Yuzu Salad Cream Cabbage Slaw Banchan at Wonderful Bapsang

I visited Wonderful Bapsang after reading (no doubt sponsored) reviews online. And it was funny because I was very disappointed with their signature dish, which was the seafood soft tofu stew. But I was delighted by the discovery of an interesting salad dressing for one of their banchan, which doesn't even seem particularly traditional for Korean cuisine. 
Yuzu Salad Cream Cabbage Slaw Banchan at Wonderful Bapsang
There was no information provided on the banchan dishes, but this turned out to be a yuzu-flavoured salad dressing that was very similar to the typical Chinese lobster or prawn salad cream in the dish typically served as a cold appetiser in many Chinese full course dinners, except that this cream was yuzu flavoured. (Or since this is Korean, it would be yuja 유자 instead of yuzu, which is the Japanese term.) Usually, the Chinese seafood salad would be a fruit salad, and they would toss canned fruits in with the seafood, dousing everything in the typical American salad cream you get in supermarkets. Instead of the fruits supplying the sweetness in those dishes, it seems to be yuzu syrup or jam mixed into the salad cream in this case, so it was quite a complementary pairing and an interesting twist on the common Chinese appetiser.

They paired the yuzu dressing with cabbage, as you can see in the photo, and it wasn't bad because raw cabbage always has a very nice and refreshing texture that pairs well with most dressings. But in this case, as the yuzu dressing was sweet, the overall dish lacks the typical savoury umami seafood which normally balances the Chinese salad, so I would actually recommend pairing it with something a bit more savoury such as salted pumpkin if possible, or adding something savoury such as soy sauce, hoisin sauce or even miso, since all of these are known to pair well with yuzu.

A typical recipe might look like:
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise or salad cream, depending on which flavour profile you prefer
  • 1-2 tablespoons of yuzu juice, yuzu jam, yuzu syrup or whatever yuzu product you can get your hands on that provides sufficient flavour
  • sesame oil to taste, for an appetising aroma
  • miso paste, soy sauce or hoisin sauce to taste, for the savoury balance to the sweet yuzu component
  • lime juice to taste, for extra tang if the yuzu sauce doesn't have enough
Some recipes even recommend fish sauce, but that might be a bit overkill on the pungence and clash big time with the fruitiness, given that such fruity salads are meant to be refreshing and light.

The actual salad ingredients could mimic the Chinese salad, with cubed or chopped boiled seafoods such as prawn, lobster, shellfish or even crab if it is not too pungent, and mixed diced canned fruits. Alternatives could be, as mentioned, cubed Japanese pumpkin, shredded cabbage and shredded carrots.

Finally, my quick impressions on the actual stew itself - I was very disappointed because there were no nice flavours or umami, and it was too burnt at the bottom, so the charred taste was too strong. It really reminded me of a disastrous session cooking instant noodles on my own at home where the egg stuck to the bottom and got burnt, and I added too much water such that it was underseasoned. There seemed to be a good amount of seafood inside, so I just cannot understand why there was no typical umami that you normally get from seafood stews such as steamboat soup. It was honestly terrible and worse than something I could make on my own at home as an amateur who doesn't even like cooking. Any other random sundubu or Korean stew stall at a foodcourt was seriously better. The banchan was also very ordinary, except for the yuzu dressing, which was interesting but poorly executed as it was too sweet with no savoury component to balance it. Their standards must have plunged since the earlier reviews were published. I totally did not understand the hype.
Wonderful Bapsang Seafood Soft Tofu Stew

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