Kimchi Spam Fried Rice

Question: what's the best way to cure what ails you, especially if what ails you is a hangover?

Answer: kimchi spam fried rice.

With only four ingredients one can conjure up the most sordidly delicious, feculent plate of food imaginable. It's a sort of English breakfast in turbo Korean form, all earthy pig, fat, carbs, sweat and tears. Or something. With added spice.

It's also far easier to cook than the complex plating and timing nightmare of a full English, a roast or any more traditional Sunday fayre. One pan. Four ingredients (and some oil). A gentle proposition for the fractured brain.

Chop half a tin of spam (just the contents, not the tin) into strips. Heat up a wok and fry the spam strips until starting to crisp at the edges. Throw in a big handful of roughly chopped kimchi and its juices and a bigger handful of cooked rice. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes, then spoon the whole lot into a warm bowl. Put the wok back on the heat with a good glug of oil, wait until it's really hot then crack the egg in. Fry the egg until it has crispy edges, cooked white and a runny yolk.

Put the egg on top of the fried rice and eat immediately, mashing the crispy yolky egg into the rice. Serve with beer, or regret, or sriracha for extra spice.

Ginseng, Sheffield

Ginseng, recently opened in the West One complex, is Yorkshire's first Korean restaurant (I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong on this, but I haven't managed to find one up until now). This is a long overdue and rather exciting development, as Korean food is frankly ace.

It's got lots of spice, lots of marinaded meat, the best one-pot rice dish in the world (dolsot bibimbap, which is on the menu here), fantastic sturdy comfort food and lots of pickled vegetables. Kimchi, the ubiquitous Korean fermented cabbagey chilli stuff, is one of my all-time favourite foods. Used as a condiment or a side dish or an appetiser or a beer snack or in whatever way you fancy, it is truly wonderful stuff. Kimchi spam fried rice is a particularly guilty pleasure. I didn't make it up by the way, this is a recognised dish. Google it.

Things got off to a good start at Ginseng with a steady supply of kimchi arriving at the table, along with other banchan (that's the collective word for the little side dishes that form part of any Korean meal) of marinaded beansprouts and pickled daikon. These were free of charge and replaced readily throughout the meal, which is as it should be in a good Korean restaurant.

We chose to eat barbecue as it seemed like a fun option to share between five, but the menu extends to a range of stews, noodle and rice dishes so you could order individually. Before the barbie meats arrived we kicked things off with a kimchi pancake and some pan-fried pork dumplings.

The pancake was a perfect example of the satisfying sturdiness of Korean food. Spicy, salty, beautifully crisp and just a bit greasy. An excellent beer snack. The dumplings were the best I've had in ages, also beautifully crisp with a succulent filling and chewy but pliant casings that reminded me a bit of really good pasta.

Onto the meat. Every table in a Korean barbecue restaurant houses an electric griddle plate for cooking whatever you choose from an extensive list of meat and veg. Not really being experts in this sort of thing we opted for the beef selection and mixed veg selection. Our choice of six varieties of beef included marinaded sirloin and I think topside (bulgogi?), ribeye, boneless rib strips (galbi?), oxtail and some really thinly sliced bits that cooked in seconds.

It was all good stuff, the best for me being the slightly thicker cut rib meat. The marinades were all quite sweet (sugar, soy, sesame oil predominantly at a guess) and gave up just enough juice to flavour the rice alongside a condiment platter of hot chilli bean paste (gochujang, or maybe ssamjang), sesame oil and some red powdery stuff that tasted like tomato cup-a-soup with sesame seeds in it.

I forgot to take a photo of the vegetable platter, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it looked very pretty. It wasn't all so good in the eating though, the obvious candidates for barbecuing with meat soaking up the juices and proving a success (mushrooms, aubergine, courgette) and other things being a bit pointless (sweet and normal potatoes).

We ate rice with our barbecue, but I've since discovered that the way to do it is to order a plate of lettuce and use the leaves to form little wraps (known as ssam) around the meat and sauces. I'll know better next time.

The barbecue could seem a bit gimmicky, but with better menu knowledge than we had you could make it into a very good meal. My tips are go for the beef, add some other meats, remember the lettuce and choose vegetables individually. I'll also definitely be returning to sample some of the non-barbecue dishes.

Service was good throughout our meal, we weren't rushed even though the place was deserted when we left. We did get told off a bit for repeatedly turning our barbecue up too high and causing a smoky nuisance, but we probably deserved that. Sorry guys, it was Friday night and beers were involved.

Including a generous tip we paid £24 each, not bad at all given that we had plenty to drink (a bottle of wine and about seven beers in total). A very welcome addition to the Sheffield restaurant scene.

7/10

West One Plaza
Fitzwilliam Street
Sheffield
S1 4JB

Mannaza, Newcastle

I spotted this little Korean café on a previous visit to Newcastle and made a mental note to return at some point. You can find it tucked away in a little courtyard just opposite the famous Blackfriars restaurant. Although it's a small canteen style place they are licensed and the menu is lengthy, extending to Korean barbecue as well as rice and noodle dishes.

Banchan (vegetable side dishes) were provided free of charge, as is the norm in many Korean places. There was kimchi (fermented cabbage with chilli), kongnamul (beansprouts with sesame oil) and Korean style potato salad, all of which made for enjoyable snacking with a beer before the rest of the food arrived. Extra kimchi (I bloody love the stuff) was happily provided.

Goonmandoo were the Korean version of Japanese gyoza or Chinese guotie. Lightly fried dumplings served with a soy dip, these had a filling that I think was chicken rather than the more usual pork. Whatever it was they were delicious, the skins nicely crisped on the fried side and the filling deeply savoury.

Next up was Yukkejang, spicy brisket soup. The red colour derives from the copious quantity of chilli bean paste in the broth; - it was satisfyingly spicy on a cold winter night but lacked a little depth. There wasn't much flavour to it other than salt and chilli. Hidden in the depths were beansprouts, thin glass noodles and slices of slightly chewy but tasty beef. A bowl of rice on the side soaked up the juices.

Service was quick and friendly and it's cheap too. I paid £14 including a beer and service. Worth a visit.

7/10

Mannaza Restaurant
Monk Street
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE1 5XD

Seoul Kimchi, Manchester

My kitchen is out of action for most of this week as I'm having the whole room re-tiled, walls and floor. That seemed as good an excuse as any to eat out last night. As if I needed an excuse. I was transpennine for work, so thought I'd hang out in Manchester for a few hours.

Seoul Kimchi is one of (I think) three Korean restaurants in Manchester, the other two being Baekdu and Koreana. I've been to Baekdu a couple of times and enjoyed it, but haven't made it to Koreana yet. Seoul Kimchi is very much in the casual cafe style with a little counter seating area as well as tables, perfect for the lone diner.

The menu covers most of the Korean classics, as well as a few Japanese dishes. I opted for the beef bibimbap. It wasn't advertised as a dolsot bibimbap, but happily it turned out that it was. If I've lost you at this point, bibimbap is a dish of rice topped with assorted vegetables, meat and an egg. You throw in a large dollop of chilli sauce of some sort (often Gochujang) then mix everything up together before eating it. A dolsot bibimbap is one served in a searing hot clay pot, which results in a layer of crunchy, chewy rice bits forming at the bottom. This really lifts the whole thing, in the same way that the pan stickings from the bottom make a paella so wonderful.

This was a decent bibimbap, perhaps a little stingy with the meat but with a good selection of vegetables, perfectly cooked rice and a nice runny egg yolk. Certainly a superior fried rice. Not the most refined version, as the more upmarket ones tend to come with raw meat and a raw egg yolk that just gently cook in the heat of the bowl, but damn good for the price especially as that included the Banchan.

Banchan are the little side dishes, usually of vegetables, that accompany most Korean meals. I know that aficionados of Korean food will tell you that banchan should be provided free of charge with any main meal. This is apparently the norm in Korea, but often not the case in the UK.

As an aside, providing any little freebies seems to be anathema to a lot of British restaurateurs. To my mind, they're missing a trick here. Charging a few quid here and there for bread, olives and kimchi may add a bit to the bottom line at a pretty good margin, but people often find it irritating when there's an expectation it should have been provided at no extra charge. The goodwill generated by restaurants with the generosity of spirit to include a few little extras goes a long way, and surely feeds through to the bottom line eventually.

I can think of a Spanish restaurant whose generous hand with the shots left us staggering about after a long, boozy dinner, or the Turkish restaurant where a basket piled high with the most wonderful bread is replenished at regular intervals, or the tapas bars in Madrid where a big saucer of fat, meaty olives is shoved across the bar with every drink. These are the places that stick in my memory, the places I'm likely to return to, and those where I'll spend more of my money in the long run.

This is what I really liked about Seoul Kimchi, the inclusion of these little extras. At the more than reasonable prices charged I wouldn't really mind if they did cost extra, but they don't.

Three little platters, one of refreshing, lightly pickled cucumber. One of kimchi, quite mild but still addictive, and one of vegetables in mayo, a bit like Russian salad. Bit strange this last one, no idea whether this is a common Korean side. There was also a bowl of umami-rich miso soup.

An additional side dish (paid for this time) of prawn gyoza were good. Crisp, thin skins and a juicy filling. A very juicy filling in fact, so much so that it squirted all over my trousers. I'm not quite sure what was in there other than prawns, I think it was egg and vegetables in a very light stock. Tasty whatever it was.

Service was pleasant and efficient, and the bill came to £12.30 including a mug of green tea. Excellent value, and worth a visit despite the out of the way location. Unless you work at the University or Manchester Royal Infirmary, in which case it's across the road so why not pop in for lunch tomorrow.

8/10


275 Upper Brook Street
Manchester
M13 0HR

Baekdu, Manchester

Stinking hangovers all round after last night's exploits. I usually want something spicy and soupy at times like this, the heat clears the head and the liquid rehydrates. I've been to Baekdu a couple of times before and thought it would fit the bill nicely.

It's a fairly cheap, casual canteen sort of place situated on Shudehill serving up Korean food. To start we ordered a kimchi pancake and a side of kimchi to share between the three of us. Kimchi is fermented cabbage (I think you can get other veg varieties but the usual stuff is cabbage) with loads of chilli in it. Sounds weird but give it a try, it's lovely. Korean pancakes are sort of a cross between a thick american style pancake and an omelette. This one was good, thick and eggy with a good crisp crust and a soy based dip to dunk it in. Great comfort food.

                                                          Pancake, soy, kimchi


For the main event I opted for a clay pot stew with beef, kimchi and vegetables (can't remember the Korean name). A bubbling cauldron of fiery red stuff arrived with a calming bowl of boiled rice. The photo is rubbish because there were was so much steam rising off it it was like peering through fog. Not particularly complex flavour wise, it delivered salty, beefy stock and bucket loads of chilli heat. It perked me up good and proper. My friends opted for a dolsot bibimbap (clay pot dish of rice, chicken, egg, vegetables, spicy red bean paste. It comes all prettily arranged on top of the rice, you mix it all up with your chopsticks) and a chicken noodle soup. Both were good.

                                     Steaming hotpot with beef, kimchi & vegetables

                          Dolsot bibimbap (rice, chicken, egg, veggies, red bean & chilli paste)

The bill came to £36 for three including green teas and a tip. Recommended for a quick, cheap, spicy filling alternative to the more common asian offerings.

7/10

Baekdu
77 Shudehill
Manchester
M4 4AN