Might have been afternoon, might have been evening, I can't quite recall when exactly it was we had this meal at Koggi.
Does it matter?
Not quite.
Koggi is good anytime of the day, but, like all good meals, it becomes way more satisfying when one goes there hungry, ready to eat.
So good is the food here that I often tend to eat enough for two, if not three, meals, so if this meal was on a weekday, it would mean we had dinner there because after 530pm weekdays is when the price hits the gorgeous number of $19.90++.
If this meal was on a weekend, however, it could mean either lunch or dinner as that's the time when the same gorgeous price of $19.90++ becomes offered all day.
And because I do really eat enough for meals two, or three, it means I would have either skipped dinner, or waited the entire day to make the most out of this one meal.
Trust me, it's totally worth it.
Koggi here at the 1st floor of Suntec City on the Golden Village side has to be one of the best K-BBQs I've come to appreciate in a long while, especially when you consider the quality of the food, and the variety that they serve.
I go for the BBQ, but they also have shabu shabu, which, although very popular with many groups, I have yet to try.
Even with the meats there is plenty of variety, but I prefer sticking to my favorite few.
If it is the meats that make the meal here attractive, there is more that makes it exceptional- the banchan, and the cooked food.
There's no shortage of banchan here, by the way.
Diners will get to have banchan in the form of kimchi, vegetables, and greens. Here one finds an unlimited serving of veggies like garlic and onions and lettuce and what I think is radish.
There is also that fantastic variety of kimchi, almost 6 kinds, I think, if I'm not wrong, ranging from the cubed radish to the cabbage to the pickled cucumbers to what I think are potatoes, or the like.
I however am boring.
I tend to get the same old things when it comes to this part of the banchan, and to date I haven't tried much else, nor have I attempted to change.
One of my favorite dishes that I always, without fail, take from this section of the counter, is the cabbage kimchi. It is thus far the only kimchi I like, and more or less, the only one amongst the variety that I keep going for.
It isn't that I don't like cucumbers or radish- they're done well and I'll certainly eat them if they're in front of me but between one and the other, I like the crunch, and the slurp of the cabbage better.
With all the years of having Korean food here and there, I can't say that kimchi is a newfound love- my tongue has got acquainted and accustomed to the taste by now- but to discover how well it actually goes when eaten together with a piece of meat in a single bite- now that's Koggi new.
One of the new items however that we tried this time were the onions.
My friend had recommended them.
I munched some of them raw.
But my friend had a different idea.
He placed most of them on the grill to form a base, supposedly to sweeten the meat, give it more taste, and at the same time, prevent the thinly sliced meat from sticking onto the pan. With this method, he said, the meat could be left on a sort of slow grill over the charcoal fire without it getting burnt.
Although initially cynical I grew to understand the science.
The method actually worked.
Throughout the meal we had ourselves to lots of Beef Thin Sliced.
At least that's what I think it's called.
Maybe we had a bit of the Marinated bulgogi (also beef, I think, but it might well have been pork) but sadly I don't have a picture.
What is absolutely certain is that we had the beef, and likely, the pork, where it comes in the form of Thin Sliced Pork Belly and is so evenly marbled that one never has to think about whether the meat will be full of the fat's flavor, or not.
Perhaps it be for this reason that I have realized it be unnecessary to dip the meat into salt and sesame oil. All I need to do is just dip the meat in the salt, minus the oil, or dip it straight into the Greek-style yogurt, or if not, eat it with a piece of kimchi wrapped inside.
It gets too oily otherwise.
But I don't deny myself the salt nor the oil.
I take it for the japchae, which, by the way, is one of my favorite items here in their cooked food banchan section.
There's something heartwarming about opening up all the trays of food to see what there is inside. What makes it even more fun is that you never know what it is you'll get.
Chicken nuggets and fries tend to be a staple.
My friend loves the nuggets and polishes off 8 at one go.
I, on the other hand, vary my cooked food banchan based on what's available that day. Most of the time there's the macaroni salad, which I love and always help myself to at least a bowl. Then there's the japchae, this one an absolute favorite and delight, and then sometimes there's tteokbokki that gets served with beancurd skin all cooked in a bright red sauce of a gochujang.
The last dish in the serving tray tends to be the most varied one.
Sometimes there's beef bulgogi, sometimes there's fried chicken, sometimes there're other dishes that will be appetizing for different palates as well.
Today I focused only on the japchae.
I love how they make it so good here.
Japchae has, for the longest time, been one of my most favorite dishes when it comes to Korean cuisine. I don't take it very often- this sweet potato noodle that gets stir fried- but when given a chance like this, I hesitate not.
Here the japchae is fried with a variety of ingredients. There's beancurd skin, there's some shredded vegetables, and there's the black fungus, all of which make this dish particularly attractive and charming.
What sets this dish unique here is that they make it dry.
Very little oil.
Very little salt.
That's where the sesame oil and the salt come in.
And a huge difference it makes.
It actually makes the noodle smoother, nicer, more tasty, better to have.
Seeing these pictures now I miss this Koggi K-BBQ (even though I had it only a couple days before). Perhaps next time when I go back there there'll be japchae again, or if not, I'll just help myself to the macaroni salad (hopefully!), and maybe the seaweed soup or the kimchi soup that they alternate from time to time.