Too Hot To Handle @ Bi Bim Bap

Bi Bim Bap is a bright, colourful and fun Korean restaurant in Soho that specialises in, as the name suggests Bi Bim Bap.

Momofuku - A lush revisit

I’m a big fan of David Chang and his Momofuku Noodle Bar, this was our second visit in a couple of years and it gave us a good reminder of why we enjoyed it here the first time.

Oddly enough we actually ordered the same two dishes as last time, and what we had was as good now as it was two years ago.

K is for Korea @ Koba

There wasn’t really any doubt as to what cuisine we were going to eat for the letter K. I made a half arsed attempt to look for something else, but really let’s be honest it was only ever going to Korean.

The difficulty lie with which restaurant we were going to sample this wonderful cuisine and what to have.

As none of really had eaten Korean food, apart from a couple of bits and bobs here and there, it was and well still is a bit of a mystery.

Out of all the restaurants I’d read about Koba kept getting the better reviews for its bar-b-q, which really as a newbie to Korean food, I think this had to be a major thing on our collective first visit.

The plush restaurant is very modern, lots of dark colours, moody lighting and a youngish crowd. The vibe was nice and easy, vibrant but calming.

Between 6 of us we had quite a good selection of starters and 2 bar-b-q combo’s. The highlight of the starters were the fried pancake and the fried chicken. The pancake was crunchy and crispy and was very well seasoned.

The bar-b-q which was the highlight of the night, turned out to be a fun thing. Thankfully Koba have an exhaust shaft above every bar-b-q, otherwise the entire restaurant would have been chokey smokey.

For large groups the combo bar-b-q selections turned out to be pretty good value. We did find it slightly annoying that the staff literally cooked our meat for us, maybe they thought us novices didn’t know how to cook Korean bar-b-q for ourselves.

I’m not sure of the quality of the meat, as the marinades over powered the beef and pork. Not to say that the marinades were not good they were. Nice and hot. Just how we like it.

I do have one quibble about Koba and that was the amount they charged for the kimchi. My little knowledge of Korean cuisine extends to kimchi. As far as I am aware, it comes with every meal, and I feel it should be a free accompaniment, not a £5 side. 

All in all we had a great night with lots of good banter and good food. I would imagine however that a modest bar-b-q joint in Korea would be a match for Koba on its food, but for London I think this is probably as good as it gets.
Oh and love the name of the beer, and no there is not an S before that H.

Assa - My First Taste of Korea

What I know about Korean food you could write on a back of a postage stamp and still have room to write all I know about West African food as well. Ie squat.

So this is not going to be a post about my amazing new discovery and how I am now an expert and all knowledgeable on Korean food. No this is going to be about a simple bowl of spicy beef soup and other waffle.

I know nothing about Korea, except they make bloody good horror and psycho thrillers and have some rather graphic food scenes in their films. Oh and of course MASH, which was most of the West’s perception of Korea in the 70’s and early 80’s.

I know a few people, who’ve been to Korea, but they have all also visited Japan first, and I think they have all compared the two, and Japan has always been the better of the two. But I want to meet someone who has been to Korea and not Japan to tell me what a wonderful place it is to visit.

I remember watching an episode of Diary of a Foodie about Korea and it looks fantastic, with food ranging from simple rustic food to complex dishes fit for an Emperor. Definitely worth checking out the series if you can.

So on a recent mid week visit to central London we ended up outside a trio of Korean restaurants close to Tottenham Court Road station at lunchtime.

For some reason the other restaurants were empty, except for Assa. Now for me this speaks volumes for a place, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this is, especially as everyone inside was Korean. No guesses where we ate.

As we had to head off to apply for our Chinese visa, we could really just grab and go. So we both ordered the Beef Spicy soup. I needed something with a kick, and the wife hates tofu. So all other soups were off the menu.

The broth wasn’t as hot as I was expected, but it got hotter as I slowly worked my way through it to the bottom. I loved the deep red color of the soup and the beef was super tender and so flavourful.

The soup came with a bowl of rice, which after living in Colombia and visiting ever other country throughout Latin America, I’ve gotten used to having rice with my soups, and actually kind of prefer it really. It’s a good way of beefing one up shall we say.

I’m not a fan other anything but wooden chopsticks, so to be given flat metal chopsticks was a tad of a pain. It took me the whole meal before I could get used to them.

I do love the down to earthness of this place, it has no pretence it does what it says on the tin. Good honest Korean food at a good price. We will be returning to try out the rest of the menu, and improve my lack of knowledge of Korean food, except for the live octopus of course.