Tag Archives: jajangmyeon

Uijeonbu: Palga

From what my good Korean friend tells me, Palga is a famous family owned and operated Chinese restaurant located in Uijeongbu city, that is well-known for its Koreanized sweet and sour glutinous rice pork, also known locally as Tangsuyuk (Korean: 탕수육, Chinese: 糖醋肉). Mmmm lets talk about the word “glutinous”. It doesn’t sound appetizing but it taste oh so good! If pork isn’t your thing you can swap the meat out for beef, or even shrimp.

I know if family is reading this post, they are a bit shocked I’m even writing about a Chinese restaurant. Why? When living stateside, every single time we’d order Chinese, or go to a restaurant, I’d get ill and have all sorts of stomach issues. Later it was determined that it was because of MSG. Anywho, if you are like me, you’ll be glad to know that this restaurant passed with flying colors. Thankfully no upset stomach to report back on.

The restaurant sits out on the Main Street and is very easy to recognize with its Chinese style that starts on the outside and continues on into the dining area. When we walked inside, the decor made me feel like we were back in China for the afternoon, possibly visiting a traditional tea shop. The wood furnishings were beautiful and overall the restaurant was very clean. There are 104 items on the menu and each one is also translated into English in case you cannot read Korean. The staff was not overly welcoming, but they were quick and attentive to us. The prices were fair and the portions plenty, so much so we couldn’t eat everything we ordered. I think it was a serious case of our eyes being bigger than our stomach.

So what did our eyes order? Of course a plate of Tangsuyuk, Jajangmyeon (Korean: 자장면, Chinese: 炸醬麵) – steamed noodles served under black bean paste (if you recall we ordered when we were moving into our new place last summer). Jjamppong (Korean: 짬뽕, Chinese name: 炒碼麵) – spicy noodle soup flavoured with onions and chili oil and various seafood and creatures (we eat this often when Mr.B is scuba diving on the east coast). Oh! can’t forget the FREE banchan! You know, the free little side dishes served in Korea that make it feel like Christmas when they are sat on your table. We had pickled radish and toasted peanuts, both dishes equally addicting!

If you are ever in the area and Chinese is striking your fancy that day… stop in and give it a try.

Backpackbees

Directions:
 
Palga
Address: Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi-1-dong 201-11
Phone: 031-847-8988
Hours: 10:00 – 22:00

Things worth sharing: We moved!

YES! You did read that correctly, we have moved!

Simmer, simmer, we are still in Korea. Actually, we are only a mile or two down the road from our old place. We like to think of this as our new adventure, or chapter to our story. You know, that’s the wonderful thing about adventures… they really don’t need to be limited to some gigantic change in your life. Adventures aren’t one size fits all and can occur in the spur of any life moment.

Speaking of spur of the moment, our lease was coming up and we just started to discuss our options and thoughts of what we might want to do next. It was challenging to think that we’d actually live somewhere else in Korea after being in the same place for over 4 years. We experienced so many memories and really made the place our home. However, with some unfortunate things going on with the management office and our complex, we ultimately decided to start looking at a new place.

Our realtor was incredibly helpful and really eager to assist us with our decision to move. She took us to see two places with different floor plans. We ended up falling for the second place and made the decision to take it. We waited about 12 hours and then heard the great news; you’ve got the place!

Onward to moving… we were able to book a moving company three days after we made our decision to move. Talk about quick! Our realtor and moving company told us do not pack anything, don’t clean, and just relax.

HA-HA! We thought these people are silly! The two words relax and move, in the same sentence? I mean the “to do list” is endless when you think of what needs to be done when you move. To top it all off, you have to clean both places. Nope. Wait, did I really just answer myself with the word nope? Yep, I defiantly did. We found out that it’s actually customary to leave some dust and a bit of dirt for the new tenants as good luck. REALLY?! How awesome is that? However, when you are moving into your new place, keep in mind that the same concept applies. You might have a bit of unexpected work to do when you move into your new place. (Enter me scrubbing down every bit of wood in the place and mopping the floors).

The day the movers showed up, they literally went from room to room and packed up everything into crates and moved them out the window of our 6th floor apartment. Mr. B attempted to move something and was promptly scolded for doing so. OOPS! Guess they meant serious business with the “don’t pack anything” statement.

As quick as the movers arrived, the movers were packed up and gone with all of our home goods on the road and heading to our new place. Another outstanding item worth sharing is that these movers actually unpack all of your packed items into a similar location of the new place, as it was in the old. This can be great, or can be a bit more of a burden depending on the way the situation plays out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take off work and Mr. B let the movers unpack where they thought the items might go. Word to the wise… they aren’t mind readers. I had to keep reminding myself throughout the day that no one is really going to meet up to my obsessive orderly home standards. Oh yeah, I called myself out on the Internet. It’s okay, I ended up unpacking all of the items afterwards like a wild scavenger hunt. Adventure noted for next time.

Our first night in our new place, we grabbed jajangmyeon for dinner, think of it as the pizza that we Americans consume on a moving day. The concept behind the dish, just like pizza is still the same, you just moved and your kitchen isn’t completely set up for you to use. Like pizza, jajangmyeon is full of that fatty carby goodness you need to keep you going. Unlike pizza, there is no tomato sauce or cheese, mmhmmm the dish features a thick black bean paste sauce, tofu that is diced small into cubes, mushrooms, Chinese noodles, peanuts, and zucchini. Who would have thought, it actually hit the spot!

For the first time in days, I am actually sitting in our new place with my feet up and able to type out a blog post to you all. Whew. What a wild adventure! With that being said, tell me about the adventures you are taking on today.

Backpackbees

Date Night: Chinese Restaurant – Gong-Hwa-Choon

What are your thoughts on Chinese food? (Besides the cute little take out containers and fortune cookies)

I find that you either like it, or you don’t. Up until a few years ago I found myself not really caring for it. Mostly I think because it upset my stomach. There was never any one menu item that pushed me over the edge, it was all of them. I later found out that I might have had a stomach sensitivity to MSG. Mr. B always enjoyed Chinese food and his stomach never seemed to mind it. Wait, wait, wait… let me rephrase that… This entire time I should have been more PC and used the term American-Chinese food. However, we did take a trip to China since living in Asia, we both agreed we liked our Americanized version more so. Snobs right? HA-HA.

Anywho, like America, Korea does Chinese food too, Korean-Chinese. I mostly find that the main dish served in a Korean-Chinese restaurant is jajangmyeon. In Chinese they call it zhajiangmian. Some places serve up a superb dish of jajangmyeon, while others offer a very sad and bland black bean blob onto of noodles. It’s hit or miss.

This week we moved our date night to tonight. YEY! You know what that means…new adventure! We decided to check out a Chinese restaurant that we eyed on a walk in passing a few weeks back. The restaurant is called Gong-Hwa-Choon. The map coordinates are listed below and will open up on a google map if you ever find yourself in the Dongducheon area.

The food was really good and oh goodness, plentiful. We even took leftover homes! The service was excellent! Plus they deliver too! We ordered SET D and shared again, think plentiful.

Menu: (All spelling and  description taken directly from menu)

Noodle A: Jajangmyeon – Noodle with black bean pasta sauce 3,000W

Noodle B: Ganjajang- Noodle with fried black bean paste sauce 5,000W

Noodle C: Jjamppong- Spicy noodle soup with some seafood and vegetables 4,000W

Noodle D: Samseon-Jjamppong- Spicy noodle soup with various seafood and vegetables. More deep flavored soup 8,000W

Noodle E: Woo-Dong- Japanese noodle with tempura and vegetable in soy sauce and dashi soup 5,000W

Noodle F: Seafood Fried Jajang- Noodle with fried black bean paste, various seafood and vegetables 15,000W (2 portion)

Noodle G: Seafood fried jjamppong- Spicy noodle with various seafood and vegetables without soup 15,000W (2 portion)

Rice A: Fried Rice- Fried Rice with fried egg and vegetables with black bean paste sauce 5,000W

Rice B: Shrimp Fried Rice- Fried rice with shrimp, fried egg, and vegetables  7,000W

Rice C: Omelet Rice-Rice covered with egg 6,000W

Rice D: Jajang Rice- White rice with black sauce 5,000W

Rice E: Jjang Ppong Rice- White rice with spicy noodle soup with seafood and vegetables 6,000W

Rice F: Jap-Chae Rice- White rice with cellophane  noodles, sliced vegetables and pork 6,000W

Special A: Fried dumplings- Fried dumplings stuffed with minced pork and vegetables 4,000W

Special B: Steamed Dumplings- Steamed dumpling stuffed with minced pork and vegetables 4,000W

Special C: Sweet & Sour Pork- Fried pork with sweet & sour sauce S-15,000W, M-20,000W, L-25,000W (sharable dish)

Special D: Kanso Shrimp- Fried shrimp with sweet & spicy sauce 30,000W (sharable dish)

Special E: Jap-Chae- Cellophane noodle with sliced vegetables and pork 15,000W (sharable dish)

Special F: Kan Poong Gi- Fried Chicken with sweet and spicy sauce 22,000W (sharable dish)

Set A: Special C, 2 noodle A, special A 15,000W

Set B: Special C, 1 noodle C, 1 noodle A, special A 16,000W

Set C: Special C, noodle F, special A 19,000W

Set D: Special C, noodle G, special A 20,000W

Grab the map coordinates HERE

Backpackbees