Sashimi till I drop (literally)@Caribu, Seoul

I've been told that Korea is known for steal deal sushis and sashimis, but I was always skeptical of this statement until I experienced it myself at Caribu, a local sashimi joint nearby Diana Hotel, in Gyungmyeong.

It was rather obvious that I looked like a "mountain pig" unsure of how to order, blindly staring at the a picture less menu filled with Korean wording hung on the wall. Lucky Dogma was around to do some amateur translation and we ended up ordering some sashimis at 25000won/pax. (RM75). At first, only 10 pieces were placed on this gigantic plate. Strangely, the locals love their sashimis slightly frozen, thus hard. Not accustomed to this style of eating, I left mine on the bowl for a while to thaw and soften them before eating. Within minutes, the 10 pieces were almost gone and I was left feeling cheated, thinking this cost RM 75. I must confess I was quick to complain in Mandarin, forgetting that many locals here can also speak Chinese. Urks.. Only then I had slight suspicions that the chef might be able to understand me. Just when I was about to pack up, all of a sudden, the chef took out his sharp knife and started adding more slides on the iced bowl. Like ALOT of slices. From different parts of the body. The image above was the 2nd serving. Oops. I was too quick to judge.

I was further surprised when the chef started cutting the tuna meat again, this time giving us, the eyes, cheeks, tongue, neck parts. WOAH ! And to add the wow factor even more, the chef covered the meat with some gold dust. Who says gold accessories can only be used on humans? Fishes too! My favorite part was the eye. So, so, so, so tender. Beyond description.

Based on my observation, the two distinct methods of sashimi eating between the Koreans and the Japanese are: 1) fish slices are served slightly frozen and hardened versus just nicely defrosted and soft 2) the sashimis are wrapped in seaweed for the Koreans

The other distinct difference was also the side dishes serving, I didn't expect that the prawn sashimis and rolls would be complimentary. What a generous gesture! And the other side dish given was fried ginkgo and garlic on served on the hot plate. I have never eaten ginkgo in such a manner before, and it was delish! The oil brought out the nutty flavor and soaked with garlic fragrance making them truly enjoyable just munching them as they were. We had to reject their third serving of side dish which was beef slices with foochuk. It is madness the amount of food given ! I regretted speaking so harshly right from the beginning condemning the overpriced RM 75 10 sashimi slices, only to know I was about to embark on a long educational dining experience on the tuna. We were so full that we had to tell the chef, "no more....no more sashimi please... Stop ..." I'm sure no one has ever declined the chef from serving sashimis before, it is definitely my first, for someone who loves sashimis and any worthy steal deals! If I were to dine like this in Malaysia, I must be prepared to spend at least RM 300-RM 500, like the price in Gaon, Sri Hartamas. I am very, very, very glad I had this surprisingly pleasant and educational dining experience in Caribu! Looking forward for another year of fruitful foodie venture on my next Korea church retreat trip.

Seafood craving@Sweet Inn Restaurant, Damansara Kim

 The one common thing Malaysians have is the passion and love for food. Just a simple opening line of "Where is good for crabs?" can get strangers talking like old friends.

After a sweaty session of tennis, we usually cool down at the swimming pool and dip ourselves in the jacuzzi and rest our adrenaline-rushed bodies.

Here, we met an elderly man who apparently swims 5 km each day. Hence, a rather tanned and toned body, not common for a man his age. He overheard our foodieventure conversation on searching for a nice restaurant for crabs and started sharing his foodieventures.

He introduced to us Sweet Inn, in Damansara Kim, and said that we will not regret dining here. We believed his conviction and decided to listen to this wise elderly man.

When we arrived, believe it or not, we had no place to sit, and the restaurant was packed with patrons, and empty tables available were under reservation. The lady owner was gracious enough to remove one reserved table for us since we there were only 3 of us. She probably guessed we would eat and leave quickly based on our hungry faces.

We ordered a bowl of fish maw soup to share. Thankfully, we decided to share and not order a portion for 3, else we would have left the restaurant with our fly unzipped. It may not seem impressive from the picture, but the soup was really good. The maw was fresh too. In general, I am not a fan of this dish, but this deserves a thumbs up. In fact, the soup was very thick and viscous, I wouldn't really consider it as a soup. RM 20+/bowl if I recalled correctly.

We wanted to have an appetizer, while waiting for our seafood dishes, and the restaurant serves 3 or 6 dish appetizer. We opted for the 3 dish appetizer, but surprised to know that this one plate was for 1 pax. The waitress brought 3 plates, but my eye caught a creepy crawly insect on the 3rd plate and shrieked, thinking it was a cockroach. The waitress did a super kungfu stunt, by quickly swooshing the plate away from sight and walked away from our table. The other two did not see anything but worried for a while before eating the food from ones placed on our table.

We cancelled the 3rd plate, as it was just too much food. I guess the creepy crawly insect earned us a free cancellation.

RM 18/plate. Rather pricey :/

Since J has an immense craving for crab, we ordered 1 crab to share. Well, we were surprised that the crab was rather big when served to us. The crab dish was actually, just average. Covered by the sweet, sour, spicy sauce. We all agreed we've ate better crab dishes else where. The plus point was the unique looking mantao, which looked like a baguette when served to us but inside the bread, had rolled stick-like layers, soft and fluffy. Yummy when soaked with the crab sauce. 

The crab was RM 80. Our eyes popped when the bill came.

Finally, the long awaited trademark dish of Sweet Inn came. The sang har mee, for 2 pax portion (3 to share). This was really, really good. The noodles were freshly fried, and able to maintain the crunchiness for a long while. Though the sang hars were not the biggest I've seen served on this dish, but the freshness of the prawns made up for the size. 

Our eyes popped, our jaws dropped too when the price for this sang har mee dish for 2 portion was RM 120. @_@. 

The total bill came up to over RM 300.

After the munching, chomping, slurping, chewing session had passed, when our senses kicked in, the image of the elderly man came into our minds. The word of caution that he gave to us before we left the pool which we conveniently forgot when we were excitedly ordering our dishes....."It may be a pinch to your pockets".

The sayings of a old and wise man.