Cycle 15 – Item 123

7 (Tue) May 2024

Braised Sea Cucumber with Original Sauce

1.5

at Haibo

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with the Family

Since my initial visit last year (see generally 14.271 Dimsum), I’d been hankering to go back.  The food hadn’t been that great, but we’d only a ordered a few things, as a snack, nothing from the fancier part of the menu.  Even if over-priced, I was hoping that the restaurant would offer a high-end option for Korean-Chinese food near home, on special occasions and such.

So, with the entire family in tow, stomaches empty, we dropped in for dinner and ordered a bunch of dishes, including one from the fancier part of the menu.

Alas, the food was very disappointing.  The best dish was a plate of complimentary yangjangpi to start the meal, but everything went downhill from there.  The so-called “abalone” rice porridge was more of a watery soup with tiny slivers of abalone, contrary to the photo in the menu, which shows huge chunks of abalone – I requested to cancel the order, and they let us keep it free of charge.  The dimsum was subpar, confirming my first impressions.  The star of the show was supposed to be the sea cucumbers, costing a whopping 85,000 won for a small serving, but the sea cucumbers were kinda fishy in flavor, kinda mushy in texture, and the “original sauce” turned out to be a standard oyster sauce.  The 9,500-won jjajang myeon to finish off the meal was the second best dish, though it wasn’t as good as the 7,000-won JJM at Shanghai (see for comparison 15.040 Jjajang Myeon).  Oh well.

Not banning the place outright, but I will never return (of my own accord).

Next time we have reason to celebrate, we’ve decided to go all-out at Shanghai – more of a neighborhood delivery joint – where the same sea cucumber dish is the most expensive item on the menu and costs 70,000 won, which is also absurdly over-priced but at least we’re not paying bullshit premiums for the table cloths and porcelain plates.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)