The Hungry Bunny: New Mapogalmaegi, Seoul, South Korea

17.5.11

New Mapogalmaegi, Seoul, South Korea

It's now Spring in Seoul, so it's generally cool, breezy and really quite brilliant for strolling around. Unfortunately, Seoul's very hilly, and the roads can get quite steep. By the time you walk uphill for a single block, you're puffing and panting away. But that's not as bad as walking downhill, it's quite a feat trying not to end up rolling down the sometimes very steep hill. Worse still, the streets are made of cobblestone so the road's very uneven. A triple whammy is that the Ritz is located on top of a hill, so walking out to the Restaurant Street meant walking down a really quite steep slope. To top it all off, guess what, I only brought stilettoes with me. Which meant that walking out for meals is a really treacherous affair. I had to grab onto the Fiance extremely tightly so I don't end up rolling down the hill. I will remember to bring flats with me the next time I go to Seoul.

New Mapogalmaegi is located slightly further in along Restaurant Street from the other restaurant that we had kimchi jjigae. Like the other restaurant, the menu's entirely in Korean, and the staff couldn't speak any English, so we had to use hand gestures, to order our food.

The 2 person portion Kalbi Bulgogi (10,800 Won) is really a 1 person portion, in our view. This was one of the coolest grills we've seen, with a sunken pocket around the grill island. That's how they cooked the omelette, along with the beef.

The Grilled Scrambled Eggs had a mixture of shredded marinated vegetables, garlic and green chilis added for texture and flavour.

The Poached Beansprouts weren't very good, they had a sandy texture and not enough of a clear clean taste.

The Pickled Radish was very good though, spicy, crunchy and tangy.

The Kimchi was also very well done, with just the right amount of spicy and sour elements. The Tofu, despite not being the most silky of beancurd, had a clear and clean taste.