FatMan Seoul

Thank you

2005-04-16T11:41:00.000+09:00

Dear readers of FatMan Seoul's blog,

This will be the last post on this blog, if only to announce that FatMan Seoul is no longer in Seoul. He has relocated and therefore to continue this blog under the current title would be meaningless.

He should have thought of naming it something more generic like "FatMan Eats" or "FatMan Is Just Plain FAT", or something geographically-unspecific like that. But now, to rename it everytime he moves would leave a trail of google-trash like FatMan Timbuktu, FatMan Bukino Faso, you get the idea.

He wants me to tell all of you that he has truly enjoyed his virgin blogging experience, making so many great friends and receiving the rare e-mails and comments are the highlights of his otherwise mundane existance. He is proud to have been a member of a truly awesome food blogosphere, and wishes all his fellow bloggers much love and continued blogging. There's no need to long-list them all here, you guys know who you are. He will continue to visit, read, and occasionally comment on your blogs whenever time permits, which will very likely be limited considering his ever increasing work commitments.

To the naysayers of this blog, just a parting word before I conclude. FatMan Seoul never once claimed to be an expert on Korean cuisine. If you had taken the time to read the "About FatMan" sidebar, you would have immediately realised that. The blog started out as his personal memoir for the sole reading pleasure of his family back home.

This blog will continue to exist as is since FatMan has paid subscriptions till next year. Hopefully it will serve as a basic introductory guide to daily Korean food.

It has been a journey well worth the ticket price. Thanks for the memories.

Sincerely yours,
FatMan Seoul's alter ego

Insa-dong and rice crackers

2005-02-04T15:19:00.000+09:00

So so sorry for the lack of foodie post of late. I'm really scrapping the barrel here, folks. Digging out old drafts of posts I've written but not yet published. Been really really busy. Anyway, this will be my last post for the month. I'm travelling at the moment, which makes it even harder to blog. Leave your thoughts in the comment section. Stay cool and happy eating.

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Photos from a recent trip to Insa-dong, the artsy-fartsy tourist attraction in Seoul. Photos were taken circa November 2004.

Several visits on and I still see this procession happening on every trip I've made to Insa-dong. Not too sure if this is a weekend-only thingy, or it takes place daily. Not sure of the times either. So don't ask me. I've been fortunate to witness this every visit - must be my lucky Insa-dong star shining upon me. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what it's all about!! Hahaha .... let's see if I can pull this off.

You start off by seeing this group of flag bearers clearing the street of pedestrians. Obediently, everyone step to the side. It's also a signal for you to prep your videocam, digicam, cameraphone and what-not.

Those are fake beards and moustaches, in case you're wondering.

The man imprisoned in the first cage is presumably a criminal/offender of some sort, with his family (wife & children) following suit. The procession proceeds along the main street of Insa-dong, with one or two stops in between for some play-acting. Nothing exciting happens at the end of the street. They just steer off into the back and get undressed! What happens after is best left to your imagination.

So I've come to my own conclusion - this is a re-enactment of how offenders/criminals are shamed in public by parading them around the village, with family in tow for good effect. Ahhh ... the good old days. If you have more information about this, please share them in the comment section. Appreciate it.

Lots of street snacks all along Insa-dong's main street.

I came across this stall that sells a variety of rice crackers.

Notice in the background (next stall) - that's the giant custard cream puffs that's all the rage right now in Seoul. I'll probably do a post on that later on.

I've no idea what these are called in Korean. If you know, and I'm sure many of you do, do share. Comments section is where you need to go.

I've tried some of these rice crackers and I must say, they're pretty bland to me! :o) Maybe that's the way it's suppose to be. Anyhoo ..... like I said. Bland. Colorful though, interesting to look at, but bland. Did I mention bland?

Doota Foodcourt

2005-02-02T15:27:00.000+09:00

Here are some photos of the recently renovated food court at Doota.

Refer here and here for previous posts on Doota.

The system here is pretty standard as is everywhere else. You place your order at the cashier (above), pay and you get a receipt with your order number printed on it. Wait till your number appears on the LED signage and collect your food.

There are 8 stores at the food court, offering mostly standard Korean fares. There's a pizzaria that dishes spagetti, lasagne and pizzas (duh!), and a Chinese store that does pretty decent business, offering the typical "chinese" fare so familiar here - jajang myeon, jjam pong (seafood noodles) and bogeum bap.

As far as food courts go, the limited number of stalls, and hence the variety of cuisine offered, is somewhat of a downer. Prices remain decently standard though even after the renovation; KRW5,000 - KRW8,000 per person will suffice. Tastewise, it's pretty standard stuff - nothing to shout about. Eating here is purely for the convenience of Doota shoppers and to give their weary legs a rest. There's better food to be had in the many eateries around the corner from here.

Good Eats 3

2005-01-27T13:02:00.000+09:00

Continuing with our Good Eats series ......

Ttok with a modern twist at Jilsiru in Ywaryong-dong, downtown Seoul.

Tradition Meets Innovation in Rice Cakes
By Lee Yong-sung & Kim Hyun-cheol, Staff Reporters

Food evolves as time goes on. Sushi served at a Japanese restaurant here cannot be the same as genuine Japanese Sushi. By the same token, the kimchi we eat everyday can hardly be the same as that of centuries ago in tastes and style.

The important thing is that it always changes in a way that satisfies more of people's picky tastes. Long-loved as a traditional dessert in Korea, "Ttok" or rice cake (not the dry, crispy American health food type of rice cake) has been destined to follow this evolution as well.

Ideally made of rice, ttok had long been treated as very special, eaten only on holidays in those days when foods were scarce. However, recent times have been richer and, with the surplus rice, the rice cake quickly lost its special status as the most popular national snack, failing to appeal to the taste buds of young Koreans. Smitten into fast foods of Western origin, they tend to think that biting into big chunks of ttok is far from cool. Well, at least until an institute specializing in the study of traditional Korean food came up with the idea of a "ttok cafe", where about 50 different kinds of both traditional and newly developed rice cake items are sold like hotcakes.

Located on the first floor of the Institute of Traditional Korean Food, Ywaryong-dong, downtown Seoul, rice cake cafe Jilsiru (named after the unglazed earthenware steamer used to cook rice cakes) has lured back the younger generations, as well as foreign visitors, into eating rice cakes, with bite-sized ttok coming in all shapes and colors. "I used to hate ttok because of its sticky texture, but it is totally different here", Lim Soo-ji, a 25 year old graduate student said.

Opened in January of 2002, the cafe takes ttok far beyond the rice flour and beans variety. Coffee, apple, cocoa, berries and even dried tropical fruits like mango and pineapple are baked into ttok here. Beautifully dyed with natural juices, their colors hint a wealth of flavors, self-explaining the meaning of the old saying, "Ttok that looks good also tastes good."

The most popular on the menu here is the ttok meal combo (5,000 won), which includes a ttok sandwich with salad filling, along with ttok rolls with kimchi, fried ttok with caramel dipping sauce and a piece of coffee ttok cake. Various type of ttok is available in piece (1,000 to 2,000 won) and large ttok cakes (20,000 to 35,000 won) are also made to order, with an hour advance notice.

Jilsiru is also well known for 14 different traditional teas, which are all brewed from fresh ingredients. One of the most famous tea items here is Siru Mugwort Tea (5,000 won), which is made of dried mugwort gathered during spring. The uniquely deep, fragrant smell of it is key to its popularity. Another famous tea is Siru Flower Tea (5,000 won), which is made of fermented green tea flower that starts to blossom from the middle of October.

Don kaseu (pork cutlets) at Dr. Oh's Pork Cutlet (Obaksane Tonggas), Sungbuk-dong, northern Seoul.

Drivers Love Dr. Oh's Pork Cutlets
By Lee Yong-sung & Kim Hyun-cheol, Staff Reporters

Drivers' restaurants, or "kisa sikdang" in Korean, are a unique variation of regular Korean restaurants, whose main customers are taxi drivers who cannot waste time searching for a restaurant with parking or even in the act of eating.

Those restaurants are unique in that they promise not only quick service but also free parking and some even offer free car washing service. Located at the entrance of the fancy residential area Sungbuk-dong, northern Seoul, Dr. Oh's Pork Cutlet (Obaksane Tonggas) is one of the better-known eateries among Seoulites.

Meeting all the criteria of a fine driver's restaurant, the diner specializing in pork cutlets provides free parking and quick service, but that's not all. Pork cutlets here are as big as a car tire! Okay, maybe not that big, but it certainly is closer to the size of a steering wheel.

The taste is not exactly first class but it's more than good enough considering its price of 5,500 won. It is not like the popular Japanese-style pork cutlet, which is loved by younger generations. The pork cutlet at Dr. Oh's is thinner, larger and crispier (the most conspicuous difference between Japanese pork cutlet and the local version will be that chopsticks, instead of fork and knife, are used to eat it). In fact, pork cutlet originated in the west, but after going through the localization process, it has become one of the most popular dishes in Japan, as is curry and rice.

Those who were in college during the '70s through the early '90s, when fancy franchised restaurants had not yet invaded local college towns, will find this restaurant sentimental. Back then, a huge crispy pork cutlet served with white cream soup and a simple cabbage salad was something that made special moments even more special, though the restaurants were far from modern and stylish.

Dr. Oh's Pork Cutlet has revived them all, including the soup and salad. The restaurant attracts about 500 customers, not just the cabbies, but everyone who believes the prime virtue of food is quantity, of fairly good quality as well.

All of the dishes are served almost as soon as they are ordered, but they are never precooked. Each dish is made-to-order, guaranteeing freshness. In addition to the pork cutlet, hamburger steak (6,500 won), which is made of ground beef and vegetables, is another popular dish. Fish cutlet (5,500 won) and beef cutlet (5,500 won) are also recommended.

Budae jiggae at Kwanghwamun Pudaejjige in Kwanghwamun, Seoul, right across from Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

From Trash to Delicious Treasure
By Lee Yong-sung & Kim Hyun-chul, Staff Reporters

Most food we eat doesn't have noble origins of course, but talking about one with a unique origin, almost nothing matches "pudaejjige (spicy stew made with Spam, sausages, ramen noodles)" among Korean food.

Also known as "Johnson tang (stew)", or army base stew, the origins of the dish can be found in Korea's leaner years in the aftermath of the Korean War, when the poor used to collect discarded food from American military installations for use in stews.

With a little bit of exaggeration, the dish is one of the few relics passed down from the most tragic event of the country's modern history, as well as a perfect example to show how tradition combines different culture to create a new cultural resource, which later becomes part of the tradition.

Although leftover food is not used for the stew today (not openly at least), as it probably was done after the war, the recipe remains almost the same, in which items of Western food are submerged in the traditional hot and spicy Korean stew to produce a unique flavor not found in other Korean dishes.

Whatever its origin, pudaejjige is now widely loved as a Korean dish, not only by young students with no money, but by just about everyone. Opened this month, restaurant Kwanghwamun Pudaejjige serves high quality pudaejjige (sounds like an oxymoron, but its true).

Located in the new combined commercial and residential district of Kwanghwamun, right across from Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the upgraded diner attracts a power crowd during lunchtime already, with top quality ham and sausages, and a fresh attitude.

Usually, beef bone soup is used as the soup base of pudaejjige. However, Mun Bok-rye, the restaurant's owner found it a little greasy, which led her to come up with the idea of tasty but not greasy pudaejjige (5,000 won), in which tangle weed and anchovy are used in place of the bone soup. Mun got the idea from her 13-years know-how of running a swellfish (pok-o) restaurant (fresh soup is the key to good swellfish stew).

Ham and sausages used here are all high quality brands purchased from a reliable retailer,not generic brands. Besides pudaejjige, grilled sausage and bacon (6,000 won) is also a specialty. It promises to taste best when eaten with grilled kimchi, adding a little bit of garlic powder on it.

Combined with hot pudaejjige, the grilled dish will provide a very unique cross-cultural feast that is sure to help you forget the bitter cold weather for a while. Unlimited bowls of rice and ramyon noodles are also served without any extra charge.

Thai food at Khaosan, in the Hongdae/Hongik University area in western Seoul.

Thai Delight Comes to Southern Seoul
By Kim Hyun-cheol & Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporters

It is not strange many of those who have been to Thailand have been fascinated by the fathomlessly unique world of Thai cuisine, from the morsels from street vendors to lucrative full-course dishes in fancy restaurants.

But it is also understandable when they miss the taste that they hesitate to try some of the Thai restaurants available in Seoul. How could it ever be pleasant for them to have to pay tens of thousands of won for the dishes they enjoyed for not above a couple thousand won back in Thailand?

In that regard, "Khaosan", a Thai restaurant located in the Hongdae, or Hongik University area in western Seoul, has been a reliable place since its opening in 2002, serving quality foods at reasonable prices to Thai-food lovers. Now the place has taken up a challenge _ it has opened its second store in the Kangnam area in southern Seoul, an area totally different to the backpackers' street in Bangkok, after which the restaurant was named.

Most pleasing to fans of the place is that the prices stay the same as in Hongdae, even though it lies in one of the most budget-guzzling regions of the city. All the dishes range 5,000 to 6,000 won except special ones like "tom yum kung (spicy shrimp soup)" (8,000 won) and "poo phad pong kari (stir-fried crab with curry)" (9,000 won).

"Yam unsen", or Thai-style glass-noodle seafood salad (7,000 won), is an interesting appetizer that reflects the character of Thai cuisine with its intense harmony of spicy, sweet and sour flavors.

Dishes like "khao phad sapparot (fried rice with pineapple)", (5,000 won), or "phad thai (fried noodle)", (5,000 won) appeal to most Korean eaters as non-risky choices for those not familiar with Thai food. All other items on the menu list are served with plain rice or rice noodles.

Some loyal Thai-delectable devotees, however, will prefer to try some of the full-scale dishes on the menu, which will unexceptionally include tom yum kung, a world-famous soup. However, if you want to experience a real exquisite combination of hair-raisingly sour and spicy tastes with a gentle touch of coconut milk, don't miss this unexpectedly surprising dish of "tom ka gai (chicken and coconut milk soup)", (8,000 won).

A handful of "pakchi", or coriander, on the soup will be enough to make you feel as if you were right under the sizzling Thai sun, but you will have to ask for that separately, because unlike in Thailand proper, dishes served here don't include that particular herb as it is not favored by most local customers.

Even though Thai dishes might be too strong-flavored to some Korean people, the place doesn't make their items as mere "fusion" cuisine catering to the novice tastes, said Lee Jung-im, owner of two Khaosan restaurants, and Lee Dong-eun, manager of Khaosan Kangnam and also sister of owner Lee.

"We bring all the materials like spices and herbs directly from Thailand, except for common vegetables, meat and seafood", Jung-im explained. "It is true the dishes served here are a bit milder than the original ones, but we follow authentic ways of cooking them, especially for tom yum kung and poo phad pong kari".

Dong-eun added: "Thai cuisine is distinctive, pleasantly stimulating and also nature-friendly as they focus on livening up the original flavors of ingredients with various kinds of natural spices".

"We believe more Korean people will be enchanted with the diversity of Thai food bit by bit".

Kimchi jiggae at Jangttugari in Kwanghwamun, Seoul, in the vicinity of the US Embassy nad Kyobo Book Store.

Enjoy Rich Kimchi Stew at Jangtugaree
By Kim Hyun-cheol & Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporters

Of all the delicious Korean cuisines, "kimchi chigae", or kimchi stew, is no doubt the dish most favored by Korean people. It is the taste they miss after a long stay abroad and also the very first image that comes to mind when they hear the words "flavor of home".

That's why most Korean restaurants have this item on their menu, and also why it's not really easy to find a really lip-smackingly good one either. Indeed, most Korean men claim to have at least kimchi chigae down, but on the other hand, it seems to be a dish that is quite hard to cook really well. Just the notion of kimchi chigae as the most common dish makes it hard to attract the mass of Korean gourmets.

Most lovers of the dish prefer it in authentic style, usually characterized by a thick heavy soup. However, if you want to try some other styles, "Jangttugari", a newly built restaurant in Kwanghwamun area, will offer you a good alternative choice.

Just about four months since its opening, Jangttugari has already gained a favorable reputation, becoming packed with customers in every lunch break and forcing latecomers to queue up for a long time outside. And almost every one of them comes here to enjoy the kimchi chigae.

The dish served here is more modern but with a touch of elegance added to this traditional dish. Actually, the kimchi chigae here is called "kimchi kamjong" (6,000 won) on the menu. Kamjong is the Royal Court's word for chigae.

At the first mouthful you will notice a sharp but light-feeling mixture of sour and spicy tastes, stimulating the taste-buds enough but different from your run-of-the-mill kimchi chigae. The well-balanced soup somehow reminds one of "tom yum kung", Thailand's world-famous hot and sour shrimp soup.

The key to its full-bodied gusto comes from the special kimchi. All kimchi used goes through a maturation period for one year, as it is often served in the Cholla region, enriching the dish of kimchi kamjong. Fresh pork meat added to the stew also makes a nice combination with the kimchi stock.

"Kyeranmari" (5,000 won) is a Korean-style omelet and another favored item to be ordered along with kimchi kamjong. With cheese stuffed inside, unlike original Korean style, the kyeranmari served here first pleases the eyes with its surprisingly generous portions and then pleases the mouth with the rich and exotic taste of a Korean dish with a western touch.

"Ogyopsal" (12,000 won) is another major item on the restaurant’s menu. The word ogyopsal means it has a better taste than usual "samgyopsal (barbequed abdomen part of pork)", and the slices are 12 millimeters thick, since it tastes best that way, according to the restaurant. Cooked on a stone plate with kimchi, Jangttugari's kimchi chigae would surely seem a rich, even lavish meal for even the most discerning gourmet.

Sigol changto gukbap at Sigoljip in Chongno, downtown Seoul.

Taste of Traditional Marketplace at 'Sigoljip'
By Kim Hyun-cheol & Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporters

Anywhere you go in Korea, there is a marketplace, an exciting and invigorating place full of liveliness and real, regular people. Even though an authentic traditional market can no longer be found in big cities, the image of it still remains as nostalgia to many of their residents.

Just like the memories of the place, its most representative dish of traditional beef soup with rice, or "changgukbap", has been one of the all-time favorites for Koreans, especially adults. The meat soup, long-boiled with various ingredients, is a comfortable dish that can make one feel full by just looking at it.

"Sigoljip", which means "country house", a 17-year-old restaurant located in an alley facing the main street of Chongno, the heart of Seoul, takes customers back in time while enjoying the atmosphere of a marketplace and eating to your fill.

Sliding open the large gate to enter the shabby tile-roofed house reveals two large pots boiling away with broth. The look and the pungent smell of the soup with peppery oil on top immediately begin to stimulate customers' appetites.

On both sides of the pots lie small, partitioned eating rooms with Korean-style papered sliding doors around tables in the middle hall.

The most famous item on the menu, no doubt, is country-style marketplace soup with rice, called "sigol changto gukbap" (5,000 won). It is bone-based and quite hearty with chunks of beef, vegetables and blood curd, or "sonji".

The soup is surprisingly thick from being boiled down and thus looks quite greasy, but doesn’t actually taste that way. It is good for a meal and often favored as a hangover soup after a night of drinking. The rich, strong flavor shows one of the essences of Korean cuisine, the art of boiling soup.

Another recommendable choice that goes well with sigol changto gukbap is gridiron-cooked beef barbeque, or "bassakbulbogi" (15,000 won). It can be seen ceaselessly being grilled over a briquette fire in an open kitchen at the corner of the restaurant.

It is a chopped beef brisket with the fat removed and marinated simply with traditional soy sauce and sesame oil. The adequately seasoned barbeque au naturel makes a perfect combination with the soup and tends to make people want to accompany it with some Korean liquor like "soju" or "makgoli", quite spontaneously.

With some other dishes like assorted grills, or "modumjon" (8,000 won), you won't be in need of fancy restaurants. If you want an informal meeting with close friends for a rich and substantial meal at a reasonable price, Sigoljip is the place to go.

Earlier in the series:
Good Eats
Good Eats 2

Changdeokgung Palace

2005-01-27T13:00:00.000+09:00

This is the main gate to Changdeokgung Palace. The Palace is inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List and is therefore a duly protected site.

It's within walking distance from Gyeongbokgung Palace. I've been inside on previous occasions, and the Secret Garden is just lovely. Unfortunately I don't have any photos suitable for sharing on this blog, except the following.

These are some photos of the changing-of-guards ceremony reenacted for the many tourists (and locals) that flock to the Palace.

The guard changing ceremony is held twice daily, and typically lasts about 20 minutes or so.

Gyeongbok Palace

2005-01-25T11:17:00.000+09:00

Gyeongbok Palace (경복궁, transliterated, Gyeongbok Gung) is one of Seoul's top tourist attractions, if you're into royal palaces and that sorta thing.

I shan't bore you with its history, simply because I know nothing of it. If you're interested, an excellent article on Gyeongbok Palace can be found here. The internet is abundant with info on this Palace as well - just google it.

Tourist related info (opening hours, transportation, tickets, etc.) can be found here. More photos and an excellent overview map of the Palace grounds and how much is NOT opened to the public can be viewed here.

Instead, I'll just share some of the photos I took from my recent trip there, circa November 2004. The gloomy winter overcast isn't particularly camera-friendly, so be forewarned. Beware dial-up users - lots of photos ahead.

(This overview map flicked from www.visitseoul.net)

The guards at the outer gates to the palace (somewhere approximating no. 1 on the map).

The main gate to the outer courtyard (no. 2 on the map). Ticketing booths are to the right - KRW1,000 per adult.

Closer shot of the above. Note the 12 animals of the lunar calendar on the roof. They're on the roof of most of the structures here.

Shot of the gate from the inside, opposite direction.

Gate to the inner courtyard (no. 4 on the map).

The main hall (no. 8 on the map). Note the stone stumps to the left and right of the walkway - I was told that that's suppose to be markers indicating who stands where - they're each inscribed with the names of the respective ministers, generals and other senior government officials.

Also note the slightly elevated path in the centre of the walkway.

Here's a side profile shot. The centre path, of highest elevation, is reserved for the King. You'll see this elevated pathway throughout the grounds of the Palace.

The main hall (no. 8 on the map).

Close-up of the main hall.

The courtyard surrounding the main hall (no. 7 on the map).

The inside of the main hall.

That's the King, looking well after all these years.

A piece of artifact from the good old days - a sundial.

A nice tree.

Small park within the palace grounds (no. 11 on the map). Busloads of tourists from Thailand on this day.

This pagoda like structure (no. 22 on the map) is quite a beauty. It's actually one of the three inter-connected buildings housing the National Folk Museum.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Duck Bossam & Soondubu Jiggae

2005-01-19T16:25:00.000+09:00

Today we're having dinner at Nolboo Bossam (놀부보쌈), one of the many branches of the Nolboo chain of restaurants. There's Nolboo this and Nolboo that everywhere in Korea.

You can't miss their branding, which looks like this:

In particular, I wanted to try out their duck bossam. I haven't had duck since the last time I had duck, and I've been craving for some ever since I started craving for some.

Scoping the place out.

Panning right.

It started off with a large pot-sized bowl of jang gook, Korean bean-paste soup. If I needed to draw a comparison, this would be the Korean counterpart of the Japanese miso soup. The soup had chuncky bits of mustard leaves and chinese cabbage in a dwenjang-based soup stock (bean paste soup). Warm, salty and a nice start to the meal.

This is the main course. Smoked duck bossam (오리훈제보쌈 - ori hoonjae bossam; ori=duck, hoonjae=smoked, bossam=stuffed kimchi). KRW20,000.

The side dishes are pretty straight forward stuff - mix of corn, diced cucumber, potatoes & carrots in mayo dressing, garlic and fresh green chili slices, samjang (mix of bean paste and chili paste) and pickled cucumber.

Clockwise from 12 o'clock : green lettuce (상추 - sang chu) leaves, shredded onions (양파 - yang pa) tossed in vinegar, sugar and light dash of dried chili flakes, the smoked duck, arrowroot (칡뿌리 - chilburi) kimchi and fresh chinese cabbage (배추 - bae chu) leaves. At the centre is the honey mustard sauce.

Grab either of the cabbage or lettuce leaves, pick a bit of everything and stack them on your vege, roll/wrap it all up and stuff it into your mouth in one go. Yummy!!

The duck is deboned and the resultant fillet is then rolled, tied and smoked. The smoked meat is then sliced and slightly baked before serving. The smell of smoked meat immediately hits you as the dish makes its way to the table. Think grilled bacon and you're not far off.

The meat lacked that "ducky" flavour that I had hoped for, with the "smoky" component overpowering any "ducky" elements of the meat. The meat is best savoured on its own; adding the other condiments to your palm wrap distracts you from enjoying the full flavours of the meat.

An interesting way of taking your duck nonetheless.

This is another house speciality, the arrowroot kimchi, or referred to here as kimchi bossam (김치보쌈). Sweetish, not overly spicy despite the misleading red and offers a nice crunch to the bite.

After a quick poke test on the tummy to confirm there's still space in there for more, I ordered another of the house speciality, the soondubu jiggae (순두부 찌개) + dolsot bab (돌솥밥) set.

The photo above is the soondubu jiggae, or soft tofu spicy stew.

There's some decent-sized prawns in there, some clams and just the right amount of silky smooth soft beancurd. The stock obviously benefitted from the use of fresh prawns (as opposed to dried shrimps which is more commonly used), and coupled with the right blend of chili paste, infused the jiggae with the desired oomph. Thumbs up.

This is the dolsot bab (돌솥밥), or hot pot rice. The sight of this instantly reminded me of claypot chicken rice, a favourite with the locals in Singapore and Malaysia. Anyway, getting back to this ....

Uncovering the wooden lid reveals this. The rice is boiled in this stone bowl over an open flame, and nearing the end, is topped with some kidney beans and a small cut of sweet potato. The rice is soft, moist, and just the slightest hint of sweetness and is the perfect companion to the soondubu jiggae. The soondubu + dolsot bab set costs KRW5,500.

Hope you enjoyed my meal as much as I did.

Yong Pyong Resort

2005-01-17T17:29:00.000+09:00

OK. The previous post was my feeble attempt at comedy. Not very good, I know. Sorry .....

My New Year was spent at Yong Pyong Resort, and boy did I spend! The Yong Pyong (Ski) Resort is in Gangwon-do, the province east of Seoul. It's approximately 200 kilometres from Seoul, or about 2.5 hours by road. Several days if you walk from Seoul though. Yong Pyong, along with Muju Ski Resort, are the largest two in South Korea in terms of slopes, lifts, facilities and acreage.

I did notice, which isn't very hard as you see it everywhere, that the Resort goes all out to brand itself as "Yong Pyong All-Season Resort", highlighting that it's not just a winter destination. There's golf, trekking, blah blah blah .... anyway we're here for the snow and skiing. So let's go.

(p/s : ignore the time stamp on the photos - they're all screwed up)

Stayed at the Dragon Valley Hotel - KRW240,000 per room per night. Pricey for what I would regard as a very basic room. Sorry no photos of the room.

This is the check-in lobby.

This is the hotel's smallish (12-15 tables) coffee house right at the end. Had dinner there one night, KRW15,000 average per person for a plate of fried rice or chicken main course. The entrance to the Korean restaurant is to the right of the coffee house entrance in the photo above, just after the wine racks.

The Hotel's lounge, complete with fireplace, which is purely for show though. The burning of 2 puny logs isn't going to warm my -8 degrees body.

An overview of the main slopes. They look like ants on a sugar hill. This shot was taken from the hotel room.

The building to the right is the Dragon Plaza Ski House, which is the main ski complex. More on that later.

The walk from the Hotel to the slopes is only a short one, some 100 metres or so. Exiting from the hotel, you're greeted with this view.

This is the Dragon Plaza. This is where you get to rent your equipment (if you don't own your own) and lockers, dressing rooms, ticketing booth for the ski lifts, eateries, pro shops, ski schools and the medical facility. Speaking of the latter, there sure was a lot of ankle twisting going on there that day.

The ski rental rates are pretty decent. You can get suited up with skis, boots and poles for about KRW25,000 or thereabouts. Snowboard rentals are about 25%-30% more.

Complete info at their website if you need to know.

A fine day to be skiing or boarding. Clear skies, sunny weather .....

.... and about 2,000 people screaming their way down the hills.

Oh, and if you happen to see the many craters in the snow on your way down, that would be where my body and the ground met. My apologies if you happened to be one of those that fell into it that day.

The hills at night. Night skiing lasts until midnight. Impressive use of floodlights.

Obviously, it's less crowded during the nights, so it's an ideal time to try out that new three and a half somersault + back-flip routine that's been playing in your head for months.

Although it may not seem apparent from the photo above, it actually snowed pretty hard the next day. I can't seem to capture any snowflakes on my digicam. Anyway, trust me - it was snowing.

And yet the queue for the ski lifts doesn't cease.

I had set aside the last day to take the gondola (cable car) up to the peak of Mount Balwang. I was hoping to catch the supposedly great view from up there at Dragon Peak. It's too bad the weather was not permitting, and the gondola services were halted in view of the strong winds. You can't see Dragon Peak from down here. It's tucked away somewhere at the back of the immediate hills. Well, just my luck. Maybe next time.

Oh, and how could I not mention this. Yong Pyong is also where many of THAT popular TV series, Winter Sonata's scenes were shot. So it's no surprise to see Management capitalising on this with not-so-subtle hints and cut-up posters of the series' main stars strewn everywhere. If you're a fan of Winter Sonata, you'll feel right at home. You can all play a game of "remember this is where ..... " and "yes yes this is the spot where Bae Yong Jun kissed Choi Ji Woo" and so on .... needless to say, I'm not a fan.

All in all, it was a great start to the New Year. Hope you enjoyed the photos, even if they're not gastro-porn.

Gamja Tang

2005-01-14T22:24:00.000+09:00

My first post of 2005. Happy New Year, everyone.

Today we're having gamja tang (감자탕), which means potato soup.

The place.

The meal

... or what's left of it.

Burp!

Happy New Year

2004-12-30T17:20:00.000+09:00

No food blog today. Just a short, simple, and sincere post from the heart.

It saddens me to think that 2004 could end in such a tragic manner. The tsunami is an act of nature far beyond the control of us mere mortals. No one can tell what tomorrow may bring, so value life and live your life now. My heart goes out to the victims, their loved ones, and the many who are still missing. And to the selfless rescue and relief workers, volunteers and local residents, you have my admiration, if not the world's.

This blog has brought me many new friends, though "virtual" you are and faceless you may be, you're a part of my daily life now and I cherish that. I would like to wish each and every one of you, and yours, a Happy New Year and may 2005 bring you much happiness, prosperity, health and lots of good food.

Have yourself a Happy 2005!

Sincerely yours,
FatMan Seoul

Galbi Jjim

2004-12-27T16:48:00.000+09:00

Tonight we're having galbi jjim (갈비찜), or beef ribs stew. I've been meaning to blog this ever since I started this blog, but never got the chance till now. Armed with my camera, I told myself I'd do it before year's end. So here it is.

It's a wee bit quiet here tonight, probably because I'm early. It's about 6.00pm and a tad early for dinner by local standards.

This is their menu. The signature dish here is evidently their galbi jjim.

Let's get the side dishes (반찬 - ban chan) out of the way first. Here's blanched mustard greens with shredded carrots and onions, with a touch of sesame oil and soya sauce.

This is pan-fried squash in egg batter. Pretty standard stuff.

Boiled then chilled seaweed strips with vinegared chili sauce. The seaweed's a little gooey and has a "unique" (read slimey) taste if taken on its own, but when dipped in that sourish chili sauce it's pretty good.

Everyone's favourite, the jab chae (mixed vegetables) - blanched spring onion leaves, carrot, onion, black mushroom, and lots of dang myeon ("glass" noodles made from sweet potato starch). The dang myeon is boiled in water that is mixed in with soya sauce, sesame oil, laver, onion, garlic, pepper, salt and sugar, to give it flavour and that darkened glossy finish.

Hand mix everything and season generously with soya sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Very nice.

Not authentically Korean, but this is typically served in most places here - shredded cabbage in ten hundred island dressing. For the mathematically impaired, ten hundred = thousand.

This has to be in every meal, isn't it? Cabbage kimchi in fiery red flames.

Here's what we came for - the galbi jjim - short ribs of beef which have been simmering for hours in this wonderful brown sauce. No we haven't been waiting here all these hours just for this meal. It's all pre-cooked, silly!

They just scoop the beef ribs from a larger pot, top it off with some straw mushrooms, button mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, large onions, carrots and green bell pepper (capsicum) and bring it the table as pictured above. The table-top stove continues cooking the vegetables for a couple more minutes and you're ready to have a go at it.

The portion pictured above is the smallest of the 3 available sizes - KRW20,000. Medium (3-4 pax) goes for KRW30,000 and large (4-5 pax) for KRW40,000.

The sauce is a nice blend of I-don't-know-what-so-if-you-do-please-tell-me and is sweetish and just a slight hint of chili-heat. The Chef at this restaurant was not willing to part with his secret recipe, so here's my feeble attempt at trying to decipher what's what in this galbi jjim. The sauce has these elements - soya sauce, sugar, onion, garlic, ginger, black pepper, sesame oil, chili powder, rice wine, jujubes and Korean pear juice. The sweetness of the sauce is further contributed by the accompanying vegetables - carrots, capsicum and onions.

All that hours of simmering infuses the delicious sauce deep into the beef, resulting in a soft, juicy, bursting with flavour meat that falls off the bone. The meat is cooked just right, not overcooked and tough. Yes the much-cliched "it melts in your mouth" applies here as well. The sauce goes great with steamed rice too.

This is one of those tourist-friendly dishes that I'd recommend to Korean-food virgins. It's a very nice break-in dish for newcomers to the cuisine, before moving on to the other tongue-numbing snort-inducing Korean favourites.

Nakji

2004-12-10T14:15:00.000+09:00

Today we're having little octopus, or nakji (낙지).

These are the little nakjis resting peacefully in the tank. But not for long ..... (play Jaws theme here).

It's usually quite a full tank, but we're kinda late for dinner tonight. This restaurant specialises in all things nakji.

Here's what we're having tonight.

Straight from the tank onto the plate - in less than 8 minutes. Raw octopus (낙지회, nakji hwee) can either be eaten whole or sliced up. Obviously, my guests chose the latter - cowards!

The nakji arrives at the table all squirming and wriggling, very worm-like when you think about it. It's served with a healty dash of sesame oil and topped with roasted sesame seeds. Nothing else - no salt, no pepper, nada.

The fun bit is getting them onto your chopsticks and then into your mouth. These fellas will squirm and wriggle their way out of trouble. And the suction cups on their tentacles can be pretty strong, even as they slide down your throat! Hahaha ..... talk about your food fighting back.

Someone once told me that it's easier if you used wooden chopsticks instead of the metal ones, but I do fine with my metal chopsticks, so no problems there.

After 2 hours of soju-ing and chatting, you'd think that these fellas would all be goners by then. Nooooo ..... they sit idly on the plate when not provoked, but the moment you stick your sticks in there, they're up and wriggling again .... even after 2 hours!

Taste wise, my best description for it would be this - it's like eating soft plastic, chewy but not very tasty. I guess the novelty value runs low after several times. But for first timers, I'd say "you only live once, so go for it". It's one of those "been there done that" event.

I have a short video clip of these squirmy buggers. I'll put them up if you guys can tell me if there are any servers out there willing to host my short video for free. Else, just send me an e-mail request and I'll e-mail it to you. The video is approximately 32 seconds long and about 727kb in size. No biggie.

[ update - pieman over at noodlepie has graciously offered to host the video clip. So if you're interested, head on over here and download the file. Thanks, pieman. ]

This plate of nakji hwee is a single portion, comprising of 2 nakjis, and cost KRW22,000.

Next up is the less exciting but more delicious octopus casserole (낙지전골, nakji jeongol).

Usually, at these sort of nakji restaurants, you have a choice of two varieties of nakji - saeng (live) or naeng (refridgerated i.e. dead) - and prices differ drastically between the two. The live nakjis go for about KRW16,000 per person whereas the non-live ones go for about KRW8,000 per person. Just so you know.

This is a three-person portion. It's loaded with sliced octopus, round cabbage, chinese cabbage, leek, tofu, straw mushrooms, bean sprouts, large onions, sliced radish, and topped with a healty heap of seasoned gochujang paste. Add the seafood stock and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This heat from this very spicy dish creeps up on you unsuspectingly. A couple of minutes into what starts off as a sedate dinner and you'll be reaching for that glass of cold water in no time. The gochu paste is mixed with a generous amount of sugar and sesame oil, so while it's spicy, it's also sweetish and fragrant all at the same time. Nice.

BMW - Big Money Wheels

2004-12-10T14:00:00.000+09:00

I saw these in the window of a BMW boutique in Apgujeong, Seoul. It's one thing to stick your logo onto the occasional t-shirts, key chains, coffee mugs and the likes. But this?

Anyone care to guess how much one of these wheelies cost?

On the bright side though, at least it's more eco-friendly than the Toyota Prius. :oP

A case of branding gone too far? Only in Apgujeong.

Sidenote - Apgujeong is often touted as the "Beverly Hills" of Korea, that section of Seoul for the haves to see and be seen. The shopping and eating in this neighbourhood reflect its affluence accordingly.

Good Eats 2

2004-12-07T17:52:00.000+09:00

Continuing with our Good Eats series ......

Kkangjang at Kkangjang jip, Gwanghwamun behind the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.

Lining Up for 'Kkangjang' Stew Is Definitely Worth the Wait
By Lee Yong-sung and Kim Hyun-cheol, Staff Reporters

The restaurant "Kkangjangjip", which opened back in 1986 as a tiny little Korean diner behind the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, has grown to become one of the most crowded places during lunch hour in the entire city.

"Kkangjang", the most popular dish here, is only 4,500 won, yet the restaurant's owner has been named as one of the most successful non-franchise restaurant owners in the country, including being listed in a recent book about highly successful eating places in Korea.

The restaurant has been a success over the last 18 years since its opening. During that time, the ownership was transferred from original owner Lim Pil-soon to her son, Lee Kwang-jin. However, one very crucial thing has not changed at the restaurant, which explains the secret of its steady success: the taste.

Kkangjang is a shortened word for "kangtoenjang", which basically is nothing more than a strong-flavored and unprocessed "toenjang", or soybean paste. However, as it is, "kkang toenjang" is too thick and salty, so it is mixed with processed toenjang and half an onion to add sweetness and lessen the original salty taste, which creates mouth-watering kkangjang.

Other key ingredients are finely diced pork and squid, garlic and hot pepper. One key point is to cook over a high flame for a short time, according to Lee.

Kkangjang is served with a bowl of rice and a larger bowl containing lettuce, bean sprouts and leeks. There are surely as many ways to eat kkangjang as there are customers at Kkangjangjip, but the most common way is to pour the rice into the bowl with the vegetables and mix it with the kkangjang, much like eating "pibimbap". Don't forget to try the restaurant's special "yolmu mulkimchi" (water kimchi made of young radish). Its cool, fresh taste goes well with kkangjang.

Besides kkangjang, "kkongchi ttukbaegi" (spicy saury stew, 4,500 won) is another popular item on the menu, especially during winter. Despite being a fish stew, customers shouldn’t be dissuaded from trying it since it lacks an off-putting, fishy odor that other soups often have.

For drinkers, various other side dishes are also available, including "toenjang possam" (boiled and sliced pork served with cabbage leaves to wrap into bundles, 15,000 won), "haemul pajon" (seafood pancake, 10,000 won) and "nakji bokum" (hot, stir-fried baby octopus, 14,000 won).

An additional bowl of rice is served at no extra charge for every menu item. After the meal, coffee and green tea are also available for free.

Maeoon kalbijim at Ondoljip, Seocho-Dong near Yangjae subway station.

Extra-Hot Kalbijjim Will Take Your Tongue on an Adventure
By Kim Hyun-cheol, Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporters

As you may already know, hot and spicy is not really a taste so much as a sense of pain. But enthusiasts will also acknowledge it is addictive; the pain makes them happy. And South Korea may have far more of these "dens of pain" than many other places on the globe.

When devouring the dishes, customers don't really look happy with their faces dripping in sweat and tongues hanging out from the excessive heat. However, somehow they keep coming back, as if magnetized to those spicy restaurants. If this is you, you’re probably already hooked on the hot taste.

Those regularly on the prowl for new spiciness will already be familiar with the name "Ondoljip" (House with stone-heated floor), a restaurant specializing in hot food, located in Seocho-Dong, Southern Seoul. Just two years old, and the place has already got a name among those who crave that particular taste.

Upon entering you will see messages from satisfied customers decorating the walls, most of them proclaiming how much they enjoyed this "specially hot" moment. A good prelude to a gourmet's adventure.

But, don't expect a vast menu - there is only one item, maewoon kalbijjim (hot and spicy beef rib stew, 12,000 won). But you can have it in three ways - maewoon (hot), aju maewoon (very hot) and mujinjang maewoon (extremely hot).

Most customers have maewoon or aju maewoon kalbijjim. It might sound weird but Lee Choon-poong, the restaurant's owner, says he tries to stop customers from ordering the "mujinjang maewoon" unless they're regulars because according to Lee it is "the hottest dish in South Korea".

A bowl of rice with bean-sprout soup will be served first, along with some simple side dishes. But you better not complain both rice and soup are cold, unlike in almost all other places. You will soon be thankful when the main dish of kalbijjim arrives in a steel pot, half-cooked in the kitchen.

The pungent steam from the boiling pot will assail your nostrils and if you're a peppery-taste maniac you won’t be able to help jiggling in anticipation, even just from smelling the delicious stew.

It is highly recommended you just have "maewoon" style at first, because once you take your first spoonful the hot burning sensation will hit you full in the mouth. To lovers of the flavor it wouldn't be a mere exaggeration to call it "a moment of catharsis".

Then the next move is clear. You will have to stop right there, or find yourself guzzling it as if there's no tomorrow. But no one there seems to stop eating.

The owner Lee said the secret of the dish's sauce is to use abundant vegetables with quality peppers for a natural flavor and use less garlic so it doesn't get overwhelmingly stimulating.

"Many people visit this restaurant after hearing about it by word of mouth and I'm sure our dishes will satisfy them as long as they love the hot taste" Lee says.

Pajeon at Nagne Pajon, in the vicinity of Kyung Hee University and Hankook University of Foreign Studies, near Hoegi Subway Station.

Hoegi Subway Station Boasts the Best Pajon Restaurants Around
By Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporter

Up until now, the most common translation for "pajon" in English has been Korean pancake. However, I you've ever been to any of the pajon restaurants clustered near Hoegi subway station in northeastern Seoul, you would have recognized almost immediately that the word choice was not right at all.

First of all, pajon served in the unique, more than 30 year old college town restaurant district is as large and thick as regular pizza (not typically thin Italian pizza, but closer to American pan pizza). What makes the translation most inappropriate though, is not its size alone.

Different from the pancakes most frequently found on North American breakfast tables, in a whole round piece of pajon, sea food like squid, shrimp and oyster, along with Welsh onion ("pa" in Korean) are abundantly used, all mixed together and then cooked in a frypan.

Then what should we call this unique Korean dish in English? Considering its size and the variety of ingredients, pizza seems to be the only candidate that barely comes close to pajon, but in fact, that’s basically all they have in common. So why can't we just call pajon "pajon" in English? As it is, in every way a uniquely Korean dish, like kimchi.

Among some ten pajon restaurants near the subway station, the oldest is "Nagne (meaning wanderer in Korean) Pajon". Opened 34 years ago, the diner has made special moments of poor college students even more special, with big, extraordinarily cheap and delicious seafood pajon.

Pleasing the taste buds of students from nearby Kyung Hee University and Hankook University of Foreign Studies, the Nagne Pajon now has three more branch restaurants near Hanyang and Korea University respectively, and two overseas branches in China. "Those who customized our restaurant 20 years ago as students now bring their children," Kong Kyung-ja, the owner of the diner said to The Korea Times. Opening the store right after her late husband’s company went out of business, Kong offers a pan of pajon a thousand won cheaper (6,000 won) at the main store, in appreciation of those loyal customers.

One of the key ingredients in its long-loved pajon is egg. Once cooked, the mixture of seafood, ground pork and Welsh onion is refried, covered with beaten egg. The use of egg not only adds extra nutritional value to the pajon, but also pleasant crispness to the texture.

Besides the all-time popular regular seafood pajon, "oyster pajon (10,000 won)" and "tonggurang ttaeng (small Korean meatball dish, 6,000 won)" are also recommended. A regular pan of pajon is big enough for three hungry mouths at dinnertime. So don't order too much just because it's cheap! One last thought: Pajon is excellent accompanied by makgoli (traditional Korean rice wine, 4,000 won/bottle). Have a good time!

Samkak Kimbab

2004-12-01T16:09:00.000+09:00

Samkak kimbab (삼각김밥) are triangular kimbabs typically found in convenience stores all across Korea. They make for an excellent quick snack.

Samkak kimbabs are a variation of the standard cyclindrical-shaped kimbabs (see earlier posts here and here). Interestingly, I've noticed that samkak kimbabs can only be had at convenience stores. The kimbab stores don't do triangles - so don't even bother asking for it - yeah I received a bevy of bewildered stares that day.

On a side note, a recent article in the Korea Times reported that there are approximately 8,100 convenience stores in South Korea. That's a whole lot of convenience.

There's plenty of fillings to choose from - chicken, beef, pork, tuna, squid, vegetarian and so on; and cater for most tastebuds - spicy, mild & non-spicy.

Each samkak kimbab is about the size of a fist.

This is the spicy tuna kimbab. KRW600.

This is the spicy chicken kimbab. KRW700.

Comes complete with instructions to unwrap. So that's what those sequentially-numbered arrows on the wrapper are for.

After much deciphering, I managed to figure it all out - 1, 2 and finally 3.

This takes the prize insofar as wrappers goes. The plastic is a complex fold of 2 layers, neatly separating the dry crisp seaweed from the moisture of the rice, so the laver (or seaweed as I prefer to call it) never touches the rice until you pull the wrapper apart. Even when you do, it doesn't unravel the seaweed wrap. Ingenious!

P/S : I've had other samkak kimbabs where the seaweed is in a separate plastic wrap, so you basically tear 2 wrappers - one for the rice roll and the other for the seaweed - and then assemble both yourself. The one above is so much better - it saves me 27 seconds.

The samkak kimbab unwrapped - and feeling somewhat embarrassed.

This is the spicy chicken. The chili does a splendid job at being spicy - just the right zing without being overpowering. There is also a touch of sweetness to the sauce (just sugar - nothing fancy) that takes some heat away. Chicken? More like minced crumbs of "chicken", but then again, you get what you pay for.

This is the spicy tuna. Tastewise, it's similar to the above.

Most samkak kimbabs go for about KRW500-KRW700 each, and on a good day, you may find between 6-10 varieties of these in any convenience store. You can eat them cold or pop them into the microwave oven for a few seconds. There's always a microwave oven at the convenience store if you need to.

Munjeong

2004-11-25T18:15:00.000+09:00

I have absolutely NO fashion sense. To me, being fashionable means wearing matching colored socks to work. I would thus make an ideal candidate for the Queer Eyes' Fab 4. Notwithstanding that, my warped fashion sense shouldn't deprive you lovely readers of sharing in on my recent shopping trip.

So, if you're into shopping, then read on. If you're not, read on anyway since you're probably slacking in the office to begin with, otherwise you wouldn't be here surfing from your work-place.

Previous posts on shopping in Myeong-dong here, Dongdaemun here and here, COEX Mall here and Itaewon here, just in case anyone missed it. Yeah, shameless plug I know.

However, this time around, let's ditch the well trotted path of the tourists and discover some local gems that even locals hesitate to share. Specifically, we're searching for designer-labels or branded goods at discounted prices. Yea, it's sinful ain't it? So if you're into upmarket goods, yet still want to save a buck or two, then I have just the place for you.

Ori and Munjeong are 2 locales on the outskirt of Seoul that prides itself as "factory outlet" shopping havens. They're both within the boundaries of Gyeonggi Province, and easily accessible by subway. Factory outlet shopping, if you asked the uninitiated like myself, means bypassing the retailers in the distribution chain and selling direct to end consumers. So in theory at least, you'd be getting the same retail goods at lower prices, and with some luck, at deep discounts. If not for these places, then designer labels and branded goods can only be had at those nose-in-the-air establishments such as the likes of Lotte, Galleria, Samsung & Hyundai Departmental Stores.

Here are some random shots of Munjeong, taken around 6.00 p.m. last week.

The main street of the Munjeong shopping area, aptly named Rodeo Drive.

This is a side lane off the main street. It's a pretty long stretch choked with stores on either sides.

If the store ain't big enough, just lay it out on the sidewalk.

Dump?

Hazzys is a popular home-grown brand in Korea owned by the LG Group. The other local brand that's pretty popular (at least to my knowledge) is Bean Pole which is owned by Cheil Industries.

The wonders of advertisement and target-marketing.

The unmistakeable swoosh. Next door is Saville Row wanna-be LG with their own brand of gentlemen suits.

Munjeong is pretty unknown to the tourist fraternity, and I believe the locals want to keep it that way. In the course of my leisurely stroll here, I noticed that locals actually DO buy stuff, they're not just window shopping. So to me at least, that is adequate testimony to the validity of Munjeong.

Although somewhat different from Barstow, where I lost my factory outlet shopping virginity enroute to Las Vegas, Munjeong does offer some decent choices at fairly discounted prices. Some of these outlets offered discounts of 40%-80% off the rack price, but even after the discounts, they're too rich for my blood. I'll stick to buying my stuff at Carrefour and Wal-Mart.

What we have here is a lady selling pul bbang (풀빵), a snack of sweetened mashed red beans filling.

Pul bbang is very similar to bungeo bbang (carp-shaped cake).

Here's a lady selling hoteok (호떡).

Frosty the FatMan

2004-11-19T14:03:00.000+09:00

It's that time of the year again - time to hit the slopes. Dust off your skis and snowboards and head on down to the winter wonderlands.

Here's a concise guide to what's available around Seoul. I'll see you guys at Yong Pyong - just look out for a fat man bouncing down the hills screaming "aaaaaaaaaarrgghhh".

Good Eats

2004-11-12T13:06:00.000+09:00

I'll be honest. FatMan Seoul is going through a dry spell. The blog I mean, not the man. The man's as wet as ever.

Lately, I haven't been very excited by many of my foodie adventures. Pretty much same old same old - there's only so much dosirak a blog can take. Hence the lack of food posts of late.

The ones that did excite me and worthy of blogging, didn't make it to the blog. They were either formal lunches and dinners or because they were in settings not appropriate to poke my digicam into the food. So you guys have missed out on some rather interesting seafood such as live octopus, monggeh and other unmentionable creepy wriggling stuff. Not to worry, I'm sure I'll get the chance to blog it for you guys one of these days.

That said, I thought I'd start blogging, not personal recommendations mind you, but rather leads that I've read about or sent in by readers - just to share with you guys. Who knows? Maybe some of you living in Seoul MAY actually find it useful. Goodness knows this blog has been utterly useless thus far.

Legalish gibberish out of the way first - I'm reproducing The Korea Times articles on the blog itself as Korea Times will archive older materials, and the links below may no longer work in time to come. Pasting them here should preserve it for latecomers to the blog. All credits to The Korea Times and their reporters.

Red bean juk at The Second Best Place in Seoul (Seouleso Duljjaero Jalhaneun Jip), Samchongdong-kil (Samchongdong Road), near Kyongbok Palace.

Autumn Delight: Try Red Bean Soup at Seoul's 2nd Best Place
By Kim Hyun-cheol, Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporters

Autumn is a season many South Koreans are proud of. Leaves change color and prepare to shed for the upcoming winter.

With weather like this, it is no wonder Seoul has some really nice promenades like Samchongdongkil (Samchongdong Road). It is a small but long stretching road that begins at the corner of Kyongbok Palace and runs through Samchong Tunnel, leading to northern part of the city.

Strolling along the path and enjoying the flurry of yellow gingko leaves, you may miss a small teahouse with the sign “Seouleso Duljjaero Jalhaneun Jip” (The Second Best Place in Seoul) among the many fancy restaurants and cafes lining both sides of the road. But once you spot the place, curiosity about the mysterious name may urge you to explore what’s inside.

“I find the word “second best” charming,” owner Kim Eun-sook, 65, said. She can often be seen cooking through an open window that faces the street. “So many people argue that they are the best and it’s not fun. Second best sounds more unique to me and it also inspires me to always try to do better.”

Although it is called “second best,” do not underestimate this place. Since opening in 1976, the small oriental teahouse has been serving select oriental herb teas that are popular when the weather starts to get cold.

The old-fashioned but cozy interior soothes visitors and the aroma of oriental herbs linger in the narrow hall usually packed with people eating or waiting for their takeout orders.

The majority are here for one thing, especially at this time of year. What they are after is a small bowl of red bean soup (5,000 won).

Red bean soup is a traditional dish in Korea and China and is believed to ward off evil spirits and ghosts with its red color. The version served here; however, is one similar to a sweet Japanese-style dessert. Owner Kim says she added it to the menu to remind her of her childhood.

The soup is composed of peeled red beans and has a light but sweet taste. It is quite different from the typical overly sweet Western dessert. Seasonal nuts such as gingko nuts and chestnuts along with a dash of cinnamon are used as toppings. A huge chunk of rice cake is hidden in the soup and tastes wonderful, as it is covered in the sweet soup.

“I try not to change the interior of the cafe or the flavor of my dishes and as long as I run the place things will stay the same,” Kim said. “That’s also what my regular customers want. I think they want their favorite places to remain unchanged since they themselves have to change to adapt to the fast pace of life.”

Kongnamul kukbap at Koryo Sikdang, Sodaemun, near the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center.

'Kongnamul Kukbap' Perfect Hangover Remedy
By Lee Yong-sung and Kim Hyun-cheol, Staff Reporters

Upon hearing its name, people might wonder if the restaurant, Koryo Sikdang is in North Korea, since the name is rarely found among the names of diners here, sounding a little outdated and even rustic.

But trust us. You cannot judge a restaurant by its name, as much as you can’t judge a book by its cover. In fact, Sodaemun, where the 21-year-old restaurant is located, is one of the busiest business districts of Seoul, where five of the major newspaper companies and a few of the nations’ leading corporations have their headquarters.

Densely packed with office workers who often binge drink until midnight, or even through the next morning, the soup is perfect to calm down one’s stomach after a long, heavy drinking session. Koryo Sikdang, located on the way to Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education from Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center, has well served the need since it was opened in 1983, with premium quality kongnamul kukbap (rice with bean sprout soup).

A first time visitor might be wide-eyed, realizing there is much more than just bean sprouts in the soup costing only 4,000 won. Dried pollack is used to make the rich broth, while plenty of small shrimps, bajirak (a kind of small clam) and an egg are also added, deepening the flavor, as well as increasing its nutritional value.

When it comes to kongnamul kukbap, what usually comes to people’s minds is Chonju, North Cholla Province. The area is famous for the soup in which rice is served in it from the beginning, with kimchi and changjorim (marinated and stewed beef). However, few know that the modern, metropolitan city of Seoul has its own distinct food traditions like the one presented by Koryo Sikdang’s kongnamul kukbap.

Open all year around from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., the kukbap of course is not the only dish available at the restaurant.

Pulnak kongnamul (rice with seasoned pork and small octopus, 5,000 won) has been the two most popular dishes from the time of Koryo Hospital, 21 years ago, where the Samsung Medical Center is now. Besides the two, ttukbaegi pulgogi (steamed beef, 5,000 won) and Tolsot Pibimbap (steamed rice mixed with vegetables and meat, 4,000 won) are equally recommended.

"Like in any other food businesses," Kim Young-ja, 55, the restaurant’s owner told The Korea Times. "Freshness of ingredients is the key. We never use anything older than a day". Among the loyal customers of the dinner are popular television actor Im Hyun-sik and news reporters and even CEOs.

"The soup is refreshing and also tastes good. I bet every one will like it, especially after drinking," Jeon Hyun-ju, an employee of nearby publisher Darakwon said.

Tel: 02)739-5293, 5166
Parking: Unavailable
Credit Card: Available
Opens every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Taiwanese food at Hyangmi, Yonnam-dong, near Hongik University.

Try Taiwanese Flavor at 'Hyangmi'
By Kim Hyun-cheol, Lee Yong-sung, Staff Reporters

The fate of the Chinese community in South Korea, most of whose members are from Taiwan, not mainland China, went together with the relationship between Korea and Taiwan when South Korea broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1992.

Once thriving with many businesses around Myungdong, where the Taiwanese Embassy located, the community is just visible in another area of Seoul where some Chinese schools are available.

Along the road across from the Yonnamdong area, between Hongik University and Yonsei University, stand several Chinese restaurants. But you can’t expect the same kind of dishes to be served in those as in other typical Chinese restaurants in Korea. Dishes such as Chajangmyon (mixed noodles with Chinese bean-paste sauce) and Chambbong (spicy seafood noodles) are simply not on the menu.

Run by Hwakyo, or Chinese people living in South Korea, usually in the form of a family business, they serve dishes more similar to the authentic Chinese style and the same applies to Hyangmi, one of the "real" Chinese restaurants in the area. The place is well known for its Taiwanese-leaning menu.

Hyangmi, which means "flavor of homeland," serves various kinds of Chinese dishes attracting both Chinese and Korean customers and most dishes here are served in two sizes, large and small to help vary the choices for customers. Some authentic Taiwanese dishes like Paigufan (Taiwanese style pork cutlet on rice, 5,000 won), which are hard to find in other places, are also available here.

The most loved on the menu are, no doubt, jumbo-sized baozi (dumpling, or mandu in Korean, 5,000 won) and the peculiar Taiwanese dish of niuroumian (beef soup noodle, 6,000 won for small and 8,000 won for a large serving).

Once the plate full of baozi, formed in Shandong style after the shape of traditional Chinese foot binding, is placed on the table, you can’t help being surprised by the gigantic size of the dumpling.

Five pieces make one serving but for most normal eaters, it will take a bit of work to finish them off because they are all just a little bigger than an adult man’s fist. Splitting one in half, you will see stuffing made of a variety of ingredients including a couple of different mushrooms, pork, vegetables and fried bean curd.

"A total of 10 things are there," Chao Lienyi, 63, owner of the restaurant, said. "I started the menu because I wanted to try something not common to others."

Niuroumian, one of the more typical dishes back in Taiwan, has the unique flavor of Chinese dishes that comes from a stock seasoned with Oriental spices like wuxiang (ohhyang, five assorted spices). The dish is a favorite among many Koreans because of its fresh and chewy noodles and clean aftertaste from a long-boiled beef stock.

Among other dishes, "Chicken cooked with wuxiang" (8,000 won for the small serving and 15,000 won for large) is another preferred one. The deep-fried, steamed and chilled chicken pieces, marinated in a special sauce with spices and garlic, makes a great compliment to Chinese liquors. Watch out for the generous sprinkling of coriander topped on the dish if you are not lover of this herb, which is not too popular among South Koreans.

"Taiwanese dishes are characterized by unique and impressive fragrance and relish from lots of spices, but we try to balance the amount of spices used in our dishes to satisfy both Chinese and Korean customers," Chao said.

Buddhist-temple vegetarian at Sanchon Vegetarian Restaurant, Insa-dong.

Their website provides extensive information, so it's pointless to regurgitate it here. The site also accepts reservation (required) and provides direction to the place. Map reproduced here for easy reference:

Sanchon Vegetarian Restaurant was recommended by long-time reader Willow (wonder if she's still reading the blog) and offers a 17-course vegetarian lunch and dinner.

Bear in mind I've not tried any of the above, YET, but rest assured if and when I do, they'll find their way onto this blog. It'll be light blogging here for the next few weeks. Till next time, happy eating.

Noryangjin Fish Market

2004-11-08T17:18:00.000+09:00

Tucked in the shadow of 63 Building, South Korea's tallest, is the Noryangjin Fish Market (노량진수산시장). Come join me as we get down and dirty today.

(Update - reader "Dong" rightfully pointed out that 63 Building is NOT Korea's tallest. This bragging right belongs to Samsung's Tower Palace 3 (Tower G)).

As you get off the subway at Noryangjin Station, you undeniably know you're at the right place. I smell something fishy here, and it ain't my breakfast.

Step out of the station and you're greeted with this long overhead pedestrian bridge, which leads you across the railway and subway lines before you find yourself at the roof carpark of the Fish Market.

As you can see from the photo above, the Fish Market is located just a stone's throw away from 63 Building - ok you have to throw the stone pretty far to reach it, I admit. To the left of 63 Building is the Kumho Richensia Towers, all of which are located in Yeouido-dong, the little patch of "island" along the Han River.

As you take the stairs leading down from the rooftop carpark to the market proper, this is your first glimpse of the market.

Noryangjin Fish Market is technically a seafood market, so you don't just get fish here, for clarity's sake. It is also a wholesale auction market, and the bulk of seafood into Seoul and the surrounding regions is routed through here. The auction is conducted between 0100-0630 in the wee hours of the morning, and the very same seafood will find its way to restaurants all over in time for their day's business. The retail market takes off where the auction ends and business is conducted until the late hours of evening.

The market has a total floor space of over 6,000 square meters and sees over 15,000 customers every day - not that I counted. Moving on before they stare me to death ....

Here's a sampling of the variety of seafood that's available here.

Octopus (문어), still wriggling with freshness.

Here's a quick game you can play at home with the family - can you find the one with 9 tentacles?

The king crabs (깅크랩) are from Russia whilst the hairy crabs (털게) and snow crabs (대게) are from North Korea. The flower crabs (꽃게) are local and the most common.

More pics of crabs ....

crabs ....

and more crabs.

A variety of seafood - some familiar, some not at all - prawns (새우), abalone (전복), clams (조개), oysters (굴), sea snails (소라) and sea cucumber (해삼) are some of the familiar ones.

These are the more interesting bits.

Small octopus (낙지) is a popular delicacy here and eaten cooked or raw. If eaten raw, it is eaten whole or sliced up, its tentacles still wriggling as it goes into your mouth. I have tried it several times, and the suction action is interesting to say the least. Talk about your food fighting back!

The pinkish worm-like sea slugs are gaebul (개불). The bright red ones are known as monggae (멍개) - they're like seafood with a severe attack of acne. Both of these are usually eaten raw and served in sushi restaurants.

And of course, live fishes are in abundance here. You point at the fish of your choice and the seller weighs it and informs you of the price. Haggling is encouraged, but only to the point when the fishmonger starts pointing his knife at you. Once you're satisfied, pay up and you can take the fish home with you, whole or gutted and cleaned.

The popular choice from my observation is to have them prep it up for you as hwee (회), i.e. sashimi complete with a disposable plate. See the guy sitting by the wooden slicing board? That's the hwee master carver.

Here's another interesting bit. On the floor above the Fish Market, you'll find 8 seafood (seafood - what'd you expect?) restaurants - yes I counted. This is the same floor from which you'd come into the market from the subway station - second photo above.

These restaurants "specialise" in hwee (회) raw fish, steamed crabs and other seafood-based dishes and soups. I say "specialise" with a grain of salt as they don't actually do any of the hwee bit. You actually buy your hwee from the market and bring it upstairs or have it delivered upstairs to consume. The restaurants will provide the side dishes, liquor and prepare hot soup from the carcass of the recently deboned fish - you just pay the restaurant a standard flat rate per head.

Of course, if you don't want the hassle of doing it yourself, you can just order at the restaurants and the ladies will yell your order downstairs and it'll be on your table in a couple of minutes - as depicted in the photo above. How much fresher can your seafood get?

I can't share any dining experience at the restaurants here, as I left the Fish Market without eating. Here's an interesting article I dug up from the internet on eating at one of these restaurants. Enjoy!

Do correct me if I've made any mistakes in this post, resident experts.

Jujube Tea & Ginger Tea

2004-11-04T11:06:00.000+09:00

Koreans are rather fond of something called the Citrus Tea or Citron Tea, more so the women than the men from my observation. Perhaps it has something to do with slimming, I dunno. The word slimming is muted from my vocabulary. Whilst I'm not covering citron tea today, while shopping at that section of the local supermarket, I came across this and decided to give it a whirl.

Honey Jujube Tea. KRW6,500 for this jar of Pooh juice.

For those unaccustomed to jujube, they're also called red dates, chinese jujube or chinese dates. More info on jujubes here and here if you're interested.

Here's another (albeit finished) jar of Jujube Tea from a different make. KRW6,350.

Jujubes, or red dates, are in essence a fruit and thus can be eaten on their own. They can also be used in a variety of ways to enhance flavour or impart remedial properties. I've had them floating around in soups, deserts, medicinal concoctions, stuffed in chicken, duck, laced in rice dishes etc. They add natural sweetness and a pleasant "feel-good" aroma to everything.

Jujubes on their own are already sweet. But when combined with honey, well, diabetics beware.

Mix with hot water to dissolve the honey and you get a very aromatic cup of jujube tea. Very nice, indeed. Add ice or stick it in the fridge if you want it cold.

For those who are susceptible to excessive gas by-production of the intestinal tract leading to internal combustion, popularly referred to as farting, ginger is a great remedy for the bloated. So they came up with something similar, except substitute jujubes for ginger. Spicy (from the ginger) and sweet (from the honey) cuppa "tea". KRW6,400 per jar of fart-diffusing tea.

Shawn's Korea Life Blog

2004-11-01T13:40:00.000+09:00

While some of you may already be familiar with Shawn Matthews' Korea Life Blog, his announced (possible) retirement from blogging must come as a surprise to most. After all, it isn't April 1, a prank he pulled on April's Fool this year.

This time, he's seriously contemplating hanging up his keyboard - he cites his reasons on the blog. Should this crystalise, the Korean blogosphere will miss him dearly. However, I respect his decision and from one blogger to another, I understands his reasons.

Cheers mate and remember, stay HAPPY always. Peace.

Seoul - 11th Most Expensive City

2004-10-29T17:20:00.000+09:00

An article in the Korea Times some days back reported that Seoul is the 11th most expensive city in terms of travel cost.

Here is the link to the Korea Times article. Should this link expire (which it eventually will, no doubt), here's a screenshot of said article preserved in FatMan's vault.

Quote from article - "Three meals in Seoul cost $131.94, the 15th most expensive in the world." (US$ one would assume)

Hmmmm ..... readers here would know that a decent meal can be had for an average cost of USD5.00 - USD10.00, and if you want to splurge, yea maybe even USD20.00. So my attention was directed to this paragraph ... "the report (is) based on materials from Business Travel News, a U.S. travel newspaper". Ahhh ... that explains it. US businessmen travelling to Seoul either got very badly ripped-off OR ate at fancy hotel establishments OR abused their corporate credit cards. Sure, I've been guilty of the latter on rare occasions, but surely the Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) is not helping to clarify this, which is sure to scare off any potential inbound tourists.

So FatMan says, NO it won't cost you USD131.94 for 3 meals in Seoul, not unless you eat really really fancy. So welcome to Kimchi-land .... cheers!

While we're on this subject, here's another article in Korea Times circa June 2004 which ranked Seoul as the 7th most expensive city in a Cost Of Living survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Yea I know ... it feels like this ....

Wedding - Part 2 of 2

2004-10-26T17:00:00.000+09:00

Sorry for the long wait guys. Been busy practising for the Burnout 3 : Takedown Online World Championship ......
Now on with Part 2. (on second reading - only console gamers will probably get that last bit)

Here's the meal voucher I introduced in Part 1, aptly titled "A Meal Ticket". You usually get one of these when you hand over your cash gift at the desk. The cash is tucked inside a plain envelope with a simple congratulatory message (e.g. "You've Been Taken Down" (another veiled reference to Burnout 3 if you don't get it)) and your name; just for the record they usually say but more likely used when the matrimonial couple compare notes during the loot count.

If you're part of a group contribution, get your meal voucher from the point man in your group. Everybody remember now, no ticket no food!

Ahh ... the admission ticket gets you into the dining hall, the one true reason we're all here today. This is a typical dining hall in a Wedding Hall type wedding. Ssshhh!! Bite your tongue - this isn't an office cafetaria!!

The food and drinks are all decked out on the table as guests stroll in after getting past the tight security check and guard dogs.

There is no guest allocation system or assigned seating. Basically, you walk in, sit at a table and once the headcount hits 8 (or whatever the maximum seats per table), you move on to the next table. So, the bigger your congregation, the stronger your bargaining power at demanding adjoining tables from the warden.

An assortment of errr ..... food.

The orange bits are called prawns. They're boiled and served. The white bits are deformed baby octopus. They're also boiled before serving.

I think this dish has some kinda symbolic meaning to it, like the ying-yang of life, or longevity & prosperity, or maybe it's just food. Darn .... those Korean cultural classes I took were a waste of money then, weren't they?

Pieces of egg-battered fried stuff - (left to right) minced pork patties, crabstick-spam-leek kebabs and sliced cucumber. The best-when-cold principle doesn't apply here, but someone forgot to tell them that.

Deep-fried chicken nuggets. The oil-drenched paper napkin somehow just doesn't quite fit right. Maybe it's just me.

Hey you-stranger-sitting-beside-me!! That's MY piece.

Mung-bean jelly, or cheongpo muk, are sliced into strips and served with a shake of black sesame seeds.

Muk, or jelly, is a popular Korean item. They're not sweet desert jelly that many of you may be familiar with. Depending on the source ingredient used, there are several varieties of muk readily found all over Korea. Most common are the above, buckwheat jelly (memil muk) and acorn jelly (dotori muk). They are served plain as side dishes or mixed with other savoury ingredients such as meat, veges and sauces to form complete meals on their own.

This is a Korean staple - rice cakes, or tteok. Tteoks are customarily served at weddings and other significant occasions (e.g. newborn's birthday, the day I complete Burnout 3, oh did I mention weddings).

There are many many kinds of tteok, some 300+ if I recall, in all shapes, colours, texture & taste. Read all about tteok here.

This is sinseollo, or hot-pot, which sits proudly in the middle of the table for all to share. Thin beef slices, mushrooms, spring onions in a sweet brown bulgogi sauce.

Each person at the table gets one of these - kalbi tang, or beef rib soup, and a bowl of rice. The soup comes piping hot, and is rich in beefy flavours. It is a clear soup, but must have been boiled for many many hours to extract that kind of flavours from the bones.

In case you're wondering, I have no idea why the silver bowls are so gigantic. You can fit your entire face into it. I know - I have the stretch marks to prove it. Some people combine the bowl of rice into the soup bowl and eat it out of one large bowl, while others keep them separate and shuttle between the 2 bowls.

So let's face it. A food-fest it is not. If you want this, just head on over to Seoul Grand Hyatt Hotel's buffet restaurant. Unlike most other wedding rituals around the world, where food, alcohol, music, dancing, games and even plate-throwing are all climax to the day's event, it's quite different here in Korea, or at least from the few that I've been privileged to be invited to. It can appear somewhat cold and stiff. If I'm wrong on this point, do let me know.

OK, so a food fest it is not. But hey, you're here for the wedding, to share in the couple's happy day, to partake in the festivities, to catch up with old friends and relatives whom you haven't seen since the groom's last wedding, to redistribute the national income, to get all dressed up instead of walking naked at home. It's not all about the food, come on.

Wedding - Part 1 of 2

2004-10-19T15:07:00.000+09:00

Event : Wedding
Date : Last weekend
Venue : Seoul
Purpose : A glimpse of a typical modern Korean wedding.

Typical "wedding hall" building (tallest building in the photo). First impressions for some of you may be "hmmm ... a pretty bland building, looks just like any ordinary office building". Second impression would be "yes, absolutely right".

Entrance to the Wedding Hall. As the sign says, we're at the White House Wedding Hall. I wonder if Ms. Lewinsky's working here?

The building houses 9 floors of the same as the one we'll be exploring today. That means 9 weddings simultaneously every hour, 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, 10 years a decade, 10 decades a century ... I digress.

This is the floor where our action is for the day. Don't ask me who those guys loitering upstairs are. They belong to a different faction.

This is the main entrance to the wedding hall. Lots of guests milling outside, reluctant to go inside. Face reality, folks, it's too late to back out now.

To the left of the main entrance is the ~~extortion~~ ~~donation~~ gift collection desk - one for Team A (bridegroom) and the other for Team B (bride). This is where guests line up to part with their gifts, commonly cash, though I've seen credit cards accepted and even a live cow once. Speaking of in-laws, they're somewhere in the hall. It is also at these desks that they hand out the meal vouchers. More on that later. For now, that means no gift no meal voucher.

Typically, expect to ~~pay~~ contribute anywhere between KRW20,000 to KRW100,000, depending on your status, wallet size and face value. If the couple is employed in an organisation, someone in the office will come round to collect $ from you days before the wedding and present it as a ~~labour union~~ group. You can thus expect the cash drawers to be well guarded and in the hands of only the most trusted of family members.

This is the dressing room and powder room, just outside the main hall if you need any last minute touch-ups. I asked, but there was no botox shots or liposuctions on offer.

The lady in blue is wearing "hanbok" (한복), the traditional Korean costume.

To the right of the main entrance is the snapshot booth, where the bride sits for like 15 minutes to allow well-wishers to come up and say hi and/or have their photo taken with the bride for eternal cherishment. Obviously, bridegrooms are just a waste of film in Korea (or for those living in the digital age, a waste of memory card space). And no, the white bits wasn't the work of the make-up artist.

The ceremony kicks off with the ladies in red ushering the parents of the couple to their seats at the front. This is followed by the couple's "dum dum dum dum" march down the aisle.

Here's the bit I find a little off. It appears that the common practice at these sort of do is to hang out, stand and chat away at the back of the hall ......

..... even though there's lots of empty seats upfront. Guess everyone is just poised for a quick getaway.

I do, you do, let's do.

Bow to the parents, get their blessing, and try not to stare at the cameraman too long to be this obvious that you're not paying attention.

Note wedding cake and lone pianist in the background.

I now pronounce you hubbie and wifey.

The ceremony ends with a family photo session. The couple and parents adjourned to the customary tea-serving ceremony in their traditional Korean costumes, which this papparazzi was not privy to. While they're busy at it, the guests are off to stuff their face. .... Part 2.

Bulgogi Dosirak

2004-10-15T13:30:00.000+09:00

Yep, another round of dosirak for lunch today folks. This time it's the bulgogi dosirak (불고기도시락) , or stir-fried beef in bulgogi sauce.

Ta-da!

Hmm ..... I must be slacking cause I don't know what vege this is. Chives? With a healthy dose of garlic chili paste.

Clockwise (from 1 o'clock) - sauteed beansprouts, sauteed cucumber slices, brinjals with a hint of garlic and chili paste, and that pork-skin-like-but-tastes-anchovy-like-thingy, which woojay (a regular here) thinks could be jweepo (dried fish). Those familiar with this Jedi Apprentice knows he's seldom wrong. And thanks to keri too for confirming.

Clockwise (from 1 o'clock) - cabbage kimchi, cuttlefish kimchi, I'm-too-tired-to-figure-out vege, kimchi pajeon (pancake) and camera-shy behind the pajeon is a tempura-battered shredded potato.

The main dish - the thinly sliced beef broiled in brown bulgogi sauce, with large onions, garlic, leek and carrot slices for colour. Another Happy Meal, and it's not from the clown burgers. KRW5,000.

PhotoBucket

2004-10-12T13:45:00.000+09:00

Hmmm ... my image host, PhotoBucket has gone subscription on its users. What used to be unlimited bandwidth for me is now restricted to 1.5GB per month w.e.f. 15 October 2004, which is hardly enough since my stats shows a much higher usage due to my photo-heavy blog. Gotta put on my thinking cap soon, or this blog will go downhill from then on.

Those of you using PhotoBucket and not aware of this development, heads up guys.

Juk

2004-10-12T13:40:00.000+09:00

Mr. Stomach usually associates rice porridge, called juk (죽) in Korean, to times when one is sick, bed-ridden, digestively impaired or after a nasty visit to the dentist. :o) Every region in Asia has its own variant, and I could write loads on porridge, but I digress. Let's talk Korean porridge.

Juk refers to more than just rice porridge, and encompasses what is regarded elsewhere as deserts. Broadly, I would categorise juk into 2 categories - savoury and sweet.

The savoury juk are rice porridge in a variety of flavours - seafood porridge, oyster and mushroom porridge, chicken porridge, shrimp porridge, clam and seaweed porridge, vegetable porridge, etc. The sweet juk include red beans juk, pumpkin juk, black sesame juk, gingko juk, etc.

You can check out this website for photos of the various samplings of juk found in Korea.

Today, we're having tuna and vegetable porridge (참치야채죽) because I just blew KRW350,000 crowning a fractured tooth.

Delivery came in a clear plastic rectangle box. Very very hot, so watch your fingers as you pry open them lid.

Accompanied by 3 side dishes (from top) cabbage kimchi, carrot kimchi and heavily-salted shredded beef.

The porridge is cooked using a pressure cooker, which allows the rice grains to cook and soften quickly while not turning them into overly mushy glob. Korean rice grains tend to be softer and sticky compared to other Asian clones. The use of pressure cooker also results in a high heat retention rate. The darn porridge was still burning my tongue 15 minutes into the meal!

In the porridge you'll find diced cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, corn(!), brocolli, onions and canned tuna, topped with a sprinkling of roasted sesame seeds, crushed dried seaweed and black pepper. KRW5,000.

There are far better things to eat in Korea than this tuna vege juk. That's my verdict.

This is interesting. The disposable spoon provided had a toothpick cutout on the handle. Very handy if you're into tooth picking.

US Presidential Election

2004-10-08T13:50:00.000+09:00

A minor diversion off the foodie track ......

Are you all caught up in the buzz surrounding the US Presidential Election? Want to vote but can't cause you're not eligible? Well I might have just the thing for you.

What if the whole world could vote in the U.S. presidential election? Cast your vote, citizens of the world. Enjoy ....

Jaeyuk Bogeum Dosirak

2004-10-07T12:15:00.000+09:00

Hey fellow gluttons. I'm back. Sorry to keep you folks waiting. On with the food ....

Today's lunch is jaeyuk bogeum dosirak (제육볶음도시락), or spicy stir-fried pork lunch box. Dosirak is the Korean equivalent of the Japanese bento box set. I've blogged several past dosirak experiences. Do a search for the old posts if you're interested to see other variations to this.

This is how the box was delivered, with the soup bowl seperated on top.

Remove the cover and it reveals a treasure trove of goodies, all safely shielded in layers of clear wrap. You'll find the spoon and chopsticks in there too.

The dosirak box set, unclothed and naked.

Cabbage coleslaw - cold and sour. Nice starter.

The compulsory cabbage kimchi.

On the left is bits of garlic stir-fried asparagus shoots with odeng (fish cake). On the right I can't make out. I taste anchovies in there, but the texture is akin to roasted pork skin - tough and chewy. No idea what this is.

Ahhh .... a delectable platter of sides. Clockwise from 12 o'clock : 3 slices of pajeon (Korean pancake), 1 tempura-battered mock crabstick, pickled green chilies, beansprouts stir-fried in chili paste, boiled veges with a dash of sesame oil, parboiled potatoes in soya sauce and for deserts, a small cut of honey-sweetened goguma (sweet potato) with black sesame seeds. Ah yes, and a fresh cherry tomato in the centre.

This is the main dish. Sliced pork stir-fried in chili paste with cuts of large onions, leek and garlic. Absolutely yummy. This dosirak set costs KRW5,000. It was delivered hot within 15 minutes of placing the order. They must be nearby!

Sidenote - Is it just me or do the food get spicier as winter approaches? I mean, I eat at the same place and order the same meal pretty regularly. But I've noticed that it's been prepared spicier ever since Chuseok last week. So is it just me or are you guys having extra zing in your daily meals too?

Ojingo Deopbab

2004-09-09T14:51:00.000+09:00

Today's lunch is ojingeo deopbab (오징어덮밥), or spicy stir-fried ojingeo with steamed rice. Ojingeo is cuttlefish, the smaller cousins of the squid.

Let's get the side stuff out of the way first.

Here's the bowl of soup that came with the meal. Seaweed soup which is typcically salty.

The side dishes that accompanied the meal.

Stir-fried carrots, cucumber, cabbage and canned luncheon meat (spam) and seasoned with sesame oil and a sprinkling of sesame seed. Not bad.

Stir-fried dried shrimps with long beans. Nice.

This is the spicy stir-fried ojingeo with steamed rice. Notice the rice is cutely decorated with a pinch of black sesame seeds. KRW5,000.

This stir-fry of sliced cuttlefish comes with a healthy dose of chili paste and chucky cuts of carrots, onions, leek, spring onions and topped with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

The cuttlefish packs a nice chewy and crunchy texture. Definitely not for those in dentures!

I like the chunky cuts of veges and the chili sauce is awesome - spicy yet sweet and goes very well with the plain rice. Conclusion - very nice, but be prepared for some tedious chewing.

Celebrity Chefs

2004-09-06T14:44:00.000+09:00

I never knew this foodie tv channel called Food Network/FoodTV existed prior to my arriving in Seoul. Yes I've seen the occasional cooking shows here and there, but none where the entire station is dedicated to all things food 24x7. These days, it's firmly set on my remote's favourite channel setting.

I first got hooked watching Jamie Oliver on The Naked Chef. These days, I no longer give a blank look when someone mentions John Burton Race or Gordon Ramsay, or squint and shrug at the mention of Nigella Lawson, known in some blogging circles as the gastro-porn queen!! (that one cracks me up everytime).

Food Network's celebrity chef list.

I also get the occasional expert tips from one Chef Jeff (anonymous), who leaves cooking tips here and over at marmot's blog. From his writing, it can be deduced that he IS a professional chef.

Lately, I've been hooked on Australian Neil Perry's Food Source series. I especially like the Food Source Asia episodes.

This post came about from an e-mail I had just received from Chef Benjamin Christie who, coincidentally, also hails from Down Under. Talk about strange coincidences. Check him out at www.benjaminchristie.com. It continues to amaze me that someone would even bother writing to me after visiting my blog. For this, I am thankful and have made new friends along the way.

And just for the record, I'm not a chef nor involved in the food business in any way. It's just a passion I have. Cheers!

Tang Bok Bab

2004-09-02T12:23:00.000+09:00

We're going Chinese today, ala Korean style. For lunch is tang bok bab (탕볶밥), which is a combo of fried rice and sweet sour pork.

The name itself is a combination of tang soo yuk (탕수육 - sweet sour pork) and bokeum bab (볶음밥 - fried rice). Combos like these are popular and on any typical chinese menu you'll find a combination of these 4 items:
- bokeum bab (볶음밥 - fried rice)
- tang soo yuk (탕수육 - sweet sour pork)
- jajang myeon (짜장면 - jajang noodles)
- jjam pong (짬뽕 - seafood noodles)

Needless to say, you don't necessarily have to order them in combination and can have each of these on its own. So instead of half and half, you get a full portion.

This is the tang bok bab. KRW6,500.

The side dishes are pretty standard as far as chinese takeouts go. You get the kimchi, yellow-coloured radish pickes, pungent large onions and a thick black gooey paste which tastes indescribably awesome. Anyone knows what sauce this is? My tastebuds sense some prawns/shrimp in it, but I could be horribly wrong. Do tell .....

The complimentary soup is a spicy cabbage soup. Tastes pretty much like what you'd find in a packet of Korean instant noodles.

The combo of fried rice and sweet sour pork.

The fried rice is simpe but delicious. It's got some minced pork, diced carrots, garlic, onions, eggs and seasoned with light soya sauce and sesame oil. It comes with spoonfuls of jajang sauce (that's the black sauce in the photo) and topped with sesame seeds and an omellette+carrots+cucumber+crabstick.

The sweet sour pork is universally well known by now. In Korea, they're not exactly "cheap food" by any standard and can cost between KRW10,000 to KRW20,000 per plate at most sit-down chinese restaurants.

Pork fillet strips are marinated, floured and then deep fried in hot oil and set aside. A sweet sour sauce made with tomato puree, vinegar, sugar, onions, carrots, cucumber and fungi mushroom and thickened with corn starch is then poured onto the pork strips.

I must admit that I've had better sweet sour pork than the ones I had today. The pork strips just weren't crispy enough and the sauce is somewhat bland and lacked the "oomph" needed. There was just no kick to it. I know Korea can do better as I've had some pretty awesome sweet sour pork in a couple of Seoul's restaurants. Maybe I'll try from elsewhere next time, hopefully with better results and blog it for you guys.

So concluding for today - fried rice nice sweet sour pork not so.

Budaejigae

2004-08-26T12:52:00.000+09:00

Today, we're having budaejigae (부대찌개) for lunch. I believe there is a folklore or story to how this came to be, but I haven't got down to research this. It's called "military stew" or "soldier's stew" presumably because it must have been the staple for the guys in green out there in the warzone. If you guys know the story to this, please share them with us in the commentary section.

Corporate soldiers making a meal of their own.

Ahhh ... another satisfied soldier. The Olympic games playing on the telly. The kitchen in the background.

The budaejigae starts off by ~~throwing~~ placing all the ingredients into a shallow pan and then pouring some stock over it and let it boil.

In this particular budaejigae, you'll find sliced sausages, luncheon meat (spam), minced beef, korean glass noodles, chili paste, chili powder, cabbage kimchi, chinese cabbage, leek, spring onions, a slice of cheese(!), minced garlic, large onions, button mushrooms, tofu beancurd and dtok (flour cakes).

Some places serve their budaejigae with canned baked beans, mandu, ramyeon noodles or udon noodles etc. I guess there's no hard and fast rules when it comes to budaejigae. Anything goes but the sausages, luncheon meat, some form of noodles and chili paste are the common denominator.

Slowly slowly it boils. This is how it looks like about 6 minutes in.

A couple more minutes and you get this. The soup thickens and turns red-er, and a quick test-taste to confirm if it's done. Lower heat and let it simmer as you begin your journey to budaejigae-land.

This is one person's portion. KRW7,000. I returned the kimchi and some other side dishes that came with it. Waste not want not.

I love the purple rice that's common here in Korea. I don't know if it's the grains themselves or just colouring. Anyone?

A sampling from the pot. Clockwise from 12 o'clock : sausages, leek, onion, canned luncheon meat (spam), beancurd (tofu), minced beef, button mushroom and korean noodles.

Let it simmer as you eat and you'll get to this stage where the stew's all thick and Yummy!

KL Foodie 2 - Dim Sum

2004-08-19T15:28:00.000+09:00

I'm interspersing the backlog posts from my trip to Malaysia with current posts from Korea. Sorry if it's causing you guys jet-lag. At the dismal rate I'm going, we should be all caught up by year's end(!!). So, we're back to Kuala Lumpur (affectionately known as "KL") again for this post.

Today, we're talking about dim sum, that perennial favourite Chinese breakfast. The last time I had dim sum was actually in Korea at Jackie Chan's restaurant. In that post, I had also explained a little bit about this thing called "touch the heart".

While in KL, I was introduced to this place in Sungai Buloh, an old industrial town in a somewhat remote area from KL. This place is really packed in and obviously very popular with the locals.

Here's the protocol - what you need to do is briefly scout around **insert Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell background music here** for a table that looks pretty much done and mark your territory by standing beside the customers as they finish their meal (see photo of recognisance scouts above). Any discomfort on your part as they choke hurriedly on their food as you stand there impatiently watching them eat is natural but excusable. The moment they stand up, it's your table baby! Oh ..... and we had to wait 15 minutes for our table.

A good sign to any dim sum place is the use of traditional bamboo steamers. You won't find any of them shiny stainless steel contraptions here. OK, I'm a traditionalist.

The use of bright red table cloth does not help this novice photographer. Colors in this series are a little off due to inexperience use of PaintShop. Manually adjust the image settings on-camera, I hear you say. Man if I knew how to do that, I wouldn't be in this jam now would I? I'm a point-and-shoot simpleton. OK back to the food.

Clockwise from top left : mushroom dumpling, "yee wat" (fish paste ball) and "siew mai" (pork dumpling). The mushroom dumpling is basically pork dumpling with the addition of slivers of black chinese mushrooms. The "yee wat" fish paste ball is different from the "yee tan" (fish ball) in that the former is coarser in texture and firm whereas the standard fish ball is super smooth and bouncy soft. I'm a big fan of "yee wat" and this one doesn't disappoint. It's firm and bouncy to the bite. The "siew mai" is always a popular choice at any dim sum meal. The filling is made from minced pork, finely diced water chestnuts, spring onions, chinese parsley and seasoned with soya sauce, sesame oil, chinese cooking wine and a dash of oyster sauce. I'm not sure if they've added any other "secret recipe" to their trademark dish. Anyway, it tastes darn good.

A plate of fried "chun keen" or dumpling roll. Same filling as that used in the pork dumpling except here it is rolled with a thin sheet of soybean skin and deep fried to golden brown. There's a mayonaise dipping sauce to go with this, but it's perfect as it is.

Clockwise from top left : braised chicken feet in black beans, fried dumplings in sour plum sauce and steamed porks ribs in black beans and sliced chilis. Interestingly, the glamourised name given to the chicken feet is "phoenix claws" so don't be mislead into thinking anything exotic when you're placing your order.

The chicken feet (nails clipped, of course!) is first marinated with thick soya sauce and sesame oil and then deep fried till brown. Only then is it steamed with the black bean sauce. So the chicken skin actually peels off easily and still a little crunchy despite soaking in the sauce. This is one of my favourites.

The pork ribs is another dim sum favourite. Little bits of pork ribs with bones intact are marinated with chinese preserved bean paste ("lam yee"), sesame oil, chinese cooking wine and light soya sauce for several hours. It is then steamed with sliced fresh chili and black beans. Nice.

A plate of fried fish paste fritters. Nothing spectacular here. Deep fried fish paste with bits of carrots, fresh chilis and spring onions mashed in for color and texture.

This is "lor mai kai" or steamed glutinuous rice with pieces of chicken, pork and black chinese mushroom. Seasoned with oyster sauce, soya sauce, sesame oil and Chinese cooking wine. Very nice.

This is "woo kok" or yam dumplings. Mashed yam with filling of chuncky diced pork, chinese mushrooms, shallots, garlic and seasoned with oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, thick and light soya sauce and Chinese cooking wine. When fried, the outer layer of the mashed yam turns golden brown and crispy on the outside yet soft inside. A definite favourite.

What dim sum meal wouldn't be complete without the compulsory order of "char siew pao" or steamed pork buns. The bread-like skin is warm, soft and fluffy and the sweetish "char siew" pork filling oozes out as you rip it apart. Perfect end to the meal.

Pricing wise, expect to pay between RM1.80 (USD0.50) to RM4.00 (USD1.05) per plate/serving, depending on the items you order. Typically you can expect about 30 - 40 varieties of dim sum (steamed and fried items) to be offered at your table. The waiters will bring them to your table on the large bamboo trays and you pick the ones you one and off the waiter goes to the next table. The pricing is determined by the shape and color of the plates, kinda like in a sushi bar. My only wish now is that they have decent dim sum at these prices in Korea. OK. End of moment. (Visa .....)

Mandu

2004-08-14T18:55:00.000+09:00

In today's post, we're going ga-ga over 만두 (mandu), the ever-popular Korean dumpling. Mandus come in different shapes and sizes, and is used in numerous ways; it can be eaten on its own or used as fillers for stews (jiggae), soup (gook) and even rice dish (bibimbap).

Let's kick things off with 사골만두국 (sagol mandu gook), or mandu soup.

Yes you guessed it, delivery service.

Sauteed mushrooms with sesame oil, sesame seed, garlic and soya sauce.

This one is a little different. A sweet and very spicy blend of chili sauce mixed in with strips of odeng (fish cakes), large onions and potatoes. The potatoes are a nice touch. Me like.

This is the mandu gook, or mandu soup. You get 8 large dumplings swimming in a bowl of soup. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and you'll find chuncky bits of seaweed, garlic, spring onions and beaten egg swirled in. The soup's heavy in garlic overtone and the stock's probably prepared using granulated beef stock. It's OK for a quickie lunch.

Close-up of the mandu. It kinda resembles a bloated tortellini (Italian), yes?

The mandu stuffing is made from minced pork, garlic, onions, spring onions, leek, Korean glass noodles, sesame oil, soya sauce and heavy on the black pepper.

The skin of the Korean mandu is somewhat thicker and chewy than the Japanese gyoza or Chinese wonton. It's still smooth nonetheless. This meal costs KRW5,000.

Next up is 김치만두 (kimchi mandu) and 고기만두 (gogi mandu, or pork dumpling).

You will usually find the mandu steaming by the walkway, as in the photo above. The guys will be busy in the store doing finger gymnastics folding the mandus.

This is a tray of kimchi mandu steamed and ready for sale.

On another tray you'll find the gogi mandu.

An order of 10 dumplings usually costs between KRW2,500 to KRW3,000. They also do half and half, which is what I had.

Dissected, the gogi mandu on the left and kimchi mandu on the right.

The basic ingredients are the same for both - the filling is made of finely chopped radish, cabbage, onions, garlic, spring onions, sesame seed and minced pork. The only difference is the kimchi mandu uses radish kimchi with chili whereas the gogi mandu is plain radish cooked in soya sauce and sesame oil. I'm glad this one doesn't have the usual Korean glass noodles.

Next up is 황만두 (hwang mandu). I'm not sure what the "황" (hwang) here refers to. King? Emperor? Gold? For those in the know, would appreciate your help on this. For now, I'll just call it mandu buns, which in essence is what it is.

[ erratum : several readers had rightfully pointed out that the corrent name should read "왕" (wang) and not "황" (hwang) - so the correct name is "왕만두" (wang mandu) ]

Some of you would have recognise the similarity between the hwang mandu to the Chinese bao (steamed buns) served at dim sum sessions. The bread-like skin is identical to their Chinese counterpart. It's soft and light and best eaten hot off the steamer.

As you pretty much get the idea by now, the filling is made from minced pork, radish, cabbage, spring onions, leek, Korean glass noodles, garlic, onions and chopped bean sprouts.

And finally, let's talk about 군만두 (goon mandu) or fried mandu. You can pick these packs up at any supermarket. They sell them by the truckloads daily.

A large 1 kg pack like this costs about KRW5,000 per pack. It contains approx. 40-50 dumplings.

I usually add a little water and cook the water dry towards the end of the frying process to soften the skin.

The stuffing is pretty standard with minced pork (I hope!), Korean glass noodles, spring onions, garlic and leek. (sorry for the poor close-up shot)

Recently, demand for such prepacked mandu has declined significantly since the mandu scandal broke. But rest assured that mandu is here to stay - it's as Korean as it gets.

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Reader Catherine of Las Vegas wrote me a long e-mail and I'm just happy she's enjoying the blog. She asked that I cover mandu as it's her favourite, so the above post goes out to you. Hope you enjoyed it.

KL Foodie 1 - Banana Leaf Rice

2004-08-07T13:05:00.000+09:00

Bangsar is an uptown suburb in Kuala Lumpur. It's a hip and happening neighbourhood and a popular nightly watering hole for the expat crowd, the haves and the wanna-haves. Fancy cars, fashionable yuppies, hot babes, singles bars, overpriced drinks, overpriced food, valet parking, oh and the handful of balding and/or overweight business tycoons ....... you get the idea.

So like fish out of water, I need to steer waaaaaay clear of this neighbourhood. I definitely don't belong here, but hey, one of my favourite Indian restaurants is tucked away in a quiet corner.

It's common for proprietors of food establishments to line the sidewalks and streets with tables and chairs to accomodate the usually overflowing customers that throng to their eatery. Sure it may violate a handful of traffic, building code and sanitation regulations. But then, it also makes dining al'fresco a more comfortable option in view of the heat and humidity even in the evenings and nights here.

View of the sparse but sterile inside dining area.

This is what we're here for - banana leaf rice. A mountain of steaming hot plain rice is positioned centrally on a banana leaf, which is then flooded with curry as the supporting army of vegetables, pickles and papadams surround the mountain for that final ambush. Controlling the warfare in the background is the well-seasoned but hot-tempered General Chicken and the fiesty Captain Mutton. Attack!!!

Originating from Southern India, eating off a banana leaf continues to be a daily affair for the Indian community here in Malaysia. Like their brothers and sisters in the motherland, most are vegetarians (or at least on certain days of prayers) and will partake in the offering of rice and vegetables sans meat. Thankfully for you guys, the FatMan ain't a vegan. And if you're still wondering, you eat with your hand. Sure you can ask them for a fork and spoon, but don't chicken out if you want the full experience. It's finger lickin' good, Col. Sanders.

What you get with your order is a continuous flow of rice, 3 to 4 varieties of vegetables-of-the-day, spoonfuls of Indian "acar" pickles, Indian "papadam" crackers and several varieties of curry gravy - dhall, chicken, fish, mutton etc. (gravy only). Yes, for RM4.50 (USD1.20) you get a free-flow of all these goodies, as much as that tummy of yours can take. That's the standard vegetarian meal, without of course the meat-derived curry gravy.

To this basic meal you can add your choice of well over 20 dishes - dry curry chicken, curry mutton, fish curry, fried chicken, barbequed chicken, dry mutton curry, fried fish roe, crab crabs, curry fish head etc. etc. etc. Prices range from RM3.00 (USD0.80) to RM8.00 (USD2.10).

Today, this is what we got. On the leaf, from left to right - papadam (crackers), fried and salted whole chilies, cold cucumber salad in yoghurt with some pineapples and large onions, deep-fried breaded "pawakal" (bitter gourd) and a mushy potato + turnip + "dhall" (chickpeas) + mustard seed concoction. Rice is flooded with sourish fish curry gravy, my favourite. That's the vegetarian set with unlimited refills.

A close-up of the fried strips of bitter gourd and the "dalcha".

We had the deep-fried sliced "tenggiri" fish (mackerel) which was spiced with turmeric and curry powder. Fried to order so you can be assured it will arrive at your table piping-hot. RM3.00 (USD0.80) per slice.

This is the chicken "varuval". A dry curry heavily spiced with ginger, cinnamon sticks, star anise, aniseed, chili, coriander, fennel seed, cumin and pepper corn. Absolute heaven. RM3.50 (USD0.95) per plate.

They were out of mutton today, my favourite. So we ordered another chicken dish instead. This is the chicken "masala". A thick curry made with onion, chili, turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, tamarind juice and light coconut milk. Absolutely yummy. RM3.50 (USD0.95) per plate.

Southern Indian cuisine is spicier and more grassroot/barebone than their Northern Indian counterpart where dishes are typically milder (less spicy), richer and creamier with ample use of yoghurt, cream and home-made cheese (cultured milk) and in place of plain white rice you'll find "naan" (pita-like bread baked in clay tandoori ovens) or the richer "briyani" rice (superior basmathi rice).

No meal of this nature in Malaysia can be complete without a glass of the national drink, "teh tarik". In the Malay language, "teh" means tea and "tarik" means pull, so teh tarik would translate to be pulled tea - the action of tossing tea from one cup to another, the end result is an aerated glass of tea that froths at the top. This is how NOT to do it.

If you're more a traditionalist, you should end the meal with a cup of "rassam", or Indian sour soup, to rid that bloaty feeling after your sumptious meal. If it's done sour enough, it'll make your toenails curl.

And finally, some tips. You're suppose to use your right hand to eat, and never your left even if you're a leftie. In local culture, the left hand is stigmatised and associated with not-so-pleasant bodily duties. Also, at the end of the meal, you should be careful how you fold your banana leaf in half to indicate that you have completed your meal. Folding the leaf towards you (in the direction of 12 to 6 o'clock) indicates that you are satisfied and happy with the meal and folding it the other way around indicates the opposite. I doubt modern society interpretes these in any strict manner but just my 2 cents of worthless trivia nonetheless.

Ipoh Food

2004-08-04T14:44:00.000+09:00

Ipoh is another hotspot for foodies in Malaysia. Located approximately 200km north of capital Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh was once a bustling hub of colonial Malaya, thanks largely to its central location in this tin mining region.

These days, it attracts foodies who converge onto Ipoh for that oh-so-famous beansprouts, "hor fun" (flat noodles) and "pak cham kai" (boiled whole chicken, then cut and served in soya sauce). Sadly, I'm unable to bring to you any of these. Perhaps next time. Instead, let's try some of the other goodies.

This is a typically "coffee shop", a colloquail term for an eatery with numerous stalls selling a variety of hawker fares. This is the scene at breakfast time, circa 7.30 a.m.

This coffee shop is famous for several items, which we will explore soon enough.

This is the area where the drinks are made. Ipoh, and this coffee shop in particular, is famous for its "white coffee" and the 70+ year old man behind the counter (partly hidden) has been dishing this out since, well .... a long time.

We start breakfast off with a cuppa. This is the white coffee, a frothy cup of caffeine heaven, chipped cup and all. An excellent blend of fresh local coffee ground (secret family recipe), sugar and sweetened condensed milk. RM1.50 (USD0.40).

After drinking this, you can forget all about Starbucks and the rest of the gang of overpriced coffee-mongers. This one beats them all.

After that excellent caffeine fix, next up are some "pie tee" (top) and deep-fried "popiah" (springroll, bottom). The fillings for both are identical and made from finely shredded trio of yam beans or "sengkuang", "cloud's ear" fungi mushroom and carrots, and topped with fried shallots.

The difference is that the springrolls are wrapped in a thin flour skin and deep fried till golden brown while the pie-tee are spooned into a prepared deep-fried flour shell. Dip in chili sauce for added kick. Yummy. RM1.50 for each springroll and RM4.00 for half a dozen pie-tees.

Another popular item at this coffee shop is the Ipoh "kari mee" or curry noodles. You get a bowl of noodles in curry soup, and topped with cuts of chicken, prawns and sliced "char siew" (red-coloured barbeque pork), beansprouts and finally garnish with fresh mint leaves. RM3.00 (USD0.80) per bowl.

You can choose from a variety of noodles, and I opted for the "hor fun", an Ipoh speciality. This silky-smooth noodles are a real treat. Thumbs all the way up! (I'm getting hungry even as I type this!)

In another part of Ipoh, I stumbled upon this rather unusual variation on the perennial Malaysian favourite, "nasi lemak". Strictly, the Malay words "nasi lemak" means rice enriched with coconut milk. Nasi lemak however generically also refers to that fragrant rice + accompanying sambal (spicy chili blended with shrimp paste), curry, egg, cucumber, peanuts and various other add-ons. It varies to no end, but the common denominator is that rich fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk.

What is different with the above is the absence of the nasi lemak, which has been substituted with "nasi pandan" instead! What they have done here is to cook the rice with screw pine leaves (in Malay called, you guessed it, "pandan"). The result is this fragrant green-coloured rice you see above. Served with (clockwise from top) mutton curry and potatoes, sliced cucumber, stir-fried cabbage, "acar pickle" (vinegared and spiced sticks of carrots, cucumber, cabbage and crushed peanuts and topped with sesame seeds) and fried egg. RM4.50 (USD1.20).

Pictured above is another of my favourite. Although not known to most outsiders, it is very popular with the Ipoh folks and it's hard to find any just as good elsewhere in Malaysia. This is deep-fried mantis prawns or as the local Cantonese would call it, "lai liew har". Photos and info on mantis prawns here and here if you're interested.

The prawns are de-shelled, minced, coated with flour and deep-fried. The prawns offer a unique flavour not found in typical prawns. Absolutely delicious. RM8.00 (USD2.10) per plate.

Cordon Bleu

2004-07-29T14:15:00.000+09:00

Today's lunch was a quickie order of 코돈부르 (cordon bleu) ala Korean style. This is a variation of the standard 돈까스 (don kaseu), or deep fried pork cutlets.

Delivery took all but 15 minutes, and arrived typically in layers upon layers of shrink-wrap. As I've mentioned before, most Korean deliveries come in proper tableware and not some flimsy disposable container.

The order came with a bowl of seaweed soup. Still hot from all that shrink-wrap protection. A tad salty though.

This is what you get - a bowl of rice (decorated with a sprinkle of black sesame), yellow radish pickle, cabbage salad and a sizeable portion of meat filet.

The salad comes with thousand island dressing.

The menu made no indication of what meat it was, which left me to anticipate chicken breasts, which I think is a fair assumption since chicken cordon bleu is the gold-standard.

Slitting it apart revealed thin slices of pork that enveloped the cheese and spinach stuffing. No Canadian bacon to be found even as I dug deep, but it did have little chunks of ham in the melted cheddar and mozarella cheese combo.

It's not too bad actually, and a nice change from the mundane standard don kaseu. But somehow, pork just doesn't go that great with cheese, for some reason. Maybe it's just me! Anyway, it comes at a premium price of KRW7,500 when the standard don kaseu can be had for KRW5,000 or thereabouts. Half thumbs up.

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On a sidenote, just thought you guys should know that we in South Korea are finally able to access Blogspot (Blogger) sites since early this week. It's been over a month since President No's Government banned the domain. Nonetheless, we're still unable to access any blogs hosted on typepad, livejournal and blog.com. Counting the days till that gag order is lifted. In the interim, peace everyone.

Penang Foodie 5

2004-07-20T11:34:00.000+09:00

FatMan's in the mood for some beef. There's this place in Gottlieb Road that specialises in beef steamboat. Let's go.

(note : crummy photos due to poor indoor lighting and not using the flash on the digicam to avoid disrupting other beef-lovers)

"Steamboat" is also referred to as "hot pot", "sang wor", "shabu shabu", "sinseollo" and other various terms in different parts of the world, all variations to the basic theme. Bottomline, it's a pot of stock into which you throw everything in, let it boil and then eat!

There's a mixture of all things beefy in this pot - slices of beef steak, brisket, tendon, tripe, flank and beef balls (meatballs). The stock itself is truly a work of art - beefy, peppery, very flavourful. Wished the proprietor shared the recipe with me ..... (this I figured as he whisked off ranting "silly FatMan trying to pinch my grandma's recipe?? cannot-lah .... siaoooo .... ") ("siaooo" meaning "crazy" I believe)

Slivers of the thin-sliced beef is served separately. It's best this way as you only cook it when you want to eat it. Just a quick dip into the pot is all it takes to get that nice soft pinkish result. Anything longer and your beef's overcooked.

You can add the egg if you like. Not me. I like it the way it is.

Total cost of the meal was RM50.00 (USD13.00).

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Sidetracking, this is the view from the balcony of my hotel room. Different hotel to the earlier one.

There's a sunken bar in the pool. I can get drunk while swimming. Excellent idea, dude.

Penang Foodie 4

2004-07-18T17:21:00.000+09:00

Dinner time and we're off to Batu Maung in Penang for some seafood.

It's quiet tricky getting to this place, more so at night. It's in a somewhat isolated part of the island. This wooden shack on stilts sits by the bank of the waters. You can watch the jetties nearby as you sit back, take in some evening sea breeze before you chow down.

It's always crowded here, and just like most other places in Penang, you'll need to fight for your table.

We start off with a plate of "satay". OK. This isn't exactly seafood. Satay is grilled chicken fillet on skewers. The diced and deboned chicken is marinated for many hours with lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, shallots, garlic, coriander and other spices, salt and sugar.

Satay is one of the pillars of Malay food, and a must-try if you're ever in Malaysia. Satay can also be found in various parts of this region, including Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia - each claiming to have the best.

The satay served here takes a somewhat different spin, in that it comes without the spicy peanut sauce. Instead, the sauce is smothered onto the meat as it is grilled. Very aromatic and well marinated, it's one of the house specialities. Very nice.

Next up is stir-fried fresh prawns with garlic. The prawns are net-scooped from the large glass "aquariums" when your orders are placed. The prawns are cooked with only very light seasoning to allow the natural sweetness of the prawns to shine through. Good but a little oily.

This is the steamed "siakap" (seabass) fish in soya sauce. Another live catch straight from the aquarium. The flesh is sweet and firm and goes so well with the light soya sauce. Very nice.

Next up is spicy fried "lala", a local variety of clam. This came up short. It was too dry, the sauce was neither spicy nor flavourful and looked like a rush job. Total disappointment.

Rounding off dinner is a plate of fried "beehoon" Hokkien-style. That means fried vermicelli in dark soya sauce with prawns, pork and veges. I hate it when they use those crappy mass-produced fried shallots (which are coated with flour to retain longer). The noodles itself was so so.

Overall, stick to the fresh seafood and you'll do OK. I didn't go for the crabs, another of their specialities, as I was too lazy to work the fingers. Total cost of the dinner was approximately RM55.00 (USD14.50).

Penang Foodie 3

2004-07-15T18:21:00.000+09:00

Another of Penang's must-try is the famous "cendol" tucked away in a small lane off Penang Road.

This is the approach from the opposite end of the lane.

This is the place. A modest push-cart stall parked by the kerbs that belies its reputation. I suspect the young man (in the above photo) currently running the show is the son of the original vendor. He is aided by an Indonesian lady (Indonesian workers are common in Malaysia).

Cendol is a favourite desert/snack/drink among locals. Cendol is green-coloured pandan(screw pine)-flavoured little flour droplets floating in sweetened diluted coconut milk ("santan") and topped with brown palm sugar syrup ("gula melaka") and shaven ice.

The bowl on the right is the "basic" order i.e. plain cendol with no add-ons. RM1.20 (USD0.30) per bowl.

The left bowl is the "super-size me" order i.e. loaded with all the extras of sweetened corn and red kidney beans. RM2.00 (USD0.53) per bowl.

This is a sweet bowl of icy heaven. Excellent body-cooler for the scorching heat in this part of the world.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Some readers have written in asking why there's a lack of Korean-related posts of late. I guess I owe my massive readership of 12 an explanation for this state of affairs.

(1) I'm trying to clear the backlog of posts of my recent travel

(2) The digital camera that I use in Korea is now somewhere in Denmark. I should get it back by the end of the month though.

So normal service should resume shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Penang Foodie 2

2004-07-14T14:35:00.000+09:00

Today, we introduce you to another Penang hawker favourite, the "lobak". Most aficionados have their personal favourites. Some favour those at MacAlister Road, some Gurney Drive while others Lorong Selamat (these are names of popular foodie spots in Penang).

My personal favourite is off the beaten tourist track. Meet Ah Chun. That's him standing on the left with an apron (apologies for my poor photography). Ah Chun has been selling nothing but lobak for over 30 years, at this very same spot! He can be found at Kheng Pin Cafe on Penang Street.

This traditional Chinese coffee shop dates back to pre-war days. Note the traditional marble table-tops and wooden benches against the wall in the background. Only those darn blue plastic stools give it away.

This is it. Technically, lobak is taken to mean pork fritters. That's it there - the dark brown roll of pork wrapped with bean curd skin and deep fried until crispy.

These days, lobak is the generic term to include all the accompaniments - prawn fritters, fish fritters, preserved century eggs, fried beancurd, etc. A plate of lobak is usually served with sliced cucumbers and the very important chili sauce and sweet gravy (brown gooey starchy sauce) for dipping.

We ordered the fish fritters (top), lobak (dark brown), fried beancurd (centre) and prawn fritters (left). This platter costs approx. RM8.00 (USD2.10). Thumbs up!

Sidetracking a little off the foodie trail, need to give props to my hotel room. Give it up y'all.

Living area.

Dining area. Hardly touched as all masticating activities were done outdoors.

Work area, complete with fax and broadband.

Sliding door that seperates the bedroom.

Da' bed!

One symmetrical half of the roomy bathroom. Behind the frosted glass door is the shower. In the centre is a large jacuzzi. Fits 2 adults comfortably, or 1 FatMan.

Penang Foodie 1

2004-07-13T16:05:00.000+09:00

After Thailand, I headed south to Malaysia, or more specifically Penang.

Penang, or by its Malay name Pulau Pinang, is a predominantly Hokkien-speaking Chinese city island in multi-racial Malaysia. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Orient", Penang is well known throughout the region for its hawker food, and any half-decent foodie should make their way there to at least sample some of the local delicacies.

This is the cityscape view of Penang. In the faint background, if you squint hard enough, you'll be able to see the Penang Bridge.

Another shot.

First stop, Lorong Selamat - a favourite amongst locals.

The hawkers' aluminium push-carts line the narrow street lane. Foldable tables and plastic chairs are strewn all over the adjoining coffee shops. During peak-hours, be prepared to wait and fight for vacating tables. There's a wide variety of hawker food to be had here, including all the perennial local favourites such as "assam laksa" (spicy sour fish-based soup with noodles), "kway teow th'ng" (flat noodles in clear chicken and prawn stock), grilled chicken wings, curry mee (or "curry laksa", noodles in coconut-milk curry) and so on.

One of the favourite amongst favourites here is the "char kway teow", which obviously explains the crowd at this lady's stall. So the golden FatMan rule dictates that this is a must-try.

As we placed our order, we were forewarned by the lady boss that it'll be at least 30 minutes' wait before I can savour this. Hmmm .... the anticipation is building.

While waiting, we decided to order "popiah", the colloquial for spring rolls.

Typically in 2 varieties, fresh or deep-fried, this former version is made by wrapping the flour popiah skin with filling of finely shredded yam bean (locally called "sengkuang"), firm tofu, beansprouts, lettuce, fried shallots, chopped garlic, chili sauce and sweet sauce. RM1.50 (USD0.40) per roll.

Still waiting, we proceeded to order "or chien" or fried oysters. Raw oysters are placed onto a bed of egg and starch mixture and then fried. Add in some chili paste, soya sauce and pepper. Topped with spring onions. RM6.00 (USD1.60) per plate (small serving).

FINALLY our "char kway teow" arrived. "Char" means "fry" and "kway teow" is flat flour noodles. What you get is a plate of kway teow noodles fried with garlic, large prawns, cockles, thinly-sliced chinese sausage, egg, chili paste (optional), soya sauce, chives, beansprouts and served with a dash of pepper.

Note the red slivers of chinese sausage. RM5.00 (USD1.30) per plate.

Overall, only the fried kway teow had at least some "standard". The popiah and fried oysters were forgettable. I must note though that the quality of hawker food here, once the pride of the state, is on the decline since my previous visits. And prices have also increased steeply. Sign of progress? Or greed? Or is it just me?

Thai Food 6

2004-07-08T19:06:00.000+09:00

Encouraged by my experience the day before, I made a return trip to Noen Khumthong Garden, "the" kanom chin place. This time I wanted to try out their other goodies on the menu.

Here are more shots of the place.

They even have a little garden area complete with kiddie playground. BUT realistically, under that scorching heat?

To kick things off, we ordered the "nam prik kapi". This was discussed in the first post "Thai Food 1". Technically, nam prik kapi is just that bowl of chili super-duper-blaster. But it usually comes along with an assortment of fresh raw veges.

If you're like me and take this by the spoonful, this is a tongue-numbing experience. It rocks!

Next up is the "tom yum ruammit" or mixed tom yum (a mixture of various seafood and meat). Another of Thai's perennial favourite, tom yum is spicy sour soup. We decided against the traditional fiery-red tom yum koong (tom yum with prawns) and went for the clear-stock version.

Taste-wise is identical to the red-soup version except for the conspicious absence of the chili oil that makes it red. The tom yum here is just the right blend of spicy and sour. All the flavours that makes up a tom yum are all there - crushed lemongrass, kaffir-lime leaves, tiny "khee-nu" chilis, thai basil, galangal and a healthy dose of lime juice.

Definitely an appetising start to any meal.

Yes folks, this is "kaeng som" (again!). Spicy, sour and yummy.

This is the surprise find of the day. This is "kaeng kari kai" or curry chicken, Thai style. I fell in love with this at first taste. This thick curry is extremely creamy from the generous use of thick coconut milk. The curry paste is made (as far as I can make it out) from lemongrass, shallots, garlic, turmeric (saffron), galangal, candlenut, shrimp paste and fresh red chilies.

What made the kaeng kari kai here unique is the use of sweet potatoes (note orange-coloured thingy floating in the curry) which added natural sweetness to the curry. Absolutely gorgeous!

If you note the timestamp on the photo above, you would realise that this was taken a day earlier. I actually had this right after the kanom chin in the preceding post, but decided to post it here as there was way too many photos in that post. *yawn* let's move on to the food.

This is another of my favourites, "khao phat kapi" or fried rice with shrimp paste.

What you get is rice fried with shrimp paste ("kapi") and surrounded by (clockwise from top) cucumber, shredded unripe (i.e. sour) mangoes, shallots, "khee-nu" chilies, deep-fried thinly sliced pork (well seasoned and sweetish) and omellette strips.

Mix everything well and enjoy a spoonful of heaven. We ended the meal with more "tub tim krob" but you know how that story goes so no need to repeat it here. :o)

Yes you could have guessed a mile away that I would conclude favourably. So far, there is nothing here that disappoints. The khao phat kapi (part of yesterday's meal) costs Bt50 (USD1.30). Today's meal cost about Bt500 (USD13.00) inclusive of deserts. How can you complain?

Thai Food 5

2004-07-07T18:05:00.000+09:00

I heard of this place that serves great "kanom chin", or chinese noodles with curry gravy. Such a claim from the locals is just begging for the FatMan test.

This place specialises in a variety of kanom chin, and they're all decked out here for you to see and choose.

To save me the hassle of a return trip, I decidedly took the easy way out and just ordered everything. This is the kanom chin "all-inclusive package" which comprise of everything you see in the photo above. All this for Bt75 (USD2.00).

This is indeed a popular choice amongst the regulars. Almost every table ordered this. You get to try all the various gravy they have to offer, albeit in smaller portions.

I'm going to attempt to break it down. Do let me know if I've made any mistakes, lynn and chez pim.

This is the nam ya (minced fish curry), nam prik (spicy curry sauce) and kaeng tai (southern curry).

This is the nam prik waan (sweet chili soup) and kaeng kiaw waan kai (green curry chicken). That rounds off the 5 variety of sauce/gravy/curry/soup that they had to offer on the menu.

You'll also see in the background 2 smaller side dishes of veges. On the left is steamed beansprouts and long beans, diced. On the right is the very interesting picked veges (head of lettuce) and chili.

This is the kanom chin (chinese noodles) i.e. flour vermicelli.

This is the typical side dish of fresh raw vegetables that you pick and add to your noodles as you please. A good assortment of winged beans, long beans, beansprouts, cucumber, round brinjal, Thai basil and banana flowers.

Kanom chin nam ya.

Kanom chin nam prik.

Kanom chin tai.

This is another of the house speciality. It's probably the most well known Thai desert in the world. It's called "tub tim krob", sweetened (diluted) coconut milk with "red ruby", jackfruit, coconut flesh and water chestnut.

These red rubies are basically diced water chestnut coated with red-coloured starch. Nice crunchy texture.

The tub tim krob here is absolutely awesome. Bt15 (USD0.40) per bowl.

The Thai Chinese lady owner and her daughter jealously guarding the family's ruby treasures.

The food here is delicious. The gravies are well seasoned and you just know that they took their time to slowly simmer the goodies. Very much like how a home-cooked meal should be. Thumbs up!

My only complain would be that I wished the gravy was served hotter instead of just warm. Guess all the Korean food boiling at the table has spoilt me. :o)

New Public Transportation System

2004-07-04T22:27:00.000+09:00

For visitors to Seoul who are planning to use its public transportation, take note that the authorities have revised the bus and subway systems effective 1 July.

In a nutshell, they've colour-coded the buses to indicate different service routes, changed the numbering system, created special buses-only lanes on major streets, introduced the T-Money smartcards for cashless payments and the cruncher, increased fares(!!).

FAQ on the new transportation system

Here are some related links:

Summary of the revised bus system (pdf file, from Korea Herald)

A guide to the revised bus system (pdf file, from Seoul Metropolitan Government)

Seoul subway website

Thai Food 4

2004-07-01T16:00:00.000+09:00

Today we're having Thai "aharn talay", or seafood.

This place offers both outdoor and indoor seating. We opted for the outdoors. After a while, we got used to the mosquitoes.

Fresh raw veges are common accompaniment during a Thai meal. Same goes for the neighbouring region such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Served with dipping sauces made from crushed chilis, chopped garlic and lime juice.

This is another variation of the clear soup "kaeng ched", this time with "louk chin" (fishballs), soft tube tofu and coriander (cilantro). In case you're wondering, yes you're correct to think that fishes don't have balls. It's grounded fish paste, seasoned and hand-shaped into cute little balls.

This is barbequed fish. The inside of the fish is stuffed with a mixture of coarsely crushed lemongrass, galangal, tumeric, young ginger, garlic and seasoned with salt, pepper and fish sauce. Wrap in banana leaves, followed by aluminium foil and then BBQ-ed.

The flesh is sweet and moist. The flavours from the mixture seeps through the flesh nicely but without being overbearing. A delicate balance indeed. The fish retains its moist principally due to the use of banana leaves which acts as an insulator and imparts a nice frangance when heated.

This is one of my favourites, "poo nim thort kratiam" or fried soft-shell crabs with garlic. The small-ish crabs are quartered or halved (depending on size) and deep fried. Eaten whole, shell included. The shell is well, soft, so no worries. Absolutely yummy!

This is "pla meuk yang" or grilled squid. Somewhat plain for my tastebuds. Great if you enjoy the chewy texture of the squid.

Yes folks. Again, this is "kaeng som". By now you know I have a considerable liking for this.

The entire meal came to about USD20. Not too bad, eh?

Thai Food 3

2004-06-27T01:20:00.000+09:00

Returning to our short series on Thai food, let's continue from where we left off.

This is “yum ma meung” or mango salad, a Thai favourite. These are made with young green unripe mangoes and not the soft and ripe orange-flesh fruity variety. These young mangoes have a hardier crunchy flesh and offers a sourish zing.

Shred it and mix well with sliced shallots, “khee nu” chili, roasted finely-dessicated coconut flesh, crushed peanuts, pounded dried prawns, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and coriander leaves.

I like my yum ma meung light and dry (not soggy in sauce), as is the case here. The combination of ingredients blend perferctly and is sour, sweet and spicy all at once. This flavourful ensemble assaults your tastebuds with every bite. Just perfect!

This is “kaeng ched” or clear pork tofu soup, similar to the ones had in earlier posts. The variation here is the inclusion of dried seaweed in the soup.

This is "pla grapok lad prik", or deep-fried mullet fish in Thai chili sauce. The fish is so well deep-fried that you can just eat it whole, fish bones and all. Dip in the chili-oil sauce and pop it into your mouth. *crunch*crunch* Absolutely gorgeous.

Another take on my favourite “kaeng som”, or spicy sour fish soup (covered in detail in earlier posts).

This is “woon sen phat koong” or stir-fried glass noodles with prawns. “Woon sen” is mung bean noodles or cellophane noodles or 'fun-see' in Chinese. These noodles are stiffer than the other varieties of noodles and are identical to those used in Korean "jab chae" mixed veges.

Stir-fried with prawns, eggs, chinese cabbage, “cloud’s ear” mushroom and large onions. Nice.

Overall, another extremely satisfying meal. Thumbs up!

Dakdori Tang

2004-06-25T16:10:00.000+09:00

Today we're having Dakdori Tang (닭도리탕), or spicy chicken soup (more like stew to me anyway). This is the first time I'm having a go at this, so I'm really excited.

Watching telly while having your meal is common here. You should have seen these guys jumping and waving when the football game came on shortly after. Never mind the food was getting cold.

Panning left, we see this.

First to arrive was this "thing" - all bubbly, wobbly and spewing steam. A bowl of bath sponge?

Dig in and you'll see that it's a pot of steamed eggs, lined with minced pork at the bottom. It's been a while since I've had steamed eggs like this. Nice.

Then came the parade of side dishes.

Some green vege kimchi.

Odeng (fish cake) tossed in chili and sliced onions.

Fried anchovies with green chilies.

Jap chae (mixed vege) which we’ve covered in an earlier post.

Fried sliced potatoes.

This is the piece de’ resistance, dakdori tang. It’s made of chuncky cuts of chicken & potatoes in that bright red stew sauce, and topped with several kinds of mushrooms, sesame leaves and sliced leek. KRW25,000 for this mid-size portion (large - KRW35,000). Eaten with steamed rice.

The flame-red color reminds me of typical Southern Indian curry. Alas, despite its dangerous looking color and appearance, it was only mildly spicy. Nonetheless, it imparted an interesting flavour. The sauce (or soup if you want to call it that) is made from chicken stock, chili paste, red pepper powder, minced garlic, sesame oil, soya sauce and seasoned with salt and black pepper.

As with most stew, the longer you let it boil, the better in taste it gets. So be patient and wait a couple of minutes to let all that plain white chicken meat and potatoes absorb the full robust flavours of the sauce. When it thickens, then have a go at it.

Overall, I'd rate it a 6.5 out of 10. It's something new and interesting and a change from all the jaded food I've been having of late (which I hope helps explain the lack of interesting posts on the blog). From my limited observation, I've not seen many Seoul's eateries offering this. I wonder why.

Tacos & Burritos

2004-06-23T09:54:00.000+09:00

* I first started writing this post on 16 May 2004 but only managed to complete it today *

Prompted by a recent article in the Korea Herald, we're off to Chili Chili in Itaewon for some mexican food.

This is the entrance to Chili Chili. The yellow signboard will be hard to miss even from a distance, particularly from the Noksapyeong Subway Station where you get off.

The set up is simple. Which is fine by me since I don't want to be subsidising for the interior decor through the price of my food. The 2 guys behind the counter (let's pause and play the "spot the other guy" game) are the proprietors. Click on the link at the end of this post for some background info on these guys and how Chili Chili came to be.

It's a small somewhat cramp place. There's 3 small tables beside the kitchen counter and another bar-style counter facing the street outside. When we arrived, it was pretty packed with customers and was very hot inside.

This is the beef taco. KRW3,000. The soft taco shell is loaded with minced beef, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, black olives, grated cheese, salsa sauce and sour cream.

It's pretty authentic and I especially like the freshness of the ingredients and the veges. I also like the bottled tobasco-like chili sauce that's on the table. Dash some on your taco for added zing. An ideal light snack. I'd need at least 3 of these to fill me up though. Me hungry. Need more.

I ordered the burrito next. This is the burrito. KRW4,000. This tortilla shell holds a generous portion of well seasoned minced beef cooked in enchilada sauce, mexican rice, refried beans and topped with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, bell pepper, grated cheese, pickled jalapenos, salsa sauce and sour cream.

Now we're talking. The burrito is fresh, hot and oozing with goodness. Thoroughly filling and satisfying. Thumbs up.

These are their nachos. KRW5,000 (if I remember correctly). For that, you get half a bag of nacho chips, melted cheese, salsa sauce and pickled green chilis.

I wish they gave more sauce as I like to drench my nachos in cheese and salsa. Then again, I never did ask them for seconds. I wonder now if they would have given it to me for free. I also like mine with guacamole and sour cream, but that's another story. Here it's kept pretty basic.

Overall, Chili Chili is a great place to get your Mexican food fix. The place is simple, prices reasonable and food is fresh and delicious.

Here are some links relating to Chili Chili:

JoongAng Daily's article

Enjoy Itaewon

Map to Chili Chili found at www.enjoyitaewon.com

Korea Herald's article (requires free registration to access the archives)

Itaewon

2004-06-23T09:52:00.000+09:00

Needed to walk off all those taco and burrito. Here are some Itaewon street scenes taken on 16 May 2004. At that time, it was the start of the Hi Seoul! Festival, hence the apperance of all those banners hanging over the street.

In most literature you read on Seoul, Itaewon touts itself as "the place" for expatriates living in Seoul. While it may be true in some sense, especially when it comes to the diversity of food to be had, to me it's just a tourist trap.

During peak vacation seasons, you'll find busloads of tourists from all over crowding the single main street of Itaewon. If they finally do end up buying something from any of the many street vendors, chances are they're paying Itaewon prices (read "premium prices").

The expatriate community would have by now realised that Itaewon is so passe and you're more likely to get better bargains and more bang for your buck elsewhere in Seoul. Also, the US soldiers living in the nearby base at Itaewon will probably beat the crap out of me after reading this post.

Thai Food 2

2004-06-22T04:08:00.000+09:00

Sawatdee khrab.

Here are some hawker fares I had on the streets of Thailand. These are slanted towards Thai Chinese food.

This stall serves Hainanese-style chicken rice ("khao mun gai") and chicken noodles ("kway teaw gai"). Skinny chickens, aren't they?

I opted for the chicken noodle with rice vermicelli ("sen mee") instead of the broader "kway teaw" noodles. You get chicken stock (loaded with MSG) with rice vermicelli and pieces of chicken, including my favourite, chicken feet. Topped with a sprinkle of white pepper, spring onions and deep-fried shallots. Nice.

Don't forget to add the condiments (sorry no photos) you'll find on the table if you need further customisation. Typically, you'll find at least these 4 items on your table : (1) chili powder (2) vinegar (3) pickled sliced chili in vinegar (4) fish sauce. Sometimes even sugar. Thais have a penchant for adding sugar into almost anything.

This stall serves braised pork trotters ("kha moo"). It was way past lunch time when I got here, so there was not much left of anything.

This is the braised pork all sliced and ready to be eaten. Only thing missing was the salted (preserved) vege that usually accompanies this dish.

The trotters are braised for hours in soya sauce and a healthy dose of star anise, cinnamon sticks and a pinch of palm sugar. What you end up with is a soft, moist, fragrant salty meat with a tinge of sweetness. Nice.

Space is a premium here I guess.

Land Of Smiles (Thai Food)

2004-06-20T10:55:00.000+09:00

I'm back! First off, a thousand apologies for the deafening silence. My humblest thanks to those who have taken the time and left their comments on the blog and also to those who have written me e-mails asking if I had succumbed to cholesterol and died. As you can tell, I'm well and alive, fatter than ever but finally back in Korea. Thanks to all ye’ ole faithfuls for your kind words and support.

I've been on the road, making it difficult to blog. But rest assured, I've not abandoned this blog (yet) and you'll get to see what I've been chomping down while outside Kimchi-land. I'll intersperse this into my regular Korean coverage, if that's OK with you guys. If not, let me know and I'll remove it completely from the blog.

Well I return to Seoul only to be greeted by a typhoon, well somewhat. Seoul's been hit by heavy thunderstorm since Friday. It's been gloomy all weekend. But thankfully I'm not in the southern regions, which are having it worse. Rain or no rain, I'm back. So let's get on with business.

Arrived in the Land of Smiles (occasionally referred to as Thailand by some) on May 24. Hence my blog will take in some Thai flavours in the forthcoming days. If I do get anything wrong in my posts, I would hope that and appreciate if my small following of Thai readers, namely Lynn and chez pim would correct me should I err. Khob khun maak khrab in advance.

Upon setting foot on Thai soil, I needed a quick fix for some of my Thai favourites and ended up here.

The place is sparse and basic, but the food is awesome. Oops I've concluded prematurely.

For starters, we have the perennial favourite, “nam prik kapi”. Nam prik kapi is a chili sauce heavily flavoured with dried (fermented) shrimp paste and finished with a squish of lime juice and a dash of “nam pla”(fish sauce). This is also known as “sambal belacan” in neighbouring Malaysia.

It is usually accompanied by raw vegetables. Here, we have “taeng kwa” (cucumber), "thua fug yaew” (long beans) and “thua phu” (winged beans or four-angled beans) on the left.

I also ordered my favourite, “setor” (in Thai, “petai” in Malay) which can be eaten raw or lightly grilled. That's it on the right.

This is how the setor looks like peeled. In English, it's popularly referred to as “smelly beans”, which if you’ve ever tried it will probably attest to. If you’re going to have setor, plan to walk around with bad breath for the next couple of hours. Hmmm ...... I’m missing it already.

The nam prik kapi acts as a dipping sauce for the vege accompaniment. It also goes well with plain rice or just about anything. It notches everything up a step. The nam prik kapi is extremely spicy and will blow the roof off any house. The chilis used to make this is typically “prik kheenu” (sometimes referred to in English literature as “bird’s eye chili”), a small tiny variety of chili which despite its size is extremely potent. It’s even smaller and spicier than the “cili padi” found in Malaysia. The essence of a good nam prik kapi is the use of a pestle and mortar to blend it all in, and never with any device that requires an electrical socket. The nam prik kapi here is as authentic as it gets. Burn lips buuuuuuuuurrrrrrnnnnnnn!

Next up is “phat phed pla krapong”, which means spicy stir-fried seabass. Sliced seabass stir fried in curry paste, ground chilies, shallots, basil and sliced chilies. Simple but absolutely yummy. Another lip numbing delicacy.

To balance things off, this is “kaeng ched” which is clear soup of minced pork, cabbage, tube tofu and garnished with cilantro. Kid’s stuff.

This is another of my all-time Thai favourite, “kaeng som pla”. Kaeng actually refers to soup or curry, som is orange (but in this context is closer to lime/sour), and pla is fish. So kaeng som pla translate literally to sour fish soup.

As the name suggests, it's an extremely spicy, sourish soup made with sliced fish, on this occassion, seabass, “nor mai” (bamboo shoots), sour curry paste (chilies, shallots, garlic, galangal, kapi shrimp paste, fish sauce), lime juice, more fish sauce, tamarind solution and sliced chilies. Absolutely gorgeous. Gets me salivating even thinking about it now as I write.

Double thumbs up for these glorious Thai food. All for approximately 500 Baht (~US$14). Stay tuned for more.

And Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.

Dak Galbi

2004-05-22T03:19:00.000+09:00

Everyone has one. I'm sure you do. It could be mum's apple pie, the family's secret lasagne recipe, summer barbeques in the outback, clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf, homemade "mama-mia" pastas or grandma's herbal soup. Everyone has their own comfort food. Food that makes you go "aaaaaahhhhhh ......". Food that takes you home, food that transports you back to a place or time of significance, food that calms you in trying times, food of contentment.

My Korean comfort food is dak galbi (닭갈비). Yes I'm weird. Not just any dak galbi. Choon Chun Jip's dak galbi. Choon Chun Jip (춘천집) is a chain of restaurants that specialises in dak galbi. What is dak galbi? I call it "sizzling spicy chicken", or "hot plate chicken". But the actual translation would mean dak=chicken and galbi=ribs, which I assume is derived from the de-boned breast of chicken.

This is one of many Choon Chun Jips scattered all over Seoul and its outskirts. This particular day, we're having it at Seohyeon. I'm not sure if it's found in other parts of Korea, as I've never travelled out of Gyeonggi province(!).

Notice Grandma Bossam's familiar yellow signboard on the right of the photo? She's everywhere, isn't she. Anyway, back to my comfort food.

It's usually packed to the brim, especially during lunch and dinner times. Today, I made the unfortunate choice of a Saturday afternoon, which explains the hordes of teenage school girls chomping away in their prim and proper uniform.

After some minutes of waiting, we finally got a table.

First stop always is the complimentary self-service salad bar (buffet). You have a choice of kimchi (giver), yellow picked radish, some cold and sour seaweed(?) soup thingy, the usual samchang + sliced garlic combo, fresh leaves of lettuce, coleslaw and shredded cabbage + dressing.

On the right is a pretty straightforward salad of shredded cabbage, purple cabbage and carrots with thousand island dressing. On the left is the coleslaw of sorts. Its made with square-cut cabbage, macaroni, diced carrots, raisin and coleslaw dressing. These salad brings a good balance to the hot and heaty chicken. I especially like the coleslaw for its raisin, which lends some sweetness to the meal. If you see some fat dude crouched over the salad bar picking all the raisins, do say hi to me.

Now let's get started with the real deal. First off, some oil in the hot pan. The star motif is optional and not crucial to a delicious meal.

Pile on the goodies once the oiled pan is sufficiently warm. At this point, you may want to put on the provided apron if you don't want splash stains on your Gucci shirt.

What you get is a generous portion of de-boned chicken (cut bite size), sesame leaves, leek, sweet potato, deok ricecakes, lots of cabbage and spoonfuls of that all important yang nyeom jang (chili paste seasoned with more chili powder, minced garlic, sesame oil, soya sauce, pepper and sugar).

It's KRW5,500 per portion, and what you're seeing here is a two-person portion. Yeah I wasn't very hungry that day.

Once the pan really heats up, that's when the action starts. Our waiter picks up ~~his sword~~ the tong and sword-fights the chicken, just like a scene right off Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Good entertainment.

Its more stirring, simmering, stirring, simmering till it's done. That's about 10 minutes of twirling and tossing. By the time it's done, your whole body is covered in that delicious dakgalbi smell. Wohoo.

Cooked and ready to eat. What may seem a lot at the start is not really so once the cabbage cooks away. The chicken pieces are soft and juicy, and needless to say, spicy and hot. The cabbage is crunchy to the bite, yet sweet. The sauce covers every inch of everything and blends everything in perfect harmony. Today's meal was excellent.

However, at this juncture, I must comment that the consistency is somewhat lacking here at Choon Chun. At times, the sauce is really spicy and yummy. At other times, it can be mild. Also, different outlets have produced varying end result. So keep this in mind when you visit the various outlets. Perhaps it's the sauce mix ratio. Perhaps it's the waiter's sword fighting skills. Perhaps it's the phases of the moon. I've stopped figuring out why this happens. I hope for the best and just eat.

A popular option towards the end of the meal is to ......... wait wait .... STOP. Yes, stop. Put that pair of chopsticks down. Then order a side dish of rice.

When you do that, the waiter whips out his scissors and starts snipping at them chicken. Snip snip snip everything till they're small fine pieces.

He'll then throw in the plate of hot plain rice, topped with some lettuce, sesame leaves, dried seaweed and more sauce. More swish-swoshing. Look at them tongs fly.

When it's almost done, add cheese. Mozarella cheese to be precise.

Cover with lid and you have an oven on your table.

3-5 minutes later and you have a dakgalbi rice pizza. A two-in-one meal. Not bad eh?

Grab a spoon and scoop a spoonful of that flavourful rice. Being mozarella, you'll get that stretchy cheese effect as the spoon find its way to your mouth. Yummy!

The menu offers the following options to go with your dakgalbi:
- udon (우동) (udon noodles)
- myeon (면) (spagetti noodles)
- chijeu (치즈) (that’s "cheese" Koreanised)
- sweet potato (고구마) (sweet potato!)
- rice

These range between KRW1,000 – KRW2,000 per portion each. I had the cheese (KRW1,500) and rice (KRW1,000). Total meal KRW13,500. Money well spent, if you ask me.

I'd really appreciate it if you would share with us what is YOUR comfort food. Click on the comment link below and drop us a line or two. It need not be Korean food. Comfort food has no nationality. We look forward to receiving your comments. Cheers.

Dongdaemun 2

2004-05-19T09:45:00.000+09:00

(No time to write much. So just enjoy the photos. Quick recap from last post. Thus far, we've strolled past hello apM and Migliore.)

....... and couple of metres down the street from Migliore, you'll arrive at my favourite of them all, Doota. The last time I was at Doota, it was closed for renovations. This will be my first visit to the refurbished Doota.

The approach to Doota.

The concert area to stage live shows and concerts, usually in the evenings on weekends.

Concourse (aka the smoking area - no smoking indoors, so the puffers "chill out" here).

Entrance.

Casual wear floor - for the young and hip. Looks like flourescent colours are in this season. Wonder if they glow in the dark.

Accessories floor - handbags are in flourescent shades too. Wohoo!

This floor for ladies wear.

View of Dongdaemun Stadium from the top of Doota. No, the cars are not playing football. The stadium doubles as a market place when not in use for games.

Dongdaemun cityscape.

The food court pearched at the top floor of Doota. It sure looks a lot classier now than the previous amusement park theme they had. Pretty decent food to be had here.

And this is DONGDAEMUN, the Great East Gate into Seoul from dynasties of the past.

Had some hoteok (호떡) from a street vendor on the way home. Read all about hoteok from my Street Food post here if you don't know what that is.

Dongdaemun 1

2004-05-16T13:20:00.000+09:00

For the benefit of first-time vacationeers who may be visiting Seoul this summer, let's take a quick trip to the shopping hotspot of Seoul, Dongdaemun (동대문). Dongdaemun means "Big (Great) East Gate".

Dongdaemun is the younger, hippier cousin to Namdaemun ("Great South Gate"), another much-touted wholesale shopping area in Seoul, though not much to my liking. To get here via subway (my preferred mode of transport), you'll need to get off at the Dongdaemun Stadium Station. Take exit no. 2. There's also a Dongdaemun Station nearby, but the Dongdaemun Stadium Station is more convenient to where we want to go.

As you come up the stairs from the subway station, you'll be greeted with this stall that sells all kinds of crispy rice crackers and snacks.

The narrow sidewalk is flanked by various stores and street vendors peddling a wide variety of stuff. This store sells baseball caps, the one next to it mobile phone accesories ....

.... and this one costume jewellery - bracelets, necklaces, earrings etc.

A couple of metres down the road and you'll come to the first of several large departmental stores.

This is the entrance to hello apM. I believe this is the new kid on the block amongst the stalwarts in the neighbourhood.

You'll find that the shopping centres in the Dongdaemun area are typically like this - you get a multi-storey building (typically 8-12 storeys high) which houses 40-60 independant retailers on every floor. Each category of products has its own floor, so you'll find the ladies' wear all on one floor, mens' wear on another, casual wear, shoes, accessories, sports wear, leather goods, etc etc etc. on their respective floors. There's also a food court in all these department stores.

Another street vendor selling colourful caps ....

.... hot-dogs ....

.... and mini pizzas.

A couple of metres down the road ....

.... and you'll come to another large departmental store.

This is Migliore.

(to be continued .... busy busy)

Bosod Bulgogi

2004-05-14T01:50:00.000+09:00

Today we're having bosod bulgogi (버섯불고기) at a mushroom restaurant. Bosod bulgogi is beef with mushrooms. This is a different take on the standard bulgogi (barbequed beef, or "fire beef") fare.

First, a scan around the joint.

Choice of floor seating or chairs here.

Here's their menu. Typical of these mushroom restaurants, you'll find all things beefy and mushroomy here. Most of these specialist mushroom eateries grow their own mushrooms in plastic canisters in the back of the store. So they're certain of being freshly cropped prior to serving.

Not a bad business model when you think about it. After all, mushrooms require little cultivation attention and they sprout pretty quickly. All this at minimal cost to the proprietor, who gets free supply of fresh mushrooms daily. Anyway, back to the grub.

We start off by heating up some stock in a shallow stone dish. The beef stock is prepared with large onions, garlic, soya sauce, a touch of syrup/sugar, salt, pepper and the all important sweet korean pears. The latter gives this stock its unique sweetness. Add some leaves of crown daisy and sliced large onions for effect.

This is the main dish. A variety of mushrooms and paper-thin sliced beef. KRW9,000 per person's portion. You're looking at 2 portions here. Anything less is kid's play.

A shot of some of the side dishes. Nothing new or fancy that hasn't already been covered in past posts.

This is the salad that's served with the bulgogi. The dressing is typically horseradish (wasabe) based, so watch out before you dig in or you're sure to have a nose flush.

Grab a sampling of the various mushrooms and lay them flat on the dish. Let it simmer for a while before adding the beef since the mushrooms take longer to cook. You don't want to overcook the thin slices of beef by adding them in too early. When the mushrooms are almost done, place the beef over the mushroom.

You will not be able to fit the entire serving in one go. So typically, you'd apportion it into 2 or 3 rounds, with equal portions of mushroom and beef. No hard and fast rules - entirely up to you.

I love watching the bloody-red beef as it turns colour.

It's now ready to eat. I like my beef "medium" so I usually take it off the fire when it's done so that it doesn't toughen from overcooking.

Pinch some side dishes, some mushrooms and a slice of beef and tuck in.

The important elements to a great bosod bulgogi are (1)good beef (2)good stock and (3)fresh mushrooms. This place meets these criterias. Well done. I also like the generous portion of beef they served. I'd say this is above average compared to some other stingy places we've been to in the past. We managed 3 rounds filled to the brim on this occasion.

As I've indicated earlier, most of these mushroom eateries grow their own mushrooms, so criteria (3) is usually a giver. What separates them, in my opinion, is really (2). Taking the extra effort to make up a good batch of the stock is crucial. Too bland and all you get is some mushy mushrooms in some brown liquid.

The bosod bulgogi here gets my thumbs up.

Doh Si Rak

2004-05-12T13:37:00.000+09:00

Ordered-in lunch again today cause it's raining outside. We've been having wet weather these last couple of days. So nothing fancy today.

The doh si rak ajumma (lady) is adding my name to her Hall of Fame. By now, I must hold the record for being the most inconvenient customer. Why? Cause I always have late lunches (once I remember that I haven't yet had lunch) and she'll have to work overtime to drag this box of food all the way cross town for this ONE customer. :o)

Nice soup today. Non-spicy clear soup of bone marrows with turnips. Tasty.

This is a nice fresh salad, of sorts. I believe its the top leafy part of bean sprouts. Nothing goes to waste here. If you eat it, we serve it. Squeeze a dash of vinegared chili sauce and its good to go.

Chinese cabbage kimchi in all its mighty red splendour. Mushroom na-mool.

Close-up of the fried anchovies with a hint of chili sauce. It tastes nicer than it looks. Trust me. The top is just fish cake (odeng) tossed in sweet chili sauce. Nice.

KRW4,000. This meal is cheaper than the usual KRW5,000 because I think there's no meat dish in there. At least that's how I reasoned it. What do I know. I speak no Korean.

Seolleong Tang

2004-05-10T13:30:00.000+09:00

Today we're having Seolleong Tang (설렁탕) for lunch. That's beef soup.

Pretty standard set up interior wise.

Here, the kimchi is served in the mini clay urns. You have the radish kimchi (bottom) and chinese cabbage kimchi (top). These are cold kimchis straight from the refridgerator. Grab as much as you like and cut it into desired size and place on plate.

I like the chinese cabbage kimchi but I'm not a big fan of the radish kimchi.

This is the seolleong tang. KRW5,000. This clear soup is made by boiling beef and bones for at least 16 to 18 hours, and served with sliced beef and garnished with sliced scallion and leek.

The hallmark of a good seolleong tang, I'm told, is that the huge iron pot (gamasot) used to simmer the broth is left running 24x7 - it never shuts down.

Typically, the seolleong tang comes unseasoned (unsalted and unpeppered). You will usually find salt and black pepper in the condiment tray on your table. Add to taste and stir well.

Some places serve the seolleong tang without the (wheat flour) noodles. Here they come with it. The noodles are soft and silky smooth. Slurp.

Add in the bowl of rice and enjoy. Some folks add kimchi to the soup. It's all a matter of personal preference. I like mine original and clear.

The soup has a nice beefy overtone, but without being overpowering. I'm also glad that there's hardly any traces of excessive fat floating on the surface of the soup. They've done a good job at skimming the residual scum away. Adding a good pinch of salt and black pepper to the soup is essential to bring out the flavours. A good choice if you're really not into spicy soups or stews.

Gochu Kimbap

2004-05-07T17:26:00.000+09:00

As long time readers would know, I can take spicy food. I mean, really really spicy food. For the time I've been in Korea, I've not had to reach out for that glass of cold water in immediate reaction to any food deemed "spicy" by local standards. That all changed today. Today, I found something that actually made my lips go "ssssssss".

And of all things, I found it in Jong-Ro's Gochu Kimbap (chili kimbap).

This is what I had for lunch today. 1 roll of cham chi kimbap (tuna - top) and 1 roll of gochu kimbap (chili - bottom). KRW2,500 each. My favourite kimbap has always been tuna kimbap, but today I decided to try something different. Seeing that it's been a pretty cold day today, I decided to warm myself up with some gochu.

It's not like tongue numbing spicy mind you, but still it packs a good zing.

I'm not sure if the gochu kimbaps at all the other kimbap chains are equally spicy, as this is my first. But now I know if I ever need a good chili kick, I can get it here. Good find. I'm happy for the next few hours.

Bossam Set Lunch

2004-05-06T10:17:00.000+09:00

Intrigued by what was offered the other day, I returned to Wonhalmoney Bossam, this time for lunch.

I had their Bossam Jeong Sik (보쌈정식, or bossam lunch set). 5 side dishes + soup + bossam kimchi and pork platter + rice = KRW6,000.

Many restaurants around town offer lunch sets ("lunch specials") which are priced lower than ala carte or dinner menus, to attract the lunch crowd. So keep an eye out for these the next time you're out to lunch.

The bossam kimchi and pork. Just nice for lunch. Not too heavy to induce an after-lunch nap.

Close-up of the pork. Not too fat, soft and moist.

This side dish I especially liked. This is lotus root sliced cross-section to give that flower petal visual effect. Sweetened with syrup and salted with some indescribable darker sauce (let me know if you know what it is), resulting in a very thick, gluey overbearingly sweet salty sauce. Goes well with the plain rice. I like this.

Standard serving of dwenjang jiggae (hot beanpaste stew/soup) topped off the set lunch. A reasonably yummy lunch. I think I'm addicted to the bossam kimchi. Hope I don't end up there again tomorrow.

Bossam

2004-05-03T15:14:00.000+09:00

I haven't been excited in a while. That all ended last evening. On a cold and rainy evening, we headed out looking for dinner and, although we pass this place hundreds of time, we've never ventured inside. Last night Mr. Stomach urged me to give it a try ..... finally.

So in we went into Wonhalmoney Bossam (원할머니보쌈), a chain which is a pretty familiar sight everywhere. Who could ignore that bright yellow sign of Grandma (that's halmoni - 할머니) whom the chain is named after.

The inside is typical. I was pretty excited as I've never had bossam before. Looking at the menu, it's a pretty straightforward affair. You have a choice of :

(a) Kimchi Bossam (김치보쌈), which is boiled pork served with bossam kimchi (KRW19,000 - KRW27,000 - KRW35,000 for small - medium - large portions respectively);

(b) Baechu Bossam (배추보쌈), which is boiled pork hocks in bossam spices and served with baechu kimchi, salted cabbage leaves and fresh vegetables (same pricing as kimchi bossam);

(c) Modum Bossam (모둠보쌈), which is the combo mix platter of the two (KRW29,000); and

(d) Herbal Jokbal (한방왕족발), which is pork hocks boiled in herbs (KRW18,000 - KRW20,000 - KRW22,000 respectively).

Ordered the modum bossam thinking it would be a good sampler for first timers. Here's the modum bossam platter - well arranged and nicely presented.

Clockwise, the boiled pork slices of varying cuts, the bossam kimchi, fresh leaves of sesame and lettuce for wrapping, the baechu kimchi, crispy cold chinese cabbage leaves and a salad mix in the centre.

The standard side dishes are all there - samchang, sliced green chilies, raw garlic slices and a preserved shrimp condiment.

I'll spare you my pretend-know-all crap and just point you to their website here. There's a pretty good write-up in English, and it will be more factually accurate than my usual BS. So do check it out if you want more info about bossam, its history and even how to eat it.

For those who are too lazy to click, here's what you'll find on the site:
________________________________________________________________

Bossam is an exquisite dish served with bossam-kimchi and high-quality pork boiled with special sauce. Bossam-Kimchi (Rolled Kimchi) is not your everyday kimchi, but a luxurious festive dish even for Koreans. It requires a very wide variety of ingredients and labor-intensive cooking process. Traditional bossam-kimchi greens are spiced with salted fish and shellfish such as oysters and octopus. Fruits such as Korean pear and chestnuts are added. The whole mixture is garnished with chopped chestnuts, jujubes and red pepper threads and wrapped in softened outer cabbage leaves.

Wonhalmoney-Bossam's bossam-kimchi is famous for its peculiar taste. Bossam kimchi of Wonhalmoney Bossam has its own cooking secret which has never been revealed for over 30 years. Distinguishing feature of normal kimchi is fermented food. However, bossam kimchi of Wonhalmoney-Bossam is not fermented to make it flavory.
_______________________________________________________________

True to form, the bossam kimchi is like none I've ever tasted. This cold kimchi is sweetish, the chinese cabbage crunchy with just the right amount of mild spiciness that compliments the steaming hot pork so nicely. Dig into the bossam-kimchi and you'll find its promised treasures - chestnuts, pears, jujubes etc.

It's a good cut of pork with just the right amount of fat in it to retain its moisture and tenderness. It doesn't taste overly porky, which was one of my initial concerns. Grab a portion of everything, wrap it up in any of the leafy vege and stuff it in your mouth all in one go. Wohooo!!

I've found a new love.

Sam Gyeob Sal

2004-04-29T11:11:00.000+09:00

While in Sinchon, I visited one of my many favourite places for some sam gyeob sal (삼겹살). The last time I was here was in December last year. Imagine my amazement when I walked in and the owner exclaimed that he remembers me from my last visit and even pointed to the table I sat at and what I ordered. Wow! If this isn't friendly service, I don't know what is. (Then again, maybe it was the whole pig that I ordered the last time, but that's another story).

The place is called 生삼겹.com. Yes even the Korean cuisine of sam gyeob sal wasn't left untouched by the dot-com explosion. It's located beside the Hyundai Department Store in Sinchon.

You have the option of seating here - floor or chairs. The place is clean and there's even a small aquarium upfront. This carving table, as you'll see later, takes centrestage.

A quick rundown of the menu - you have the varying grades and cuts of pork (between KRW6,600 - KRW7,000 per serving of 150 - 200 grammes), a variety of tang (soup) and jiggae (stew) for KRW4,000 - KRW5,000, and a variety of soju and maekju (liquor) KRW3,000 - KRW6,000.

THIS is unique to this place, the automated rotating griller. You lift the cover, place the skewer of pork inside, cover and it will start to rotate and cook over the fire. Two big advantage here - (1) the meat is evenly grilled (2) you don't get oil splutters on your bare skin, and (3) you don't have to lift a finger - it's all done for you. OK. That's three.

A satellite image of the table, with side dishes comprising mostly of various salads and kimchis.

A variety of dipping sauce, from the red samchang (chili paste mixed with preserved soya beans), the yellow honey mustard, the salt mixed with sesame seeds and finely grounded peanuts. The bottom dish is shredded cabbage with coleslaw dressing and a squeeze of chili sauce. Interesting combo.

The bacon'a almost done. You can hear it sizzling in there, and can see the fat dripping away. Nice even tan.

The cooked skewers of bacon are then brought to this carving (cutting) station where they're sliced into generous portions.

After that, they're thrown back into the fire to continue cooking, this time over the flat grill. While all that is happening, another set of skewered bacon goes into the rotating pit. It's ready to eat.

As I've mentioned in my previous post on sam gyeob sal, I like them thick and chuncky. And this place doesn't disappoint. The meat is thick enough so that it is crispy on the outside and still moist and juicy on the inside. Just perfect. The pork here is fresh and of good quality. Thumbs up.

One of the things I enjoy most about eating sam gyeob sal (or even anything that involves grilling for that matter) is to lightly grill the garlic. If you've never had garlic in Korea before, be forewarned that Korean garlic can be extremely pungent to the extent that it stings. But once it's grilled, the garlic turns all sweet and fragrant and its texture turns into that of a potato - soft and crumbly. If you've never tried this before, you should. Trust me. :o)

The other variation is to grill your kimchi. Kimchi when cooked in this manner tastes different from its raw counterpart. Try it. Goes oh so well with sam gyeob sal.

Next up is gochu sam gyeob sal, which is basically the same thing with the addition of gochujang (seasoned chili paste). The meat is smothered with gochujang and then grilled. It is a good idea to work your way up from the plain sam gyeob sal to the gochu sam gyeob sal if you plan to have both at the same sitting. This is because you may find the plain ones, well, plain if you had the gochu ones first. So remember, plain first, then gochu.

Again, the gochu sam gyeob sal here is well executed. The sauce is sweetish, not overly spicy, and I swear there is a tinge of BBQ sauce in there if my tastebuds didn't fail me. You will need to refrain yourself from eating this too soon, and let the sauce simmer and dry up to fully envelop the meat.

Typically, after a good and hearty meal of sam gyeob sal, I like to wash it all down with a hot bowl of dwenjang jiggae (된장찌개), or spicy bean paste stew/soup. The soup is made from adding preserved beanpaste to stock, then adding chili paste and lots of sliced green chilis, spring onions, dubu (beancurd/tofu), beansprouts, chinese cabbage and clams. Very hot and spicy. Nice end to a very good meal.

Sinchon & Ewha

2004-04-26T20:26:00.000+09:00

Today we visit another of Seoul's chic and trendy hotspots for the young and young-at-heart (the latter was slipped in to comfort my naive ego).

On a beautiful sunny spring day sometime last week, we visited Sinchon and its neighbouring vicinity, Ewha Womans University. "Sinchon" literally means "new town" and "ewha" is the flower of pear trees. This area is a popular hunting ground for students (and also a popular hunting ground for students, or so I'm told *cough*), and is home to several universities, namely Yonsei University, Hongik University, Sogang University and Ewha Womans University (no typo, it's "Womans" I tell ya).

Getting off at the Sinchon subway station, one of the first Sinchon landmarks to greet you is the Hyundai Department Store. That's the tall building you see in the photo with the huge red banner. (sidenote : take note that there's Sinchon and there's Sincheon and are nowhere close to each other!)

Sinchon offers lots of great places for good food. As with most popular hotspots, there's always a Tourist Info Centre nearby, usually close to the subway stations. Grab yourself a guide book to the area. The Seoul Metro Government publishes a ten booklet series entitled "10 Best Places in Seoul". Grab the Sinchon & Ewha edition (booklet no. 4), and in it you'll find a detailed and comprehensive guide to all the reputable restaurants in the neighbourhood. The streets are lined with eateries left and right. There's even a "sam gyeob sal" street beside the Hyundai Department Store.

I've passed this place many times but beside a casual peek inside once, I've never patronised it. Perhaps the air of romance that surrounds this place makes it ackward for me to go in alone. I'm told that this place is an institution revered by the student population here. And I'm a believer, as the weekend queue going into this place is looooooong. This is Mindelle Yeongto (민들레영토). It is dubbed a "culture cafe" with six stories of private rooms, each floor with a different theme, for groups of friends or love couples to spend "quality time" over drinks and cakes and pastries.

Tucked away in a quiter corner beside the railway line that borders this area is this architectural beauty of a church. A surprising find, to me at least, in this jungle of monotony. The building lends an aura of a bygone era nestled amongst the characterless buildings in the area.

About 500 metres' walk from Sinchon, you arrive at the neighbouring Ewha Womans University area. If you're not into walking from Sinchon (yes 500 metres may seem like a marathon to some), then get off at the Ewha subway station, which drops you right smack here.

This area is a shopping paradise for the chic and hip, and is lined with clothes, shoes, accesories, you name it, in bright lively colors of this spring season.

It's a myriad of small lanes and every corner leads you to more. You'll need to bump and grind your way around on a busy day.

I came across this restaurant which had a unique entrance, to say the least. Choo-choo your way to this restaurant if you get a chance and let me know how's the food. The only spoiler to this replica were the neighbour's air-conditioner compressors.

This is a new cafe along the main street leading to Ewha Womans University's entrance. I don't recall seeing this the last time I was here. Very apple green - nice colour scheme. Notice the internet kiosks in the middle section, and also the outdoor garden seating area right at the back. Great idea, a choice of inside or out. Looks like a nice place for a relaxing cuppa and some cakes whilst you gossip about Ha Ri Su.

But instead I ended up at Star$ for my Caramel Frappucino. KRW5,000. What better way to end the day than a nice cold Frap Grande.

So, in conclusion, here's the deal. If you're into the food, head straight for Sinchon. Lots of good food everywhere. It'll take you months before you finish try each and every place. If it's girlie shopping that you want, head on over to Ewha. The streets are lined with fashionable goodies.

Have fun!

Link Pimp

2004-04-25T02:01:00.000+09:00

Nothing to read this weekend? It's time once again to point you to the various sites and blogs which I've come to notice since my last link pimping.

First off, need to send some love Joel's way over at About Joel. He blogs of many things Korean, and he is the reason I once ran out after work searching for ho-deok (sweet korean pancake).

Some of you are already familiar with noodlepie's lust for Vietnamese food from my Pho post some days back. I just love reading it as it captures the essence of Vietnamese food.

Here's the link to Min's food journal. Journey with newly-wed Min as she attempts to cook up a storm in the kitchen.

For some eating in Chicago, check out these vital information on the Windy City.

Makiko's just hungry food blog is truly cosmopolitan, as is Maki herself.

And last but certainly not least, check out the quintessential woman of the world Liza's Seoul Style. Why is it I never ever get invites to such events?!?! :o)

It's a Pup's Life

2004-04-23T12:32:00.000+09:00

Puppies for sale on the streets of Myeong-dong. You'll be able to find them selling puppies, rabbits, hamsters and other homely pets on the streets. Great saving on rental eh?

Here's a street vendor selling t-shirts for the pups. Strange they don't have it in the size of a full-grown Rotweiler.

There are also cafes for puppies, grooming centres for dogs, day care centres and private vets with clinics that would put a 5-star hotel to shame. Ahhh ..... the life of a pup. :o)

Pho

2004-04-20T18:14:00.000+09:00

"Your stars are not in alignment with your moon. Venus is exuding strange vibes and Uranus is blocked. Avoid all urges to be creative and stop pretending you can write during this period" mumbled Madame Zorra, my astrologer, as she drunkedly stumbled out of my sight. Now that my stars have moved 2 degrees south-west, the path ahead is clear. On with the show.

Inspired by noodlepie's search for the ultimate Pho, I embarked on a search of my own. This led me to My Canh Vietnamese & Thai Restaurant, in Bundang-gu. I believe “My Canh” means “my house” or “my home” in Vietnamese.

The interior here would hardly classify as typical Vietnamese by any standards. It looks more like a page from an IKEA catalogue.

Very plush, cosy, comfortable and nice use of wood. A choice of floor seating (at the back) or chair seating (ideal for those with long inflexible legs or weak ankle joints).

For starters, we had Cha Gio (or as the northern vietnamese folks would call it, Nem Ran) on the left (KRW4,000) and Goi Cuon on the right (KRW6,000).

Cha Gio is basically deep fried springrolls stuffed with yam paste, minced pork, crabmeat and seasoning. Unlike the usual cylinderical shape, here they’ve folded it into triangles. Served with Nuoc Mam sauce, a mixture of nuoc mam (fish sauce), vinegar, sugar and chili sauce. I love Cha Gio and My Canh serves a pretty decent interpretation. Tasty savoury fillings and crispy outer skin. My only gripe would be it's too puny and overpriced. :o)

Nothing like the Cha Gio here though.

Goi Cuon is basically cold springrolls which SHOULD be stuffed with rice vermicelli (noodles), fresh lettuce, raw bean sprouts, shredded carrots, thin pork slices and even shrimps.

Here, they’ve Koreanised it by using that all familiar pickled-yellow radish, pickled cucumbers, purple cabbage, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce and rice vermicelli. Very yuppie, but totally unwelcomed.

At least the dipping sauce that came with it was treated authentically – the Nuoc Mam sauce and another which is a mix of plum sauce, hoi sin sauce and grounded peanuts.

Now for the main course. I had Pho (beef soup noodles), which is probably the single most famous Vietnamese food item. KRW6,000.

The soup base is made from simmering a large pot of beef and bones for many many hours along with large onions, shallots, ginger, cinnamon stick, star anise, parsnip and season with fish sauce, salt and pepper.

The hot soup is then poured over a bowl of rice noodles (banh pho), and topped with thinly sliced beef and a sprinkling of spring onions. Add cilantro, basil, raw bean sprouts as desired and finally add a squeeze of lime/lemon, vinegared chili sauce and fish sauce to taste.

The stock has a unique fragrance and tastes surprisingly mild without the overbearing beefiness. Which is the way it should be – beefy but not overpowering. At My Canh, it’s just too mild for me. A little more beefy punch would have been nice. My tastebuds had to work overtime to find any hint of flavour. Too mild, too mild.

The other thing is that I like my Pho with rare fillet (Pho Bo Tai), i.e. Pho served to you with thin slices of raw beef laid on top, turning pink slowly as it cooks in the hot soup. That is not on the menu here. So we had to settle for the cooked beef variety (Pho Bo). I also like the “everything but the kitchen sink” Pho – all the fatty flank, tendon, tripe, brisket, cooked beef, raw beef, everything thrown in!! That’s the other letdown at My Canh, a limited choice of Pho. Pho has developed beyond just beef. You can find chicken pho (Pho Ga) and seafood pho even. But not here.

My only previous experience with Vietnamese food in Korea was at Pho Hoa, THAT international chain which also found its way here. I tried it out in their Sinchon outlet mid last year and interestingly, despite it being a franchise, I must say that the quality and taste from the Korean franchisee is dismal. I've tried Pho Hoa in other countries and can attest that it varies from location to location. But at least the menu choices at Pho Hoa are better than those at My Canh. If you want to give Pho Hoa a try, you can check out a store near you here.

(p/s : my apologies for the long delay. sometimes my real life takes precendence over my blog. please accept my apologies for this and potentially future occurences)

Soon Dubu Jigae

2004-04-11T00:47:00.000+09:00

Today we're having lunch at the House of Tofu. So I'm expecting everything tofu to come my way. Mr Stomach is wondering what's up with this spate of healthy food of late. First it's the sushi rice thingy, now tofu beancurd. Heck, I dunno. Maybe the fact that I've been having a hard time seeing my toes has something to do with it.

Anyway, I finally settled on soon dubu jigae (순두부찌게). That's soft beancurd stew.

Sorry for the crummy photos. Again, snapping without the flash isn't a good idea when indoors. But I hate to use flash as it's a nuisance to others. So bear with the yellow tinge. No not me, the photos.

Lots of side dishes here. The soon dubu jigae is that bubbly pot with the sunny side up at the bottom of the pic. We'll come to that later. As always, let's go through the side dishes first.

This is the soon dubu, or soft beancurd. This is the exact same thing that is used in the soon dubu jigae, except here it's served plain as a side dish along with the soya sauce mixed with sesame seeds (top left corner of the pic).

It jiggles to the shake and is silky smooth and soft. It's texture and taste is exactly the same as what the Chinese would call to-fu-far. To-fu-far is actually served as a desert sweetened with syrup or mix in with soya bean milk. But I digress. Here in Korea it's served at room temperature as an appetiser with salty soya sauce. Interesting.

Next is glass noodles sauteed with soya sauce, with some shredded carrots, green vege (I forget what it is), fungus mushroom and sesame seeds thrown in. A nice savoury side dish but would be better if served warm.

This is beancurd with a firmer and compact texture. It's sliced from a bigger block into little squares. Served with soya sauce mixed with chili powder, chili oil and spring onions. The plain and clear taste of the tofu goes well with the spicy salty sauce.

This is mini haemul pajeon, or seafood pancake. This little nugget holds diced octopus, spring onions and diced carrots. It's a savoury pancake and tastes nice, BUT is not fresh. This must have been prepared early in the morning and left in the cold for waaaay too long. By the time it reached the table, it's all hard and dry.

Now this is the main course. Soon dubu jigae. KRW5,000.

What you have here is a potful of the soon dubu (soft beancurd), 4 clams (yes I counted!) and a spoonful of chili paste (gochujang) in seafood stock. Topped with spring onions, sliced fresh green chili and break an egg on top.

I like soon dubu jigae. The plain soon dubu blends well with the spicy and robust seafood stock. Some places even add dried shrimps into the stew for added flavour. (sidenote : dried shrimps gives off a different flavour to fresh shrimps and is usually used as a flavour enhancer)

However, I am somewhat disappointed with the soon dubu jigae here. The stock is flat, there's too much soon dubu leaving little room for the soup to balance the bland soon dubu, and it's not spicy enough. It's unlikely that I'll be back here anytime soon. Thumbs down.

Sorry for the anti-climax. :o)

Hwee Deop Bab

2004-04-08T23:22:00.000+09:00

Returning to the Big Fish for lunch again, today we'll have something different. Something fresh. Something healthy. Something most unlike FatMan.

Today's lunch is hwee deop bab (회덮밥) or raw fish rice. So you're thinking sushi? Well, you're off by a mile. Think messy sushi and you're getting warmer.

The usual Big Fish side dishes are there. Deep fried sweet potato slices & sesame leaf, grilled fish, salad, kimchi and mushroom na mool. I had to turn away 3 other side dishes as I knew I'd be in for a tummy-busting meal.

This is the hwee deop bab sans rice.

A nice big bowl of fresh sea bass, diced into bite-sized chunks, and topped with fish roe, lettuce leaves, dried seaweed strips, alfalfa sprouts, shredded cabbage, omelette strips, sliced green chilis, carrot strips and shredded fresh ginger.

Now add in the hot bowl of rice.

Next add the vinegared chili sauce to taste.

Mix well.

Eat.

Eating hwee deop bab at Big Fish is more like eating a salad than a rice-based meal. There is so much vege in that giant bowl that the rice disappears into the background. The chunky fresh raw fish just burst in your mouth when you sink your teeth into it. The vinegared chili sauce is the all-important ingredient that holds everything together. It makes or breaks your hwee deop bab. This sauce is spicy and adds an acidity that really zings up the entire experience. A healthy and delicious meal. Highly recommended. KRW6,000.

Cakes

2004-04-06T22:57:00.000+09:00

Sorry I haven't had much time to update the blog. Minor distraction called work.

So while you wait for the next meal, nibble on these cakes.

p/s : Haloscan's commenting service seems to be down these last few days. My apologies but I have no control over it.

Bin Dae Tok

2004-04-02T01:16:00.000+09:00

Having a sign that says "30 Years of Bin Dae Tok Tradition" is like saying "Welcome FatMan - Must Try Before You Die". So here we are at Jong Ro Bin Dae Tok, in Jong-ro, Myeong-dong.

I've been craving for bin dae tok (빈대떡) ever since I lost my favourite bin dae tok hangout. So when I found this place, I was excited.

Sidenote : Notice the sign at the top left corner - the one that looks like a flower petal? Well, the sign says "Good Restaurant". You'll find this sign proudly displayed at various restaurants, which I believe is the local system of accrediting restaurants which have passed some sort of "test". Well, the final real test will always be FatMan's burp test.

The set-up is pretty sparse and basic, always a good sign of a restaurant that prides itself in its food and not its decor. There's more tables upstairs.

Looking through the menu on the wall, we have a choice of several types - gogi bindaetok (meat - 고기빈대떡), haemool bindaetok (seafood - 해물빈대떡), yachae bindaetok (vege - 야채빈대떡) and gool bindaetok (oyster - 굴빈대떡). All priced at KRW9,000 each. I ordered the gogi bindaetok, although I had a feeling that their haemool bindaetok was the house special. But I was in the mood for gogi, so there!

They also have pa jeon (파전) in similar variety on the menu. KRW10,000 each.

So what is bindaetok? It's mung bean pancake. Mung what? OK, maybe you know it by its scientific name "phaseolus aureus". No? Still doesn't ring a bell? OK. Try here. Yes?

Here's a bowl of cleaned and soaked beans. Just to be sure, we're talking about the bowl on the left. :o) Sorry I feel cheeky today. The basket on the right is an assortment of vege pajeon.

Here, you won't find any Kenwood blenders. We have 30 years of tradition to uphold after all. A hand-grind mill to turn those mung beans into fine paste.

Here's the assembly line. Left to right : back row - sliced spring onions, whole spring onions; middle row - a plate of oysters, pajeon flour mix and bindaetok mix; front row - pork bacon thinly sliced with fresh sliced chilis, kimchi, seafood mix of octopus, squid and prawns with shredded carrot and leek.

I think that's the main difference between a pajeon and a bindaetok. Pajeon uses plain flour whereas bindaetok uses mung bean. Therefore, the resulting texture is different.

Spread a little flour mix onto the hot pan. The pair in the front is bindaetok and the single at the back is a pajeon.

Load the topping. For the haemool (seafood) pajeon at the back, its the seafood mix + strings of whole spring onions. For the gogi (meat) bindaetok, its the meat mix + kimchi.

Flip. Almost done.

Ahh ... my gogi bindaetok. KRW9,000. Come to papa.

Here's the dipping sauce - soya sauce, onions, chili powder and vinegar. It's a salty sourish combo that I feel is essential to enhance the flavour.

As you can see, inside you'll find a good mix of kimchi, thinly sliced pork, sliced chili and sliced spring onions.

I like bindaetok because the texture of the pancake is really light and fluffy. Unlike the pajeon which can be a little starchy and chewy, bindaetok is so crumbly and literally just melts in your mouth. This place serves a very decent bindaetok. Is it the best? Let's just say my hunt for the ultimate bindaetok continues.

Street Food 3

2004-03-31T00:18:00.000+09:00

More street food. This street is lined with such food stalls. Here, they even serve cold drinks.

Hmmm .... skewers galore. You have the fried chicken fillets, sausage wrapped in bacon (for the cholesterol-deficient), dakkochi (chicken kebab) and hot-bar (fish paste sausage).

To the right of this platter of redness are (from top) twigims, goon mandoo and soondae (covered in plastic wraps to retain moist).

To the left is more teokbogki. They're just everywhere these rice flour rolls.

Close-up of the flour-battered deep fried chicken fillet, smothered in sweet and spicy sauce. KRW2,000.

Corn anyway you like it - steamed (right) or grilled (left). I find the corn here somewhat dry and chewy. I presume this is typical of corn grown in Korea? Personally, I prefer the soft Japanese sweet corn variety.

Anyone knows what those tiny green balls in the canisters are?

Here we have bungeo pang (carp cake), or sometimes called fish cookie or fish bread, so named because of its shape. However, no fish was killed in the making of a bungeo pang.

Cake batter is poured into the fish-shaped steel mould, then a spoonful of red beans sweet filling is dropped in the center. Cover the lid and a few minutes later, presto!

Eat it while it's hot. Crispy on the outside, hot red bean sweet filling on the inside. It's texture reminds me of McDonald's apple pie, except better. Ha!

Here's a mobile stall in a secluded dimly-lit area. The cart disappears after close of business.

Joel's comment yesterday prompted me to go get myself some hoteok (호떡).

To make this, a spoonful of the brown sugar filling is added into the center of a round piece of dough. It is then pressed into a flat round pancake and fried like burger patties on a heavily oiled pan griddle.

These are the hoteoks in better light. KRW500 a piece.

These sweet pancakes are filled with brown sugar, cinnamon powder, black sesame seed and chopped nuts (sometimes apple). All that frying melts the brown sugar into dripping caramel which is just sinfully delicious.

That concludes our final instalment of our 3 part mini-series on street food. I hope you enjoyed it.

Street Food 2

2004-03-29T21:42:00.000+09:00

Continuing with our street food theme, let's cover more ground today. You'll find many pojangmacha (street stalls/carts) littered all over Seoul. Some stalls are permanent fixtures, like the one below, while some operate out of the back of open-panel vans. During winter, they put up clear plastic tents to keep customers warm.

Front row left, you'll find some mini kimbaps. Beside it are baskets full of twigims (flour-battered deep fried veges, prawns, squid, etc. even hard-boiled eggs).

This must be the staple of all pojangmachas. Teokbokgi (떡볶이) are rice cakes in hot pepper sauce. These are originally long cylindrical rice cakes which are then cut into shorter pieces, and simmered in a spicy sauce made from gochujang (chili paste), chili powder & syrup. It can be eaten as it is. However, it is usual to also throw in some twigim, hard boiled eggs, goon mandu (dumpling) and odeng (fish cake).

This is soondae (순대). It is Korean traditional sausage made by steaming pig's intestines filled with a mixture of chopped vegetables, Chinese glass noodles and pig's blood. I guess it's one of those things you either love or hate, like Scottish haggis.

Soondae is usually served with a side of seasoned salt. I do not find it repulsive at all, but personally I don't fancy it because I find the taste rather bland and unexciting.

The next set of photos are from a different street vendor. The standard "meat" (don't ask what meat) sausages and fish cake sausages, with and without sesame seeds sprinkled.

The tray in front are skewered deep-fried chicken nuggets smothered in sweetish chili sauce and sprinkled with sesame seed. The tray behind this holds pan-fried goon mandu, Korean dumplings stuffed with minced pork, Chinese glass noodles and spring onions. Similar to Japanese gyoza.

This stall also offers teokbokgi.

In the forefront is dakkochi, one of my favourite. This Korean chicken kebab is made from several cubes of boneless chicken skewered alternately with leek or other vegetables. It is then grilled over a hotplate and smothered with sweet and spicy sauce.

This is odeng, fish cake skewered into a sausage-like form. I actually enjoy the soup more!! The soup is made from turnips and anchovy stock and peppered liberally. Served in paper cups. Very nice on a cold night.

Eating at such stalls is inexpensive (by Korean standards). Typically a skewer of anything is KRW1,000 - KRW2,000. The price for a plate of teokbokgi varies, depending on what you load it with but generally it shouldn't cost more than KRW2,000 - KRW3,000.

Street Food

2004-03-28T03:30:00.000+09:00

What a beautiful sunny spring day today. I came across these on my way to lunch. So you'll forgive me if I didn't stop to eat, which on any other day is a giver.

First stop. Mama sells dog on a stick and Papa sells mini pizza.

Deep fried jumbo sausages. KRW1,000. Just what I need. More cholesterol.

Papa's got a mini oven on his mobile cart. It's industrial strength too, not some plug and play oven.

Toppings are mozarella cheese, onions, diced sausages, corn, mushroom and capsicum (green pepper). KRW2,000 each.

These guys promote their product as Japanese pizzas. FatMan says Japanese pizza = okonomiyaki. These are actually called takoyaki, or octopus balls. Don't get any ideas. This is a family-orientated blog.

Flour balls filled with cabbage, spring onions, diced boiled octopus and served with katsuobushi (shaved benito; paper-thin dried fish flakes) and brown takoyaki sauce (sweetish like teriyaki). Sold in set of 6 balls. Did not get the price. Should be KRW2,000 - KRW3,000. I'll be back for this another day, rest assured.

Sidenote : Notice the flowers behind the octopus guy? That's the standard congratulatory flower stand you'd give someone when they open a new store or business.

Seoul Station

2004-03-27T19:30:00.000+09:00

This is Seoul Station, a significant landmark in Seoul and features prominently throughout Seoul’s rich history. It sits on the south-western tip of metro Seoul and is the central transportation hub for Korea’s rail system. It was built in the early 1900 and was originally named Gyeongseong Station. It was only renamed Seoul Station in 1947.

In May 2000, this all changed. The Korean National Railroad began work on the “new” Seoul Station just beside the original building. The original Seoul Station was designated a national landmark and now houses the Railroad Museum.

This is the new Seoul Station. It was officially opened in January 2004. The left wing is the rail terminal proper. It now accomodates Korea’s first high-speed bullet train system KTX which will officially be launched in a few days’ time. On April Fool’s Day to be exact.

The right wing of the building houses the subway station and the fun stuff. The anchor tenant here is Concos, a branch of the upmarket The Galleria department store.

You’ll also find McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Dunkin Donut, Baskin Robbins, Paris Baguette and upmarket Japanese, Korean and Chinese restaurants. There’s suppose to be an Irish pub in there too, although I didn’t see it for myself. Other Seoul-ites comfort include karaoke rooms equipped with large plasma display panels, a hair saloon, bank, post office, childrens’ playroom, etc. Everything to make your wait for the next train less painful.

This is the ticketing counter. 17 counters to be precise. Statistics has it that about 100,000 people pass through Seoul Station every day. Don’t quote me on that though. I lost track after 7.

The wait area is pretty spacious, with seats to the right as well as upstairs.

This way to the shopping zone. Don’t miss your train though.

People everywhere.

This way to the tracks.

My favourite part of any building ….. the food court.

I glanced through the menu and pretty much all the Korean standards are here. All priced at the typical KRW5,000 region.

It took me a while before I realised the ceiling clock!!

A quick note about food courts. Typically, you place your order at a centralised cashier counter and pay for your order. You’ll then be given a number coupon. You wait till your number is called by referring to an electronic signboard. That’s the red numbers you see on the board on the far wall (to the right of the photo).

An interesting blast from the past here.

RSS Feed

2004-03-26T23:30:00.000+09:00

I've enabled RSS feed to my blog. Well, technically it's an Atom feed, but let's not split hair.

The link - http://fatman-seoul.blogspot.com/atom.xml - is on the sidebar. So if you're using a RSS feeder or news aggregator, you can now add this blog to your client.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you have any difficulties or you'd like to know more about RSS. Also, do let me know if you'd like to see any other features added to the blog.

Mae Oon Tang

2004-03-25T11:30:00.000+09:00

After the somewhat disappointing sam gyeob sal earlier, Mr. Stomach insisted that I make up for it. So I suggested Japanese, to which Mr. Stomach burped consentingly. So here we are at our favourite Japanese restaurant. If you read Korean, you'll get the real name. I just call it "The Big Fish". You can see why.

This is a popular lunch hangout for the working crowd in the area (despite the photo - had a late lunch again today). I used to be a regular here, but not of late.

This place is spacious, you can even play hide and seek behind them bamboo shoots. There are several private rooms for those who need to slurp their soup in privacy.

As always, you order your main course and then wait excitedly for the complimentary side dishes. This is what I like about this place - they have excellent side dishes and they don't stinge. Here's what we get today.

Sauteed mushrooms with carrots, onions, sesame seed, seasoning and a dash of sesame oil. Cold side dish.

Fresh salad of round lettuce, alfalfa sprout, shredded cabbage and purple cabbage, sesame seed, dressed in vinegared garlic and a dash of soya sauce.

Now this one I don't like. No matter how many times I've tried, and no matter how many times I've tried to like it, it just doesn't do it for me. Ice cold, very sour, "pick me up" appetiser with radish sticks. Sorry, next.

Now this one I really like. Salt grilled fish with a dash of soba sauce.

Tempura-style fried sweet potato slices and sesame leaves. Goes so well with the accompanying dipping sauce.

The side dishes of salad, grilled fish and tempura fries are the standard side dishes on every visit. The rest will depend on what's overstocked at the local market.

For today's main course, we'll have the seo deo ri mae oon tang (서더리 매운탕). Mae oon tang means spicy soup. Seo deo ri is black porgy fish. KRW5,000.

This is a hot and spicy soup (duh!). OK. This is a blaringly boiling-hot, runny-nose inducing, tongue numbing, blood pumping bowl of fish soup. Dig in and you'll find lots of leek, straw mushrooms, garland chrysanthemum vege, water spinach, sliced turnip & beansprouts. Delicious!

Good value for money this, with the side dishes and all. Thumbs up. OK. Mr. Stomach is happy now. Back to work.

"Recent Comments" Know How - Anyone?

2004-03-24T01:41:00.000+09:00

As the comments start to trickle in, I've come to the realisation that Blogger doesn't offer the "Recent Comments" listing feature on the sidebar. I know TypePad does but I'm not planning to move over there (yet).

I'm beginning to realise how neat a feature this is as returning commentators can monitor replies much more easily.

Does anyone know how I can do this on my Blogger-hosted blog? Any assistance appreciated. Thanks.

Sam Gyeob Sal

2004-03-23T23:34:00.000+09:00

Man ....... I've got a demanding group of readers. I slack for a couple of days and I get hell. :o) I love you guys still.

Tonight we'll go for some sam gyeob sal. Sam gyeob sal means three-layered meat, or more simply put, bacon Korean-style. I headed to my regular place, which serves great sam gyeob sal. But for some reason, it was closed last night as well as tonight. So I had to settle for this place, which is my first time.

(note - I'm sorry the photos turned out off-colour. I didn't use the flash to avoid drawing attention.)

This place is kinda kinky, as it's got ~~suction cups~~ exhaust fans hanging from the ceiling. I'm just kidding - these are quite common. These hoses are lowered mechanically once the cooking starts at your table. As you can see, there's the meat grilling slowly over the fire. I'll come to that shortly. Let's go through the many complimentary side dishes first.

Raw baby octopus (nakji) served with vinegared chili sauce and fresh cucumber and carrots.

Large-headed beansprouts (kong na mool) seasoned with chili.

Boiled baby spinach seasoned with sesame seeds and preserved beans (this type of non-spicy vege side dish is collectively referred to as na mool)

Japanese tofu (tubular silky smooth beancurd) topped with vinegared chili sauce, sliced fresh chilis and spring onions.

This is the standard Korean salad of shredded raw cabbage (the carrots & spring onion leaves are just ancillary) in dressing made from vinegar, soya sauce and a heavy dose of wasabe (the tear-inducing Japanese mustard).

Fresh lettuce and onion rings with vinegared chili sauce.

Fresh lettuce leaves, sesame leaves, large onion, straw mushroom and green chili.

This is a must have in any meaty meal. Raw sliced garlic (ma neul) and sam chang (chili paste mixed with preserved bean paste). One thing to note is that Korean garlic is really really pungent. Must be the Korean soil.

A dish of seasoned salt? Well, the meat is served and cooked unsalted. So you dab into this if needed. It's a mixture of coarse salt, black pepper and sesame seed.

This is one serving of sam gyeob sal. KRW7,000. As you can see, it is basically just slabs of bacon meat. No marinade, no salt, no nothing. Therefore, the quality of a sam gyeob sal restaurant rests principally on 2 things - the quality of the meat and the grilling medium (e.g. gas burner vs. charcoal).

This place had a charcoal-flamed grill, which I feel is better than the gas burners. After a couple of minutes, the meat starts to pop and sizzle. Be careful. Notice that the fat from the meat drips into a water-lined gutter underneath.

This is the part where your individual preference and skill comes in. It's all about timing. If you want it well done, leave it to burn to a crisp. If you want it tender, remove from fire to the side.

Cut the meat into manageable bite size with the scissors provided.

When you're happy with the meat, pick up a slice or two and place it on a leaf of fresh lettuce. Add salt if desired, the sam chang, garlic and any of the side dishes. Fold the lettuce over and pop it into your mouth. Now chew. When satisfied, swallow. Repeat steps.

There's no hard and fast rules with the side dishes nor with the meat. Eat it on its own or add it to the lettuce wrap. Anything goes.

This is a serving of go chu jang sam gyeob sal (go chu jang=chili paste). KRW7,000.

Almost done. Turn over.

Cut.

Eat.

So do tell. Was it good? I've had better. I'd rate it a 4 out of 10. Next time, I'll go back to my regular place. The pork here is not top grade, and I personally prefer the meat sliced thicker so that it would be crispy on the outside while still tender on the inside. Here it's a little thin for my liking.

BBQ

2004-03-20T23:21:00.000+09:00

Sure there's KFC in Korea. Sure it's finger lickin' good. Sure it's got 11 secret herbs and spices. Sure it's pressure-fried to perfection. But in Korea, go for BBQ.

BBQ is a local franchise specialising in chicken products. They're popular here in Korea, with over 1,000 stores country wide and it's not surprising to see why once you've tried it. Heck, they even run a Chicken University here in Korea, in similar vein to McDonald's Hamburger University.

Check out BBQ's website for a good look at their menu. Today, we're having my 2 favourites. This is how it was delivered. The free side dish is crunchy pickled radish. I'm not really fond of it and usually ends up in the bin unopened.

Now let's get to the good stuff. On the left is their Barbeque Chicken and on the right is the Calcium Seasoned Chicken. As with most items on the menu, you order in either whole chicken or half chicken portions. These are halves.

Half a Barbeque Chicken means you get 2 quarters (breast and thigh) marinated with 20 different seasonings (that's what their ad says - who really knows, right? maybe it's just 18.5 seasonings). KFC, eat your heart out with your paltry 11 seasonings.

As you can see from the photo, cuts are made to the thicker parts to allow better penetration of the marinate. This works very well as the marinade coats and clings to the meat even as it is barbequed. It is not the "typical" BBQ sauce that western tastebuds are familiar with (e.g. hickory-smoked, mesquit, mustard etc.) where the sauces are caramel sweetened. This is very localised for Korean tastebuds, and so it is really spicy, savoury and robust in flavour. I love it. KRW6,500 for half chicken.

Half a Calcium Seasoned Chicken means you get about 8 - 10 pieces of chicken marinated with milk calcium, floured and deep fried, then coated with their own special sauce and garlic.

The sauce has a unique flavour which reminds me of plum sauce, and is sweetish. It's very hard to describe in words. Sorry. But it tastes really good. And even with the sauce, the chicken remains crispy for a sufficiently long time. Thumbs up. KRW6,000 for half chicken.

Korean Language Blog

2004-03-20T19:27:00.000+09:00

If you're interested in studying the Korean language, head on over to Kelly Youngberg's blog kangmi. This is her blog's new home since March 18. Her original blog is here.

There's a very comprehensive list of links to all things related to the study of Korean language.

Big Girl Desert

2004-03-19T14:58:00.000+09:00

Sorry I haven't been eating anything worth blogging of late. Today is just another day of do si rak. By now, you should be familiar with the set up already.

This is the main dish - spicy fried fish. Just ordinary.

Now this one I especially like. Braised bo sod (mushroom) in some seasoning sauce I cannot decipher. Its salty (very) AND sweetish but goes so well with the plain steamed rice. KRW4,000.

For deserts, I had this - Yogur Big (Your Girl Big?). Where do they come up with these names.

Anyway, it comes in a variety of flavours - coconut, peaches, strawberries etc. This one is orange. Basically, its yoghurt jelly with chunks of fruits in it. Not too sweet, just right in my opinion. You don't get much sense of the yoghurt, but the fruit chunks are nice as they burst in your mouth. KRW1,900.

Jackie's Kitchen

2004-03-16T16:17:00.000+09:00

I first stumbled onto this place late last year but took no serious interest in it at the time. Recently, the man visited Seoul to watch the Korean blockbuster Taeguki, and of course, dined at you guessed it. So I was intrigued.

We're talking here of Jackie Chan, of course. The man needs no introduction. As a movie star, I'd accept but as a restauranteur, I'm suspect. So off I went to try out Jackie's Kitchen with the preconceived expectation that the food wasn't going to be all that great, but I was there more for its novelty value.

Jackie's Kitchen (JK) is located at the concourse area of COEX Mall, next to the KFC where the Coffee Bean cafe used to be. Actually, that was how I first discovered it last year. I was needing my coffee fix at my regular Coffee Bean only to realise that it's been shut down and replaced by JK. I Googled at little and discovered that JK is in Japan, US and only lately Korea. Surprisingly, none in Hong Kong, which makes you wonder about the competition over there.

As you'd expect, JK serves predominantly Cantonese cuisine, ala Hong Kong style. They've thrown in a couple of Thai and Vietnamese choices on the menu for good measure. However, going by its name proper, I'd says dim sum and noodles are their specialities. Check out Jackie's Kitchen website for their full menu.

*pause* A little bit about Chinese food here in Korea - chinese food in the form of a sit down meal with rice and course dishes is regarded as "fancy food" here (jajang myeon and the likes excluded) and is not cheap relative to other parts of Asia. To give you an idea, a small plate of sweet & sour pork cost about KRW10,000 - KRW15,000. A dish of tofu can set you back the same. Seafood like fish or prawns? Forget it! Looking at JK's menu, it would seem to be priced somewhere in the middle tier, less expensive than a proper chinese restaurant but more expensive than standard korean fare. *play*

The interior is pretty ~~contemporary~~ yuppie. His face is plastered all over the place and on the far wall is a banner autographed by the man during his recent visit. The place is pretty small, but tables were well spread out and not cramp. There was a decent queue waiting for tables.

Nothing oriental in looks here unlike more "traditional" chinese restaurants. Then again, JK never held itself to be that. Obviously, its catered to the young chic and hip crowd. No wonder they were giving me funny looks that day.

Being a dim sum and noodles place, I guess I should go for just that. This is the siu mai (pork dumpling). KRW3,900.

Dim sum translates to dim=touch & sum=heart. I am not accustomed to paying this much for a serving of dim sum, so I felt more like it touched my wallet more than my heart. However, despite my sceptism, I was pleasantly surprised. Taste wise, it is on par with those found in Hong Kong. The filling was moist, well seasoned and chuncky. Just the way it should be.

Notice the chuncky bits of pork and the whole prawn. Nice. My only complain would be the skin - a tad dry and texture could be smoother - but still acceptable. Otherwise, it's pretty good in a town where dim sum is scarce.

Next was the Marinated Beef Noodles Soup. KRW8,500. This is a street favourite in Hong Kong.

It is served in a very yuppie square bowl (!) which holds the soup, noodles, black mushroom, button mushroom, sliced bamboo shoots, baby pak choy (vege), sliced beef and topped with spring onions. The sliced beef is well marinated in a mix of oyster sauce, soya sauce, 5-spice powder and other seasoning. It's a generous bowl of noodles indeed.

The noodles are fresh, soft and smooth, akin to hand-pulled noodles. The beef stock is flavourful but not overpowering with "beefiness". The button mushrooms seem out of place here but I'll make room for some artistic licence. You won't find button mushrooms popping up in Cantonese cuisine very often though.

My real gripe is actually the beef itself. The sliced beef had very poor texture and was somewhat tough. Typically, one would coat the sliced beef with a little tapioca flour or corn starch before cooking to (1) smoothen the texture and (2) give it a glazy shiny smooth look. The folks at JK didn't do that. So what was had was dry (which I suspect was pre-cooked and set aside for waaay too long before serving) and tough beef slices.

It is an otherwise great bowl of noodles if not for the less than perfect beef.

JK's fried rice and other noodles are also of equally generous portions, so that's good. The dim sum is relatively expensive in my opinion as it will take lots of servings before it hits your tummy. One final gripe - where's the chili oil accompaniment ?? It's just not the same without it.

In spite of my ranting and initial sceptism, all in all, the food's really quite satisfactory. Next time I'll try their orange coloured noodles.

COEX Mall

2004-03-14T23:01:00.000+09:00

This is the Trade Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

It is part of the sprawling Convention and Exhibition (COEX) centre in Seoul, and includes the Hyundai Department Store, Inter-Continental Hotels, City Air Terminal and the Trade Towers.

(graphics from http://coexmall.com)

Underneath all of this is the COEX Mall, one of Asia's largest shopping and entertainment complex. It houses the COEX Aquarium, MegaBox Cineplex and lots and lots of entertainment, shopping and eating outlets. Do check out the very comprehensive website if you're planning to visit.

Getting off at Samseong Subway Station Exit 6, you'll come to the concourse area of COEX Mall, or as I call it, the Smoking Square.

You're not allowed to smoke indoors. I thought this to be interesting for the varying interpretations it allows.

Here are some shots from inside.

That's the entrance to the huge Bandi & Luni Bookstore. (sorry for the poor shot - I was distracted by the whiff of Whopper opposite)

There's always a Starbucks nearby, isn't there?

This is the shooting of a Starcraft championship match which was being telecast live on telly. Games are a big thing in Korea, with gamers earning a living playing games professionally. There are dedicated TV channels broadcasting nothing but championship competitions and games-related programmes. The COEX Mall has a huge games centre with everything from online PC games to Playstations and X-Box.

This is one of several food courts inside the mall. Note the pyramid-shaped glass ceiling.

COEX Mall is a fun place to spend the day and there's something for everyone here.

Happy White Day

2004-03-14T13:01:00.000+09:00

My blog turns one month old today. Happy White Day, you all.

White Day

2004-03-13T21:29:00.000+09:00

“Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a handsome Prince. One fine day, the Prince met the most beautiful maiden he had ever laid eyes on at the annual Spring Fair. It was love at first sight. The Fair Maiden was reluctant to reciprocate, uncertain of the Prince’s true intentions, as he is known to sow his seeds all over this fertile land. The Prince, at a loss, did not know what to do to convince the Fair Maiden of his true love.

Unaware to the Prince, the land’s most evil witch was standing right beside the Prince. The Evil Witch whispered to the Prince “buy her overpriced chocolates and candies wrapped up in adorable but unnecessary lacy wrappings and little bow ribbons and she will fall head over heels for you”. The Prince was convinced and did exactly that. The Fair Maiden accepted the lavish gifts bestowed upon her by the Prince, only never to be seen ever again. The Prince was heart broken and ordered the Evil Witch to be executed. Before her execution, the Evil Witch cast an evil spell over all men that on that fateful spring day every year, they shall buy overpriced chocolates and candies wrapped up in adorable but unnecessary lacy wrappings and little bow ribbons for their loved ones.

This evil spell was cast throughout the land for eternity and so every March 14, men all over this land will fall under this spell. Historians later learnt that the Evil Witch’s real name was The Greedy Corporation. Men all over this land never lived happily ever after.”

If you’re still wondering, tomorrow is White Day. “White WHAT????” I hear you ask. OK. Here’s the deal. We all know Valentine’s Day, right? Well in Korea, V Day is reserved for women to lavish gifts on their men. Profiteering businesses here milk the men one month later, on White Day which falls on March 14 every year. So on this day, men are supposed to do the giving and women the receiving. *sigh* Only in Korea. (oh and Japan)

See the soul-less men of this fair land on the eve of the cursed day.

Aren't they just so cuuuute and adoooorable. *giggle*giggle* Yeah right. You ain't seen the price tag yet.

Jajang Myeon

2004-03-12T16:09:00.000+09:00

Let's talk noodles today.

Unlike some parts of Asia where noodles feature prominently in local cuisine, in Korea, noodles are a distant second to rice. Choices are somewhat limited, both in terms of the type of noodles available as well as the style of cooking.

When one talks about noodles in Korea, jajang myeon immediately springs to mind. So that's what we'll have today. Jajang myeon is regarded as chinese food here. Its name is derived from the chinese words meaning "plain sauce noodles" or more literally, just plain "sauce and noodles". In my travels to many places Oriental, I have NEVER seen noodles such as this before. So this became a point of debate amongst my Korean acquintances and myself. Until today, I still cannot confirm this for myself, but I have been made to understand that certain parts of China (obviously parts I've never been to) do serve noodles of this sort. About time I take a flight to Jajang Province in PRC, or whatever name its called.

So be that as it may, chinese or otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, jajang myeon is Korean to me. For all eternity, whenever I think of jajang myeon, I'll think of Korea.

Enough ranting. Let's eat. This was how it was delivered, double-layered shrink-wrapped, to keep it warm.

First of all, let me just say that it tastes better than it looks! The sauce is made by frying together minced meat & lots of diced large onions, then adding stock, seasoning, thick black soya sauce and finally thicken with cornstarch. The green peas and corn bits are just for colour (if you can call it that) and doesn't really add to the flavour.

Dig in and you'll find the noodles hiding beneath that sea of sauce. The noodles used in jajang myeon is akin to Japanese udon - thick & fat yellow-tinged noodles.

You'll need to perform some finger acrobatics to stir the noodles well. That's why jajang myeon must be taken hot or else the noodles get all sticky and clumpy. Stir fast and mix well ..... and watch that white shirt you're wearing!

OK. Open your mouth. The noodles are smooth and the thick sauce is savoury with a tinge of sweetness. The chunky onions, lots of them, adds crunch to the sauce and reminds me more of cabbage than onions. Nice. KRW5,000.

Jajang myeon is the all-time favourite with kids. They look so adorable with that black gooey sauce all over their face as they try to slurp the noodles. Better clean my face when I'm done.

Peaches Smeaches

2004-03-12T13:55:00.000+09:00

Biggest news of the day here in Korea. Mr. Noh was impeached at 11.56 am today. Talk about bad timing. Guess he won't be having a good lunch today. (Sorry - I just couldn't pass on that one)

Korea Times
Korea Herald
Chosun Ilbo

Full Moon

2004-03-11T18:58:00.000+09:00

This blog is turning one month old in a few days' time. In Chinese customs, it's an auspicious event for a new-born baby. Roughly translated, it means "full moon" day i.e. the baby having gone through a full 30 days cycle of the moon. In Korea, parents celebrate their kid's 100 days' birthday. In Zimbabwe, I dunno.

So I did some housekeeping and cleaned up some broken links, removed some and added a new one, Korean Food Translated. Korean sites, especially Seoul government-related, are undergoing a consolidation exercise and so their urls keep changing of late.

If you guys wanna have a taste of South East Asian flavours, click on the following:
shiokadelicious
umami
mum-mum

These are predominantly food-related, of course. The only reason I've not added them to my links list is because I'm trying to keep the links as Korean-related as possible.

Don Ka Seu

2004-03-11T15:24:00.000+09:00

Another order-in lunch today. Man ... I gotta get out more. Today's lunch is don gga seu (돈까스). Let's pause for a moment. The romanisation of Korean words can go so so many ways that it can be confusing at times. That's why the Government has actually standardised it. This blog makes no attempt to stick to those rules(!!) so you're gonna get many variants of probably the same thing, all depending on my mood at the time of writing. Sorry. So, don gga seu = don ka seu = don kar ser = and so on. On this note, if you're gonna Google anything on the net, just be aware that Korean words can be romanised in many ways.

Let's talk food. Don ka seu (see what I mean?) is a little peculiar, in that it is both Korean and Japanese. Its name is derived from its Japanese counterpart. In most Korean food sites, don ka seu is not prominently discussed. So what is don ka seu? It's basically deep fried breaded pork cutlet.

Clockwise from top left : miso soup, steak sauce, coleslaw dressing, shredded cabbage (with 2 strands of purple cabbage and alfalfa sprout and a slice of cucumber), rice, deep fried pork cutlet, 2 slices of radish pickles, 1 pickled dill & 3 radish kimchi cubes.

Notice the coating is fluffy and fine.

Texture wise, it's kinda like tempura batter - light and crispy. It's not too oily (probably drained well before serving). Dip in the steak sauce for added flavour. Quite a sizeable chunck of meat and a real tummy filler. KRW5,000.

There are variations to this - you could have beef fillets, chicken cutlets, and even have it cheese stuffed (ala Kiev). There's also seafood like fish fillet and prawns, though these are less common.

Deliveries

2004-03-09T14:58:00.000+09:00

Eating in Korea couldn't be simpler. Just make a phone call, place your order, and ta-da it's delivered within 15-30 minutes. You can get ALMOST anything delivered. Once I even witnessed a hot-pot budaejiggae delivered to a home, stove and all!

I guess this concept is familiar to those in the West, but is still in its infancy in most parts of Asia, where deliveries are associated with fast-food like pizzas, the clown burger and so on.

I ordered doh si rak today. KRW5,000. This was how it was delivered. My bundle of joy!!

Comes complete with metal spoon and chopsticks .... none of that disposable crap that can put a splinter through your tongue. That pink coloured cloth doubles as a table cloth too, so you don't mess up your table nor need to clean up after. It's oh so complete. Oh, except it smells a little, that pink cloth.

Ta-da. Clockwise from top left : seaweed soup (mi yuk gook), korean pancake (pa jeon), egg & rice, spicy fish, chinese cabbage kimchi & radish kimchi.

Close-up of the pa jeon.

This is from a previous occasion. No really - I didn't have 2 sets today!! Clockwise from top left : spicy tofu (beancurd) soup, fried luncheon meat (spam) coated with egg, egg & rice, spicy fish, kimchi and vege with sesame seed.

Close-up of the black beans thingy. This was hidden under the luncheon meat in the earlier shot.

When you're done eating, bundle everything up nicely and leave it outside your door. They'll come get it later in the day or tomorrow. And NO you don't get to keep the chopsticks! Well .... you're not supposed to anyway. Shhh .....

What a beautiful system. I wonder if they do barbequed whole lamb?

Street Snacks

2004-03-07T12:18:00.000+09:00

On the streets of Seoul, you'll likely come across stalls selling various kinds of finger food and snacks .... just follow your nose.

While I was at Myeong-dong, I came across this looooooong queue that led to this stall. I don't know the name of this snack, but the sign says "hot bar" (??). I would appreciate if someone could confirm its name though, for the benefit of all.

I'll attempt to dissect this - a flour paste mixed with diced carrots & seasoning, then rolled into a sausage-like shape, topped with sesame leaf, then deep fried.

Squirt some tomato ketchup, honey mustard and serve hot. It's like sticking a hot rod into your mouth (not that I really know how that feels!). Well, what'd you expect from eating something that came out from a hot pot of oil only seconds ago. KRW1,000.

It's texture is somewhat like that of fish cake (like odeng), but softer and smoother. I'm not sure if there's any fish paste in there, but if there is, the taste didn't come through. I've had others on previous occasions that had corn in it, seaweed, spring onions etc. So I guess there's no "standard" recipe to this. It's alright I guess, especially on a cold day, but I won't climb Mount Everest for it.

Next to this stall is another great find. The stall is called Squids 'R' Us. OK. I made that up. But yeah, you'll find all things squid-ly here.

Man! Those toothpicks are killing me.

That's the lady boss cooking up something on the grill pan. My wild guess is it's probably squid.

With my backstage pass, I bring you this shot. The squiggly bits you see are the tentacles, and the flat piece is roll-pressed squid sans tentacles.

Tentacles galore.

The batch of tentacles on the left are uncoated. The ones on the right are coated with seasoned butter before it's pan-grilled. Seasoned with what? I can't really make it out. But I taste a tinge of peanut butter. It's a little oily, but very aromatic. The tentacles are far from tough - they were soft and crunchy. Really nice.

Aaaahh .... served on a page torn out from my favourite magazine - Brides Monthly. Thumbs up for recycling.

This is the roll-pressed squid body, also coated with that same peanut buttery thingy. As with the tentacles, it's soft, tender and aromatic. Very nice. KRW2,000 for this serving of squid-ly heaven and another KRW2,000 for a similar portioned tentacles. Oh .... and I also have no idea what these things are called in Korean. For the moment, I'll just call it "squids with that peanut buttery thingy".

Aaahh ... 20 metres down the road and I see another "hot bar" (?) stall.

This one had more varieties - plain, seaweed, sesame leaf and my favourite, sausage encrusted with the flour paste.

Extreme Makeover

2004-03-07T02:44:00.000+09:00

Korean ladies are ~~obsessed~~ passionate when it comes to their cosmetics. They go to great lengths to care for their complexion and to look their best. I'm not complaining .....

I came across this store in Myeong-dong called The Face Shop. It sells, well, faces. You can just walk in and purchase the face of your choice ...... convenient isn't it?

And if you need to overhaul more than just your face, you can pop in to the shop next door.

Myeong-dong

2004-03-06T23:31:00.000+09:00

Myeong-dong is another of Seoul's shopping haven, albeit more upmarket and touristy compared to Dongdaemun. Myeong-dong is pretty much in the heart of Seoul's financial district.

One of the first images to greet you when you step out of Euljiro 1-ga Subway Station is the landmark Lotte Department Store. It's a posh, upmarket, designer labels type of place. Hmmm ..... a ratio of 5 sales assistants to every customer. Real cosy.

Side view.

Next to Lotte Department Store is Lotte Young Plaza. This young plaza opened late last year and caters to the younger crowd. I feel jaded.

It gets interesting at night. Notice the changing room overlooking the main street?

(stop squinting! there isn't one, perv)

Some street shots of Myeong-dong taken at 4.30 pm. It's just a sea of humans. There's a handful of tourists too.

I enjoyed my day in Myeong-dong. It's a great place to walk around aimlessly, lots of eye candy, lots of good food. Good night Myeong-dong.

Kim Bap

2004-03-05T13:38:00.000+09:00

Kim Bap is synonymous with Korean food. There are even Korean pop songs written about it! Kim bap can be found literally everywhere in Korea - look around the corner and you'll probably find a kim bap store.

Kim bap is a generic name for rice rolled up with laver (dried seaweed) - kim meaning laver and bap meaning rice. It can be taken as a snack-on-the-go, or as a complete meal in itself. There's plain basic kim bap, kimchi kim bap, bulgogi (beef) kim bap, sausage kim bap, cheese kim bap, and the list goes on. My personal favourite is the tuna kim bap and the mixed (mo deum) kim bap, which has a little of everything.

The basic "toppings" are always the same - laver, steamed rice, pickled radish and cucumber, carrot, green vege, crabstick, fishcake & fried egg omelette; all cut into long strips. On top of these basic ingredients they then add the "extras" of your choice - like kimchi, sausage, cheese, tuna etc.

The store I usually frequent is called Jong-Ro Kim Bap, which is a popular franchised chain. You can eat in, take-away or have it delivered to your home.

This is a typical kim bap assembly plant. At my store, we have a four-handed lady who does great kim bap.

Today, I'm having the tuna kim bap (KRW2,500 per roll).

This is called odeng - which is basically fish paste or fish cake. It should be familiar to those living in South East Asia. Cost KRW2,000.

White Neighbourhood

2004-03-05T12:44:00.000+09:00

My neighbourhood turned white after the snowstorm. Scenes from last night.

And this morning.

Happy Shawn? :o)

The Day On Which Insects Appear From Their Holes In Earth??

2004-03-04T21:23:00.000+09:00

It's been snowing all day today. This is expected to continue all night till tomorrow. And it ain't even Christmas.

It seems there's a special term coined for this occurence - "Gyeongchip".

Hae Jang Gook

2004-03-03T23:49:00.000+09:00

This place opens 24 hours. Great for late dinners like tonight (10.45pm).

Not crowded at this hour. That's good. It's usually crowded during lunch and dinner time.

This is different from the hae jang gook in my earlier post. That was kong na mool hae jang gook (bean sprout). This is pork bones hae jang gook (sorry - I will get the full korean name of this the next time I visit - I actually wrote it down but misplaced it). They gave me a whole bunch of side dishes as is usually the case with any Korean meals. I asked them to take it back (so as not to waste) as I wasn't in the mood for any side dishes. I just kept the fresh chilis and sam chang (bean paste chili sauce).

[ update - the full name is "pyeo da gwee hae jang gook" (뼈다귀해장국) ]

This hae jang gook is made from bones stock, various seasonings, kimchi veges and chunky pieces of pork thrown in.

Nice soft fleshy meat chunks. Not tough at all. They just peel off. Nice texture.

Cost KRW5,000. To me, this is just so-so. It's OK, but not great. I prefer the "oomph" of the kong na mool hae jang gook.

This place also serves gam ja tang (potato soup), which I think is the more popular choice here. Will try that next time.

Nescafe

2004-03-02T21:38:00.000+09:00

Whenever I need a coffee quick fix, this is what I take - Nescafe. Six 180ml cans of sugar-ed milked coffee for KRW1,400. Good deal.

There's several brands in the market, like Lotte, Maeil, Maxwell House and even Starbucks. But I'll pass on Starbuck's bottled Frappucino at KRW2,600 per bottle. Some of the other brands are a little mild for me. This one is just nice.

Taegukgi

2004-03-01T22:37:00.000+09:00

~~Band of Korean Brothers~~ Taegukgi. Nice.

(..... and that's why I'll never make it as a movie critic. Oh and bring a box of tissues)