Let's just say I don't particularly enjoy the 'masala' twist people put on everything. So I was pleasantly surprised to find an authentic Korean experience. The restaurant is on the second floor and wasn't too hard to find on Castle Street, off Brigade Road. Unlike my earlier Korean experience, there were no private rooms or floor seating, but this place had a warm charm that was hard to resist. The chairs looked Victorian and the place was so well lit, it felt like we were dining alfresco. We picked a quiet corner table, with a cool aqua-turquoise wall and a decorative fish to keep us company. The ambiance was eclectic, but somehow worked together beautifully to create a fresh, yet cosy feel.
The menu was well designed, Korean names accompanied by pictures as well as descriptions made ordering a breeze. Well, I guess the hard part was deciding what to order - everything looked so good!
We finally decided on the Cheesy Salmon Roll, Pork Dolsot-bibimbap, Bulgogi Chulpan, Haemul Jjam-Bbong and some Jasmine tea. The first thing to arrive is what I assume is a complimentary starter - some sort of cold veggie pancake which was interesting but not memorable. The rest of the food arrived in a somewhat random order, but mostly together. It's hard to pick a favourite, so I'll just go on a review by item.
The Cheesy Salmon Roll was basically sushi filled with smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese and veggies, topped with roe and served with an interesting mayo-teriyaki type combination sauce. It was fantastic! Fresh ingredients (which is ridiculously important when you're eating salmon!) and flavours, it didn't need any of the accompaniments to compliment it. Which is a pretty good thing, as they missed the pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sides by a mile. The pickled ginger used regular Indian ginger which was too bitter, the wasabi was weak as was the soy. I would definitely order this one again though because, as I said before, it definitely does not need the accompaniments.
Dolsot-bibimbap was not the best I've ever tasted, but it did come fairly close. On presentation, half the bowl was covered with lettuce, which was a shame as this is one dish that can look stunningly beautiful in its sheer variety of colours and ingredients. I nearly missed the wonderful hot chilli paste that it is served with, as it came in what looked like a ketchup container! There is nothing that annoys me more than ruining a meal by adding ketchup to it and so that container was quickly dismissed to the side. Only after specifically requesting the waiter for the chilli paste did we find out that it was actually in our supposed ketchup bottle! Yikes! Combining the bibimbap with the chilli paste and a bit of the bulgogi, and the kimchi soup that came with it turned the bowl into an tantalizing mix of flavours that made me unable to stop till that bowl was cleaned out.
Coming to the Bulgogi, this was one dish that was a real disappointment. Not that it wasn't tasty, but nothing compared to the bulgogi I've had in the past. For one, bulgogi has to be cooked on a bbq hot plate right at your table and it should be marinated in a really strong sauce. This bulgogi promised to be a sizzler, which I thought would be the next best thing but really didn't deliver. It came with a liquidy soup like thing at the bottom and the flavours felt watered down. We still polished it off, as it was good, but it didn't live up to its potential.
The sides were interesting - some good, some average. The Kimchi as well as the pickled radish was true to its flavour but wasn't as strong or as spicy as I'd like. I found this quite odd, considering Indians love to put a spicy 'masala' twist on everything. The stir-fried spinach was cold and bland and left forgotten on the table after an initial taste. For me, the highlight were the potatoes in the caramelized (soy?) sauce. Ahh....they were so good, the crispness of the potato melting into the sweet dark sauce. I could just eat them all day. Definitely one of my lay-back-eyes-closed-pure-food-ecstasy moments.
Hmm.... I lost myself right there for a moment in the potato memory. Right, back to the review. Next on the menu, Haemul Jjam-Bbong. A spicy seafood soup that explodes with flavour, my mouth still waters at the thought of it. But beware, this is not for the faint of heart (or tastebuds). The spice level is pretty high and I struggled a bit to keep eating. But the seafood flavour is very pronouced and comes out beautifully through the spice. We found squid, prawns and a few clams (disappointingly empty) and the noodles were lovely and thick, making the soup a very filling meal.
Finally, the Jasmine tea was decidedly odd. I've tasted quite a few Jasmine teas, but this was definitely not it. I could be challenged on this, but I'm pretty sure I tasted more lemon than Jasmine, and the tea was so weak I felt like I was drinking hot water with lemon after a while. The presentation was good, although I would have preferred smaller cups.
Overall, fantastic experience, great ambiance, attentive but not in-your-way waiters, clean-your-plate delicious food. I'm definitely waiting to go and try more of their extensive menu!
Oh, I thought I should post a pic of how thoroughly we polished off our food! :)
It has been an eventful few years, full of sorrow and happiness, intensely sad farewells and wonderful new beginnings. Food had taken a backseat for a while now, and life's fast twists and turns had drowned my enjoyment of food.
Since I moved to Bangalore, I have had many moments of nostalgia, a yearning for Abu Dhabi, the city I called home for most of my life, for its nuggets of food tucked away in inconspicuous corners. Today, I finally had a moment of true food inspiration, a day made so wonderful by good friends and good food that I just had to come back to my blog. I hope that in the months to come, I am able to document more such discoveries within the city I now call home, Bangalore.
Today I'm sharing my experience at Hae Kum Gang, Korean restaurant.
Now I usually go to restaurants in India with low expectations and definitely not expecting authenticity. Let's just say I don't particularly enjoy the 'masala' twist people put on everything. So I was pleasantly surprised to find an authentic Korean experience. The restaurant is on the second floor and wasn't too hard to find on Castle Street, off Brigade Road. Unlike my earlier Korean experience, there were no private rooms or floor seating, but this place had a warm charm that was hard to resist. The chairs looked Victorian and the place was so well lit, it felt like we were dining alfresco. We picked a quiet corner table, with a cool aqua-turquoise wall and a decorative fish to keep us company. The ambiance was eclectic, but somehow worked together beautifully to create a fresh, yet cosy feel.The menu was well designed, Korean names accompanied by pictures as well as descriptions made ordering a breeze. Well, I guess the hard part was deciding what to order - everything looked so good!
We finally decided on the Cheesy Salmon Roll, Pork Dolsot-bibimbap, Bulgogi Chulpan, Haemul Jjam-Bbong and some Jasmine tea. The first thing to arrive is what I assume is a complimentary starter - some sort of cold veggie pancake which was interesting but not memorable. The rest of the food arrived in a somewhat random order, but mostly together. It's hard to pick a favourite, so I'll just go on a review by item.
Dolsot-bibimbap was not the best I've ever tasted, but it did come fairly close. On presentation, half the bowl was covered with lettuce, which was a shame as this is one dish that can look stunningly beautiful in its sheer variety of colours and ingredients. I nearly missed the wonderful hot chilli paste that it is served with, as it came in what looked like a ketchup container! There is nothing that annoys me more than ruining a meal by adding ketchup to it and so that container was quickly dismissed to the side. Only after specifically requesting the waiter for the chilli paste did we find out that it was actually in our supposed ketchup bottle! Yikes! Combining the bibimbap with the chilli paste and a bit of the bulgogi, and the kimchi soup that came with it turned the bowl into an tantalizing mix of flavours that made me unable to stop till that bowl was cleaned out. 
Coming to the Bulgogi, this was one dish that was a real disappointment. Not that it wasn't tasty, but nothing compared to the bulgogi I've had in the past. For one, bulgogi has to be cooked on a bbq hot plate right at your table and it should be marinated in a really strong sauce. This bulgogi promised to be a sizzler, which I thought would be the next best thing but really didn't deliver. It came with a liquidy soup like thing at the bottom and the flavours felt watered down. We still polished it off, as it was good, but it didn't live up to its potential.The sides were interesting - some good, some average. The Kimchi as well as the pickled radish was true to its flavour but wasn't as strong or as spicy as I'd like. I found this quite odd, considering Indians love to put a spicy 'masala' twist on everything. The stir-fried spinach was cold and bland and left forgotten on the table after an initial taste. For me, the highlight were the potatoes in the caramelized (soy?) sauce. Ahh....they were so good, the crispness of the potato melting into the sweet dark sauce. I could just eat them all day. Definitely one of my lay-back-eyes-closed-pure-food-ecstasy moments.
Hmm.... I lost myself right there for a moment in the potato memory. Right, back to the review. Next on the menu, Haemul Jjam-Bbong. A spicy seafood soup that explodes with flavour, my mouth still waters at the thought of it. But beware, this is not for the faint of heart (or tastebuds). The spice level is pretty high and I struggled a bit to keep eating. But the seafood flavour is very pronouced and comes out beautifully through the spice. We found squid, prawns and a few clams (disappointingly empty) and the noodles were lovely and thick, making the soup a very filling meal. 
Finally, the Jasmine tea was decidedly odd. I've tasted quite a few Jasmine teas, but this was definitely not it. I could be challenged on this, but I'm pretty sure I tasted more lemon than Jasmine, and the tea was so weak I felt like I was drinking hot water with lemon after a while. The presentation was good, although I would have preferred smaller cups.Overall, fantastic experience, great ambiance, attentive but not in-your-way waiters, clean-your-plate delicious food. I'm definitely waiting to go and try more of their extensive menu!
Oh, I thought I should post a pic of how thoroughly we polished off our food! :)
Location: Castle Street, off Brigade Road, Bangalore
Price: ~INR 2000-2500 (for three)
Till next time folks!
