Another trip to New Malden and another opportunity to try one of the little Korean restaurants on the high street. I’d heard good things about Hamgipak and so I headed down towards it from the train station. It was so cold and the windows of the place were so fogged up that we walked straight past it at first and then had to backtrack and finally go in.
The place is tiny with a total of 6 or so tables, 3 of which could only seat 2. We sat down at one of these little tables and looked through the menu. As it was chilly outside, the jjigaes looked the most appetising and so two jjigaes it was – one kimchi and pork and the other fish.
Little dishes of banchan were brought along with 2 metal bowls of white rice; I really liked the spicy and saucy sliced potatoes and the kimchi too! Then came the jjigaes. Here’s the pork and kimchi jjigae. This was a spicy pork broth with little pieces of tender pork and lots of kimchi and onion and two large slices of tofu.
And here’s the fish one, also spicy and with tofu but with a somewhat gentler broth. This was a little more difficult to eat as the chunks of fish had many little bones.
Each jjigae was about £6-7 and that was with the trimmings. Quite a bargain and the service was fantastic too! I’ll be coming back.
Hamgipak
169 High Street
New Malden KT3 4BH
Mon, 14 Jan, 2008 at 04:01
Korean food is such a good deal, with the banchan! That looks very nice for a cold day. Ouch on fish bones, though!
Wed, 16 Jan, 2008 at 23:35
girlie: Yup – never tried to refill the banchan but I saw another table do it. The fish jjigae was my brother’s and I tried a bit but I couldn’t deal with all those fish bones!
Thu, 17 Jan, 2008 at 16:34
my mouth’s watering at the thought of kimchi jjigae
Sun, 20 Jan, 2008 at 22:51
Melanie: Oh yes, a good kimchi jjigae can’t be beat!