Date night

Tonight Chris and I had our usual Friday dinner out.

After some contemplation, we decided to go to Holland Village for dinner. I usually don't like going there mainly because the parking situation is terrible. As expected, we nearly could not find a spot and were about to leave to go someplace else, but then found one.

Surprisingly, Holland village itself wasn't that busy. We wandered around, looking for a decent place to eat, and wandered into Han Sang Korean BBQ restaurant. The name was familiar but I couldn't remember where I'd seen it.

It was fully occupied but the maitre'd managed to get us a seat at the chef station. Which turned out to be a real treat. How were we supposed to know that the owner/chef Mr Park was at work!

Chris chose the BBQ set with kurobuta pork. Since we didn't get a table, I was wondering how we were going to barbeque the meats.

Then I started commenting that the restaurant was pretty busy, and the staff looked a little lost.

But to my surprise, our meal appeared rather quickly. A small selection of starters including a salad, some pickled vegetable and pan fried fish appeared. Very soon after, the chef was cutting up our meats and a ceramic pot with slowly burning charcoal was brought to the table. The chef himself presented the meats to us, and told us to start cooking specific meats with the heating surface ( a solid metal plate ). The well marbled meat sizzled immediately on contact, and we were in pork bliss in a matter of minutes. There were accompanying condiments which included a special sea salt mix, bean paste and a sweet marinade sauce.

Soon the chef started chatting us up, and to our surprise, gave us some more cuts of meat to try! We were privileged to try the wagyu beef, some scallop and pork belly. All of which were succulent and tender.

Mr Park works 6 days a week, and on his day off he plays golf twice in the day! He also showed me his callused hands, from the decades of handling a chef's knife constantly. He makes the sauces and kimchi personally, and it is commendable how he manages a kitchen that makes such a varied menu.

Dinner ended with a soup/stew and rice, followed by watermelon cubes and a Korean sweet. Kind of like the Japanese mochi balls.

With my 31 week belly, I was filled to the brim by the end of dinner, with the warmth and pleasure of a fabulous dinner made possible by a friendly chef and a great meal. Pity we didn't take any pictures of our sizzling meats!