Latest news with #Somaek
Time Out
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
In Sydney's Koreatown you can experience the best of K-culture without the journey
With its buzzing nightlife scene, cutting-edge cultural landscape and incredible cuisine, South Korea is quickly becoming a top holiday destination for Sydneysiders looking for an inspiring and delicious escape But if you don't have the dosh to fund plane tickets all the way to Seoul, fear not. In the heart of Sydney's CBD – specifically along the Haymarket stretch of Pitt Street – you'll find Sydney's very own Koreatown: home to a vibrant mix of Korean restaurants, shops and bars serving up Big Seoul Energy in spades. And Squid Game fans, listen up! To celebrate the final season of Netflix's hit series, Netflix will be putting on some very special Squid Game experiences in some of the following Koreatown venues: Sil Bi Jip The good times seriously roll at this lively, affordable Korean street food diner and bar. Our advice? Order a round of Somaek (soju and beer cocktails) and the owner Dennis will make them at your table – splashing Korean beer into soju with lively theatrics. Alongside a strong line-up of tasty street food-style dishes and affordable drinks, you'll find retro games and live music every Saturday from 7pm. Butchers Buffet The name of this beloved Korean BBQ spot tells you all you need to know. Pile your plate up high with unlimited fresh cuts of beef, pork and chicken, then get grilling – all-you-can-eat seatings last for 90 minutes, and you'll fill your belly for less than $50 per person. Hama Film X Kono Karaoke This photobooth and karaoke bar is your one-stop-shop for late-night, Korea-style fun. It's open until 2am Sundays through Thursdays, and until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can settle in for a good few hours of karaoke and walk away with a head full of memories and a fist full of photos from the fun. A 13-song karaoke session will set you back just $20, so it's a super affordable (and fun) end to your night. Allta Allta is an elevated Korean restaurant that serves delicate, carefully crafted degustation menus in a stunning, marble-trimmed space. The intimate restaurant seats only 12 guests, so you can guarantee you'll get the VIP treatment. Buttered This Korean bakery in Chippendale is best known for its salt bread – the sweet and salty buttery rolls that have gone viral on social media. But there's a lot more on offer at Buttered – come for the salt bread, stay for the light-as-a-feather tissue bread and incredibly Instagrammable waterfall cake. 789 Korean BBQ This popular Korean barbecue joint is by the same team behind 678 Korean BBQ in Haymarket and Eastwood, so you know there are experts on hand firing up the grill. Come to this sprawling Darling Square establishment for delicious caramelised meat and excellent soju. Sáng by Mabasa Found on Fitzroy Street in Surry Hills, away from the main hustle of Koreatown, this small, family-run eatery specialises in modern Korean dishes. The lunch menu is affordable and delicious – with the crisp kimchi pancake, bulgogi and golden fried chicken wings being our picks. At night, there's an ace set menu for $85 per person. Hansang Haymarket This family-run restaurant serves one of Sydney's most beloved beef soups, and so much more. The super extensive menu features all of your Korean faves – from bibimbap and hot pot to a must-order seafood pancake. Arrive hungry. Hana Cosmetics This local-loved cosmetics store in the heart of Haymarket is stocked to the gunnels with Korean beauty products. It's open until 8pm every night, so you can pop in on your way to dinner or karaoke and stock up on K-Beauty essentials. Rococo Seoul Want to dress the part? Rococo Seoul is one of Sydney's very best Korean fashion stores, selling an excellent line in Korean fashion from some of the country's favourite brands. You'll find this fashion haven in Chippendale's Central Park Mall.
Boston Globe
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
At Somaek, a chef continues to evolve
Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up Somaek's tasty but tiny bossam. Slices of steamed pork are wrapped in napa cabbage leaves with radish salad, sliced garlic, and spicy, savory ssamjang. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Boston Globe Advertisement Bissonnette comes to the cuisine by marriage: The story goes that he fell in love with these dishes while cooking with his Korean mother-in-law, Soon Han, who is consulting chef at the restaurant. The menu is less freewheeling, more traditional, than what we're used to seeing from Bissonnette. One of the privileges of eating in a city over time is watching its talented chefs evolve. I appreciate Somaek's thoughtfulness and care. I also miss the sense that there's a spark plug on the other side of the kitchen wall, firing away wildly. (The restaurant has captured national attention from the likes of the Given Boston's less-than-deep Korean dining scene, this is probably the only place in town where one can eat yuk hwe, steak tartare with egg yolk and lightly sweet Korean pear, while drinking a gin and tonic made with Green Chartreuse and ginseng (or a glass of Champagne, for that matter). I love scooping up the tartare with the accompanying gim bugak, fried seaweed chips, craggy and saline with a crackling texture. Advertisement Bibim guksu, cold buckwheat noodles with gochujang, egg, cucumber, and seaweed, feels out of season on a frigid night, but I'm so glad to have it anyway: Even winter meals need light, refreshing counterpoint to dishes like dwaeji bulgogi, a savory, satisfying plate of pork bulgogi rich with umami. Haemul pajeon, a pancake filled with green onions, shrimp, squid, and mussels, is ideal drinking food. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Boston Globe Haemul pajeon, a pancake filled with green onions, shrimp, squid, and mussels, is lightly chewy and a perfect crisp golden-brown. It's ideal drinking food, and a call to order the popular soju-in-beer cocktail for which the restaurant is named. (Take the first syllables of the spirit soju and maekju, beer in Korean, and you've got yourself a beautifully fizzy, goes-down-easy drink.) Cartin's cocktail menu is where Somaek goes to play, with riffs like the Seoul 75 (soju, rice wine, peach tea, lemon, and cava) and the Maekjulada (soju, beer, the chile powder gochugaru, lime, tomato, and soy). Somaek also showcases rice wines from Brooklyn company Hana Makgeolli; the lightly sweet Takju 16 is nice with the pajeon, too. I enjoy ojingeo bokkeum, a dish of stir-fried squid with tteok (chewy, cylindrical rice cakes), vegetables, and fish cake, although I wish for more tteok and squid. Doenjang jjigae, a soybean paste stew with pork, clams, and more, tastes overwhelmingly fishy. Godeungeo gui is a piece of grilled skin-on salted mackerel. That's it, and that's all that's needed. Maybe a squeeze of the accompanying lemon, too. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Boston Globe My favorite dish at Somaek might be its simplest. Godeungeo gui is a piece of grilled skin-on salted mackerel. That's it, and that's all that's needed. Maybe a squeeze of the accompanying lemon, too. With a bowl of steamed rice and an assortment of banchan, side dishes, it makes a perfect meal. Advertisement Now to the quick of things: the banchan. They are the heart and soul of Somaek's menu. (As is the warm hospitality. Somaek is a small restaurant, and I'm recognized and greeted every time I visit.) Love clearly resides in these small plates of radish kimchi, braised burdock root, and jellied acorn muk. So why do my tablemates, Korean and Korean American, look like someone just committed a crime? 'Paying for banchan is anti-Korean,' declares one friend, only half-joking. Banchan are generally gratis. At Somaek, one orders three for $16 or five for $25. When a dollhouse-size serving of bossam arrives, the slices of steamed pork to be wrapped in napa cabbage leaves with radish salad, sliced garlic, and spicy ssamjang sauce, someone says: 'But it's so tiny !' Another tasty crime, committed via six squares of tender meat. Dwaeji bulgogi, a savory, satisfying plate of pork bulgogi. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Boston Globe Which brings me back to the power of food, to the policeman who cried when he tasted his mother's cooking. Somaek's dishes don't always taste or look like what one would get in Korea. When we say 'just like mom used to make,' we fail to take into account just how many different moms there are in the world. Sometimes there's vinegar in a dish here where it wouldn't usually appear. Sometimes gochujang dominates, when the main flavor is traditionally sesame. Sometimes the portions are small. But the dishes aren't a wild departure, either. This isn't Korean food through a kaleidoscopic Little Donkey filter. A little more invention, improvisation, looseness could be fun. At a moment when modern Korean restaurants are flourishing across the country, from Atomix in New York to Baroo in LA, it's hard not to yearn for it. Advertisement Somaek feels like a stage for a talented chef who keeps evolving. As an observer of Bissonnette's career, and a fan of his cooking, I respect and am glad for this trajectory. Twenty years in, every project should be a passion project, and every creative person should continue to grow. SOMAEK ★★★ 11 Temple Place, Downtown Crossing, Boston, 857-449-9003, Wheelchair accessible Prices $14-$25 per plate. Banchan three for $16, five for $25; rice $4. Cocktails $12-$16. Hours Mon-Thu 5-10 p.m., Fri-Sat 5-10:30 p.m. Noise level Conversational. ★★★★★ Extraordinary | ★★★★ Excellent | ★★★ Very good | ★★ Good | ★ Fair | (No stars) Poor Devra First can be reached at
