Perth Dae Jang Kum

So like, this meal was on the Sunday before our lovely exam study break started, which dates back to...uhh...6th of November.
Which means...I'M DAMN LAGGING ON POSTS!!!
Which also means...I'M DAMN LAGGING ON MONEY!!!
Maybe it wasn't a good idea to drown my sorrows with countless eating frenzies.

I'm a really good student and excel in procrastination and not giving a shit. Even my friends get jealous at how gifted I am in these areas to the point where they actually start worrying about my studies for me.

J: "Dude, your first exam is on the 15th..when are you going to start studying?"

"Uh...dunno...the 16th?"

S: "Would you start studying if like, I came and drove you to uni?"

Nawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

All that cramming came crashing down on me. My exams sucked. Boo hoo hoo :(

Onto happier topics, we decided to have The Last Meal in preparation for the lack of dinners to come, in preparation of getting killed by exams. Little did I know that this meal would kill me. Actually this meal killed all of us, but it killed me first, since I was first to stop eating.

Which sorta...

NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER NEVER EVER NEVEREVEREVER NEVER happens.

Just a few mouthfuls into dinner,

T: "Shit. Guys...we're in trouble."

LOL and then pretty much breathed out fire.

Kimchi Fried Rice - $14

Was hoping this could be a more subtle carbohydrate which we could eat with the other spicy dishes but this on its own was anything but subtle! Maybe because it came out last and our mouths were already burning.

I've never been a lover of kimchi on its own but kimchi fried rice would probably make me eat it more. A nice chilli kick but nothing to jump about. Nothing more than a serving of chilli fried rice under a blanket of fried omlette. My tastebuds were dying at this point. I probably had 2 grains of rice and half that omlette.

Dakgalbi - $36 for 2 people

It was unbelievable how much my friends rambled on about this dish after trying it ages ago. And it was even more entertaining since they had no idea what it was called and the best they could do is just constantly OMG, that chicken thing! Lets go to that shop with that chicken thing!
Me: Which shop?
Them: That shop with the chicken thing. You don't know that chicken thing? How can you not know that chicken thing? The chicken thing!
Me: What chicken thing?
Them: That chicken thing!

So turns out that chicken thing was this chicken thing. And this chicken thing, otherwise known as Dakgalbi looked fiercely spicy. It came on top of an electric gas burner which doubled up its hotness, which had us furiously panting and fanning our tongues to save our poor tastebuds from this heatwave. I couldn't taste anything for the next few hours.

Inside was marinated spicy chicken, rice cake and assorted vegetables with rice, and meant to be for 2 people. Well, the 6 of us couldn't finish it, partly because IT WAS SO FLIPPIN HOT! Actually nah, it's not that bad, I think we're just chilli wusses and each consecutive mouthful became hotter than the previous one. Apparently it doesn't taste AS nice now too, and spamming on the excessive vegetables with insufficient chicken is noticeable.

I guess now I won't hear them rant about it anymore.

Cheese Dakgalbi - $38 for 2 people

LOL. When I looked at this, I automatically just thought, that's just lazy. This just looks like a Cheese pizza before it goes into the oven. And really, that just looks like a massive dump of cheese and nothing more to get excited about.

Surprisingly when it got mixed in with all the other ingredients inside, you actually have no clue about the amount of cheese there was as you can't really taste it so much. This was actually also the affectionately known chicken thing but with udon noodles instead. I regret that we ordered 2 pots of fire that we couldn't eat but thankfully the excessive amount of cheese helped to neutralise the spiciness we couldn't handle.

See they realllllyyy wanted their Dakgalbi that they doubled up their order. Dakgalbi and Dakgalbi with cheese. Their greediness backfired and I think they've learnt their lesson now.
 

Complementary Side Dishes

I love how Korean cuisine comes with little side dishes that you can replenish at your will and greed. Isn't it just exciting when you get free stuff, and even more exciting when that free stuff can just keep coming? Or maybe that's just me... :$

There's the mediocre kimchi with such a spicy hit that I refused to consume, on top of our hot meal that literally left us panting all through and after it.
There's the marinated bean sprouts which I always love and demolish, every. single. time. without fail. Their simplicity is what makes them so delicious.
There's the weird jelly/tofu-like dish which I still have no idea what on earth it is. I dived into it expecting nothing. And I got nothing.
I have good expectations!

Side Dish

Here is a better view of that side dish. It tasted bland. Even with the soy sauce drizzles, it didn't add to the taste, if not made it taste even more odd. Not criticising, just not to my liking.

It reminds me of that black glossy grass jelly, an Asian dessert usually served with coconut milk and sago, more fondly known as that grass jelly drink in cans. This had the same texture, only difference was that this had a white, opaque appearance instead.

Overall? Meh.

Cheese Dakgalbi

Cheese being cheese, all that cheese from before easily disappeared as soon as we mixed it all through with the udon noodles atop a gas burner. I guess that's why cheese is so dangerous - you just can't tell it's there and can't see all the calories you're consuming. It's just an invisible killer ingredient that makes food delicious.

This was like one big Italian dish, like a cheesy chicken pasta fiesta. We resorted to this whenever we needed to take a breather and save ourselves from the other chicken dakgalbi.
Same same, but different. Cheese soothes and cools here.

Extra serving of rice

By the time we were nearing the end of our meal - not the end of our food, food was still PLENTIFUL but we couldn't take it anymore :( - we were actually full. Yet, we ordered an extra serving of rice, presumably to have a dish THAT WE COULD ACTUALLY EAT and was chilli-free. Plain rice never sounded so good.

But then being the bright kids that we are, we dumbly poured the whole plate into the dakgalbi pot and stirred together all the contents in that big hot fiery cauldron. Then realised we'd just made another version of kimchi fried rice. What was meant to tone down all that hotness, was now fully marinated in that very same hot sauce. DOH!

Looked pretty good though. When else does your rice look like that when you order a serving of it right?

Dae Jang Kum Menu

This always reminds me of that award winning Korean drama on our satellite TV a while ago.
But cbf finding out the significance of it, who it is, what it is, or what the hell it even means.
I'll just eat my Korean thanks.

...

I think the general rule of thumb we live by is if you're going to go for Korean, go for it hard and get crazy with all-you-can-possibly-stuff-down-your-throat buffet instead of A la carte style Korean meals. There's nothing quite like the sound of sizzling ox tongues on the hotplate that adds to the happiness in a glutton's way of thinking. You get your money's worth that way and cooking your own meals always adds a dimension of fun and frustration. But totally worth it.

Bill came to $20+ per person which I reckon would have been better used at like Sinabro Korean BBQ up the road with neverending meats and drinks. Our meal here was also neverending as we struggled to get through it, the end just seemed so far. Typically like assignments, deadlines and other crap you don't want to do or commit to.

Staff are friendly but service could be deemed a bit slow but still pleasant. Food was just too hot to handle for us, which makes sense in a winter wonderland like Korea but here in the stinking hot summer desert of Perth, it's something less inviting. Like most hot foods, it's not too bad to start with but then with each further mouthful it begins to build progressively hotter and soon enough you'll be consuming more water than food. Good thing that water here is free and kept chilled for your mouth's convenience.

To be honest we were still hungry but for me, chilli gives me a false sense of fullness that doesn't last long. We requested to takeaway our heap of leftovers but then nobody wanted the takeaway box. Guess none of us are hero enough to go through it again.
So by the time 3am came around and hunger came for a visit again, we opted for the chocolate croissant bag instead.

I could do with that!