There’s a Bon Dosirak franchise near my day job’s location. This is the latest concept from Bon Juk and Bon Bibimbap. I’ve had a few of these dosirak (lunchboxes) before. I particularly like the way they pay tribute to regional cuisines, like the Andong Jjimdalk dosirak, the Sokcho Spicy Octopus dosirak, and the Chuncheon DalkGalbi dosirak.
I’m going to try to systematically go through as much as I can of their menu in the next couple of months. Honestly, there isn’t much else in this neighborhood. I also find these to be tasty, healthy, and not too harsh on the wallet.
Today, I went there for the first time. The owner was surprised to see a foreigner come in, read the menu (it’s all in hangeul), and order. She even gave me a free cup of soup because I was the first foreigner they ever had.
Today’s dosirak is the first item on their menu, Grilled Deodeok Gochujang Samgyeopsal Dosirak 더덕고추장삼겹쉬 도시락. This is a bit of a nod to Gangwon Province, where they grow deodeok. I’m a big fan of this root. “Bastard’s Ginseng.” It’s sweet and crunchy like a carrot, but it also has a little bite to it, like a horseradish. It’s cooked with some thinly sliced pork belly rubbed in gochujang.
The banchan is all designed to be a rice thief. They can’t be eaten on their own because they’re too sour and strongly seasoned. They need rice for balance. The set comes with a package of kim (dried seaweed) for making little rolls out of the banchan and rice. I also got a cup of maesil juice and the aforementioned doenjang soup.
Clockwise from the rice:
Pajeon (green onion pancake). It had a fresh oil flavor, like that of buttered popcorn.
Fried fishcake.
Deodeok Gochujang Samgyeopsal.
Imitation Crab stuffed with Sweet Potato Mousse. Delightful little morsel.
Jeotgal. Fermented sea critters. These really should just go on the rice. I love this stuff.
Pickled Cucumbers. These were so strongly pickled that they needed rice.
Stir-fried Kimchi.
The full set goes for W8,900. The “danpum” version without the four banchan on the right goes for W7,200.
I think the ice has melted now. Pretty safe to say that. But who knows with that hellish winter that stuck around too long like me at a wine party. Hopefully the list we did on winter survival foods helped a bit. Now it’s time to cope with the heat and the rain.
Eun Jeong and I pow-wowed on this list. As with the winter list, she had reservations on a few items that Koreans don’t consider traditional foods for this time of year. But for a lot of us, these are the foods we cling to that makes the blistering Korean summer bearable. Let’s pop open the ice chest and share the goodies.
10. MulHwe 물회
This chilled sashimi soup and its “bibim” cousin Makhwe 막회 come all slushed out in crushed ice in a refreshing just-spicy-enough broth. Put the frosty stainless steel bowl to your mouth, and it’s like drinking from Arctic waters–if they were filled with gochujang and thinly sliced fish.
9. Patbingsu 팥빙수
I think of Patbingsu as a frozen dessert bibimbap. Shaved ice gets loaded with sweetened red beans, various fruits, candies, pillowy marshmallow-like ddeok plus whatever other additions can be fit in there, like sweetened condensed milk and ice cream. I like mine with a lot of fruit. Just stir it like bibimbap and devour. Watch for patbingsu headaches!
8. Bindaeddeok and Dong Dong Ju 빈대떡과 동동주
These are for a lazy afternoon when the sun is baking or when the rain is beating down on the steamy ground. A crispy, toasty, almost corn scented, Bindaeddeok (mung bean pancake) with the house made rice brew Dong Dong Ju satisfies the inner ajosshi. Enjoy this in the open air or under a shelter isolated by the sea of rain.
7. Samgyetang 삼계탕
This is the obligatory Samgyetang ranking, considering it’s the top traditional cure for summer’s electrolyte depletion. Assuming it was bland compared to other Korean foods, I stayed away from it for years. But one hot day, Eun Jeong was greatly craving it. For me, the chicken isn’t the star. It’s the ginseng and the goodies inside the chicken. That combined with the Insam-ju–soju inflused with ginseng–and the tastes bring me to a cool moss-blanketed forest floor. If you can handle picking through the bones of an entire chicken, this isn’t a bad dish for late summer.
6. Hwe DeopBap 회덮밥
From avlxyz on Flickr
I understand the old guideline that raw fish is meant for the winter. That was good advice before the days of reliable refrigeration. Even though Hwe DeopBap has the name “DeopBap,” it’s treated more like a Bibimbap than just raw fish on rice. It’s rice, lettuce, veggies and some type of raw fish that you mix with vinegared gochujang (Chojang 초장). It’s cooling and would make a great lunch during a day at the beach–or a great lunch that would make you think you’re having a day at the beach. I particularly like mine with some crunchy fish roe sprinkled in there.
5. Strange Korean Ice Creams
Summer brings on new waves of discounted Korean ice creams. We’ve seen the tomato popsicle, the controversial corn ice cream (love it), sweet potato ice cream and the suggestively titled “Big Screw.” There’s that clever watermelon ice cream popsicle with chocolate-covered sesame seeds. The milkshake in a pouch. The popsicle with gum inside the popsicle stick. Sports ice. Pistachio ice cream cones. Fish-shaped BungeoBbang ice cream. Pineapple bars. Melon bars. Red bean popsicles. The Dwaeji Bar.
Summer makes me fat.
4. Oi NaengGuk 오이냉국/Oi Muchim 오이무침
These are almost in the same category. I love the tiny bowl of tangy chilled cucumber soup that comes as banchan with many summer meals. I also look forward to Eun Jeong’s Oi Muchim, which is by far the most popular recipe on ZenKimchi. Thinly sliced cucumbers dressed with onions in a sweet and spicy vinegar dressing. The taste of summer!
Also, Maangchi shows how to make Oi Naengguk.
3. Korean BBQ
Those cucumber dishes are best accompanied by a charcoal barbecue. Not traditionally considered a summer food in Korea, I’m pretty sure the rest of the world considers grilling meat a summer treat. I can’t wait for those steamy heavy nights sitting outside, watching the people go by, grilling galbi and samgyeopsal with some icy draft beers.
2. Fried Chicken and Beer
Speaking of beer, summer is the ideal time for the Korean chicken hof–bars that specialize in Korean fried chicken and beer. It’s a classic combo, right Ludacris?
I keep going back to my first year in Korea and hanging out at Two-Two Chicken with the Ansan gang. Something about the summer heat even makes the mayo and ketchup drizzled cabbage taste good.
1. Naengmyeon 냉면
This is the reason to look forward to summer. I’ve already had my first Naengmyeon fit, and the quenching bowl of noodles doused the heat-induced cravings. And don’t forget the Gangwon Province version called Makguksu. There’s even a makguksu museum out there. This restaurant we went to last weekend also served simple buckwheat jeon that were pleasantly smooth and mild with a touch of the earthiness that makes Naengmyeon noodles so great. *
There are many more summer foods that didn’t make the list but should get an honorable mention, like Mul Kimchi, Makguksu, fresh blended fruit juice and barley tea. What are some others?
* I should note that even though buckwheat is not a grain that comes from grass (like wheat) and doesn’t itself have gliadin proteins that aggravate the gluten-sensitive, most Korean Naengmyeon, Makguksu and Japanese Soba are mixed with some wheat flour so that the noodles can form a strong enough dough, like around 10 percent. So if you’re highly gluten-sensitive, it’s best to avoid them.
Matt Kramer–The most passionate of wine enthusiasts
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 dinners with wine experts would be snobby, snooty affairs.
Hardly so!
In fact, I find that the more people know about wine, the less pretentious about it they tend to be. They’re more bacchanalian sensation seekers who just love life. I noted during Matt’s presentation that there was a slight frustration in his voice. Well, not frustration. He was like a coach, a Dead Poets Society teacher, pushing what I saw were a lot of stiff Korean wine drinkers to enjoy wine for being wine. Wine drinking in Korea is like golf in Korea. Neither is done for enjoyment but for status. It’s a means to look down on your fellow human. Matt’s thesis for the evening was to ditch that bullshit. Dive into the wine. Feel it. Love it. Fuck the shit out of it!
Okay, he didn’t put it like that.
Now, I said this was held at the W’s Kitchen, which the Miele Guide recently put as the #3 restaurant in Korea behind Pierre Gagnaire and Jung Sik Dang. I agree with that ranking. Those are what I also think are the top three serious restaurants in Korea. This dinner proves why–and I’m not just saying this because I got to eat for free.
Since I’m more of a food writer, I’m going to talk more about the food. The dishes were given minimalist titles like I’ve seen at 11 Madison Park and Jung Sik Dang. The first was “tuna.” It was big eye tuna crudo (sashimi), orange and fennel, apple, beet “crisps” and an olive oil “bubble”–a classic modernist technique of making olive oil in the shape of an olive. The tuna was nice and meaty, lightened by the fruit and veg. The beet crisps were fun and whimsical. Sweet like the coating on a candy apple, and stuck to my teeth like that, too. This was paired with Lail Blueprint Sauvignon Blanc 2011. Refreshing. Gulpworthy. (Hey, if you want more serious wine commentary, Wine Korea’s Joshua went to the dinner too).
This was “scallop.” By far the most decadent dish. Why? See that little mandu dumpling to the right? Chef Ciaran Hickey’s favorite thing to do is sneak foie gras in dishes, and foie mandu is the pinnacle of that. In this case, they were tortellini. Was savoring that a good long while. Wine? I have to drink wine? Can’t I savor this a tad longer? Wines: William Fèvre Chablis 2011. Flowers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2009. Matt was very evangelical about Flowers. (On a side note, the web URL for Flowers Winery could also mistake them for a pig farm. Think about it.)
Lobster. Oh, this was also a dish to melt over. Lobster risotto. Iberico jamon. Goat cheese. With a buerre rouge (red wine butter sauce). Red, red, red, red! It was a punchy masculine risotto. This came with one of my favorite wines of the evening, Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2010. It had those full stone fruit pinot noir qualities that I love. The other one was Bouchard Père et Fils Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru “Les Duresses” 2010. By that time, I was just drinking and eating without thinking too hard about the wines–which I gathered was Matt’s intention.
Veal. Roasted veal tenderloin. Pancetta and potato hash (my perfect breakfast). Shallot berry jam. The dishes got redder and redder. Those two fine glasses front and center were Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’alba 2010 and Descendientes de J. Palacios “Petalos” (Bierzo) 2010 (good story about the winemaker here).
Beef. Sous vide beef short rib–look at that color! So succulent and tender. Boratana onions. Boerewers sausage (a little South Africa making an appearance). Garlic aligot (fancy mashed taters). We drank even more wines with this. Crasto Superior “Douro” 2010 and Quinta do Crasto Reserva Old Vines 2010. Matt had us compare these two wines back-to-back. They were basically the same wine–same grape–just grown a few meters away from each other. He used this as an example of terroir’s influence on wines.
Strawberry. Now time for dessert. Panna cotta. Cassis sherbert berry basic consommé. Dried strawberries. That dish got licked up. Finished that with Schramsberg Crémant Demi-sec 2007. This sparkly had a little creaminess that harmonized with the creamy panna cotta. And I was thoroughly sloshed by then.
So much fun!
Seriously, the W Seoul has been working to get these special wine dinners with experts coming in from around the world. It is worth the splurge to have a memorable evening.
Here is the second and final part of the Star King “Cooking King” kimchi jjigae competition where I was on the judging panel. On this one we see the second part of the preliminary round as well as the second group of semi-finalists, along with the finalists and winners.
This second group of semi-finalists had the more exotic versions: stuffed rosemary chicken and shrimp kimchi jjigae, super spicy rib kimchi jjigae, and even pizza kimchi jjigae. None of us were expecting to like the pizza one, but it was GOOOD!
The contestants who won, though, really did have the best pot. The flavor was deep and complex, balanced by sweet chunks of pork.
I couldn’t get my mind off that nakji gguri I had a while back, so I thought I’d try to make it at home. Nakji (little octopus) was on sale, so I picked up a pack.
Also, this was a good time to use my jar of Airborne Thyme Honey, which I received as a gift recently. Love this stuff! Really tastes unique. It’s a New Zealand honey that you can find in the supermarket. A little premium, but it’s real honey–not syrup with honey flavorings.
Sarah and I were invited to a gala event at the La Seine buffet restaurant at the Lotte Hotel. What follows is some serious food pornage.
They started us off with an “amuse.” I think it was more of an appetizer, since an amuse is usually to be eaten in one or two bites. This was a foie gras mousse with what I think was omija jelly and balsamic syrup.
I think the bar ran out of glassware.
You can barely see that bowl to the right. It’s a BOWL OF SEA URCHIN ROE!!!
Went… to… town…
I’m not normally a buffet person. But this one was ballsy in some of the food it put out there as far as flavor and political correctness, like a compilation of a season of Anthony Bourdain. Note the natto sushi in the foreground. Of course I had to have my snotty stinky Japanese soybeans.
Housemade bon bons.
Mr. Takoyaki. Street food REPRESENT! (chest bump)
This is how sushi buffets should run. You point to the nigiri or sashimi you want, and they make it for you fresh.
The twigim girl. I had a small food crush on her.
The noodle station. This was a little complicated. You chose the noodle, the cooking veggies, and the liquid. Then you top it with the other veggies and condiments.
This was sort of a South Asian-Southeast Asian section.
Steamed shark’s fin.
Steamed rockfish.
Singaporean chili crab.
This was a cool station. Peking duck. The cook would carve two slices of meat and two slices of crispy skin and wrap it in a pancake with scallion and hoisin sauce.
Three guesses on what that rack of ribs was.
Of course, of course!
They carved off bits and grilled them. The meat was a little tough, but the flavor of horse, as I’ve said before, is beefier than beef.
The poor lonely Korean food section. Koreans just don’t respect their own cuisine. I, though, dug in!
Especially with my beloved Yuk Hui!
Try as you may, buffet food is just not photogenic when crowded onto a greedy food blogger’s plate.
Except when Sarah does it.
You gotta really have discipline and pace yourself at these super buffets. Just put small bites on your plate. Eat slowly. Have patience and concentrate on the food that’s in your mouth.
I’m still shooting the travel series for Arirang. The rainiest summer in recorded history has slowed down filming somewhat. It was raining when I took this pic. This was in Icheon, which is famous for its pottery. A small town get together was going on at the traditional kiln. A man in traditional clothing stoked the hellfires that ran up an incline. The bottom opening fed oxygen to the network. It also was a convenient opening for grabbing a few red coals and tossing them between some bricks, throwing a grate on there and grilling some pork.
It’ll be a while before I can blog about everything, and some places are just out of the scope of this site. So I’ll link to the Flickr sets I organized of the 2010 trip to New York. Remember that you can see all of the collections and sets on Flickr. I have all pictures divided by month, individual foods and restaurants inside and outside of Korea. All the New York pics are in the September 2010 set.
Last year, my concept of Buddhist temple cuisine was floored by a visit to Baru soon after it opened. I recently returned, this time with a better camera. I am still blown away by most of the food there. The fruit and veggie chips are everyone’s favorite. This time around, they served a meatless Gganpunggi, which I say is close to the American-Chinese Sesame Chicken. I could eat that every day.
Not only is this all vegan food, it also uses no onion, garlic or sugar. No artificial flavorings. All organic. And I actually felt satiated until dinner time.
For a review of Baru (sometimes spelled “Balwoo”) and directions go to ZenKimchi Dining. But this post is all about the pictures.
We started with a tiny bowl of chilled soybean soup, highlighting the restaurant’s seasonal menu. The coldness of the soup was refreshing enough but the sprouts made it even more so.
I had to highlight this one. Simple ggakduggi–little radish cubed kimchi. There is no pickled shrimp or fish sauce in this, but it was pleasantly tart and spicy.
Still on the refreshment kick, we had a salad with radicchio and other firm bitter greens matched with a slightly creamy dressing–but using no cream. It was a little sweet for my taste, but I’m a sucker for structured salads with bitter lettuce blends.
The Sam Saek Jeon, or Three-colored Pancakes, greatly contrasted each other not only in color but in flavor and texture. I especially liked the one on the left, made with kimchi. The one in the middle was beany, and the one of the right tasted of pumpkin.
Ah, now we’re playing with pumpkin. The dumplings on the left are filled with sauteed pumpkin and zucchini. The jellies are pumpkin and buckwheat. Not much flavor in the jellies themselves, but the toppings punched you in the face. The real summer treats in the back were rice wraps with pumpkin leaves. Like Greek dolmades but more of a vegetable garden on the outside with fermented soybean paste hidden inside.
This was their take on Gganpunggi, which is my favorite Korean-Chinese dish. This got devoured immediately. I didn’t get around to asking what the meat-like substance was, but its texture and high protein flavor made it satisfying.
This was the only dish I wasn’t too wild about, even though I love wild sesame. It’s a thick wild sesame soup with mowi stems–kinda related to rhubarb, I think. I just didn’t like the stems. There is such a thing as being too vegetal.
Ah, now here is what I consider the heart of temple cuisine–the lotus leaf rice. Even though it’s considered Chinese, I think that Korean Buddhist have put their own stamp on this.
It’s basically Samgyetang without the chicken. Gingko nuts, jujubes, pine nuts and medicinal stuff are steamed with rice in lotus leaves. The aroma just transports you to some exotic mountain hideaway. EJ wasn’t a big fan of this, but I love it.
With the rice we had traditional Korean banchan. The little surprise was in the bowl to the right. It’s a little shy. It was a paste made with tofu and doenjang. Would go perfectly on crackers.
The set menus start at around W30,000. Temple cuisine seems to be becoming a trend in Korea, and Baru is one of the hardest reservations to get in Seoul. You need to reserve three days in advance. That’s pretty big in Seoul, where it’s common to not plan anything until the last minute.
Wine Korea’s Joshua Hall is an interesting cat. He’ll take a $50 bottle of wine to a simple Korean dive because the pairings fit.
I had the pleasure of sharing this German Riesling with him at a hole-in-the-wall pajeon joint in Yeoksam-dong last week. The wine was W34,000 (cheap by Joshua’s standards), and the mixed jeon was W7,000.
The effed up thing about this is that it worked. It actually worked. If you want to know more details about the wine and such, read all about it on Wine Korea.
