It is a privilege to come Koggi here at Suntec City even on a weekday evening for a meal that I dearly anticipate and look forward to.
Weekday evenings have only begun, more or less, this year.
Last year was more of the weekends than the weekdays, but honestly, does it really matter? What's important about being here is the food, which, I have to say, I appreciate and have deeply come to love.
Life is such that had you told me a few months ago that I would have so much K-BBQ I would not have believed you but Life also brings you opportunities, and no way in high heavens do I ever want to miss one.
One of the best things to have when it comes to K-BBQ is the kimchi.
That's one of the things I never, ever forgo whenever I'm here.
Not only does it make for a great appetizer where it whets the appetite and opens the palate, it makes for helpful digestion when eaten together with the meat.
It's interesting but one of the things about Koggi I like is their banchan, or rather, their cooked food. (Honestly I don't know if their cooked food can be defined as banchan but I'll just go with it that way)
Not to say that I don't like their meats.
Obviously I do.
I wouldn't be here otherwise.
Every time we come here there will be at least four, if not five, plates of Beef Thin Sliced, or Thin Sliced Pork Belly.
It is certainly the most frequent meat that we order, never mind that there are other varieties like Pork Collar and Marinated Chicken Galbi.
Perhaps what draws me most about these meats are how thinly sliced and easy to cook they are. I don't have to cut up the meat, I don't have to chew and chew and chew. I also don't have to wait too long for the meat to cook.
It comes chilled (sometimes frozen). I wait for it to thaw, then once it's thawed, up onto the grill go the onions that serve as a sort of barrier between the grill and the meat. No need to worry about the meat sticking to the grill that way.
I however don't do a lot of dips.
Technically, culturally, I'm supposed to have the meat with salt and sesame oil, but I usually don't. Instead we make our own where we mix garlic powder inside Greek style yogurt, or we mix gochujang with the same Greek style yogurt, or sometimes we mix all three.
That doesn't mean I don't use the sesame oil nor the salt.
On the contrary, I mix a fair bit of oil with japchae- one of my favorite cooked food selections here at Koggi. Actually, one doesn't really need the oil, honestly- they cook it so well- but it kinda makes the noodles feel smoother on the tongue, more tasty even.
And then the salt, I like to scatter it over the macaroni salad which, to my surprise, over here they actually prepare very clean and so has that gentle refreshing taste that makes for a cleanse to the palate, whilst cooling your tongue altogether.
The only cooked food that I don't mix anything with is the tteokbokki.
I don't need to.
The rice tubes, together with the soft, mushy bean curd skin, plus what I think is the gochujang sauce, makes for a great dish eaten all on its own.
