Kalbi Korean BBQ - delicious meats and a social cooking experience

One of my friends recommended Kalbi Korean BBQ restaurant to me several months ago.  This was the first time I've had Korean BBQ since I went to South Korea last year, so I was really looking forward to it.  Would Kalbi be any good or would I leave disappointed, having had the real thing in Korea?

In short, I really enjoyed the meal at Kalbi and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys their meat and Korean cuisine.  Non-BBQ dishes are available too, including - perhaps oddly - Japanese sushi (not Korean gimbap).  But the BBQ is what I wanted.

Korean BBQ.

For the BBQ, the girlfriend and I ordered the galbi beef (middle), bulgogi beef (right), mushrooms and sweet potato.  A waiter cooks the ingredients in the BBQ embedded into our table - Korean style!  

The BBQ'd items were wrapped within ssam - a combination of round lettuce, chilli, garlic, cucumber and carrot, and then dipped into Korean ssamjang sauce, which tasted excellent.  We also had a bowl of steamed rice each.

The food was washed down with makgeolli - a milky alcoholic drink. 

We also ordered a side dish of japchae, one of favourite noodle dishes (though I am still not a fan of green peppers!).

Japchae.

The one disappointment compared to my experience in South Korea was that in Korea we essentially had an unlimited supply of ssam for seemingly one price and banchan such as kimchi was complimentary for every table.  In contrast, Kalbi charged extra for this - though from experience I would say that eating out in the UK is a lot more expensive than in South Korea.

Overall Kalbi was a really positive experience and I would certainly be keen to go again in the future - perhaps to try out their BBQ buffet menu (essentially all-you-can-eat BBQ meat within 90 minutes).

Closest Tube: Farringdon, Chancery Lane.

A (home made) Korean night in London

So rather than go to a Korean restaurant, my friends and I decided to have a bit of fun and do our own 'Korean night' at home.

Before I go on, I want to explain that I am NOT a Korean food expert, so please allow for some allowance if things don't look 100 per cent authentic!  However, we did try our best and got all the ingredients from Korea Food Mart, a big Korean supermarket in New Malden, London - the town that's home to 30,000 Koreans.

We decided to make a Korean hot pot soup and a bibimbap.

How does this look?  I think it looks not bad!  We didn't heat the stone bowl for long enough though, but we'll know for next time.  As a result, we couldn't put an egg in it :-(.

For the soup, I got some beef slices, Korean beef stock, soy bean sprouts (much better than mung bean sprouts), Chinese leaf kimchi, enoki mushrooms, Korean glass noodles and tofu. I was a little lost on how to make the soup base, but it tasted good.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Yummy beef slices.

We washed everything down with some makgeolli rice wine, soju and Hite Korean beer.

What do you think?  Let me know if you have any suggestions for the future!

Pizza Express' Diavolo Romana Pizza: thin, crispy, tasty, but not very spicy

This is how Pizza Express describes its Romana Pizzas: "Enjoy the flavour of each ingredient on your pizza with our thin and crispy Romana. The Romana, inspired by pizza in Italy, lets the topping be the hero".

Sounds good, doesn't it? So when I headed to a Pizza Express in London for lunch, I ordered the Diavolo Romana Pizza.

Spicy action? Hot spiced beef, pepperoni, red onions, Tabasco, hot green, jalapeno or roquito peppers.

Looking at the list of toppings, I was expecting a fiery experience. This was not the case (my taste buds barely registered any spice) but that doesn't mean it was a bad pizza. I was actually pretty satisfied with both the taste and portion size. The base, as promised, was also very thin and crispy. 

It probably could have done with a few more toppings though. I had completely forgotten my pizza had any onions, for example. And it was perhaps a little too dry, so extra tomato sauce would have been nice.

Get your 25 per cent discount...but check the restaurant beforehand

I love a good deal. Sometimes it feels like eating out at Pizza Express is like buying a sofa at DFS; you rarely pay full price, such are the discounts available.

First I get the e-mail...

Offer in my inbox, received on 10 February 2014. "Restaurant restrictions apply" :-(

Then I check the website...

Offer advertised on the Pizza Express website, retrieved on 11 February 2014.

Unfortunately the branch I visited wasn't participating in this offer on this occasion. But many others are, so check their latest offers page for more details.

The wonderful food of South Korea

I recently came back from South Korea. While I didn't know too much about the country, I knew I liked Korean food, so off I went.

Quite simply, South Korea is a fabulous country. I visited Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island - all quite different but all with great food. Good food is easy to find and, compared to the UK, it is very affordable to eat out.

While pretty much every meal comes with kimchi (fermented vegetables), there are plenty of other dishes that should appeal to most people.

Seafood fried rice cooked at the centre of the table. Doesn't look anything special, but it was my first meal in the country and it cured my hunger.

Beef bulgogi in soup with noodles, mushrooms and spring onions. Very tasty!

Ice cream with red bean, rice cake and shaved ice.

I visited a soju shop (a type of alcoholic drink). This is an example of the pots that are used to make soju.

Korean BBQ is fun and very social. This was a pork BBQ. Once the meat is cooked, it's wrapped in the leaves and other sides then dipped in sauces.

Kalguksu - or knife noodles - taste quite similar to other noodles I've had, but are distinct because of their unique shape.

Always good to eat at food markets with the locals and watch people make things from scratch. Cheap and tasty.

Most Korean meals come with side dishes to go with the meal. I miss the soy bean sprouts (as opposed to the much more common mung bean sprouts in the UK).

Crab soup - literally loads of them! Unsurprising given that we were in Busan at the time - a city known for its seafood.

More seafood action from Busan. Lightly cooked squid.

This one was special - look at how many dishes there are! They just kept coming and coming.

Noodle soup from Jeju's Noodle Street.  

Another Korean BBQ, but this time with beef.

Cold noodles, chilli sauce, pork and egg.

A large piece of bread drizzled with honey and with some ice cream on top.

And finally...another Korean BBQ! But this one makes it in because of the mixed egg on the side of the grill. The heat slowly cooks the egg and becomes a nice accompaniment to the meal. Not something I had seen before...