Bigmama Korean Restaurant

Located at: 2 Kim Tian Road, Singapore 169244

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MP had been in Singapore for 2 months at that point, and he was craving good Korean food. He's tried a couple of places and has been disappointed. But we can't let past failures keep us down can we?

Bigmama Korean Restaurant seemed the place to go to. It appeared on the top lists of several Singapore food blogs. Moreover, we have tried the recommendations of at least one of the said blogs and think that they have a pretty good grasp of what good food is.

Walking into the restaurant, I kept an eye out for Korean people. You know the food is good if the culinary natives patronize the restaurant. I wonder if the people at that table are Korean...who can tell? Everyone is Asian.

Yelp doesn't quite serve the same purpose in Singapore as in the US. Usually I scan through the reviews to see what people recommend, but there aren't enough reviews on Yelp Singapore for that purpose. So plan B is to scan the tables of the people seated, and order what they are having. Unfortunately, the big thing at the restaurant seems to be dakgalbi, which is a fiery spicy stew that I cannot consume.

Bigmama also sells samgyeopsal suyuk, which is a mild dish.We went for that.

The banchans came first.

The banchans were okay. Except for the kimchi. Which is a big warning sign. I've had kimchi that I disagree with -- too much ginger, not fermented enough etc -- but this was just wrong. It was also overwhelmingly spicy, but that wasn't the biggest issue.

Next came the pancake.

The pancake looked kind of tan. It was soggy too. This was just overcooked, and in the wrong way. The pancake tasted of grease. There was something strange about the sauce -- it didn't taste clean. MP said that's why he never adds sesame oil to his sauce. The basic sauce is vinegar and soy sauce, with a touch of red pepper flakes, maybe sesame seeds (which I usually omit). It should come out tasting clean. I would have raised my hand to ask for soy sauce and vinegar except MP told me not to make a fuss. We'll just eat it without sauce.

My other issue with the pancake was the red chili slices in it. I've never actually seen spicy peppers in my pajeon, although I knew it was a possibility (there is a green chili pepper with garlic version). But I wasn't used to having my pancake this way, and I didn't like the way the spice mingled with the grease.

The sundubu jigae was just ordinary. A little too spicy, and not quite as flavorful as I had hoped for. But we have been having problems finding a sundubu place that we liked for a while, so that didn't surprise me.

I was confused when the suyuk came out. It looked so much like bossam, but it wasn't.

There was a bean sprout mix for sauce, which tasted murky. The bean sprout thing was warm, which is weird. I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to taste like. Fortunately, you can eat the meat on its own, although we could have done without the soft bones at the bottom. (I had to explain to MP that those bones were always there. It's just that we are usually served pieces without the bone.) The thinly sliced cucumbers and pickled radish slices were edible. I didn't pay attention to the full name of the suyuk dish, but it was some regional variation that I've never seen before. My previous experience with beef suyuk was quite different.
[Edit: Looked at some pictures of this dish from 2012 on another blog. That version looked better. It was at least missing those tiny small bones.]

Everyone seemed to be enjoying their dakgalbi. Maybe that is actually good, but I'm not going to try it. The flavors of the restaurant were not Korean, and in seeking a Korean flavor, I would probably be disappointed.

I was extra disappointed because Bigmama was highly rated by the other food bloggers. What went wrong? They recommended excellent hawker stalls, so why can't they recommend good Korean food? I concluded that they did not understand Korean food. It's not just spicy Chinese food. It's a balance of light sweet and sour flavors made more complex by the spiciness.

One of the things I understood eating at Malaysian restaurants in the US is that the flavor will drift. It has to drift to suit the palate and the understanding of the local population. Bigmama has certainly done well to cater to the taste of the local population. Daniel's Food Diary had a post from 2012 that alluded to the shift of flavors. I guess by 2015, the flavors have shifted too much.

Final verdict: We won't be going back. But please keep enjoying the food if you like it. And if you're wondering if you should visit, ask yourself what you are looking for. If you are looking for Korean flavors, I don't think this is the right place.