Korean food have always been all the craze in KL and Selangor and there have been tons of Korean eateries popping up like mushrooms around town. Well there are a lot of types of Korean food like the popular Korean BBQ, Street Foods and of course not forgetting Korean Dalgakbi.
I have tried several Dalgakbi restaurants and you can check out my precious reviews of Ayami Korean BBQ here. Among all the Korean restaurants out there, Choi's Don and Dak is one of the newest Korean eateries in town and they are the first eatery to serve both Chicken and Pork Dalgakbi.
Located at Kuchai Lama they are at the same street with Food Talk which is a strategic location for food lovers thanks to the bustling area with many shops and offices. The shop area is able to fit around 12 tables which can comfortably fit 4 to 5 people. Each table is fitted with a huge cast iron round pan which weighs a ton and is thicker than the other iron pans you see in other restaurants. The furniture and the pan was brought in specially from Korea.
Dalgakbi is considered to be one of the popular street food in Korea where is it usually enjoyed with Soju. It is also considered to be a comfort food as the meal is hot and filling. Dalgakbi consist of a meat ingredient like pork or chicken and added with many other ingredients like cabbage, carrots, rice cakes and many more. You can also choose to add on additional ingredients like ramyeon, udon noodles, mushrooms, hotdogs and rice. The special ingredient would be the sauce added to give it the flavour and additional kick to the whole dish. Each restaurant have their own signature sauce which complements their own cooking style. You can also choose to add on cheese to get a flavourful cheesy burst!
Add ons: Ramyun, Mushroom, Assorted Sausages, Udon (Note: Portion shown for Ramyun and Udon is just half) |
At Choi's Don and Dak the sauce is made specifically for the different types of meat. This means that the owner prepares a different sauce to cook for the pork and the chicken. There are a lot of ingredients added into the sauce and they used a lot of fruits to give it that natural sweetness. In order to promote a healthier eating style which is the actual style in Korea, the dalgakbi you find in Choi's Don and Dak uses minimal oil to cook their dish. You don't get that greasy feeling as compared to eating at other restaurants.
The prices at Choi's Don & Dak are:
Dalgakbi RM 19.80/pax (Additional RM 2.00 for spicy)
Pork Jumuluck RM 22.50/pax (Additional RM 2.00 for spicy)
Additional ingredients:
Assorted Mushroom RM 8.00
Korean Ramyun: RM 6.00
Korean Udon: RM 7.00
Mozzarella Cheese: RM 8.00
Rice Cake: RM 7.00
So let's see how the dalgakbi is cooked. The cast iron pan is heated up and the meat and vegetables are added in with their sauces. Then the server will proceed to cook your dish and you just have to sit back and wait to enjoy your meal. One thing I noticed is that I didn't get any oil splatter from the cooking process where normally I would have to sit like a few feet away from the table and wear an apron to make sure my clothes don't get any oil splatter. Not only that, there wasn't much oil in the pan after the meat finished cooking and surprisingly our food did not get burned even if we did not continue to stir it. The secret to this is that the owner uses high quality cast iron pan which is thicker than normal pans and can hold and transfer the heat more evenly.