Cycle 15 – Item 359
29 (Sun) December 2024
Royal Black
3.5
-Sinsa, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with the Family, Mom + Dad
On Christmas Eve last year, we had dinner with my parents at this restaurant.
This year, the occasion was more generally an end-of-year thing, also my birthday (yesterday).
To splurge, why not, we went with the top-of-the-line Royal Black course menu. The dishes in the set have changed somewhat since last year (see for comparison 14.353 Fujian Rice Bowl), including the addition of Stir-Fried Snow Crab Meat, which I’d been looking forward to trying.
On a prior visit, when my cousins had met for lunch over the summer, we had tried the White and Red course menus (see 15.226 Mapo Soft Tofu with Chaofan).
The food was solid. Always a sucker for Chinese dishes involving seafood in eggy gravy, I was happy to find that the crab dish sweet and savory, subtle yet satisfying. The meatballs (nanjawans) were nicely crisp, having been first deep-fried before the stir-fry. The soup, rice, and dessert were disappointing, but everything in between was respectable. Overpriced in real world terms at 80,000 won per person, but actually reasonable relative to the outrageous prices of Chinese food in Korea.
My collection of Chinese (and Singaporean-style Chinese) restaurant dishes featuring egg with seafood:
- 5.024 Egg Fuyong with Scallops (3.0)
- 5.238 Char Kway Teow (3.5)
- 5.244 Scrambled Egg Whites with Fish & Dried Scallops (4.0)
- 5.252 Seafood Hofan (4.0)
- 5.264 Fried Rice in Fujian Style (4.0)
- 5.309 Steamed Fish Fillet Stuffed with Mashed Shrimp (3.5)
- 6.046 Pan-Fried Egg Bean Curd, Scallop, Shrimp (4.0)
- 6.263 Fresh Scallops with Egg Whites (3.5)
- 6.356 Steamed Egg White, Seafood, Crab Roe Sauce (4.0)
- 7.284 Seafood with Fresh Asparagus and Eggwhites (2.5)
- 8.005 Scrambled Eggs with Black Fungus and Scallion (3.5)
- 8.289 Egg Casserole with Seafood (3.5)
- 8.361 Lapu Lapu Shang Pei (2.0)
- 9.065 Crispy Seafood Noodles with Egg White Gravy (2.0)
- 9.073 Shrimp Fried Rice (3.5)
- 9.076 Steamed Egg Custard with Clams (3.0)
- 9.089 Sautéed Fresh Peeled Crab Meat and Scallops with Egg (3.0)
- 9.124 Scrambled Eggs with Scallops, Black Fungus, & Scallion (3.25)
- 9.128 Seafood with Fresh Asparagus and Eggwhite (3.0)
- 10.072 Sauteed Prawns with Egg Whites (3.0)
- 10.078 Shrimp and Scramble Egg Fried Rice (3.0)
- 13.007 Sauteed Egg with Crab Meat (4.0)
- 13.163 Mushu Shrimp (2.5)
- 13.189 Sautéed Egg Noodle with Seafood & Assorted Vegetable in XO Sauce (3.0)
- 13.212 Shrimp in Lobster Sauce (3.0)
- 14.353 Fujian Rice Bowl (2.5)
- 15.223 Stir-Fried Noodles with Seafood (2.5)
Interesting that it begins suddenly in Cycle 5, when I moved to the Philippines. Not a single dish prior to that, while living in Korea, which goes to show that egg with seafood – in fact, egg with anything – simply wasn’t a thing in Korea back then. Since our return, menus have improved somewhat, as indicated in posts from Cycle 13 and after.
By the end of dinner, my parents did not once mention my birthday. They hadn’t said anything yesterday, either. I can’t remember the last time that they remembered, much less gave me anything – not that I’m expecting them to throw me a birthday party, but even a perfunctory mention would be nice.
Later, just before midnight, my mother texted me to explain that she’d forgotten because she had been busy all day playing bridge, which makes no sense.
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