Tanjong Pagar is widely recognised as the official Koreatown in Singapore, with numerous Korean restaurants and bars located in the colourful shophouses lining the streets.
However, there’s a lesser known place where many Koreans frequent with their families. Either to shop for authentic imported Korean groceries and/or eat at one of the many neighbourhood restaurants.
That place is Beauty World Centre at 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, an old-school shopping mall. I used to go there regularly more than three decades ago, to buy cassette tapes and computer games on 5 1/4 inch floppy discs. Remember those?
Even then, the building already looked, shall we say, vintage. Back then, the clientele was almost exclusively local, with the main attraction being the open-air hawker centre on the fourth floor.
The hawker centre is still there, but with just a tiny fraction of the original food stalls. Nowadays, people visit for the numerous Korean family restaurants, including the homely Joo Mak (주막).
The Wife and I visited Joo Mak during lunch some time back, and had their value-for-money lunch sets. We remembered the food coming in very generous portions and being quite tasty, with the added bonus of free-flow banchan (반찬) including a wonderfully spicy and sour kimchi.
At the time, there was a table of three Korean salarymen who ordered Korean BBQ and uncountable bottles of soju and beer.
It was memorable because: (1) it was lunch, (2) it was on a weekday and (3) the BBQ looked and smelled so delicious. We told ourselves that we would have to come back again and follow in their footsteps, with reinforcements of course.
So, on a Friday evening, we invited our good friends QY and RC and managed to get the exact same table as the three salarymen. We ordered the BBQ Combo #1 which came with one portion each of beef ribeye, pork belly and seasoned pork collar.
The ajumma that runs the place promptly came back with a heavy iron plate and plonked it down decisively on the gas stove. She went back to the kitchen and quickly returned with five baby brass bowls of banchan, and a condiment tray for each of us.
In addition to the wonderful kimchi, the banchan comprised a salad, beansprouts, steamed eggs and boiled eomuk (Korean fishcake). The condiment tray contained the usual K-BBQ suspects of raw garlic, green chilli, ssamjang and sesame oil with salt.
The Wife and I have been on a steady diet of K-drama and K-variety shows for the past several years now and have learnt that the best drink to go with K-BBQ is somaek (소맥). Which, as we all know, is Korean for “oh, it’s going to be a fun night!”
We started with one bottle of Chamisul soju (소주) and two bottles of Hite Extra Cold maekju (맥주). I was in charge of concocting the drinks and started with the obligatory shaking of the soju bottle, followed by knocking the bottom of said bottle with my other elbow.
Truth be told, I was looking forward to executing that move the entire day leading up to the dinner. It’s a cheap thrill, I know, but it’s just so fun to do.
I have no idea what the scientific purpose is, but I’ve seen it being done so many times in so many Korean shows that I just went with tradition. Similarly, I stuck with the classic 30% so(ju) and 70% maek(ju) ratio and mixed refreshing cold beverages for all of us.
When the meats arrived, I was slightly disappointed at the portion size because I remembered seeing much larger pieces last time. But I suppose inflation is not transitory after all, and we all need to get used to rising prices everywhere.
Ajumma didn’t trust us with the beef ribeye cubes and ended up cooking it for us first, and then left us to our own devices for the pork belly and seasoned pork collar. The Wife loves to BBQ and ended up doing most of the cooking.
The beef ribeye was not as tender as I’d hoped, but the two pork cuts were really nice. The pork belly was fatty and juicy, and the marinade for the pork collar was very flavourful. We had an enjoyable time chatting, catching up and slowly absorbing alcohol.
When the meat started running low, I waved to catch ajumma’s attention and shouted with gusto:
“사장님! 삼겹살 하나 주세요!”
(Sajangnim! Samgyeobsal hana juseyo!)
She replied automatically with “네” (ne) and quickly came back with an additional serving of the pork belly. I was expecting her to show at least some surprise at hearing Korean words coming out of my non-Korean mouth, but she remained totally expressionless throughout.
I have to say that I felt disappointed at her (non) reaction. Especially since I was practising it inside my head for a full five minutes before mustering up enough courage to blurt out the only four Korean words I know.
RC, on the other hand, stared at me, wide-eyed in shock, and asked: “When did you learn how to speak Korean?!” When I told her that those were the only ones I know, it was her turn to be disappointed.
The BBQ combo came with a soup du jour, which was a kimchi jjigae that we quickly finished. We also added ala carte orders for a seafood jeon (i.e. pancake) and a spicy squid, which were both very good.
Their seafood jeon, in particular, is highly recommended. It’s one of the best we’ve eaten and it comes in a huge portion. Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and packed with seafood and spring onion.
Sorry, we were so engrossed with eating and chatting that we forgot to take a photo. Just imagine your typical seafood jeon, and double the size.
After about two hours, we finally managed to finish all the food (and drinks) on our table. There was a healthy queue building up outside the entrance (they don’t take reservations) so we decided to continue our catch up over teh tarik across the street.
Joo Mak is not a fancy Korean restaurant by any means. But if you’re looking for a family-friendly neighbourhood K-BBQ place with good food at decent prices, it’s definitely worth considering.
