BBQ smoked duck – oli gogi

Meat.

I’m sure that the most common answer to ‘what would you like for dinner?’ in South Korea is ‘gogi! 고기 ^^ ‘ (‘meat! :) ‘). South Koreans adore meat. That said, I have met a few vegetarians here though none are as strict as their western counterparts, including one who still eats sundae (blood sausage) because it’s not meat you know, just blood. So when you say yes to gogi for dinner, you’re saying yes to a meat fiesta. Normally it will be pork or beef in various forms, but occasionally you get duck.

A platter heaving with smoked duck, thick slices of potato, hard blocks of tofu and garlic cloves. The waitress shakes a stainless steel container of rice, loosening it, and drops the rice ball onto the hotplate, thunk. This combination of food is one I don’t understand, and can’t even pretend to. The waitress notices my confusion, and to clarify she points to the rice, and with a thick accent says ‘one point’, then, indicating the potatoes ‘two point’, then the tofu ‘three point’. Oh, I see! So glad we’ve got that one sorted out now. What?!

All this demonstration does is reinforce the Korean love of multiple carbs in the one meal. I’ve eaten altogether too many cafeteria lunches containing double rice, beans and noodles with potato just in case you weren’t full enough already. Meat and carbs with a side of preserved vegetables. It’s no wonder often crave salad in this country.

That said, there is often an excellent selection of 반찬 (banchan, side dishes) providing some vegetables. This meal though, they were just kimchi variations and seafood. Duck and seafood. This meal, I don’t understand.

양념게장 (yangnyeomgejang) is raw crab marinated in spicy (yep, spicy is a noun now). An acquired taste. Our ever-helpful waitress indicated that this should be eaten with the tofu. I refrain, having had this delicacy before. The trick to this dish is to pick up the crab quarter and suck the gooey raw crab meat from the shell. Just try doing that without getting red-hot spicy sauce all over your face. Firstly, raw crab. Not delicious. Secondly, spicy. It’s worth a try, but for me, once is enough.

So, how about that 오리고기 (duck meat, oli gogi)? Smoky, sweet and charred delicious. Dipped in crushed garlic, chilli and sesame oil, or yellow mustard if that’s your thing (it’s not mine), the mountain of meat quickly turns into a molehill as I repeatedly say ‘OK, just one more piece’. Still, it’ll be months before I want to eat oli gogi again. OK, weeks. Who am I kidding? I’ve already planned to eat it on Saturday.
Tomorrow, I’ll eat salad.

Posted in Byeongcheon, Korean, Seoult and Pepper, South Korea | 3 Comments

Samgak kimbap, rice triangles

Last night a rice triangle saved my life. I was going to dinner with Alex (AKA the slowest man alive) when I was all but felled by a serious bout of hangrrr. I needed some real food, and I needed to have eaten it several minutes ago. Luckily convenience stores abound in this country, and most of them stock a dizzying range of samgak kimbap (삼각 김밥). Well, dizzying for someone as illiterate in Korean as me (but I’m learning, promise!)


Tuna and mayonnaise filled triange kimbap.

Due to my aforementioned illiteracy, choosing which triangle kimbap to buy is a lucky dip. Some brands have pictures of the main ingredient: fish, chicken, cow; but the brand with the best salty, fresh seaweed wrapper is all designerly stylised Hangul (top picture). The filling could be tuna and mayonnaise, kimchi, chicken or my favourite, gochuhang bulgogi (spicy beef). Luckily, they are so inexpensive that buying a few and hoping for the best will barely make a dint in your pocket change, about 700₩ (60c) each. One is enough to stave off death by hunger, two is lunch.

Kimbap, Korean seaweed and rice rolls, are less refined than sushi and are loaded with vegetables both fresh and pickled and a range of protein. They’re a much loved healthy and quick snack, but I prefer the heartier, more simple triangle variety.

Not only are rice triangles delicious and cheap, they are also ingeniously packaged. What appears to be a simple plastic wrapping is a actually clever trick to keep your pre-packaged snack fresh for longer.

First, unpeel the rip-cord marked 1. Next, pull out the corner, 2, and you’ll see that there is in fact a double layer of plastic enveloping the kim/gim (seaweed) and separating it from the potentially soggy-fying rice. Once the corners are removed, the salty seaweed wrapping springs back into place around the rice, still crisp and ready for consumption.

Samgak kimbap, my favourite emergency snack.

Posted in Korean, Seoult and Pepper, South Korea | 8 Comments

Yooksam Naengmyeon

Mul naengmyeon (물 냉면), water cold-noodles are not the most appetising sounding food, and just to make it worse, we’ve nicknamed this dish ‘naengers’. It makes me think of a bland, flaccid, sog-fest of a meal, luckily the reality is completely opposite. A tangle of al-dente buckwheat noodles float in a savoury broth, so cold it’s icy. Mustard and vinegar are commonly added, and oftentimes I opt for the vinegar being a yellow-mustard-ophobe, but this version at Yooksam Naengmyeon is so flavourful it doesn’t require any additions. Traditional accompaniments of julienned cucumber, toasted sesame seeds, carefully boiled egg and pickled radish round out the dish.

Yooksam Naengmyeon, yet another chain restaurant (they’re incredibly difficult to avoid in South Korea), serves up a particularly satisfying mul naengmyeon at the Myeongdong branch. Bibim naengmyeon 비빔 냉면 (spicy mixed cold noodles), bibimbap 비빔밥 and udon noodles are also available, all served as a set with a side of charcoal grilled pork. The meat is tender, sweet and smoky, best eaten with a bite of noodles, as described by the super-cutesy cartoon advertising.

Scissors, the go-to blade of Korea, are provided to separate your noodles into manageable lengths and to break up any particularly large icebergs.

To be honest, I never loved mul naengmyeon. Probably because it is so often ordered after a meal of galbi or another variant of Korean BBQ. I’d fill up on greasy meat and spicy kimchi (and alcohol) and by the time the naengmyeon arrived I was invariably ready to stand up and stretch my floor-sitting weary body, completely sated. It always seemed over the top. Over the top, or just plain not enough. A simple bowl of noodles with a sprinkle of cucumber and half a boiled egg is not a satisfying meal. The addition of BBQ meat lifts it to ‘happily eat again’ status, though I do still yearn for some more vegetable content, but that is an ever-present unfulfilled dining desire in Korea.

Yooksam Naengmyeon has given me hope for naengmyeon. I’m sure there are better executed versions out there, but after this instance I understand how a few simple cold ingredients can form a satisfying and interesting meal, just so long as there is some charcoal BBQ pork on the side.


Mul naengmyeon is the first option on the menu.

Yooksam Naengmyeon, various locations.

Mul naengmyeon + charcoal BBQ pork 6,000 won (~5.20AUD)

There is an English menu, and English characters on the signage.

My first visit was to a branch in Myeongdong. From Myeongdong station take exit 8. Turn left and walk down the shopping street. Take the third street on the left and walk to the end. You will see Yooksam naengmyeon in front of you. It is on the second floor.

I also visited a branch in Hongdae. The Mul naengmyeon and BBQ set was only 5,200won here, but I was disappointed by the poor quality and lack of flavour.

Posted in Korean, Seoult and Pepper, South Korea | 4 Comments

Patbingsu, Meal Top, Apgujeong

There was a time very recently where I felt as though I had never been warm, nor would I ever be warm again. Then spring came, my first ever, bringing with it blossoms, sneezing and the hasty shedding of the outer-layers. Now, as these things invariably go, it is starting to feel a lot like summer. Which in Korea means sun, super short shorts, fans (and hopefully avoiding fan death) and frozen desserts. Ice creams, ice blended drinks and scoops of ice cream pressed between waffles are all understandably popular, and cloying, ways to eat away the heat. But my new favourite Korean iced dessert is patbingsu (팥빙수).

It is in the same vein as Malaysias cendol (1, 2) and ais kacang, Vietnams che and any number of other Asian shaved ice desserts, only simpler. This particular patbingsu features red beans, sweetened, tender and not at all grainy, shaved ice and some optional fruit and syrup, refined and basic. We are at Meal Top, a famous patbingsu restaurant in the Hyundai department store in Apgujeong, an exclusive suburb full of designer stores and fabulous apartments. Meal Top is overflowing on this hot Saturday afternoon, so we take a number and note there are 17 tables ahead of us. Luckily we are on the 5th floor with efficient air conditioning and the line moves surprisingly fast. Ten minutes later we are settled inside this strangely designed (mediterranean-y terrace, fake trees, fluorescent lights, fake greek-style pillars, mish mash confusion) space.

A shock of staff hustle and bustle around, quietly taking orders and money, and quickly delivering trays laden with pretty desserts. We order two bowls, plain milk and strawberry (7,000won, ~$6AU, each). Both have finely shaved ice, delicious mushy red beans and a few pieces of ttoek, a chewy rice cake for textural interest. The milk version is rich with dairy, but not at all fatty. It is plain enough to be considered boring at first taste, but there is beauty in its simplicity and this quickly becomes my favourite. Strawberry syrup flavours the other dessert, making it light and bright, the taste of summer.

People around us order take away and eat their cooling desserts upstairs, in the park on the roof of the department store. Yes, there is a park up there, complete with trees, grass and rampaging children. As the weather intensifies, I can see myself enjoying patbingsu more and more often. Spring and the park on the roof may be surprises, but my desire for patbingsu certainly isn’t.

Meal Top
5th floor of the Hyundai Department Store,
Apgujeong.
Connected to the Apgujeong subway station.

Posted in Korean, Seoult and Pepper, South Korea | Leave a comment

Myeongdong Gyoja

Myeongdong is a tangle of spruced up pedestrian alleyways lined with big name stores and packed with people strolling, shopping, seeing and being seen. It is one of the most popular retail spots in Seoul, and as with any good shopping district there is plenty of food on offer. This being Korea, the usual suspects are extra-well represented here (allow me to rage out about my distate for franchises a little later on), but there are also a handful of places serving food I want to eat. Myeongdong Gyoja (or Kyoja or Gyoza) is one such place.

Myeongdong Gyoja has been around for a long time and is suitably famous. The menu is short, the service is brisk and the food is consistent. The menu is: dumplings (만두/mandu), noodle soup (칼국수/kalguksu), cold spicy noodles (비빔국수/bibimguksu) and a strange white soybean soup which I’ve never tasted and know nothing about. Despite being named for its dumplings, I think the kalguksu (noodle soup) is the best thing on the menu. The knife cut noodles are plentiful, dense and just chewy enough, covered by a surprisingly viscous broth that feels like a warm hug on a cold day, and you will probably want to eat this stodgy meal only in winter.  A few soggy wontons float around, their soft silky skins a touch too delicate for the hearty soup. Minced pork, spring onions and whack of pepper round it out. Chilli and black vinegar spice it up, adjust to your own taste. One of the few times I’ve drained a bowl of noodle soup has been here, and these bowls are deep.

The process for dining at Myeongdong Gyoja is simple. Line up, don’t worry, the queue moves quickly and there are plenty of tables jammed in to the dining areas both upstairs and down. Indicate how many people are in your party and be shown to your table. Look at the menu, don’t worry I can tell you what to order right now, dumplings and soup, soup and dumplings. See, simple. Point to order and pay. Soon a flock of Ajumma’s will descend bearing trays and change and bowls full of food. Dumplings, soup, rice, kimchi, side plates, water glasses. Get your implements from a drawer in the side of your table and dig in. Quickly. You don’t want it to get cold and people are waiting.

The dumplings are best still steaming and dunked in spiced up black vinegar, but even then they really aren’t that fab. Korea, I’ve got something to say to you: Dumplings and websites, you’re doing them both wrong. These are unwieldy golf balls erring on the side of blandness. But I eat them anyway, because they’re some of the nicest dumplings I’ve come across in Korea, my standards are, therefore, low.

A word to the wise. The kimchi here is incredibly garlicky, so much so that Alex, lover of garlic and king of kimchi (really, you should see his fridge) will no longer touch the Myeongdong Gyoja version.

So, when you’re tired from shopping, or tired of western franchises or just plain sick of eating kimchi and gochujang, go down a bowl of quasi-Chinese noodle soup at Myeongdong Gyoja.

Myeongdong Gyoja Website in Korean only
명동 교자

Order:
칼국수/kalguksu (wheat flour noodles in a hot broth), 만두/mandu (gyoza/dumplings)
all dishes 8,000 won (~$6.80AU)

10:30am – 9:30pm

Seoul Jung-gu Myeong-dong2-ga 25-2l <– there are two locations, but this is the only one I’ve visited.

Walking directions from visitkorea.org (Though I’m not sure that they are correct or make any sense. I could make some up, but I always just get lost in Myeongdong)
From Exit 8 of Myeongdong Station (Subway Line No. 4), proceed between La Bellavita (coffee shop) and Crown Bakery about 150 meters (you’ll pass two intersections).

Posted in Korean, Myeongdong, Seoult and Pepper, South Korea | 4 Comments
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