Tag Archive | Korean Food

Recipe: Black Bean Noodles (Jjajangmyun)

I hope Honolulu Aunty gets a chance to read this post! I know you mentioned liking these noodles so I wanted to show how easy it is to make at home! Recipe credits goes to Maangchi completely! Enjoy the pictures, I tend to put step by step pictures.

Looks good ah? Restaurant style!

Black Bean Paste, no substitutions!

Gotta get the noodles made for jjajang, it makes a difference.

Korean Radish (Daikon), Onion, Zucchini and Pork Belly.

Chop the pork up – I think I used about 4 slices for this recipe.

Korean Radish (daikon)

Zucchini

Onions

Fry up the bacon until they are crispy, then drain most of the oil away. I learned that I don’t care for the hard bits of pork in my jajangmyun so if I make this again, I’ll leave the pork out. That would make this dish vegetarian!

Then you start adding veggies to cook, you should add the vegetables according to how long it takes to cook down. I added the Korean radish first. Stir-fried for about 2 minutes and then added…

Zucchini! Another 2 minutes…

Onions! And yes, there is no garlic in this dish. Shocking right? But if you have had these noodles, you’ll know that the flavor is very mild.

Black Bean Paste!

Add water and let it simmer on medium heat.

After about 10 minutes, make the potato starch slurry and add it to the sauce. Simmer it a few minutes more to cook out the starch, look at how shiny the sauce gets! Once it’s about done, add sesame oil.

Noodles ready to be drenched in the sauce…

No matter what root vegetables you add, it’ll all look black…lol.

Delicious! Ahhh…so good. I hope you get to try it!

Credit: Maangchi’s Jjajangmyun Recipe

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Dowon Chinese Restaurant – Honolulu, HI

May24

This past week has been a week of eating out. School is out and parking has been much better so I’m more inclined to venture off-campus to grab lunch. I’ve got quite a bit of posts coming up, I’ll slowly try to get them going. Still resting, work has not gotten much slower so I haven’t had a lot of time to rest. My plan this weekend is to clean, rest and eat (duh).

New restaurant alert! Dowon replaced the former Jong Ga Korean Restaurant and I was very excited to give them a try. Another Chinese (Korean style) restaurant with jajangmyun (black bean noodles) for me to try! There are two on the island that offer good options and I believe this is the third. As I walked in and dined there, the restaurant was filled with Koreans. That’s a good sign. So how was the food? Very good! The black bean noodle sauce they have here is much milder but I enjoyed it. Their black bean sauce is also more watery which I wasn’t a huge fan of, but if you want at thicker sauce, just get the other one – I want to say it’s called kanjangmyun but I probably butchered that. It’s just like jajangmyun but with a thicker/saltier sauce.

Let’s get to the pictures!

Yes, it’s a Korean style Chinese Restaurant. Usually it’s easy to tell these restaurants because they usually characterize their places as Northern Chinese Restaurants. But fear not, this is it!

The three normal sides dishes for jajangmyun. From top to bottom: sliced raw yellow onions with black bean paste, pickled daikon (takuan) and nicely soured kimchee. The raw onion with black bean paste is commonly served with the jajangmyun, I don’t get why people enjoy this. But I did eat it and of course I had raw onion breath all afternoon. It’s an interesting side dish.

Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Crispy Pork). You can get this with beef or pork, we decided to go traditional with the pork. This is the entree people usually order with black bean noodles. I think it’s a great entree to get because the noodles are in such a dark and rich sauce, the sweet and sour pork really help to cut into the richness of the meal. You never know what kind of pieces you will get with deep fried meat but this was wonderful. The sauce was definitely more sweet than sour and the pieces were crispy and light, the meat was tender and delicious! I would recommend this!

Jajangmyun! So delicious. Sorry I don’t have more pictures of this because I basically scarfed it down after this picture was taken. The noodles were cooked perfectly, the sauce was mild but not bland. I’m excited to give this place a try again, I’d like to try the jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle) next time too. They may want to rework their menu, the noodles are on page 1 and it’s only in Korean or Chinese. The rest of the menu has English with it. Also, when you order the jajangmyun – they will ask you if you want regular or seafood. I just go with regular because it’s cheaper and really…what difference will I taste under all this sauce? That’s just me.

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Sara’s Cafe – Honolulu, HI

Jan23

Hello readers! Ah, I was out this past week. We had a three day weekend and here I thought I was going to be super on it and get things done. Well Monday came along and I got really sick. Like, really really sick. It started with a headache (might have been the vog) and led to me (sorry for sharing) vomiting all day. And I didn’t eat anything so I don’t know how it was possible to throw up so much, must have been all the acid in my stomach coming out. It was TERRIBLE. I even had to call in sick on Tuesday to rest up. Glad I did. In fact, I probably could have taken more time off but I have a lot of stuff at work to do. I think I’m still getting over the after effects of Monday.

I hope everyone is doing well! School started again as well and I really do want to be proactive and do things early. I haven’t achieved that yet, but I’ll just make sure I remain timely with my assignments. I also plan to take a trip this Spring so I really really need to plan that out. I’m getting pretty excited about it too!

Anyhow, I’ll try to get some posts up this weekend and get some up for next week too! I had to push this post up because Sara’s Cafe is a brand spanking new restaurant so I wanted to share my experience with everyone. This restaurant replaces Jun Cafe. If you ever head towards Don Quijote on Beretania, I think you’ve seen Jun Cafe’s sign. In fact, the Jun Cafe sign is still up but the restaurant is now Sara’s Cafe. This is a very cute and small restaurant run by ONE woman. It’s very similar to the Angry Korean Lady but also the complete opposite. Sara is a sweetheart and works FAST and she serves you…and you don’t have to fear being yelled at. Hahaha so would I recommend this restaurant over Ah Lang? Um, yes.

When I came to this restaurant, there was a man in front of the garage who told me to park in this 30 minute guest spot. I only spotted two spots! Super tight. This guy parked next to me in a porsche and he was all freaked out that I would hit his car. No worries bra. Nah, I would probably worry if I had one expensive car too. Anyway, I’m not sure how the parking works for this place. When I was leaving, the guy was gone so maybe you can park anywhere in the structure? We were the first customers in the restaurant so we received fast and attentive service. Really small restaurant, big screen TV with a Karaoke set located in the front. When no one is singing, the TV is playing random music videos. While the videos were super random and from different decades, the music was quite enjoyable. Ahhh…enough babbling! Get to the food Jenny! Okay, I will.

Korean Chives Pancake – $7.99

Okay, so there isn’t as much chives as Ah Lang. It’s still good! I wouldn’t say it’s great though because I felt like it could have been fried a bit crispier. I also felt that maybe the oil was not hot enough yet so the pancake tasted a bit greasy. Overall, I wouldn’t order this again.

Korean Style Hamburger Steak – $11.99

I was looking forward to this very much! I really like meatballs and these are prepared exactly like meatballs. Meatballs are great because they are so luscious and delicious. Well usually. These were good! I would definitely order them again.

Steamed Egg – $5.99

I’m a sucker for eggs steamed like this. It’s a homestyle Chinese dish as well so I was glad to see a Korean version. Some may try to compare it to Chawan Mushi but other than it being steamed and containing eggs, they are not at all similar. Chawan mushi is silky while this egg dish is not. This is prepared very similar to the way I’m used to, only there is sesame oil. What Korean dish is complete without sesame oil? It was a pretty good price for this dish so I would order it again!

Spicy Soft Tofu Stew (Soondubu) – $9.99

Ahhh..this soup was so good. There were three of us so all the food was shared family style. If I was by myself, I’d eat that soup all by myself. She cracks an egg right at the end of cooking so it was perfectly poached with the most perfect yolk. Sara is also very generous with the seafood in this soup! Delicious.

Here’s the banchan! It came with our food, very delicious. I’m not sure how she determines how to give banchan. Her menu is made up of plate lunches, ala carte items and then soup sets. So depending on what you order, you will get rice or banchan. If you don’t order these sets, she does offer her banchan and rice for ala carte ordering.

So I showed you exactly what we ordered and based on that, she did serve us this platter of banchan and a rice bowl for each of us. I didn’t want to ask how it would work, figured I would let her decide how to serve. Sara is very sweet, I felt very comfortable in this restaurant. I likened it to eating some good home cooked Korean food. Nothing fancy which is what made the experience nice. I gotta tell you, Sarah was FAST. She served up our dishes in no time. Really great food, I’d love to give this place a try again…soon!

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Jjajangmyeon Challenge – On Dong Chinese Restaurant

Jan11

My post yesterday wasn’t too detailed, maybe I should have done this all in one post. Ah well! The second challenger is On Dong Chinese Restaurant, there was a line to get into this restaurant when I went. The restaurant was also filled with Koreans (always a good sign). The Korean ladies running the shop were quick and efficient, also friendly! They served us hot tea and brought ice water when we asked. I appreciate this restaurant serving all the side dishes to everyone equally. I’ll explain more with the pictures.

The kimchee here was okay. Nothing great but not the worst I have had.

Raw Onion with Black Bean Paste

Okay this is the dish they gave us without asking. I saw this dish on random tables at Eastern Paradise but we were never given this dish or even offered. Not to say I am in love with this or anything. I don’t quite get why people like it. I’m sure that if you asked for it at Eastern Paradise, they will give them to you. They have it ready to go on the side.

Pickled Radish or Takuan – this was weird. It wasn’t sweet like usual, much more vinegary than I would have liked.

Potstickers – not as flavorful or generous with the filling. They do give you more pieces but the taste definitely wasn’t as good as Eastern Paradise.

Mongolian Beef – this is supposedly their signature dish. It was DELICIOUS. I loved it. I also believe there was MSG in it, but it was good nonetheless.

Look that gloss! Good sign so far. And the very visible chunks of pork and vegetables, all positives on my list.

So how was it? I thought it was good but I think Eastern Paradise’s jjajangmyeon edges this one out. While this one was good, I feel like Eastern Paradise’s sauce is thicker and deeper in flavor. This one was more watery, I was left with a black bean paste broth after I slurped up the noodles.

I guess the winner for me is Eastern Paradise Restaurant! Everytime I pass by On Dong, they have a line out the door so maybe it’s up to everyone and their own taste buds. I would go to Eastern Paradise just to hear the owner speak four languages. He spoke Mandarin, Korean, Japanese and English fluently the hour I was there. I wonder if he knows any other languages…haha. Give them a try and let me know what you think yourself!

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Jjajangmyeon Challenge – Eastern Paradise Restaurant

Jan10

This weekend, I will be sharing two Northern Chinese restaurants and their jjajangmyeon! For those who are in the Korean drama know, we’ve watched as the stars slurp the deliciously glossy black noodles (usually in anger) in awe. Well I’d say we have two restaurants in Hawaii that compete for the best jjajangmyeon. They are both of course located near Keeaumoku (aka Koreamoku) – how do they measure up? I was able to try both within a week of each other so I will share my thoughts! First up? Eastern Paradise Restaurant – let’s see how it went!

Kimchee – I like their version! Very flavorful and so crunchy.

Potstickers

Delicious. You can tell it’s homemade and they are generous with the filling, definitely recommended!

Jjajangmyeon

The star of the show. My friend tried this for the first time ever with me and she LOVED it. It was thicky, luscious and delicious. I wish I took a picture of it mixed up but I was too busy eating…hehe. I’ll do more comparisons in tomorrow’s review!

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Frog House Restaurant – Waikiki, HI

Jan6

I always pass by Frog House Restaurant on my way to and from Don Quijote and wondered how this restaurant was. It’s located in a bit of a sketch area so I just figured they were like some sort of Korean bar. Recently, I couldn’t get into Do-ne so we decided to give Frog House a try, it was definitely better than I expected. The prices were pretty good and there wasn’t much other customers so we received our food fairly quick. The biggest plus? I finally found agu jjim and decided to give it a try. If you like monk fish, you will like this dish. I learned that I don’t like monk fish…lol. Anyway, on to the pictures and review!

Ban-chan

My favorite in all restaurants. I know it’s probably just steamed eggs with dashi but I just love it so much. Sometimes the simple dishes are the best!

Eggplant – deliciously savory

Choy Sum

Potato Salad – not great also kind of sweet. It was a bit weird.

Bean Sprouts – hard to screw this one up.

Another favorite ban chan of mine, fish cake.

Kimchee, pretty good! They serve up the entire leaf.

Extra Spicy Chicken – $7.95 (Happy Hour)
This was very good! Definitely a favorite.

Mini Agu Jjim – $14.95 (Happy Hour)

Agu jjim is a very popular Korean dish. I’ve watched many videos of people eating it and I just had to try it for myself. What’s funny is that I crave the bean sprouts the most. I wish they made this in a mixed seafood version because I am not a fan of monk fish.

Kimchee Jigae – $9.95

Kalbi Jjim – $25.95

PRICEY – worth it? I don’t think so for this one. I feel like they just laced it in teriyaki sauce, the meat was pretty tender though. I think you can get better kalbi jjim elsewhere.

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Ono Korean BBQ – Kalihi, HI

Oct1

How did I not know about this new Korean BBQ joint opening up in K-town?? I was on the hunt for dinner one night and found this place last week. It’s called Ono Korean BBQ and they opened up in Palama Supermarket’s old location. That shopping center is really opening up some great food joints with more to come. I saw a sign for a new Chinese dim sum take-out place coming soon. Anyway, Ono Korean BBQ is a lot like Yummy’s in terms of take-out plates. They have a very clean store with nice seats and tables. They also have more soup options even though I still went for the Yuk Gae Jang. The prices are a bit higher than Yummy’s but I believe they give great portions and the quality is there. I only had a soup this time but I do plan to return soon and will share more then.

Yuk Gae Jang – $10.99 (with rice and 4 vegetables, you can get the soup on its own for cheaper)
Although it is bright red, it was not spicy at all. They even asked if I wanted it spicy and I said yes, lol.

It’s the little touches that count. I appreciate them wrapping up the soup container in it’s own bag to prevent spillage.

From left to right:
Mayonnaise Potatoes – The potatoes are cooked great. The seasoning is sweeter and not as garlicky as I would like. I wouldn’t get it again.
Choy Sum – Definite favorite of the 4. Cooked perfectly and tastes great.
Bean Sprouts – Nothing special, a bit bland.
Cucumber Kimchee – I didn’t like this initially but grew to like it. It is marinated with slivers of onion and carrots.

The soup – one of the best I have had. I was never a fan of yuk gae jang before but this one was great. Also, they give you so much stuff! Very generous portions.

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Ireh Restaurant, Keeaumoku, HI

Jul23

Ireh Restaurant! Gosh I hadn’t been here in a while and now wonder why! They specialize in vegetarian food but have many other dishes as well! Very healthy Korean cooking, and delicious. I used to come here to eat their topokki or the rabokki. So topokki is the rice cake sticks in the sauce and veggies…they also offer a version that is topped with cheese. Rabokki is the same dish but with ramen noodles added. I love that one. One time, I asked if they could make it rabokki with cheese. They said no. Why? I couldn’t tell yah. I should just bring my own cheese and sprinkle it on top…ha okay I probably won’t.

They are a bit sparse in terms of ban chan. This was it, kimchee and this onion/pepper vinegar pickled side. I like both and I’m fine with the lack of ban chan…although I wouldn’t take this little from other Korean restaurants!

Oh yes, metal silverware is the only way to eat Korean food!

Kimchi Hand Cut Noodle – $11.95
Hand cut noodles, the noodles are made with sesame leaves. You can totally taste it – it was very good!

Bean Noodle – $10.95
This is what I wanted to come for! One of my guilty pleasures is watching mok bang, and one of those people eats this a lot. I was so curious about the taste! This white broth is basically a really thick soy milk. I knew it was going to be a bit bland…but I had to try it at least once.

Sliced cucumber, boiled egg and a light sprinkling of peanuts…and some noodles peeking through!

So how was it? Delicious! Much better than I thought it would be! Yes, the flavor is a bit simple but it has a clean taste. I can see why people would eat this while they are sick, very mild and easy to eat. It has just a slight taste of ground sesame/peanuts. I think the combination of this dish with the kimchi hand cut noodles helped us feel properly full. Give them a try! I also recommend their pan fried dumplings, so delicious! I saw that the price of the dumplings are now $11.95, a bit pricey but give it a try at least once.

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Bibimkooksoo – Palama Supermarket

Jul10

Dang, my favorite jajangmyun is no longer being served at Palama Supermarket! It looks like they revised their entire menu and carry a lot less stuff now. I would say they now only serve very typical Korean BBQ take-out dishes which saddens me. I hope they one day carry these noodles again. Since I was already there, I got their bibimkooksoo. I gotta say, it was a pretty good deal! They give a lot! Check out the pics.

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Street Food – Seoul, Korea

May8

So yesterday, I showed you the bad things that can happen when you eat street food. Let me share a few pictures of the GOOD things that can happen! While the corn dog was a set-back, I would still try street food!

Okay, this is gonna make me look like I only want sausages but CHECK IT OUT. Five different meats on a stick. It was DELICIOUS. I believe this was in Myeongdong.

I always see this on Korean TV shows so I had to give it a try. It’s an odeng food cart, the Korean version of Oden. This is fish cake, it’s the only thing I got this time because we were between meals. Was good!

Sundae. My gosh, I was so disappointed by this. I got it at the E-mart next door to our apartment and it was terrible. The ones in Hawaii are much better but I am sure it’s because I got it at a chain grocery store. I gotta try a good one from a food joint next time.

I didn’t get to try this food stand but I thought it look super cute. There were a lot of these types of carts in the Myeongdong area…I really want to go back to Korea SOON.

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maybeitsjenny

Hawaii based food blog with foodie travels!