trying out Sariwon Korean Barbecue

-
Ate Bing, Ate Mary, Carina, and I were all in unfamiliar territory when we went to Fort Bonifacio's upscale area, the Bonifacio High Street (Taguig City, Metro Manila). None of us had really explored the place before and our "feeling sosyal" tour guide (his words, not mine), Manuel, didn't join us on this adventure. Instead of eating dinner in a restaurant we all had tried before, we took our chances with a restaurant that didn't have a branch back in the province BUT with a specialty that some of us are familiar with. On this trip, we went to Sariwon Korean Barbecue.

Figuring that the place would be filled by dinner time, we got ourselves a reservation while the sun was still up in the sky. The building where the restaurant is located wasn't "alive" at that early hour but as soon as the sun had set, the restaurants popped to life; Sariwon was filled to the brim by our reserved time! Getting a reservation earlier was definitely a good call.

Sariwon's see-through facade was inviting.

Soft opening? If the restaurant hadn't put up a sign saying so, I wouldn't have an idea. I mean, the attendants were very helpful and friendly, the service had great timing, and it felt like the place had lots of repeat clients (a lot of them seemed to know the manager/owner). I couldn't help but compare Sariwon's staff's stellar performance on May 5's dinner service with those from Mandarin Palace when I had lunch there in March.

It felt like the staff took the dinner service in stride.

(Of course, the comparison may be unfair, particularly if Sariwon and Mandarin Palace started operating at about the same time. The meal service at Mandarin Palace might be better now.)

The waiter assigned to our table must have noticed straightaway that we were not used to eating in a Korean restaurant. He encouraged us to start eating the side dishes, noticing that we were all just staring at the food. He assured us that we could get second (or third... really up to as much as we could eat, if we're up for it) helpings of the salads, the mashed potatoes, and the fish.

The side dishes were all refillable.

Our first course for the evening was some form of galbi. It is marinated beef that is grilled at the table and then wrapped in a leaf roll (lettuce or any other leafy vegetable) into a bite-sized piece; this wrap is then dipped into ssamjang (fermented bean paste) before it is eaten. So yummy!

Then came a rice vermicelli dish called japchae. It's an interesting mix of textures, from the slickness of the noodles to the crunchiness of vegetables. I think I saw sesame seeds in it as well; that gave it a unique, rounded, flavor.

As we were just starting to feel filled up, the waiter dropped by again to serve the last of our courses: the bulgogi jeongol. It's a hotpot dish, cooked at the table, containing meat, vegetables, mushrooms, and a special broth. We paired it with cups of what I guessed was japonica rice, judging by the texture of the rice grains.

The bulgogi Jeongol was so yummy!

The hotpot was so yummy! I think the broth was the key ingredient in this dish because it tasted a lot differently from the last hotpot I had tried.

As we were sinking into the soup, everyone got a bit quiet, in contrast to the lively discussions we had earlier. Maybe because we were concentrating on finishing the food, perhaps? It did look like the homestretch because it's the last food in our order. Then the waiter came again, with promise of dessert... ON THE HOUSE!

Seriously?!? Carina and I blurted out at the same time. The waiter came back with tea cups containing some brown liquid with rice grains and pine nuts floating on top. I was quite worried because it didn't look like a dessert; like a beverage, more like it. But it tasted so good! The brown liquid turned out to be brewed malt; the sweetness of the liquid was the perfect pair to the texture of the rice grains and the bite of the pine nuts. The owner explained that it takes about ten hours (yes, TEN hours!) to prepare this dessert, called sikhye. Then it is served cold at the end of the meal, believed to aid in digestion. A light, sweet, rounded ending for such a hearty meal we've experienced at Sariwon Korean Barbecue.

The food there is pricey. However, it's a restaurant I thoroughly enjoyed trying out. Sariwon is right up there with Dalcielo's (Los Banos), Antonio's (Tagaytay), and La Cocina de Tita Moning (Manila) in my books. I'll certainly come back in the future. There's a definitely a next time.

Comments

  1. MaryaMay 13, 2012 at 5:15 PM

    hey! si Carina yung kasabay mong nag-scream sa tuwa =) hehe

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more