60 Korean Dishes Every Singaporean Should Know

Besides kalguksu, SNS also serves a nice range of pancakes and meat dishes.

Their kimchi jeon was delightfully good. The batter was thin and shattering crisp and the kimchi sweet and tangy. It's the perfect way to start the meal or to complement the kalguksu.

I do highly recommend having this!

Korean celebrity chef Lee Woo Il has set up Seoul Noodle Shop ("SNS") in town that specialises in kalguksu (Korean knife cut noodles).

Kalguksu is a type of wheat flour noodles where the dough is cut into noodles instead of being extuded, pulled or spun. SNS serves 12 different varieties of kalguksu which are freshly made to order on the spot.

Besides the Busan Shrimp Noodles (which is a Singapore exclusive), the server recommended their signature big pork bone spicy kalguksu. The kalguksu is served in a bowl filled with spicy pork bone broth and topped with pork ribs, powdered perilla and spring onions.

I love that the kalguksu is doughy and yet light. The fact that it's freshly made clearly makes a difference as it is soft yet chewy. From its appearance, I was expecting the broth to taste fiery and strong. Instead, the broth was relatively light and clean tasting and definitely not as spicy as it looked. I was actually surprised that you could taste the earthy and grassy flavours of the perilla powder in the soup. As for the pork ribs, they were tender and literally fell off the bone.

I quite enjoyed SNS kalguksu and will be back to try their other varieties!

P. S. Chef Lee was helping out in the kitchen when I was there last Thursday. Not sure when he will be here till but if you want to catch him in action, do head down soon!

Initially known as Waker Chicken, I don't think it would be wrong to say that Jade's Chicken was one of the early pioneers responsible for making Korean fried chicken known and accessible in the heartlands.

Jade has been run by a Korean family when they first started. Business was initially on the slow side when they first started but they soon caught the public imagination with a slew of media publicity. I used to be a regular customer but the queues and wait got so maddeningly long and frustrating that I pretty much didn't really bother. They got so popular that they expanded to various locations in kopitiam and hawker centres but the quality-wise, they could not match the OG. Not long after, the OG became known in its current form as Jade Chicken whilst the expansion outlets retained the Waker Chicken name.

The OG's Korean fried chicken was one of the best in Singapore when I last had it so I was really looking forward to having it. It's still good tbh but the standard seems to have slipped a little. The batter is still shattering crisp but the chicken's marination didn't seem to go through. The sauce also seems a little more diluted these days. Either that or they may have tweaked the recipe a little!

Jade's chicken is still enjoyable and the queue is a lot shorter now. I will definitely be back to support the ahjussi!

Ganjang Gejang is a type of jeotgal (or salted fermented seafood) in Korean cuisine. It is made by marinating fresh female crabs with roe in soy sauce and various spices. Whilst it is considered a delicacy in Korean cuisine, it is one of those dishes you either love or hate because it is difficult to eat can taste too raw, too salty or too spicy.

I am one of the former who love it for its sweet salty and savoury complex flavours but I have not had ganjang gejang outside of Korea because it is a time consuming dish to make and is difficult to export being raw seafood. Whilst it can be found in some Korean restaurants in Singapore, it is usually rather pricey (>$50).

We made the trip to Tteok Sang after reading about their ganjang gejang set which costs less than $20! Each set comes with 2 decent sized crabs, rice, seaweed and banchan. You can't eat this dish without getting your hands dirty so put on the plastic gloves provided and get cracking (literally).

There is no glam way of eating this dish - you break the crab at the joint and squeeze the gooey crab meat out or literally slurp it out of the shell. I personally found Tteok Sang's crabs a little too salty on its own so I recommend having it mixed with rice and some banchan in the shell and with the roe!

I personally find Tteok Sang's ganjang gejang a little too salty for my liking but mix it with rice and some banchan and it kinda balances out. That said, it serves as a good entry point for those who want to try this dish without breaking the bank.

We finished our meal at Tteok Sang with what else but kimbap!

Actually this was served by the good folks at Tteok Sang as what the Koreans would call 'service' dish (in short, complimentary of the restaurant). In Korea, the service dishes could sometimes be even better than what you ordered!

The kimbap here is actually quite good. It's packed full of ingredients and held its shape nicely. I can easily see myself getting a few on the go!

Tteok Sang also offers a wide range of mains such as ttukbaegi bulgogi, budaejjigae, gamjatang and sundubujjigae.

Their ttukbaegi bulgogi is a little on the sweet side but tasty with the sliced beef and glass noodles. The sliced beef was tender but the portions were kinda small considering the price.

Tteok Sang also serves a decent tonkatsu that is tender with a nice mix of fatty and lean meat. The batter is also thin and crispy.

Tteok Sang is a little hole in the wall eatery located on the ground floor of Aperia Mall that specialises in Korean street food.

They serve their food in green melamine plates similar to those used by Korean street food vendors during the 80s and 90s.

We started our meal off with Tteokbokki, a dish synonymous with Korean street food. Tteok Sang's rice cakes are chewy with a good bite. The sauce is sweet spicy and savoury but was a little too mild and light for my liking. I like it came with slices of eomuk (Korean fishcake) instead of having to order it on the side!

Myung Ga serves is the only place I know in Singapore which serves deulkkae kalguksu or perilla seeds noodle, a little known Korean noodle dish.

Perilla is a uniquely Korean ingredient. Their leaves are usually accompany barbecue meats and the oil is usually added to soups or blanched vegetables. Besides adding a rich intense flavour to the dishes, perilla is a super food full of omega-3 fatty acids and is widely used in Korean temple food as a natural flavour enhancer.

To prepare deulkkae kalguksu, crushed perilla seeds is first added to anchovies or chicken broth to make it rich, creamy, wholesome and robust. The thickened broth reminds me of carbonara but is a lot more tasty and flavourful.

The noodle soup is usually topped with squash, vegetables, mushrooms and sliced potatoes. This dish is super addictive and I found myself slurping strands of noodles without stopping.

Ddonkkaseu (or Korean fried pork cutlet) has 3 rather unique characteristics: (1) it is huge compared to the Japanese, Chinese and Western cousins; (2) the meat is relatively thin and lean, and the batter thin, like the Austrian schnitzel; and (3) it is usually served topped with a savoury, sweet and sour demi-glacé sauce.

Myung Ga is a homely Korean restaurant at Bukit Timah Plaza, which serves a good and enjoyable version of it. The meat is tender and juicy and the sauce adds a refreshing twist to the pork cutlet.

At $16, its relatively pricey considering the location but the portions and quality make it worthwhile!

Miss K has been super stressed and busy recently so when I saw Su young-sshi's honey mayo tteokbokki, I knew it will be sure to cheer her up. You know you have reached the crowning glory of your short, brief and uninspiring culinary career when Miss Korea says that your tteokbokki is better than anything store bought and she will have it any other day.

@suyoung_ryu is my favourite celebrity chef on @funstaurant_kbs as his recipes are so easy to follow and makes use of simple everyday ingredients. He is also super funny and inspires me to cook for Miss K more often in the future.

Tteokbokki is a relatively simple dish but you need to put in some extra effort to elevate it to the next level. In his recipe, Chef Ryu recommends that you cook the spring onions, the tteok, the cocktail sausages and prawns separately so that they will be perfect taste-wise on their own and even better together. He also recommends that the oil from the spring onion be used to give the dish the extra oomph and aromatic notes.

To prepare the crabstick garnish, I had to shred crab sticks into strips before deep-frying them for the extra bit of crunch to contrast with the soft chewy tteok.

Last but not least, Chef Ryu recommends finishing the dish with a honey-mayonnaise sauce which can be used as a dip or drizzled over the dish. This, for me, is the key to this dish.

It is not doing my waistline no good but this rich, creamy concoction balanced the slightly salty and spicy gochujang sauce (which is usually used for tteokboki) and is just perfect for this dish.

The essence of Chef Ryu's dish is his use of contrasting textures (the crispy deep fried crabstick and the soft chewy tteok) and flavours (the salty and spicy gochujang and the sweet rich creamy honey mayo sauces) that elevates this dish to the next level.

어남선생, 고맙습니다. We really loved your tteokbokki!

Chicken chicken winner dinner!

@88chicken_sg is a new korean fried chicken joint which opened in a mixed development in the Potong Pasir area recently. They serve their fried chickens 3-way: original, yangnyeom (spicy) and ganjang (soy sauce).

I have tried both the yangnywom and ganjang flavours. Compared to my personal gold standard, Waker Chicken, 88 Chicken's KFC is visibly smaller. The batter is also thinner and less crisp. The meat however is tender and better marinated. The sauces are also mellower.

Miss K prefers 88 Chicken. I am kinda on the fence because I do like Waker's shattering crisp chicken skin (even when you do a takeaway) and portions but 88 Chicken has an edge in terms of the texture of the chicken meat and the sauces (if you like it milder). I think it boils down to a matter of personal preference as to which is better! Though you get to enjoy 88 Chicken in air-conditioned comfort and they apparently serve a good kimchi jjigae and haemul pajeon (seafood pancake).

Do let me know which do you prefer!