Hansang Korean Family Restaurant

My CG and I had a rocking good time at this restaurant and endorse it as YUMMY(worth the shuttle bus trip here)! Luckily didn't listen tio the kok and leave the restaurant for curry flavour =P politeness of Kumar and I NOT to walk out - cos the Kok suddenly remembered curry flavour was near and good, the guys yearning to watch hip hop (i still dunno why they were so obsessed to catch the performance at the forum below) and jason hating cheese and buttery food (hence no Pasta de Waruku) sealed our fates ; we had to try this restaurant.

can you recognise the artiste here?

its edmund chen..my original intention was actually to take a photo of the logo of the restaurant not realising it was Edmund Chen at the corner there until my friends thought i was papparazzi trying to snap him with some illicit kids(they don't look like Chen Xi =P)THEN i realised who he was.

Hansang has this open concept and Kels and I was always walking through this passageway from TTSH but somehow we never stopped to try their food which is a waste really....the Korean food here is so much better than Seoul Yummy.

Hansang occupies most of the third floor and there are several sections. There's this open area where you can look over to the lower floors and we chose to perch ourselves at the tables nearest the latch so we can lean over to check out the hip hop competition happening down at the forum...oh the moves by one of the contestent was amazing it was as if he could detach certain parts of his body, getting them to move independently. The other groups just amaze us with their energy and strength swinging around their limbs....while sedentary us (or at least me oh sobs i realise i was the only stagnant one in the group kumar and kok run , jason tennis and kels hits the pool =/ ) just loaded up on the calories happily.

Korean Amuse Bouche?

This is the complimentary starter.. their rendition of a palate cleanser? At first (to my horror) I thought it was the complimentary side dishes and before I could exclaim how little it was, the many many side dishes finally appeared shortly =P

this starter consisted of (from left) ikan bilis and peanut, potato salad (looks deceivingly like icecream!!) and kidney beans.

Dubokgee $5

There's this small counter where this lady was cooking these rice cakes - and I always see this dish in those Korean shows - so I was really curious to try. This was the small size and the large size is 10 bucks. This was like the highlight of my meal because it was my first time having Korean rice cakes and it was really chewy and the sauce was savoury-sweet, and perfect with the dash of sesame seeds. Its like denser mochi skin in a miso paste. Very very good.. and not all the rice cakes were of the same cylindrical shape! There were some triangular shapes, and I think there were some bits of onions inside the sauce.

Complimentary side dishes

Bibimbob Hotstone Pot $13

I must always try the Bibimbab in Korean restaurants because I like claypot rice - i especially like the charred rice when it contacts the hotstone. Korean claypots always come with a yolk and with some vigorous stirring every grain of rice will be coated with the yolk, with the heat cooking the yolk. You gotta be real quick about it because once the yolk cooks you can't mix it around the rice. I lovee the smell from the sizzling hot stone.

The vegetables here -and my favourite mushrooms too - are definitely of the more expensive type (as compared to the Seoul Yummy express outlet at Food Republic Suntec where I always go for my super good Bibimbap fix) - the macrosomic tauge (the bean seeds are huge!) and the soft cucumber and purple cabbage.. after mixing the vegetable and (very little) beef around it really tastes like fried rice, with the crunchiness of the raw carrots and assorted vegetables. All I had to do was add some red miso paste sauce and I was one happy person stirring around and eating.

Oh the only suspicious looking thing here was this 2 translucent rectangular starch like chewy thing that we couldnt figure out what it was. any clue??

Dupbob Beef $10

DubBob Chicken $10

The 3 guys that had this DubBob - can choose either beef, chicken or cuttlefish - concluded the meats were fantastic because it was marinated very well and they were very generous with the portion of the meat. There was substantially more meat than rice. And they're big eaters ok(in more ways than one), I can vouch for that.

Hotpot Lunch set - with pancake and rice $15

Kels had this..there were alot alot of vegetables inside the soup as well as some noodles which I tried and tasted like ramen..what was awesome in the set was the fried pancake. It was a rice cake which was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.. oh I must try the other pancakes the next time round.

They served dessert too (although only Kels ordered a lunch set) - watermelon slices in a juice which i didn't eat because I dislike watermelon. I don't know why they always serve this fruit after all the Japanese and Korean meals...if its so economical isn't it not very fresh when they serve it outside? Nonetheless all my friends enjoyed the dessert (and none of them had a stomachache)

The take-away rice cake shop. I believe they sell both sweet and savoury rice cakes.

Now that we are all charged up we are all ready to face the onslaught of tutor (thankfully the tutor today was hilarious and so so nice signing everything for us, made our day even better!!!) and lecturer (bad bad bad). Good lunches are oh so important.

And it seems my CG is always having Korean food, it was with Kels, Kumar and Kok that we tried Seoul Yummy round the corner too, but not like im complaining because Korean food is really interesting. Oh thats many many Ks in one sentence..

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant

Square 2 Novena