I’ll pass on the Korean dramas and Kpop and while I can see the effects of the Korean glass-skin routine, at the end of a long day at work, it still feels like I moisturised with beef drippings.

But Korean food - yes, give me the food.

This is our third in as many months, and there are three staple proteins you can rely on - fried chicken, boiled/steamed pork belly and beef. The fried chicken is common enough and at this point, I wouldn’t order it if I was eating by myself. I don’t like the sauces and glazes which always tend to be on the sweet side; a reminder of the 1st time I had fried chicken and waffles and thought of it as an abomination.

But fried chicken and fries - shoe-string and slightly sweetish - is your filler before tackling the pork and the beef. Their pork belly is served cold which I know turns some people off, but the fat is firm and gelatinous-like with a dab of seasoning on top. You eat it like you would with Peking duck, tucked inside a lettuce leaf, or a cabbage and even shiso.

But the main star was the beef - Galbi Jjim - beef short rib (with a bone so long, it could’ve been a forearm), two bones arranged on the plate with the meat cut in precise pieces. You sort of wonder how they’d prepared it, braised long enough that it’s fork tender, but still firm enough to be cut the way they did.

Seoul Night
Fort St, Auckland Central