Spicy DRY HOTPOT & Korean DUMPLINGS & NOODLES! Michelin Guide FOOD REVIEW

Back in the Hyundai area. I come here a lot. There's a lot of good food here. I've been craving anything mala for so long. This place is one of the best places to go for mala xiang gu, which is spicy, nummy stir-fry, but it's basically a dry hot pot. I just missed that flavor. I haven't had it for so long and my biggest question is, what's the pink panther has to do with the mala hot pot? I don't know. So this place, wow, all right, got some innards, more innards, squid, octopus, noodles, wow, skewers, so all of the tea, noodles, all the vegetables are here. Where's the meat? Oh, this is the meat. It's got some lamb, beef, my enemy, crab, shrimp, a little sauce. Oh, I never want to see those ever again. Had so much of that during quarantine. Krista's joined me for this. Okay, so we can get both mala tang and mala xiang gu. Yes. But we're doing mala xiang gu. Yeah, let's get mala xiang gu. Oh, let's get everything. Let's get some innards. You like innards, right? Yes. We just cleaned out the intestines. All right, let's get some shrimp. Yeah, this is great stuff. Pork belly for sure. Some lamb, some beef. This is like a Mediterranean paradise. Never touch that for sure. Enoki mushrooms. Oh, oyster mushrooms. Wood ear. Potatoes, I love potatoes. Tofu skin. Yeah, this stuff is so good. I love this stuff. This absorbs flavor so well. Frozen tofu, always a crab flavor. Fuzhou, amazing. Oh, the tofu skin. I love this stuff. Yes. This is the best. Are you scared yet? No. No? Okay. Sprouts. Oh, this is the better sprouts. Okay, sprouts with the large actual sprout on there, this is better. This is called da dou ya, which is just like big sprouts. Spinach. Okay. Oh, we should get a ramen. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think we're good. That is a lot of food. I mean, it's gonna cook down though. The spice level. Yeah, spice level. What do you usually get? I get like two. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. I don't want to kill you. All right, we got a lot of stuff. Close to five pounds of food right now. So excited. First meal of the day. I think it's gonna be a good one. I dreamed about eating mala xiang guo for so long. This is like a central part of my diet. Usually, some form of hot pot. I haven't had it since I came to South Korea. This is definitely a very meaty hot pot. Oh, the fatty beef is good. First of all, stir-fried ramen. So much flavor. This is essential. Tofu skin. This is what I love. Frozen tofu. Little innards. The reason I like it so much, this is like flavor concentrate. You don't have to dip in anything. I mean, I love hot pot, but dry hot pot, all the flavor is already there. It's like an easier version of hot pot. But sometimes you just don't want to deal with that soupy hot pot too much. You want something that's really delicious, simple. And I feel like this type of hot pot has better flavor penetration. Like the ingredients are already cooked and soaked in by the heat from the wok. So you get a more enhanced spicy, numbing flavor. Now that I don't love regular hot pot, I love you as well. But sometimes, you just need something like this. We have jia cai, which is Chinese preserved vegetables. This thing is essential. Whenever you feel like your dishes or your rice needs an additional bit of flavor and crunch, this is what you get. Eat that with your dry hot pot and just taste the crunch. That's just as ubiquitous to Chinese food as kimchi is here. Every single Chinese household you go, you got packets of this just laying around. Anything you want. Congee, rice, and some noodles. Always goes better with this. I feel like I need more of the spice. We need to up the spice ante. Krista's looking at me with fear right now. You think this is too spicy? Yeah? Nah, it's fine. No big deal. There's Chinese people arguing in the kitchen right now. They've been arguing for like the last half an hour. Every time they start shouting, everyone just gets really quiet. I'll tell you guys, as much as I love Korean barbecue and as much as I love Korean food, it's so nice to have something like this. So nice and comforting. Whoa. That's a must get. These kinds of meat is the best for that dry hot pot. Conchita's fatty beef with just like nice strips of fat sandwiched between the lean parts of the meat. The only thing I wish this mala xiang guo had was spam. Spam would be amazing in here. Also what's really good is that I think they take the peppercorn out or something. I don't see actual peppercorn here, but you taste the numb flavor. Like usually when you get mala xiang guo, like it's it's like a landmine of peppercorn. So you gotta watch out because every single bite you take could just completely freeze your mouth up. But you do taste the numb flavor. So I don't know what kind of wizardry they're practicing over there, but very nice. We did good. Finish the whole thing. Good job Krista. We're gonna reward ourselves for finishing that with some dessert. This place is really unique. Never seen anything like this before. Oh I do want to say that this is this ingredient, the you doufu. I wouldn't suggest this in mala xiang guo because it's an ingredient that soaks up stuff, like soaks up liquid. So in this case it soaked up a lot of oil. In malatang, like a soup base, it was it would be amazing because you want that broth in here. But in the stir-fry, not so much. Okay fair warning. I was walking out and the employee came running. We got my wallet. I love that about this country. Oh no they're closed. It's too bad. This place looks really really good on picture. They were making sweet potatoes into different types of desserts. They look really really good. It's always sad. Oh that looks good. Yeah let's get that. Maybe that. All right this dessert place looks amazing and according to Krista, it's like got the Michelin star of Korea, which are those blue ribbons you saw earlier. Oh my goodness. I mean this took a while to make but oh my goodness. It's like an altar for a slice of dried apple. It's the slice of dried apple. It's ice cream sitting on two puff pastry with custard in the middle. This is like a tower, nay a monument to what desserts everywhere should strive to be. Look at this. I feel like this is like an Indiana Jones adventure where like light should be shining through this little apple hole right here. And on the side you got sugar and I think maybe sugar and cinnamon or something. Yeah cinnamon and sugar. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Apple chip. I want all my apples to be like this from now on. Oh this thing is just a pure bliss. Oh I wish you guys can hear the subtle crunch every time I'm putting my fork through this puff pastry. This is so flaky and airy and just mix it up a little bit with the ice cream. Sweet, crunchy, nice cinnamony flavor. This thing really it took about 30 minutes to cook. I think they made everything from scratch back there. It's just tremendous. Like these roasted apples. Oh my goodness. I love the roasted apple. It's got that nice little burnt flavor and a little caramelly. Come here and try this. Krista you're a chef. You like it? Yeah it's really good. It's really good. The layers for a puff pastry to be this much layers is really good puff pastry. It's not a store-bought. They have to make it themselves. There you go. Expert opinion. Like seriously she's like a talented young chef. Oh one more dessert coming though. Bingsu came. Now I know why it took so long. Apparently it takes a while to make this giant snowball. What? It's like a matcha snow monster. Look at this thing. It's like it's like it's like the icy cousin of Kermit. I'm gonna have fun eating this. Outside's very soft. Great matcha flavor. Like that's pure matcha. It's good good matcha flavor. Inside it's a little icy. Overall very nice refreshing ice ball. Hey guys those of you who are wanting a little snow in your life. Not trying to cause some trouble here but does that not look like a zipper? You know that's a zipper. I mean I've seen a zipper before. It's there. That's a zipper. Alright we travel back to Myeong-dong. This is where actually there's a bunch of noodle shops around this area. It's all michelin-rated noodle shops. I'm not saying that makes it better but it's interesting to try. And uh Krista knows a noodle and dumpling shop. Yeah the dumpling shop is really popular and I really like it there so I'm going to bring Always up for dumplings. Eat some eat some eat some of that. This is it. These are the noodles and these are the dumplings. Let's do it. All right these dumplings don't say nothing bad about them because their skin is really thin. All right this ain't your thick-skinned dumplings can't handle anything that's negative about it. Positive comments only for these guys. Look how thin the skin is. This thing is looking like a little dumpling jack-o'-lantern. So there's a special little chili sauce that you ask for when you come here. It looks like it's made out of garlic and some chilies. That's a good dumpling. That's so good. You want to take the dump out of that dumpling. You want to keep it forever. The skin is just remarkably thin. Also the meat filling it's just ginormous. Something this meaty should have more stuff covering it. All right this thing would not be allowed on an airplane because it'd just be inappropriate. That is a really good dumpling. Taste the tofu, the meat, the chives. I mean look at this thing. Look how thin the skin is and look at that ginormous meat filling just bursting out of the skin. It can't contain this much goodness. Also what's great about this place, spiciest kimchi I've had so far in Korea. Oh yeah that's really garlicky too. They add a ton of garlic in here. I think it's raw garlic they add in here. I love it. Raw garlic and dumplings. It's like Kit in that Knight Rider guy. Castle hub. Oh that noodle soup is much better than I thought it was gonna be. Oh that is great. Wow that is a beefy broth. To tell you the truth it didn't look like it had great flavor when you just look at it. It looks kind of simple. Not at all. Wow good job Christa. This is delicious. This is really good. It's got this enormous beef flavor. Noodle, good shoot to them. That flavor is steeped in every strand of noodles. Like a heavy beef flavor. Noodles are smooth. Again great texture. This is something that's it didn't look like it had this much flavor but it's a powerhouse of flavor in here. That's delicious. Highly recommend come here. A little white pepper. Trust me guys anytime you encounter soup, white pepper much better than black pepper. What a great dumpling noodle combo. I was kind of stressed out before this. It's kind of a stressful day for me. Just all the stuff going on. Like I always say, good food best stress reliever. Like come on like people like to get a massage. Massage, great food. Oh that was good. I know Myeongdong is a tourist area but that was like that's all locals in there. Yeah that's a lot of locals. Good job that was a great place. Oh it's really good. There's some really unique flavor to that broth. Very much recommend it. Now we're gonna get some cold noodle because it's dessert time. So cold noodle. Hot and cold noodle. This place is big. I'm not sure I can find my way back out of here. At a good noodle shop they're gonna give you some broth. Ah it's good. So here I've got the cold noodles and the beef they serve here is hungry. So it's a great quality Korean beef. It's been on the michelin guide for four years now so I'll let you know if it's worth it or not. South Korea might be the only place in the world where in your noodle soup you want to see some ice cubes. So this is the broth they give you initially. Radish and chilies. And in your beef broth you want to add some mustard and vinegar. In this place the cold noodle is what they're known for. Noodle texture is excellent. Extremely extremely elastic. Bungee jump with this you could. The only thing for me though that I'm kind of struggling a little bit with. I feel like the broth is it's just okay. I mean I'm staring at like the michelin four-year thing but the broth is it's all right. It's right. Am I going crazy? I've had so much naengmyeon in Korea and this is really okay. Just okay. I mean the texture is great but then but the broth is it's kind of just salty. Like I don't taste much more to it. We need the mustard and vinegar. Like you need it. It's just just the broth itself. Like am I nuts? Like I'm trying to I'm hoping I'm nuts. Yeah I mean it's not bad. There's nothing you know explosive to it. It doesn't really taste like anything and I'm kind of confused. I'm not not really trying to be here knocking this restaurant. I'm sure a lot of people like it because it obviously won a lot of awards. But I think for my taste buds at least I think the broth is kind of average. See if the meat is better. Wow the meat is excellent. Noodles I'll give a 9 out of 10. Meat I'll give a solid 9 out of 10. Broth I'm gonna use a I'm gonna use a word I hear a lot from my Australian friends. It's very meh. Extremely meh. It's just super meh. Honestly I prefer this broth more than that broth. Beef is great. The more you chew the more flavor comes out. Yeah try that beef. That's really good right? That's really good beef. That's a good hanwoo. That's really good beef. Everything's excellent besides the broth which is kind of a big deal. It's a beautiful place. A lot of people here so evidently a lot of people like it. Maybe it's just not my thing or Krista's thing. Sort of a low low point ending. Food mostly was really good today. Last place by the way I just want to say the last place I wanted to try that not Krista. I take responsibility. I take responsibility. It's not like Krista took me to a place. It was like let's take you to a place where the broth is very meh. No that's that's me. I was like I heard it's really good. I will bring you to a good place next time near my house. It's really good. But yeah I had to try because people rave about it. I wanted to be the test subject for you guys and make sure and to make sure it actually lives up to the award. Lesson learned. Never follow. Don't really follow the Michelin guide. Just follow the locals. They know the good place. For me yeah. I'll be your test buddy. Thanks so much for showing me around today. Yeah thank you. Good hanging out with you again. I have to stay in tomorrow morning so I gotta get something. Some double hot pepper tuna and microwave rice. It's a good meal. Seriously Korean canned tuna is on a whole another level than Star Kiss. Star Kiss in front of this should call itself like Tarkis. Just another fun food day here in Seoul. Thank you guys so much for watching. See you later.