Bornga: Korea’s tastiest export hits Vivo (and we’re not talking about Psy!)
PUBLISHED June 23rd, 2013 02:19 pm | UPDATED April 14th, 2016 03:13 pm
With the onslaught of K-pop and all things Psy, Korean barbecue has recently hit Singapore with a palpable bang. Bornga, the largest chain of Korean BBQ restaurants in the world, opened shop at the Star Vista mall last October, and its second outlet in Singapore has sprouted in Vivocity.
Against the backdrop of the mesmerizing marina, the 130-seater has a no-frills air about it. The décor is sleek, with clean lines and simple furniture. So simple, in fact, that you don’t even have to lift a finger in barbecuing your dinner – a nifty server is assigned to your table to cut, grill and serve your meats.
And if you think there’s nary an ounce of craftsmanship involved in the prep-to-plate process of Korean barbecue, Bornga proves otherwise. What would have made pork ribs ($33/250g) so utterly tender, so easily charred on the outside, with almost a rendang-like concentration of flavours on the inside? What would have teased out the grit and meatiness of beef short plate ($28/200g), rendering it sweet and yielding to the bite? Special marinades, they say. So elusive that one of them has even been patented by Chef Paik Jong Won, the brainchild behind the wildly successful chain.
There’s no secret, however, for the tenderized pork belly ($24/200g), which is simply kissed by parsley flakes, salt and pepper and a lick of charcoal fire. The fatty-lean contrast of the layered strips of meat makes for rolling good bites, especially when wrapped with greens from a garden of vegetables presented on the side.
To wash it all down, a hot pot of scallions, leeks, mushroom and glass noodles ($45) would be ideal. The dramatic vessel consists of a dome on which beef is cooked. The meat’s juices flow down into a circular trough around the dome, into a catchment of ingredients swimming in a tasty, almost saccharine broth. If spice is an imperative, there are potent chilli sauces to dip your meats in. Alternatively, a spicy seafood soup with egg slivers and rounds of silky toufu is a kimchi broth that will make you curl in delight – it warms your belly, teases your palate with just moderate heat, and wows you with the multitude of scallops, clams, pork, shrimp and squid.
Bornga makes for an affordable and reliable meal amid the plethora of run-of-the-mill dining choices at Vivocity. A queue might be as inevitable as a slight hint of post-dinner smoke in your sartorial get-up. But both are worth it.
Written by Mr Nom Nom
