Thursday, April 02, 2009

Bibimbap

After a very satisfying meal in Hanmadang I had developed a "Korean-food itch" and I wanted more. I knew I should not have settled for a place in a shopping mall but I was desperate. Big mistake.

The kimchi spread looked normal with two very heavily flavoured (reads MSG) red varieties.

Beef bulgogi (RMB55). It was cooked on a hot plate by some dude on the side as they were too lazy to set up the grill on the table over lunch. He was pretty much just stir-frying the beef and veg together with some sauce. With a slightly sweet taste the dish was very average and tasted like a ready-mixed-just-add-water bulgogi marinate you can pick up in a supermarket.

Beef bibimbap (RMB25 after a half-price lunch special). There's only one word to describe the dish: nasty. Perhaps the various dog dishes on the menu freaked me out to begin with, but when the bowl arrived with raw beef and egg I got worried. I tried mixing everything up very quickly and hoped that the remaining heat on the stone bowl would help cooking them through. No luck. In the end I had a few small tastes and decided it was nowhere good enough to worth the risk. It's ironic that they would name the restaurant after this.
The underwhelming meal came to RMB90, which is quite expensive considering the poor quality. To add insult to injury I suffered all afternoon from MSG. I should have known better.

Bibimbap
5/F, Superbrand Mall, Pudong, Shanghai.

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