{"id":37614,"date":"2026-03-19T17:12:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=37614"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:12:35","slug":"dish-in-focus-jeonbok-at-sol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=37614","title":{"rendered":"Dish in focus: Jeonbok at Sol"},"content":{"rendered":"


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At Sol, the contemporary Korean restaurant by Solstice Culinary Space<\/span> on Lyndhurst Terrace, head chef GwanJu Kim\u2019s French training and Korean roots come together in one poised menu.<\/div>\n

Growing up on a family farm outside Seoul with both his mother and grandmother laid the foundations for Kim\u2019s ingredient-driven cooking. He later honed his technique at one-Michelin-starred L\u2019Amant Secret in Seoul and three-Michelin-starred Odette in Singapore. At Sol, Kim blends Western methods with the flavours of Korean home cooking to create a menu that feels contemporary yet nostalgic \u2013 and Jeonbok, a dish built around abalone and seaweed, is one of its clearest statements.<\/p>\n

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Sol Restaurant in Central blends Korean flavours and Western cooking techniques. Photo: Nicholas Wong Sixteen Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The dish appears on both the lunch and dinner tasting menus, offering familiar flavours reinterpreted through Western techniques and chef Kim\u2019s eye for texture, plating and wine pairing.<\/p>\n

The starting point is sourcing. Kim insists on fresh abalone from Jeju Island<\/span>, a region world-renowned for its seafood. \u201cIt\u2019s a signature Korean ingredient recognised globally for its quality,\u201d he explains.<\/div>\n

In a bid to bridge French and Korean culinary language, he sets it in butter as \u201ca nod to French cuisine, where seafood \u2013 like lobster or langoustine \u2013 is often paired with seaweed butter\u201d, and pairs it with two Korean seaweeds, maesaengi and miyeok, chosen as much for contrast as for continuity.<\/p>\n

Maesaengi is delicate, seasonal and demanding to work with; miyeok, the seaweed most will recognise from Korean \u201cbirthday soup\u201d, is more common. Kim admits, \u201cUnlike standard seaweed, it took time to perfect the preparation method so that it retains its unique texture and flavour within the sauce without getting lost.\u201d The result is a deep, umami-rich base that carries the dish but never feels heavy. To anchor the dish in its Hong Kong setting, he brings in locally sourced bamboo shoots and cabbage, so the plate reflects both coastal Korea and the city where he now cooks.<\/p>\n

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The minimalist dining area of Sol Restaurant in Central. Photo: Nicholas Wong Sixteen Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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At Sol, the contemporary Korean restaurant by Solstice Culinary Space on Lyndhurst Terrace, head chef GwanJu Kim\u2019s French training and Korean roots come together in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1264,2051,18525,11732],"class_list":["post-37614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-dish","tag-focus","tag-jeonbok","tag-sol","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}