Chapter 155 – My cooking class at Dongnae, Busan

One of the highlights during my Busan trip was I attended a cooking class. Travelled all the way from Haeundae to Dongnae, we met these beautiful and friendly sisters who patiently waited for us at the train station and then chauffeured us to their apartment.

Without wasting much time, we made ourselves comfortable in their apartment while constantly amazed with their well-equipped kitchen, tidied living hall, clean toilet and even, checking the view at the outside.

I couldn’t remember their names so I would just address them as “The Sisters” – by right, we were supposed to do grocery shopping and prepare the ingredients as part of the cooking class. However, when we were there, they had prepared everything for us, leaving us to fire up the one and only meal whereas the rest was taken care by them.

Check out our cooking class!

Welcome drinks

Ingredients for most of our food

Cooking pajeon 

Korean Pajeon (Pancake)

Korean Jiggae (Glass Noodle)

Beef Bulgogi

Souvenirs after the cooking class

Overall, we were fully stuffed with homecooked Korean food. We were quite shy initially but soon after, we just happily finished all of them. It was so delicious that it got me to buy the Korean sesame oil and sesame seed at Busan itself. My gosh; aunty-ness in me immediately sparked up then and there.

If you have some time to spare when you are in Busan, you should experience the cooking class too. Just follow the locals for one day and you would be amazed with their culture that you might fall in love to it. Just like me…until today, I still cook Korean food at home (though is not as perfect as theirs).

Regards,
Foodiestravel

Chapter 135 - Eat as much as you want at HWA GA KOREAN BBQ, Sri Petaling

Since it is the beginning of the year, we have so many reasons not to treat ourselves with something nice especially when we are just about to kick start the year with a big bang. Several good reasons are enough to say yes to whatever food that we feel like having. Lately, we were ushered to a Korean restaurant called Hwa Ga Korean BBQ.

Drove all the way to Sri Petaling, we were surprised that the restaurant was quite packed. We waited for few minutes and got ourselves a comfy spot where we could indulge as many dishes as we want. Diners can choose to opt for buffet style, ala-carte style, BBQ or many others; it's really up to you on what you want and they will accommodate to it.

To satisfy our cravings, we went all out and had buffet instead. By seconds, we browsed the menu and chose what we want from 20 kind of offerings.

And they are all delicious..

Among all, I prefer:

• Samgyeopsal - Pork belly
• Daepae Samgyeopsal - Sliced Pork Belly
• Gochujang Samgyeopsal - Grilled sliced pork belly in Korean spicy sauce
• Dwaeji Jumulleok - Grilled Marinated Pork
• Kimchijeon - Kimchi Pancake

Oh, did I share with you on my favorite on Korean side dishes? Yes, I love their side dishes especially kimchi, anchovies and sausages - note that the side dishes vary depending on its availability. I literally had about 10 different kind(s) of side dishes as whenever I asked for a refill, they humbly told me that it had finished and got me another one.

Instead of opting for green tea, we ordered a can of Milkis and a can of Demisoda Orange; the drinks are good companion to quench our thirst, leading us to order another can of Milkis. 

We ate like a "bull" that day! And we really did. We were so full that night and we had a brisk walk before we departed home. 

Once a while, it is good to pamper ourselves; it's just that I have been pampering myself quite a bit here. I'm trying to plan , ya and it's all about planning, to lose weight but unfortunately, this plan has always been postponing from days to weeks now. 

We shall see :)

Ambient: Can be quite smoky

Price: Somewhat reasonable

Food: Non-halal

Service: 4.2/5

Hwa Ga Sri Petaling,

55-57G, Jalan Radin Bagus, Sri Petaling,

57000 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03 - 9055 3555

**If you think Sri Petaling is a bit far from your place, there are other branches in Klang Valley too which are at: Dataran Menteri Sunway, Ara Damansara and Mont Kiara.**

Regards,

Foodiestravel

Chapter 113 - Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant at Kota Damansara

It's time to start penning down my journey after being silence for the past 3 months. Many things were taking place for the last few months and it drained not only my brain juice but also, physically. But oh well, I couldn't be bothered anyway because life still move on.

So, recently, I am back to my food trail; I came across this Korean place called Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant a few times but I did not manage to blog it. Yesterday, it was a brilliant time to pen it down since I was craving badly for their kimchi and it was raining at that hour.

I have the special liking in this Daorae branch compared to other places. Somehow, the service here is really good. The staff are so bubbly and they welcome each and every of the customers with open hand even though they have to entertain customers' ridiculous requests some time. 

Lady luck was slightly at my side when I visited Daorae, Kota Damansara. I managed to get the last table for 3 pax and the person who came after me had to wait for empty table. Flipped through the menu and suddenly, I became acquainted with familiar names like bibimbap, bulgogi, jabchae and many others #thankstorunningman.

Certainly, Korean BBQ is not something to be missed. To enjoy this Korean BBQ, at least two types of meat must be ordered from the menu whether pork, beef, lamb or chicken.

Once you confirm the order, the servers will serve a bowl of soup to each diner and the side dishes will reach to your table immediately. The soup that I had at that time was indeed delicious with clams and seaweed in it.  

There were a number of side dishes to snack first while waiting for the meat to be cooked. Side dishes vary every day and even different across the branches nevertheless, I'm glad that whatever served on our table that day was something which I favored like kimchi, salad, kimchi pancake, sausages, seaweed, bean sprouts and etc.

Mok-Sal (RM 33.00)

Mok-Sal is a fresh neck shoulder pork that is served with seasoned sesame oil sauce

Go-Cho-Hang Sam-Kyub-Sal (RM 35.00)

Go-Cho-Jang Sam-Kyub-Sal is slices of pork belly that are marinated in Korean traditional chili sauce

After putting some thoughts, we opted for Mok-Sal and Go-Cho-Hang Sam-Kyub-Sal. I was not sure which meat brings the best texture so, I just picked based on the photos in the menu as well as choosing the ones where the name was not alien to me. But among this two, I definitely go with Go-Cho-Jang Sam-Kyub-Sal because the taste and aroma is much savored compared to Mok Sal where the taste is rather blend.

Normally, the meat is eaten together with the sauce provided as well as the lettuce.

Thankfully, we did not need to grill the meat on our own but leave it to the expert to do it for us. What we need to do was just munching the side dishes while waiting for the meat to be cooked. Oh ya, we also ordered Dolsot Bibimbap and Jab- Chae in the meantime.

Jab-Chae (RM 38.00)

Jab-Chae on the other hand is heavenly in taste. Even, my parents agreed to it. It is the Korean glass noodle pan-fried with thin slices of marinated pork and assorted seasoned vegetables in a sesame oil sauce. It taste so good even though the dish had turned cold after that.

Dolsot Bibim-bap (RM 24.00)

Nevertheless, Dolsot Bibim-Bap is the champion! Rich with fresh and seasoned vegetables and served in a steaming hot stone bowl over a bed of steamed rice topped with an egg yolk and served with Korean chilli paste, this bowl of bibim-bap is definitely a calling to anyone from all ages. 

Overall, it was a satisfying dinner; its been so long that I crave for Korean food and finally, they were all in my beloved tummy. Haha! We were only charged with the food that we ordered and the rest were complimentary like watermelon and steamed Korean egg.

Ambient : 4/5

Price : Reasonable

Food : Korean food

Service : 4.5/5

Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant,

No.2-3A, Jalan PJU 5/9,

Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, 

47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Contact: 603 - 6140 7114

Opens from: Lunch (1100am - 200pm) and Dinner (530pm - 1100pm)

Regards,

Foodiestravel