MiSeong Wang Mandu, Suyeong-gu, Busan. 부산 미성왕만두 수영점

A neighborhood dumpling shop well-known with it's signature wang-mandu (king size dumpling). Located few meters away from Suyeong Metro Station - Exit no.4. The mandu is freshly made daily and only available for take out. The queue can be very long sometimes. Their Wang-mandu is 2,000 won per piece, while normal size mandu and kimchi mandu are 7,000 won for 4 pieces. We take away a wang-mandu and 8 pieces of normal mandu + kimchi mandu half half each flavour and head to McDonalds across the road to enjoy it while it is hot. We order some fries and iced americano in order to dine-in. It feels odd for me to have dumplings in McD but cousin say it is normal to do so. The wang-mandu is full of meat patties inside. It looks like our Chinese steam bun but the taste is Korean dumpling. Just one wang-mandu is very filling for one meal for one person. Beside Suyeong-gu, Miseong wang mandu also have other franchise in Somyeon and Dongrae-gu.

Soondae Bossot Jonggol~ GyungJu Park-Ga Gukbap, Yeonsan-dong, Busan. 부산 연제구 연산점 경주박가국밥 순대버섯전골

Our first dinner after arrived at Busan is 순대버섯전골 Soondae Bossot Jonggol - a pork bone broth hot pot with enoki mushrooms & oyster mushroom, soondae (korean blood sausage), pork belly slices, chopped cabbage, carrot, leeks and green onions. I wanted to eat dweji-gukbap while he is looking for soondae, so Soondae Bossot Jonggol can satisfy both of our craving in one pot. The restaurant is a well known Gukbap-jib with several branches in Korea, operate 24 hours. 

We also order udon as extra side with the Jonggol. After finished almost 80% of the Jonggol, feeling full but still ask for bokkuembap (fried rice) with leftover. But minimum order for fried rice is 2 servings. Wanted fried rice so much and I said I can finish 1 serving, so we go for it. Turns out, the one who keep saying he's full won't be able to eat another 1 serving for me eat the most!! hahaha! The fried rice that made with leftover ingredients, broth from stew, cut-kimchi and a lot of gim (dried seaweed) is really savoury! One of the best and most satisfying meal in this Busan trip.

Millak Waterside Park & Cafe Gelateria~ Millak-dong, Gwanganli, Busan 민락수변공원 카페 젤라떼리아

After dinner, we went for a walk at Millak Waterside Park which is just across a street from the restaurant we dine-in. Located between Haeundae Beach and Gwangalli Beach, Millak waterside park is famous with close view of Gwangan daegyo and also abundant of Raw Fish Centre (in multi-storey building) along the waterfront. Ground floor is seafood market selling live fishes, 2nd floor on-wards are raw fish restaurants. Here you can buy your preferred fish or seafood at reasonable price at the ground floor, then bring it to any raw fish restaurants at the levels above, turn it into raw fish with some charges. The charges is included the dipping sauce and some side dish as well. Or you can just get the raw fish or other dish from the restaurant directly. Most of the restaurants in Raw Fish Center have a view of Gwangan Daegyo & Millak waterside park. You can enjoy the raw fish at the restaurant or take away to enjoy it at the park by the seaside, just like the locals did. There is no sandy beach, only paved beach promanade that extended to the sea. Seems like sitting at the seaside pavers with picnic mat, enjoying Gwangan Daegyo night view with raw fish and soju is a popular activity here.

Before head home, we drop by Cafe Gelateria~ a cafe famous with Italian ice cream~ Gelato. We are here for their popular "Honey Love Toast" Set which consists of Toast + Soft Yogurt Ice-cream + Americano. The combination of the warm fluffy toast with cold yogurt ice-cream is seriously addictive! At first I was doubt that if I can enjoy the dessert since I am still feeling full, but....never underestimate our stomach - there are always room for coffee and desserts after meal haha!

🚩Cafe Gelateria. 17-3. Gwangan Haebyeon-ro 344 boen-gil, Suyeong-gu, Busan

    

Maniju Grilled eel~ Millak-Dong, Gwanganli, Busan 광안리 마니주 장어구이

Every year when we back to Busan, one of the family dine-out will be grilled eel as it is one of my favourite Busan delicacy. Well not just me, his family and many Busan locals loves it too actually. This year we came to Millak-dong in Gwanganli which is well known as Korea's largest raw fish town. Many raw fish restaurants and large scale raw fish centre in a multi levels building complex line up along Millaksubyeon-ro and most of them has the nice window view of Gwangan-daekyo (Gwangan diamond bridge) and the sea.

Just like other restaurants nearby, the restaurant where we had grilled eel dinner - ground floor is the aquarium where they keep the alive eels, fishes and other seafood, while first floor is the dining area. Besides grilled eel, there are grilled hagfish 꼼장어 and grilled shellfish 조개구이 too. Maniju also have raw fish / sashimi such as unboned raw fish (soft-bone fish) 세꼬시, raw flatfish 광어회, raw abalone 전복회, raw conger eel 아나고희 and raw octopus 산낙지.

Maniju serve quail egg jorim and steamed sweet potato as side dish. The lettuce, perilla leaf, seasoned chives, onions pickle, raw garlic, ssamjang, soya sauce are for the wraps. Start off with grill on the skin layer until slightly golden brown, then turn the flesh down continue to grill until it is cook. Cut into bite size, dip the cook eel with marinate red sauce and place on the aluminum foil corner to let it continue to heat until sauce fully absorb into the grilled eels and it is ready to eat. Father in law like his grilled eel without sauce, just lightly dip with some soy sauce or eat together with the seasoning chives. While us prefer the sauce grilled eel with wraps. After dinner, we went to Millak waterside park for a short walk for cold autumn breeze and beautiful diamond bridge night view from seaside. Will blog it on next post.

A neighbourhood Cafe~ Cafe Pongdang, Suyeong-gu, Busan 부산 수영구 카페퐁당

Another morning in Busan, we drove around the neighbourhood wanted to eat delicious soondae at an old market but the shop is not open for business yet - opens at 11am only. No luck with soondae, we then turn to a homey cafe nearby home for coffee and snacks, while waiting for other family members arrived and have steamed crabs together. 

The cafe lady owner recommend me to try Malawi coffee - it's full bodied yet it has a sweet and smooth flavour. We also order flower tea and some almond cookies. The black coffee jelly that served as complimentary somehow captivate my heart in first bite and I end up bought 3 packets (with 20 sticks inside per pack) home as gift for family & friends who loves coffee. 

Fall is the season of flower crabs, brother in law went to seafood wholesale market and get 30 pieces of flower crabs for us to enjoy. This year flower crab quantity surge, the price drops and 1 piece of flower crab cost about RM6 only from wholesale market. End of today's post with the steamed flower crabs that I cannot enjoy due to seafood allergy.

Baek Jong Won's Dwenjang Jiggae~ 집밥 백선생 : 된장찌개

It's 집밥 백선생 Fever in Korea! This time I want to share the Baek Son-Seng style Dwenjang Jiggae! I have been cooking Dwenjang Jiggae with different ingredients before. I would say this is the most easy and fast ready Dwenjang Jiggae and it is very delicious too! Hubby requests me to make this Dwenjang Jiggae again and again after he had it for the first time with 2 bowl of rice gone. My Earth-ware is medium size (for 2 serving), but I only manage to take few sips of the soup and 1-2 spoon of the ingredients inside, there rest was finish by him. haha!

Ingredient (2 Servings):

Thinly slice Beef  (or Pork) - 1/2 Cup

Radish slices - 1/2 cup

Dwenjang - 4 Teaspoons

Gochujang - 1 Teaspoon

Sugar - 1 Teaspoon

Minced Garlic - 1 Teaspoon

Hot pepper (chill) - 1 pc

Green onion - 1 stalk

How to Cook:

Step 1.

Thinly slice  pork meat & radish, julienne the chili peppers, chopped the green onions and minced the garlic, set aside. 

I am using pork neck meat here. Baek SonSeng is using beef in the show, however pork is also suitable. Use meat that have some fat on it or you can mix lean meat with a little pork belly. Don't use just pork belly meat as it will make the soup turns out oily.

Step 2.

To make dwenjang jiggae, you need Dwenjang (Fremented bean paste), Gochujang (Red pepper paste) and sugar. These two are essential ingredients that often use in making most of the Korean dish and stews.

Step 3.

Heat up the earth-ware, saute the thinly slice pork without oil until the meat is cooked. The meat will release a little bit of oil from it's fat and it won't stick on the earth-ware. 

Step 4.

Add in the thinly slice radish and continue to saute until the all the radish is cook or soften.

Step 5.

Add in rice water and bring it to boil. (Tips: Use the second time or third time rinsing water from washing rice for cooking soup). If you do no have rice water, you can use normal water.

After the rice water start boiling, add in 4 teaspoons of dwenjang, mix it well.

Step 6. 

Continue to add in 1 teaspoon of gochujang, follow by 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic. You can see the color of the water turns oranges like below.

The ratio is 4:1:1:1 (Dwenjang:4, Gochuchang:1, Sugar:1, Minced Garlic:1)

Step 7.

Continue to boil for 10 minutes, topped with chopped green onion and chili pepper slices and let it boil for another 1 minute and it is done!

The secret of this delicious dwenjang jiggae is the combination of meat, radish, sugar and minced garlic. Either one of the ingredient is lacking the taste of the dwenjang jiggae will be different (like something is missing.) Someone has remake the Baek Sonseng's dwenjang jiggae right after the episode in this short video clip - share with all of you and hope you guys will enjoy this dwenjang jiggae like us too!