Delicious Korea

Kimchi buchimgae

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 08:41:00 +0000

김치부침개, Kimchi buchimgae

This Korean cuisine is Korean style pancake made of Kimchi.
Flour and Kimchi are main ingredients of it.
Sometimes we add chopped onion, or other vegitables.
I saw someone adding sugar, but I would never do that.

Excellent for late afternoon's snack on a weekend day. :)

E-mart

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 04:12:00 +0000

E-mart, where I usually buy food and things.

E-mart is no.1 discount store in Korea.
(Is the word right? Do they call it 'discount store'? store like Walmart, Carrefour, etc.)

Worldwide no.1, Walmart used to be no.5, but now they withdrawed from Korea.
Carrefour followed Walmart. They also gave up Korean market.
It is said that the two big stores failed localization.

Kimchi jjigae restaurant: Jang-ggo-bang

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:51:00 +0000

Kimchi jjigae (김치찌개) restuarant, 'Jang-ggo-bang(장꼬방)' is located at Seocho-dong, Seoul.

It's near my workplace, so I could drop by at lunch time one day. Dishes are inexpensive (considering it's located in Gangnam area) and neat.

Basic setting. Pickled sesame leaves(절인 깻잎), Kimchi(김치), and Gim(dried seaweed,김). Gim is not the usual salted one, but what you eat with soy sauce. These three are all good. Before they serve Kimchi jjigae, it is happy to eat these dishes with rice. Especially we liked the Kimchi.

It is Kimchi jjigae which this restaurant is specialized for. Unlike usual restaurant in Korea, they serve a small bowl of the jjigae for each person, not a big pot for several people. Hence it is easy to eat and neat. The jjigae is made of mature Kimchi (most important material, 묵은김치), Welsh onions, and pork. Both the basic dishes and jjigae look simple but taste wonderful.

Big yellow one is Korean egg roll (gyeranmari, 계란말이) which is similar to omelet. We ordered one egg roll with one Kimchi jjigae for two people, and we finally ate all the Kimchi jjigae but gave up eatting the egg roll completely up.

Beside the entrance of restaurant, you will see a woman keeps on making egg roll, which is quite interesting to look at while you are waiting for the seats empty.

Nurungbap(누룽밥) and Sungnyung(숭늉) are self-serve. You can eat as much as you like. Additional rice (밥) is also self-serve and no extra charge. People who eat a lot may like this restaurant. :)

Kimchi jjiage with mature kimchi, which is quite common cuisine, is modernly recreated here. There are some resturant which says "Our specialty is blah~ blah (우리는 뭐뭐뭐 전문입니다)" but actually we find no specialty on them. Unlike those, Kimchi jjigae is really specialty of Jang-ggo-bang. On the sign, they say food is made of fresh materials from Jeollabukdo province(전라북도). I don't know I should believe it 100%, though, it gives more points.

Ganga - Indian restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 09:54:00 +0000

I like Indian curry.
Though it is uncommon and quite expensive in Korea.
My favorite Indian restaurant is Ganga.
The first shop opened in Apgujeong-dong, Seoul.
And now there are several branch restaurants.

These photos are taken in the one at Apgujeong-dong.

Nan - Indian bread

I like this very much. Eating nan is fun, even without curry. People also eat curry with chawal( ice). I prefer nan to chawal.

Palak paneer - Spinach curry

It tastes much better than I expected.

Chicken Makhni

There're more than ten sort of chicken curries in Ganga, and this is my favorite one. Cream and butter included make it more soft and delicious.

Dal bukhara - bean curry

I was curious what curry tastes like if it contains beans. It's not bad. But previous two curries are better I think.

Tandoori chicken salad

Tandoori chicken is one of the most famous Indian food. Red color and herbs are remarkable.

Indian chilli chicken

A little hot, but not to be concerned much. I think Tandoori chicken is better.

Ganga

The place is rather dark to take photos of food. But I like the atmosphere.
Everything's good here.... except the high price.
It usually costs more than 20,000won per person. (about 21 USD)

I hope Indian cusine get more popular in Korea, so there are more of new Indian restaurant which may effect the price.

golbaengi muchim (골뱅이 무침)

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 19:18:00 +0000

This is "Conch mixed with vegetables." (골뱅이 무침)
I made it by myself.
In favor with soju (Korean hard drink) drinkers.
The beer (MGD) is substituted for soju, since I prefer beer to soju.

Eric's New York Steak

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:23:00 +0000

I found that there is a new steak restaurant near my office.

pepper steak

The name of restaurant is Eric’s New York Steak. They have cheap lunch courses like pepper steak + soup + bread + salad + coffe (or jasmine tea) at the price of 12,000won (about 13USD). Considering the expensive beef price in Korea and other prices in Seoul, the price is quite good. Since I have not been to New York, I don't know about the taste. I just hope that real New York steak is not very different from this.

cream soup

salad

bread

the entrance

Spring of Seoul

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:07:00 +0000

Forsythia in front of my office.

Forsythia is one of the most typical spring flowers in Korea. The yellow flowers make us happy to feel the spring has come.

Doesn't the spring of Seoul look delicious? :D

Breakfast at Burger King

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 12:29:00 +0000

Breakfast at Burger King near Yangjae subway station, Seoul.

It is a bacon croissant meal, I remember. There are tens of Burger Kings in Seoul. Not all the Burger Kings are open in the morning. Only a few that are located in downtown serve breakfast.

One strange thing about Burger King in Korea is that they don't have breakfast menu displayed. You can see breakfast menu printed on paper only on your demand. I guess that's because there aren't many folks in Korea who order breakfast meal which is not well-known to Korean compared to the Whopper.

Sindangdong Tteokbokki Town

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:16:00 +0000

Tteokbokki in previous post is from Sindangdong, Seoul, where famous tteokbokki town located. It is not far from center of Seoul. Between lots of restaurants, I chose the most famous one - Grandma Ma Bokrim's tteokbokki.

tteokbokki - rice cake stew

noreply@blogger.com (Hanti) — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 18:46:00 +0000

Tteokbokki - Rice cake stew.

You might think it's yucky to hear 'cake stew', but a rice cake is not a real cake. It's a small gummy stick made of sticky rice.

Rice cake(tteok) itself is white, and so is the noodle(ramyeon). It is the soup which make the whole red. You also see dumplings, eggs, cabbages and onion.

It tastes sweet and hot. Koreans generally like hot and spicy food.

Usually teenagers (especially girls) like this, and one of the reason is that it's cheap.

Photo below is tteokbokki before it is cooked.