Cycle 16 – Item 219
Post 5,698
12 (Tue) August 2025
Malay Fried Chicken (Ayam Goreng)
2.0
at The Makan
-Bangi, Songpa, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
solo
The Makan is a Malaysian restaurant. Serves a small selection of casual mainstream fare, mostly rice and noodle dishes. According to the article (see below), it was started by some Korean dude who simply liked Malaysian food and hired a few chefs from Malaysia.
Read about it in The Joongang Daily, part of their new Ambassador’s Table series, featuring an interview of a country’s ambassador to Korea conducted at a local restaurant serving the country’s native cuisine (see “Malaysia’s ambassador hopes for consistent ASEAN policy from ‘natural ally’ South Korea“), followed by a review of the restaurant itself (see “The Makan brings the rich flavors of Malaysia to Seoul“).
The interview typically includes a few questions about food.
Q: Which dish do you think best represents Malaysian cuisine?
A: We don’t officially have a national dish, but whenever someone asks, “What is Malaysian food?” most people would say nasi lemak.
Q: Do you find any similarities between Korean and Malaysian food culture?
A: Maybe the sharing part. The love of food is also similar.
Q: What is your favorite Korean food?
A: Bibimbap. It reminds me of a lot of Malaysian food because you put everything together.
In addition to Malaysia, the series has also covered Czech Republic, Sweden, Argentina, and Peru. Definitely keen to try those restaurants.
While the gimmick can result in some interesting culinary discoveries for food-minded readers, the concept unfortunately excludes any country that doesn’t happen to be represented by a restaurant in Korea.
On DJ’s penultimate evening before flying off to college, he chose to spend the occasion with his girlfriend.
So I took the opportunity to try out The Makan on my own.
Ayam Goreng is a Malaysian dish. Pieces of chicken (ayam), preferably dark meat, marinated in curry paste, coated in corn starch, deep-fried (goreng). Often served with a dip, such as sweet chili sauce of spicy sambal.
The food was okay. The char kway teow was a bit too sweet, too busy, not enough wok hei. The ayam goreng, comprising 2 chicken quarters, was burned nearly to black along the edges of the thigh skins, rendering them unpleasantly bitter and the flesh underneath rather dry, but other parts of the legs were relatively juicy and tasty. After a few bites, I needed a bit of kick to keep going and asked the server for any kind of hot sauce: he brought back red chilies pickled in soy sauce + chili oil (used as basis for sambal, which costs extra) – which were amazing and elevated both the noodles and chicken to another level; if I were to come back, I’d ask for the condiments from the outset. A fun experience, though I doubt that I’ll be back for more.
(See RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
(See GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See HANSIK)
(See BOOZE)