VIPS (pronounced, um, vips) is Korea’s version of Sizzler. It’s a chain steakhouse run by CJ Foodville that has been around since 1997. When I first came to Korea in 2004, it and Outback were the only places to get steak, really. Back then Outback was even better. But over the years Outback really slid in quality while...
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The fine folks at Yeontabal 연타발 invited me over for a night of some lovely beef intestines and heart. I’m usually skeptical of a lot of upscale Korean restaurants because they usually think fine dining is just a bunch of fussy pretension, high prices, and bland food. Not so at Yeontabal! They’re pricey, but that was a...
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The beer renaissance I was talking about during my 7brau IPA review video is backed up by what’s going on in the Korean bar scene. Brewpubs have been around a bit and got a big leap when Craftworks opened in 2010. The beer conglomerate laws got relaxed a bit to enable small producers to sell their beer to other pubs. The...
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There are no casinos in Yeongdeok, but few other places rival the gaudy, hyperreal simulacra of the infamous city in the Nevada desert. Clinging to the buildings on Yeongdeok’s waterfront are giant crustaceans in bright orange armour. The town seems to exist only as a monument to the King Crab, a tribute to the insatiable Korean...
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A couple of months ago, I was invited to the restaurant Kitchen at the W Seoul Walkerhill for an amazing wine pairing dinner with legendary wine scribe Matt Kramer from Wine Spectator. Matt’s been writing for WS since the ’80s, but he’s been writing about wine since the ’70s. You’d expect these wine...
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새해복많이받으세요! Saehae bok mahni badeuseyo! The Lunar New Year mass exodus from Seoul has begun. Sidle up to a bowl or two of TteokGuk (recipe here). While you’re here, we’re looking for some writers to join us at ZenKimchi. Specifically, we are looking for Korean food writers in the L.A., Chicago, and Atlanta areas as well...
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Korea has gotten much better for finding foreign products than when I started this blog. But some stuff is still difficult to find. One thing I have never made in Korea is lasagna. That already requires a good bit of work even if you do have ingredients on hand. What got me started was finding lasagna noodles at Home Plus....
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Wow, the conspiracy theories grow and grow about how we do things at ZenKimchi. And there’s a lot of willful ignorance out there. Here are some new things I’m going to add to our FAQ. Do you give good reviews in exchange for free meals? From the beginning, it has always been a policy of ZenKimchi that none of its...
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I had heard that this was in the works. It was announced at a press conference last night. I should note that the foreign press was not invited, so it has appeared in the Korean dailies before the WSJ and other international outlets. Basically, the news is that the big food conglomerates are being put on a leash and tied to a tree....
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