Kia brought us to this very stylish Korean bbq house for a tasty lunch. Maple Tree is located in Samcheongdong, an area lined with restaurants, small specialty shops and cafés. This place is known for it's pork bbq including pork jowl and pork cheek - yum!
Check out the marbling on these thinly sliced morsels. In just a few minutes they're grilled to tasty perfection while the mushrooms soften and impart their subtle flavours into the natural sweetness of the pork.
Ready for panchan. Hard not to gobble everything up while the meat is grilling. Here is a tangle of spinach which has been blanched then garnished with sesame oil and some very thinly sliced hot peppers. Simple and delicious.
Whole kimchified garlic cloves provide quick chomps of intense pungent spicyness. Make sure to always carry some extra strength minty gum while travelling in Korea.
Acorn jelly. Like tofu it is enjoyed more for it's texture than it's mild flavour. Garnished with some chilli, soy sauce, green onion and sesame, it's fun to pick up these dense little jelly squares and make them disappear in your mouth.
Sesame leaves or Japanese basil (perilla) are marinated in a mellow soy sauce so as not to overpower their minty-fennel flavour. These are used for making yummy bite-sized wraps. It's more common to serve lettuce leaves but the Maple House uses higher quality ingredients than the average bbq resto.
Here is my little bundle of joy filled with a blomp of rice, spinach and some grilled pork cheek. The parilla adds a pungent pop and soft leafy texture to the mini-wrap experience.
My favourite part of any Korean meal is the metal bowl filled with rice. I always look forward to lifting off the cover, smelling the fresh steamed rice, and pressing my chopsticks in. It just makes everything feel complete.
Musn't forget the piping hot tofu chigae (stew) brimming with cabbage kimchee, mushrooms, sliced Korean pumpkin, onions, garlic and lots of eye-watering spicy smells.
Delicious ready-to-eat octopus blomps. Inside each one of these doughnut hole type blomps is a piece of grilled octopus. The savoury batter is mixed with some chopped green onion, has a very slight chewiness to it, and comes out of these hot griddle pans soft and perfectly browned.
These snack trucks are found in every neighbourhood across the city so you can always be sure to find a tasty treat when going for a nice evening walk. And really, who wouldn't want to go for a walk when there are so many interesting snacks to be eaten.
A closer view of the octopus blomp snack truck. As you can see, it is a simple and humble snack stop with some charming lanterns lighting your way to the snack. Snack snack snack.
Once ordered, the blomps are drizzled with a sweet & spicy sauce, some mayo, some deep-fried tidbits, a scattering of chopped green onion, then covered with a handful of shaved octopus. Yumm!
Close-up of my last blomp. It was a tasty and unusual treat with a diverse combination of textures which made for a perfect 9pm snack. Next snack stop will be at midnight, he heh.
