Tuesday, December 26, 2006

satisfied my craving for genuine korean charcoal bbq - heeded rave reviews n visited ju shin jung east for dinner tdy!! despite the incessant rain... it was quite unplanned, i just causally told alastair abt it at our family Christmas dinner ydae. then in the end alastair, eugene n aunty florence together with me n my sis made our way to east coast. after working up our appetites with 2 games of bowling, we drove to the restaurant. it was quite a sorry sight when we stepped out of the car actually. the rain made everything look so gloomy... puddles everywhere... if nt for the fact that we had so made up our mind to eat at the restaurant, i tink i'd nv venture out into the rain. there was this poor korean guy standing under his umbrella giving out brochures to us as we neared, i tink we offered him some hope when we said we're heading there.


the restaurant is really big n spacious n really sterile loooking. n empty. we were greeted politely by all the staff nevertheless, n were ushered to a table near the window by this nice korean waitress. firstly, i can read korean, but i realised i din really know how to order. cos i mean even tho the menu is in english, it's not the kind where u order set meals or what. it's like u order by MEATS. cut long story short, i just looked at the picture of the raw meats, n settled on what looked good - sliced pork belly (i tink they eat this lot in korea), marinated chicken n beef sirloin. then ordered jap chae oso, u noe, the thing that song hye kyo tried to cook for rain in "full house". haha. order so little, i thought sure nt filling one... SEKALI.


ok they started by serving us this 3 cute plastic bottles, which we found out contained 1 water n 2 barley tea (nv drink b4! taste like... coffee water). then this small dish containing what looked like 5 small white pills. we thought it was quite bizarre, until the nice korean waitress poured the water in n it 'pooooofed' up into.. wet napkins! phwoar! again nv see b4! ok then they set up the charcoal grill (which is really charcoal underneath n just a metal grill). THEN! all the side dishes started coming! oh my God... u noe the side dishes are free flow. but it was just one round they came, n we had like maybe abt 10 side dishes for the 5 of us? sweet potato, mashed pumpkin (our all-favourite!! must try!), korean pancake, anchovies, kimchi soup, spicy kimchi, sour kimchi, not-so-spicy kimchi, fresh lettuce, kimchi octopus, some jelly thing n i dun rmbr wat (really lotsa kimchi)... we all just stunned there. dunno what to do. i tink the korean waitress was REALLY nice n went beyond service... she knew we were having korean bbq for the first time i tink, so she explained to us in her best english what each dish was made of n how to eat them. she even stood there n bbq-ed the meats for us! i dun tink dats what the waitresses had to do, i tink suposed to be DIY lah... but so nice of her! she really daintily bbq-ed all the meats for us n served them onto our plates! u noe how u see on tv, u take a lettuce leaf, add some garlic n kimchi or whatever, put the bbq meat in n u stuff it all into ur mouth! SHIOK! the jap chae was FANTASTIC! it's like some thick tung hoon thing marinated n stirred with fried beef n veggies... the plate was humongous... but we finished up every bit. the spicy kimchi was really yummy too, but some of the food i cannot really get used to tho... like the kimchi soup. it looked like... a dish of water u can wash ur fingers in. it was an orangey bowl of water, with some pieces of cabbage, one slice of green chilli n one slice of cucumber. it's oso cold. but the waitress said it's kimchi soup. so i tried a few mouthfuls. weird sour n spicy water. after the meal we even had a dish of heart-shaped watermelon pieces n sweet grapes! plus each a cup of cinnamon ginger tea... supposed to help in digestion. but again, it's cold n really takes some getting used to.


we were STUFFED! up till now all the kimchi still stirring in my stomach... n i tink cos the dishes contain a LOT of onions. RAW. the jap chae n the bbq were unforgettable tho... n can u believe it, the 5 of us ate n paid only abt $102! very reasonably priced if i might say, contrary to the reviews i read that said that the original ju shin jung in thomson is really ex. their service is excellent if i might say... the waitress was so sensitive to our needs, she even got aunty flor another dish of the mashed pumpkin bcos she heard her say dat was all she dared to eat. n then when we left, bcos it was still pouring, 2 of the korean guys (one is the poor guy n the other in a nice suit was the manager or somebody!) actually sheltered us to the car, getting themselves all wet in the process! if this is not service excellence, i dunno what is man! haha... hear this frm someone in the service line too. already frm the parking lot we cld sense their hospitality, n to the very end they showed such appreciation to us as customers, excellent!


oh yeah, we brought God's favour to them oso i believe, cos the place started filling up (rmbr it's POURING outside...) nt long after we stepped in. dunno where these pple came frm oso. in conclusion, i HIGHLY RECOMMEND this restaurant for authentic korean bbq n EXCELENT service! *applause* i will definitely return soon with other friends (must bring karen!), after the kimchi n onions have settled in my stomach...



posted at 11:43 PM

Sunday, December 03, 2006

finally! after all the hard work n endless days of OT-ing till 2am, the big day has come n gone! i really had a whole load of fun at the dinner... i went as a qing dynasty princess as u can see frm the huge headgear! good cos many pple turned up in a hanbok in the end, abt 4 of them. everybody was quite amazed with my outfit, n all were like snatching me away to snap photos with them... haha! felt quite shiok, like a star lidat! told them to take que no. n take turns... haha. but i posed for so many pictures, in the end my own camera only got abt 10! *faint* cldn't carry my cam ard mah. anyway totally din expect patrick to wear the emperor's costume! pple came up to me saying, "wah! u purposely wear matching with big boss ah!" n i was like -_-". but he's a really down-to-earth n friendly person, n he was like joking with me saying, "so are u my wife or my concubine for the night?" n i was like heh-heh-heh, "no lah! princess, princess!" turns out lotsa pple were really sporting n turned up in costume! we had great performances as well... i myself really enjoyed the bellydance performance i gave with reza, my fans were adoring! my loyal supporters actually ran to the front of the dance floor to video n take photos of us! hahaha... plus the princess outfit thing, i totally felt like a superstar for the night! even stephen my country manager, whom all the girls were clambering all over to take a photo with, WANTED to take a photo with me! *claps gleefully in cheap thrill* okok... consolation to the fact that I DID NOT WIN ANY OF THE LUCKY DRAW PRIZES! *growl* i noe i dun believe in luck, BUT. oh well. i have pretty pictures for memory keepsake...

posted at 11:59 PM