Giant Mandoo, Insadong, Seoul

Our friend GH took us out again in the traditional Insadong neighborhood to this famous mandoo (dumpling) place. I wish this picture actually portrayed the size of these mandoo - like I had a Swiss Army Knife held up to them for scale. Each mandoo above was about 4 inches in length and 2 inches wide!

We had our mandoo in a big hotpot that cooked on a burner on our table - here it is in still-raw state -- raw beef, raw egg, enoki and other mushrooms, cabbage. While the stew cooked, we had cold noodles, bulgogi, and panchan.

Western Food in Korea Part Four: Brunch

A recent NY Times article wrote about how brunch is the hot thing in Korea, as result of the mandatory 5-day work week (down from 6) and the perception of brunch's sophistication brought on by such popular shows as Sex in the City.

Our motivation, however, for going to brunch in Korea was because redneckhunter's brother, having been stationed at Kunsan Air Force Base for months, missed real eggs and bacon that weren't rehydrated in an MRE!

We went to The Flying Pan Blue in Itaewon (the ex-pat district). I'm Asian, so I can say this without being racist, but I wondered if the name was a play on the Asian inability to pronounce "r"s...

For the first time in Korea, we had "Western" food that was indistinguishable from what we get back home. Plus it was really really good -- poached eggs with pesto over mushrooms and grilled sourdough, fried eggs over easy with bacon, banana pancakes, fig and ricotta pancakes.

Needless to say redneckhunter's brother was very very happy and vowed to go back every time he had leave off-base and to bring all his basemates. If the Flying Pan Blue suddenly notices an onslaught of U.S. Airmen as customers... well, we'll know why.

Western Food in Korea, Part Three

I've always loved Western-style bakeries in Asia. The bread dough favored by Asians is akin to challah - soft and buttery, light yet chewy. And the combinations of ingredients deemed appropriate for pastries is great -- corn, tuna, whatever!

We were lucky enough to have a "Paris Baguette" at the base of the building where we were staying.

Above is a vegetable breakfast pastry from there -- ham, red pepper, cheese, ketchup, and mayonnaise. To the left is a breakfast sandwich with egg salad, ham, and American cheese.

At a place in Itaewon (the ex-pat district) we got this breakfast wrap -- pieces of white bread with the crusts cut off wrapped around fried eggs, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise. Redneckhunter's brother thought it was one of the best egg sandwiches he'd ever had.

Western Food in Korea, Part Two

Can you believe there's poutine in Korea? We had to go into this place when we saw the menu outside.

We tried three kinds -- the poutine of course, nacho-style, and chili-cheese.  

The poutine didn't compare to Montreal of course, but was the best of the three.  Instead of curds, I think they used pizza cheese.  Sadly, the blandest of the three was the chili.

Western food in Korea, part one

Just as Chinese people who come to the States and eat at an American Chinese restaurant are baffled by the fortune cookies, so too am I amused by what they call "Western food" in Korea. Redneckhunter and I had this meal at one of the food courts in the Dongdaemun market shopping area, at the restaurant labeled "Western food."  Kimchi fried rice (above), and ohmu rice (below) -- basically a rice omelet.   The lattice work of condiments on my omelet was mustard and barbecue sauce.

Fusion dokbokki

I never got sick of eating dokbokki (rice cakes in spicy sauce) on the street. So much so that I even ordered it in a restaurant one night. Our friend Angus took us one of his favorite restaurant districts, Sinsa. Unfortunately the restaurant he wanted to go to was packed, so we walked down the street to an un-tried basement fusion pasta place.

First off, we were the only customers and we were escorted to a curtained "make-out" booth. Being an Asian female with two Caucasian males, maybe our waitress got the wrong idea about me....? Then we realized that the place had no picture or English menus. So the waitress begrudgingly translated each item. When she got to mine -- dokbokki with seafood, I said, oh, that's what I want. She warned me, it's really spicy... but I said that was alright.

It was like some Korean Mediterranean hybrid, full of mussels, shrimp, fish, calamari, crab, and boy was it spicy. The spiciest thing I had in Korea through our whole trip!

Now, I used to say the measure of a developed vs. third-world nation was in their toilet paper and ice cream technology. Well, South Korea is a developed nation and their toilet paper is fine, but what's with the cocktail-sized, single-ply, non-absorbent napkins? Like some sick joke, they have one of the world's spiciest cuisines, worthless napkins, and it's rude to blow your nose at the table! I didn't care, I couldn't help it -- it was a mouth-burning sinus-clearing 7 tissue meal for me!

Best Street Food in Korea

The ubiquitous street food in Korea is dokbokki (rice cake in spicy sauce). Everywhere you looked, you'd find a tarp-covered stall, a big pot of the red stuff, and a Korean woman happy to scoop you up a plastic-bag-lined bowl for you to eat with a toothpick on the sidewalk.

It was perfect sustenance for walking around in the bitter cold - and we had some good, and some not so good bowls of it.

But our revelatory food moment came at a food stand near the Namdaemun market, when we tried this variation of dokbokki, in which the rice cake tube was wrapped in pork sausage, stuck on a stick, and dipped in hot sauce.

It was amazing - by far the best thing we ate in Korea. Absolute perfection on a stick. The best foods are the ones you dream about, and this was definitely it.

Korean Table D'Hote

After Honolulu, redneckhunter and I kept flying across the Pacific to Seoul, Korea to visit friends. Our friend GH has been completely won over by Seoul and thinks Korean food is the best in the world. Strong words coming from a guy who has lived in Thailand and Vietnam!

He took us to a place in the traditional neighborhood of Insadong that served Korean food "table d'hote" style - meaning they bring you dish after dish after dish in a seemingly endless multi-course meal. The idea, he said, is that the table should break under the weight of the food.

Above was a salad to start with dried squid and spicy sauce.

I can't even list all the dishes that came - sashimi, soondubu (tofu stew), fish, vegetables, kimchi.



Redneckhunter loved the bulgogi which was sweet and delicious.

And as if this wasn't enough food, after dinner we went to a shoju bar (one that served fruit infused shoju for such girly drinkers as myself).

Most bars require that you order food if you are going to occupy a table, so we got a great kimchi pajun (pancake) to go with our apple and grapefruit shoju.