Piknic 피크닉

194 Namchang-dong, Jung-gu

www.piknic.kr

At the center of Hoehyeon-dong’s resurgence is Piknic, a multi-use cultural space that houses a gallery, restaurant, café and shop. Currently, the gallery hosts Korea’s first-ever exhibit of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s work that gives insight into the artist’s concept of sound and space. On the first floor is Kafe Piknic, a partnership with Itaewon’s Hell Cafe. The sun-filled café with its one lone table under a row of glorious chandeliers make it an otherworldly space. But the real magic happens at 6:30 p.m. when the sun goes down, the lights go up and Kafe Piknic turns into Bar Piknic. Its tapas menu is a simple but delightful creation from Chef Sunghoon Lee. The bar is also noted for its selection of natural wines curated by Zero Complex’s sommelier, Clément.

Another gastronomic delight is Michelin-starred Zero Complex from Chef Lee Choong Hoo. It’s difficult to box Chef Lee’s food into any particular category, but French cuisine informs his style. The main sources of inspiration are Chef Lee’s everyday experiences, realized through weekly trips to a farm in Yeoju where he sources local, seasonal vegetables. While much of the food is based on French classics, Chef Lee mixes in Korean ingredients and flavors he grew up with. Sometimes it leads to unexpected results such as his endive and caramel mousse dish.

Kumsan Noodle Factory 금산제면소

31-1 Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu

kumsan-noodle-factory.business.site/

Confidence is evident at Kumsan Noodle Factory. So are glorious noodles — spicy, Sichuan-style tan tan noodles that deserve a cool draft beer to wash down. A one-dish menu shows confidence and dedication. It’s hard to disagree with Chef Chanwook Chung’s vision to serve a perfect bowl of the authentic Sichuan noodles, and if the waiting lines (and our taste buds) are any indication, he’s succeeded.

There’s no big sign outside marking its location in a small, out-of-the-way alley, but if you do find your way, be prepared to wait. The space is warm but cozy with just a single bar with ten seats. Also, while a single serving of noodles cost KRW 12,000, there are extra sides of onsen egg, seasoned meat topping, pickles, green onions, rice topped with fried onions and mara seasoning to add further oomph to your bowl. The array of side dishes and seasoning also allows you to make your own tan tan noodle creations. The rapper Gaeko suggests that after finishing about half the noodles, add some vinegar seasoning to the onsen egg and mix it into the noodles, and just as you’re about to finish, add some mara seasoning for the final kick. We suggest finishing with the rice topped with fried onions.

Buwon Myeonok 부원면옥

10-47 Namchang-dong, Jung-gu

Naengmyeon used to have a reputation as the “everyman’s dish,” cheap but delicious. But with the foodie adoration for Pyongyang naengmyeon, naengmyeon prices have shot way up. It’s hard to find bowls for less than KRW 10,000 these days, unless you’re headed to Buwon Myeonok. This classic nopo was founded in the 1960s. Tucked in between clothing shops at Namdaemun Market, it’s easy to miss the small entrance leading to the second floor restaurant.

Some call this naengmyeon shop the “Lotteria of the naengmyeon world.” It’s partly because of its price, about KRW 7,000 for a bowl, compared to other naengmyeon shops that charge nearly double. That doesn’t mean Buwon Myeonok skimps on quality. The naengmyeon here uses buckwheat flour and sweet potato starch from Jeju Island. The resulting noodles are thin and soft in texture. The broth is rich and savory, using pork leg bones and meat. Whole onions are used in the stock, and some say that there’s a slight sweetness to the broth, in contrast to other Pyongyang naengmyeon shops. The broth is also frozen before being served, and it’s the best thirst quencher for the hot summer months. Order some mungbean pancakes as well — at KRW 4,000 a serving, you won’t find a better deal elsewhere.

Eunho Sikdang 은호식당

43-50 Namchang-dong, Jung-gu

The owner-family of Eunho Sikdang has been selling stomach-filling soups in and around Namdaemun Market since the 1930s. The family baton has been passed down to the fourth generation, continuing to make its famous kkori gomtang or oxtail soup. There’s no particular secret to its oxtail soup recipe: it’s all about sourcing quality ingredients and cooking with care. The oxtail is boiled whole with beef leg bones, brisket, soju and wild perilla seed powder for three to four hours. The oxtail bones are meaty, and the resulting stock is rich and flavorful without the funky smells.

If you want even more oxtail bones in your soup, try the kkoritomak. There’s a surprising amount of meat on the bone, and the somen noodles are served separately so you can be guaranteed of one very filling meal. The restaurant also offers free refills of noodles and soup. But these oxtail soups and kkoritomak can be a bit pricey so take a look at the range of cheaper soups like seollongtang and haejangguk or hangover soups.

Written by Cynthia Yoo

Curated Eats at Amorepacific

아모레퍼시픽 신사옥

100 Hangang-daero, Hangangno 2(i)-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

The folks at Amorepacific have done an outstanding job of curating great eats all over the city to their new headquarters near Sinyongsan Station. Itaewon has great representation here, including the Hansik bistro, parc (02-6349-2022). Five years ago, co-owner Pak Mogua named the restaurant after Parc Guell in Barcelona. Their mission was to become a trusted neighborhood eatery, or dangoljip, by providing delicious meals with friendly service, day after day. We think they’ve succeeded. While the restaurant is known for its daily-changing lunch specials or bansang, there is also an à la carte menu that features delicious mains like the beef short ribs, or galbijjim, featured here. The braised short ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender and flavored with a sweet soy-sauce glaze and a slight spicy kick from chili peppers. Just like its Hannam-dong location, the interior design at

Amorepacific is modern and sophisticated. It feels like comfort food in Monocle-stylin’ digs (by the way, parc was featured in the magazine’s Seoul guide).

Another Itaewon hotspot, The Booth (02-1544-4723) is open for business at Amorepacific. The franchise that brought us pimec, or a pizza and beer combo, has concocted some delectable brews for the summer, including its iconic Kukmin IPA with its full body and rounded mouthfeel balancing out its fragrant and exotic aroma. When the summer humidity becomes too much to bear, head over for a pint of EurekaSeoul Citra Hop Ale. The long name alludes to the eureka-esque citrus flavors mixed together with the freshest hops around. And yes, pair the pints with pizza slices for a perfect pimec ending.

The basement “select dining” hall represents some of the most popular eats around town. Deokja Tteokbokki began as a hole-in-the-wall snack shop near Sinnonhyeon Station but quickly became famous for serving high-quality bunsik fare. Feeling a little Southeast Asian food? Take your pick of some delish Thai at KONThai (02-795-6001) or some        San Francisco-style pho at Pho for You (02-2266-9886). If burgers and fries are more your thing, try BurgerGuru72 (02-6327-7272), famous in Seorae Maeul for its signature burger topped with blue cheese and balsamic vinegar. You can order a burger with potato fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings or even cassava chips. If you can splurge on a meal, there’s Kobachi Izakaya where an omakase meal will set you back KRW 80,000. There’s more than one dessert shop to satisfy your sweet tooth, including Amorepacific’s own Osulloc (070-5172-1170), Little & Much’s second bakery brand A Lot (02-6367-1023), Café Alto by Meal (02-6462-5050), Dorrell (02-6365-3675) and Godiva.

Samgakji’s Daegutang Alley and Bargain Eats

삼각지 대구탕골목

Hangangno 1(il)-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

While brand new high-rises tower over the Yongsan district, Samgakji has always been home to gaseongbi, or bargain restaurants and bars where office workers flock to. Samgakji is particularly famous for its haejangguk or hangover soup, shops. One local institution is Won Daegutang (02-797-4488) serving arguably the city’s most famous codfish hotpot. Opened in 1979, the restaurant became so popular with local workers and the soldiers from the nearby army base that soon other codfish restaurants opened nearby and now the area is known as Daegutang Alley. The codfish hotpot is filled with large chunks of codfish and intestines (tip: order ban ban seokeo or “half and half mix” to get some fish intestines and roe with the codfish) in a spicy broth balanced with water parsley and bean sprouts. During these dog days of summer, daegutang is the perfect yiyeol chiyeol or “fight fire with fire” cure for the summertime blues. Don’t forget to ask for the fried rice made with a special radish kimchi, laver flakes and wild perilla oil. All this for KRW 10,000 per person. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better deal elsewhere in town.

Another popular fish hot pot restaurant is Hangangjip (02-796-7452), famous for its spicy pollack stew. But the real bang for your won joint in Samgakji is Yetjip Guksu (02-794-8364). A mere KRW 3,000 will buy you a bowl of delicious noodles in mild but flavorful broth made with quality ingredients, including anchovies, kelp and green onions. A roll of gimbap will only set you back KRW 1,500. The food is basic but high quality, and the service is warm and friendly to boot. At the end of Daegutang Alley is Bongsanjip (02-793-5022), a dilapidated barbecue joint that has created the formula for beef brisket barbecue. The meat is sliced thin and grilled over coal briquettes. What makes the barbecue addictive is the dipping sauce, a slightly sweet and spicy soy sauce seasoning filled with sliced peppers, green onions and cabbage. Fans of Bongsangjip never forget to finish the meal with the house doenjang jjige. Filled with slices of brisket, the stew is delectable to the very last spoonful.

Written by Cynthia Yoo
Photos by Romain John

Songnidan-gil  송리단길

Songpa-gu 송파구, 45-gil Baekjegobun-ro, Songpa-gu

The city’s largest and most populated district, Songpa-gu is undergoing a dining renaissance

It’s official. Songnidan-gil is now on the map. Found behind Seokchon Lake, 45-gil Baekjaegobun-ro stretches into a growing neighborhood of hip, tasty eats, cafés and bars. The name itself is a play on Gyeongnidan-gil, a virtual food theme park found in Itaewon that’s now synonymous with all things youthful, global and hip.

It’s a recent change and the neighborhood is still full of the usual basic but nondescript eateries selling barbecue, fried chicken and hoe. Seokchon Lake was famous too for its row of big, bland, and overpriced cafés and “Italian” eateries, with nothing but lakeside views to boast of. Recently, genuinely good eats like Ilil Hyang (02-421-8900) and Little Papa BEP (02-416-2788) have muscled into the main drag along with small soba shops, bakeries and izakayas, promising something more distinctive and delicious.

Easiest way to begin your Songnidan-gil adventures is to enter the road at the corner of Ilil Hyang, famous for its eohyang dongo and old-fashioned jjamppong. Only a block in, you might notice a long line of folks waiting for their bowl of maze soba at Menya Hanabi (070-8559-1108). It’s a sight you’ll see again and again at popular but small restaurants like Manfuku (02-424-4702), famous for its salmon belly don and crazy long lines. If you do have the patience for small restaurants and long lines, look no further than Mizza Sikdang (02-425-0809), with its homestyle-Japanese cooking and retro interior design. Not a fan? Try Niente (070-4001-7846) across the road, also run by the folks at Mizza Sikdang. Here, it’s pasta, pork chops and panna cotta but there’s no lines, as they take dinner reservations.

The neighborhood is also seeing a growing number of new Songpa branches of popular restaurants across the city. Jamsil residents can now line up for avocado burgers at their very own Downtowner (070-8868-3696). Tip: Order take-out and eat at Seokchon Lake. Feeling tacos? Try the local God Eat (02-487-9451). Ikseondong’s ChangHwaDang has a new Jamsil branch (02-411-6078) with much shorter lines for its dumplings and noodles. And a new Song Chef branch (02-421-1178) can battle it out with the Seokchon Lake branch of Ilil Hyang. Note: It might not be that easy as Song’s owner-chef worked at Ilil Hyang and his restaurant features essentially the same menu.

The crowds used to fill the streets of Seokchon Lake just for the Cherry Blossom Festival but now the new eats and cafés of Songnidan-gil draw them in throughout the year.

Saemaeul Market 새마을시장

Songpa-gu 송파구, 12 gil Seokchonhosu-ro, Songpa-gu

Tucked in between huge apartment complexes, there’s a decades-old traditional market, Saemaeul Market. It survived the competition from supermarket chains, department stores and online shopping by offering a wide range of produce and foodstuff at competitive prices. The local business owners continually made improvements and modernized, including offering delivery services. Their efforts were recognized by the city with the market’s recent official registration as a traditional market.

It’s easy to make an afternoon of it at the market, shopping and trying out some of the popular eats. On a rainy day, try out one of the bindaetteok and pajeon restaurants with a bottle or two of makgeolli. The market fried chicken joints are delicious and super-cheap, but there’s also the popular Kim Panjoe Dak Gangjeong (02-421-4792) selling sweet and spicy sauced chicken fritters. Another famous take-out joint is Pao Pao (02-412-9198) famous for its shrimp dumplings. But it’s not all chicken or fowl, and jokbal fans can head to Gongssinae (02-418-7197) famous for its jokbal and bossam available for take-out and dine-in. Bunsik shops line the market, so try the spicy tteokbokki and fritters at Color Bunsik (070-4078-1172) and Kketip Dakgangjeong (02-2203-1770).

Food Courts 푸드코트

Songpa-gu 송파구, Lotte, Garden 5, Tower 730

Mall food is not a pejorative term for Songpa residents. They grew up with the bapjip and bunsik shops in the small arcades located inside each apartment complex. Even today, most families get their banchan and quick and cheap meals at the basement food stalls. Some have become franchises of their own, like the all-you-can-eat tteokbokki, Buwung Ppabang (02-415-8033). Jangmi arcade has its Jeongsun Hambak (070-7721-1330), famous for its old-fashioned hambak steak. Ricenz arcade are some good quality bapjips like Surasun (02-420-7775) and sushi joint, Choi Sushi (02-2202-5518).

Of course these days, Lotte is ramping up its mall food line-up. The department store renewed its basement food hall and scouted famous Korean and international eateries into its “Open Dining Pub”. The newer Lotte World Mall is a smorgasbord of local and international restaurants and cafés. Try the signature pancake brunch at the elegant Bills (02-3213-4185), but there’s also chicken and waffles at Korea’s first Bruxie outlet (02-3212-4790).

Garden 5 offers outlet shopping and more mall food, but if the selection is overwhelming, there’s a more edited line-up at Tower 730. The basement dining floor features the craft beer brewery and restaurant Amazing Brewing Co. (02-420-5208).

Written by Cynthia Yoo
Photos by Romain John

There’s more than just buckwheat flavoring the noodles at Namgyeong Makguksu. Love is in the air: Love for Korean tradition, for a Pyeongchang grandmother, for a wife, the texture and chew and smell of the humble makguksu noodle, and for the ingredients that best enhance it. Chef Lim Soo Ho is a man brimming over with love for his noodles, his customers, and his life.
“I’m not a person with a background in food. I was just a regular office worker, but I left it all to cook Pyeongchang-style buckwheat noodles,” Lim recalls. “At my company I was doing well. I had a place to live, I had friends, but I went on vacation and started thinking, ‘How can I live more happily?’ I wanted to try something I’d never done before.”

Most people would have taken up a hobby. Chef Lim quit his job, gave up the life he’d built, and told everyone he was moving back to his hometown of Pyeongchang in Gangwon-do to learn how to cook — no matter what anyone else thought of his plans.

“I didn’t know how to cook anything,” says Lim, who faced some steep opposition. “All my friends and family hated the idea. When I showed up in Pyeongchang, I wanted to learn from a local grandmother, but even she told me I was crazy. Who is this young single guy who wants to learn to make noodles? The neighbors were nice, but they thought I was nuts and looked at me funny. The grandmother finally said, ‘Bring your wallet and come.’ I studied under her for three years before I finally came back to Seoul to start my restaurant.”

Pursuing the taste of a grandmother’s noodles

Lim’s first venture into noodle making went better than anyone could have hoped. All the people who questioned his ambitions ate their words as he found a space and started working his magic with buckwheat. But after being in business for a while, Chef Lim started to doubt his skills. People started to say that the flavors weren’t quite there, and maybe the quality was declining because Lim was getting bored with his venture.

“I delayed reopening for three months to see what I was really good at, what I really loved. It turns out it was really the taste of that grandmother’s noodles, my teacher. I got good feedback from one of my regular customers, who told me not to do it the way the chains were doing it but the way I had originally been doing it. I had to keep doing it by hand, using the best ingredients. It’s the flavor of that granny’s noodles. From that point on, I started to relax and enjoy it again.”

“I’m only looking to feed people who are really desiring these noodles. I’m so grateful to see people coming to enjoy my noodles,” says Lim. “I’m not doing this for the money. I want to give strength to people and live happily. That’s my ultimate goal.”

If any noodles are capable of bestowing strength and happiness, it’s Lim’s makguksu. His buckwheat noodles manage the magic feat of being simultaneously chewy and tender, whether served in a thick, spicy sauce or in a clean, refreshing broth with gentle sourness. For real aficionados of the nutty, savory noodles, he also serves a sauceless version, and another topped only with ground wild perilla seeds, which turns it into a dish simultaneously rich and austere.

A love story with extra slurping

The restaurant brought Lim more than just the satisfaction of running a business that makes him happy. It brought him love.

“I met my wife as a customer,” Lim says, grinning from ear to ear. “She wrote her number on a napkin and left it for me! I was so busy those days, and I didn’t get around to calling her for almost a week. She was really annoyed! But it worked out well in the end, and now we’re married and have a baby together.”

Without his delicious noodles, he wouldn’t have the family he has now. His brother joined him in the kitchen, making and serving up noodles. Lim gives them a lot of credit for the success of Namgyeong Makguksu. “My brother and wife are there to support me all the time.”

As for the future, Lim’s path is clear: “The hardest thing is now to do it for a long time, to make a restaurant that can last for a hundred years or more. To make good, deep roots for what we’re doing. Lots of people want me to turn it into a franchise, but no matter what, it must stay true to the granny’s noodles.”

More Info

Namgyeong Makguksu

207-13, Jamsil-dong, Songpa-gu

T. 02-417-0060

Written by Jennifer Flinn
Photographed by Romain John

Juyeonnae Yeontan Gopchang

Seongdong-gu 성동구 / 117 Geumho-ro, Seongdong-gu  /  02-2297-0812

This tiny gopchang joint is another local favorite though it’s more popular as take-out than eat-in. What makes their gopchang so popular is that they manage to take much of the funky smell out. This is not easy to do with pork. The kitchen does it by grilling the pork entrails over coal briquettes. If you really don’t like the smell of pork entrails, the marinated yangneom gui is the better choice over the salted sogeum gui. There’s a salt seasoning for the sogeum gui to balance out the fattiness and a choice of greens and seasoning to wrap up a delicious gopchang ssam. But most folks do seem to prefer the marinated yangneom gui. It’s surprisingly mild and has a certain addictive sweetness. If you order take-out, double-up on the buchu-muchim, seasoned chives banchan. You’ll need it for the ssam wrap: Take a green and place upon it a piece or two of gopchang with buchu-muchim. For a challenge, try the makchang or the spicy dakbal, chicken feet.

Two Thumbs Up

Seongdong-gu 성동구 / 270, Dokseodang-ro, Seongdong-gu / Instagram: @two_thumbsup_ / 02-2291-6677

Opened only last year, this Geumho-dong bakery is the love child of a baker-couple who wanted to serve ppang that would please both their customers and themselves. This small, unpretentious bakery has become wildly popular through its breads both savory and sweet.

The couple continues to hone their craft by traveling through Europe and abroad. They enjoyed a jambon baguette sandwich in Paris so much so that now they’re serving it in Two Thumbs Up. Other popular items include the garlic bread, smothered in garlic sauce, and a demi-baguette filled with sweet adzuki beans and butter. The signature breads might be their mammoth line. It includes the “Bam-moth” filled with chestnut cream made with chestnuts and other nuts, sweet adzuki bean paste and green pea paste. Their “Heuk-kkiri” features black sesame cream. The owners plans to continue fusing Korean ingredients and flavors into their breads. Check their Instagram feed to find out when particular breads are available.

Flower Service

Seongdong-gu 성동구 / 82 Geumho-ro, Seongdong-gu / Instagram: @flower_service / facebook.com/flowerservicemeathouse

flowerservice.modoo.at / 02-2299-0713

Celebrated restaurateur Chang Jinwoo and graduates from his entrepreneurship school imagined a restaurant where people could enjoy their meals in style and comfort. It was part of their dream to turn Geumho-dong into Geumnidan-gil, a play on the popular dining scene at Gyeongnidan-gil. This playful style is evident in their naming a barbecue restaurant “Flower Service.” The name reflects the owners’ wish  to serve the best quality meat with the friendliest service around. The dainty flower-patterned aprons and stools captures this attitude. The two-story restaurant, painted stark white, has large views of the greenery outside. It’s not your usual samgyeopsal joint.

The signature menu is the five-layer pork belly from Jeju. The cuts are pre-grilled over charcoal made from oakwood. The barbecued meat is deep and juicy and a little chewy from the grilled pork rinds. A popular dish is the “Flower Egg Rice” that features both hard-boiled and soft-boiled eggs. Also popular is the ham, cheese and ramyeon-filled “Flower Jjigae” that may be the perfect spicy hotpot to round out the meal.

Burger Fit

Seongdong-gu 성동구 / 17 Geumho-ro, Seongdong-gu / Instagram: @burgerfit_ / 02-2202-5155

Located at an apartment arcade, this burger shop has quickly become the local insider fix for burger and fries. The street-level shop has about eight small tables and is popular for its stylish minimal decor. The menu features twelve burgers, ranging from from the basic cheese burger to more “complicated” fare like the rose cream rucola burger. You’ll need a knife and fork to make your way through the cream sauce and rucola greens but it will definitely be memorable. Another sloppy choice might be the chili burger. If you like your burger simple, try the double patty cheese burger with the chili fries on the side.

Each burger set comes with a small side of coleslaw and chili sauce. The fries are, interestingly, a mix of straight and crinkle fries. The avocado burger with its fan of thin avocado slices topping the patty is a popular Instagram choice, but don’t forget to look past the burgers. In addition to the usual fries (cheese, garlic and chili), onion rings and cheese sticks there are salads, shrimp dishes and even wings available. It’s a smorgasbord of deep-fried heaven.

Written by Cynthia Yoo

Photos by Romain John

Gourmet Tree brings a bit of France to Geumho-dong

Chef Kim Sung-Mo of Gourmet Tree is a man of few words. Fortunately, he can let his food speak for him. It spins tales of far-away places, age-old techniques, and new ideas, all coming together in a cozy neighborhood bistro.

Geumho might seem like an unlikely spot for a culinarily ambitious restaurant to stake a claim.  New high rise apartments and chain developments jostle for space with older buildings and the nearby freeway. Gourmet Tree is tucked in among small businesses aimed at serving local families, like veterinarians, greengrocers, and inexpensive coffee shops. The housing might be newer, but the area itself has a homey charm and seems to harbor few aspirations towards trendiness. It’s a world away from some of the glitzier areas of Seoul, but this neighborhood feel is exactly what Chef Kim was looking for.

“I picked this neighborhood because I wanted to cook for everybody, for just regular neighborhood people,” says Kim, explaining why he chose to open a French-style bistro in the area. “I thought it was really important to make food for ordinary people to enjoy, not just fine dining. It’s why I went with a bistro concept, and why I picked this area.”

Whatever his plans, Chef Kim’s friendly French food fame has spread, especially after being listed in the Michelin guide as one of their “Plate” selections, which serve up high-quality food in less fussy surroundings than their starred restaurants.

“At first only neighborhood people came,” Kim says, “but now folks from Hannam, Gangnam and other places have started visiting, too.”

A forest picnic

Inside, Gourmet Tree feels warm and inviting, with a dark interior filled with natural materials like stone and wood, with deep greens and browns evoking the feel of being in a forest. The forest theme is really brought home by an enormous tree in the center of the restaurant, giving diners the sense of a picnic both outdoors and intimate. Kim carefully planned the interior to evoke very specific sensations and feelings: “I decided to make Gourmet Tree feel natural, like dining among the trees and stones and grass for a relaxed atmosphere.”

The sense of relaxation even seems to steep into the menu, despite the technicality of French cuisine and high standards.  Dishes like octopus pasta and pâté could come across as fussy, but Gourmet Tree makes them seem approachable.  Even dishes like a glorious duck confit served with pumpkin puree, pickled onions and smoked squid ink salt comes across as less a masterpiece of prickly French technique and indulgence than a kind of magical picnic item.

Fitting France to Korea

Chef Kim didn’t start out intending to be a French chef, or even a chef at all.  He explains, “I liked cooking from childhood, but I didn’t think to make a job out of it until I really started cooking during my army service. I started studying food and working in Korea, and though I would do American-style food, but ended up switching to French food.  I spent a year in France and went to Paris and Lyons. In particular, I remember this beautiful street of bistros in Lyon I used to go to and eat at.”

Once back in Korea, he started working on making French food that would suit Korean palates, adjusting the seasoning, how much fat there was, modifying stronger tastes and playing up ones Koreans prefered. The French preferences for fat, butter and salt were toyed with until they met local approval, while still maintaining the kinds of techniques that the cuisine relies on and high quality ingredients to make sure everything shines, from tender octopus in a Spanish-inspired pasta to the restaurant’s famed half duck confit, a masterpiece of crispy fat and juicy meat cooked in oil to maintain tenderness.

“Of course it’s very technique driven, and technique is really at the base of what we do. It’s technique that helped me figure out how to confit half a duck, rather than just the legs, and that’s become one of our specialties. But flavor always comes first. I try to make food I’d like to eat,” explains Chef Kim.

Written by Jennifer Flinn

Photographed by Romain John

Luck is on the side of Huam-dong’s BBQ joint,

The 100 Food Truck

Sometimes, success is a matter of timing. Good timing can turn a good concept into a smashing success, while poor timing can turn great ideas into unworkable dreams.
Seo Chang-baek’s timing has been impeccable.
In the past few years he’s been able to ride one of the biggest trends in food in Seoul, blending together his love of American-style grill and barbeque food with Seoulite’s new infatuation with food trucks in his food truck and restaurant, The 100 Food Truck (or “the Baek Food Truck,” a pun on the “baek” in his name, which is a homonym for 100 in Korean). Seo and his brother, who work as the manager and CEO, didn’t end up going directly into the restaurant business, though. Instead, he went a more conventional route, working for an import business before becoming a professional restaurateur. But the career shift was also a turn towards his roots, too.
“When I was a kid, my mom had a restaurant that served basic meals like pork cutlets, chicken, and the rest. I used to help out. When I was in high school, I even studied cooking for a year to learn how to cook western and Korean food. But when I finished school I thought I had to earn money and so I worked in businesses like imports for over a decade. After all those years, I was bored and wanted a change so I decided to start a Japanese-style croquette restaurant. I learned the recipe in Japan, but after two years, the big company next door where most of our customers came from closed, and with them went most of our business,” explained Seo.

Turning hardship into opportunity

Some people might have given up, but Seo was undeterred and went hunting for his next big idea. He traveled to America, and found his inspiration there in the food truck culture of New York and California. Seo recalls, “First I went to San Diego, and the downtown area was filled at lunch time with these trucks serving food to business people and sightseers. And when I went to New York, I had my first real burger. There were lots of burger places in Korea but nothing like this place I went to by Central Park. They had a line around the block, so I started thinking about trying to create burgers here.”
Once Seo returned to Korea and started working on his recipes, he found an unusual batch of testers at a local crossfit gym. Seo said, “There were lots of foreigners as well as Koreans, so I started trying out recipes on them for four to five months just to get feedback while I was looking for stores. I’d seen the food trucks in the U.S. and wanted to do something like it so we could do catering as well as a small store. About that time the laws were changed in Korea to make food trucks legal to operate.”
“Our luck was really good because the movie ‘Chef’ came out about then, so we were able to do some promotions and got our first job catering Cuban sandwiches. We smoke the ham for those sandwiches ourselves, which takes more than ten days. We’ve learned to do so many things ourselves, including making our own ham and bacon. For things like buns that we don’t make ourselves, we work really hard to find a quality version.”

A delicious view

Their restaurant isn’t just popular for its food though, thanks to commanding views of downtown Seoul. Seo admits, “Sometimes it’s hard because people just come for the view and they don’t really want to order anything. Also, sometimes people are confused how to order. When you come in, you order on the first floor and then go up to find a seat. The server will use your order number to bring you the food, and once you’re seated you can continue to order straight from the server. People can also go up to the roof if they want, but we hope people will come to enjoy the food and not just the scenery.”
“Our biggest concern is always the taste of the food. I think you have to think most about the food, and then the other aspects can come after.”

Info.

The 100 Food Truck
45-1 Sinheung-ro 20-gil, Huam-dong, Yongsan-gu
| 02-777-3338
Instagram: @the100foodtruck
Facebook: www.facebook.com/the100foodtruck

Written by Jennifer Flinn
Photographed by Romain John

Chef Yeo Kyung Ok has none of the airs one might expect from a chef who has both a long lifetime in the kitchen and a fair amount of fame. Despite having achieved star status during his 30-year professional career, he appears relaxed and almost serene, at ease in his kingdom. His restaurant, Toh Lim, has a place of honor in the 37th floor of Lotte Hotel in Myeong-dong.
“I started in ’78 and so I’ve worked for about thirty years now,” says Chef Yeo as he looks out the enormous windows to the stunning views of downtown Seoul and the surrounding mountains. “Toh Lim’s food is primarily drawn from Guangdong-style food, which is really popular with business people, but also for young people. The restaurant was originally designed with the idea that business people would be our primary customers, but I’ve tried to make it more casual and fun. Some hotels are really stuffy, and I wanted to make this more comfortable.”

Indeed, despite the poshness of the surroundings, it’s easy to relax into its modern feel.

Bridging China and Korea

Yeo says he didn’t have many options after graduating high school. His father, who was Chinese-Korean, died when he was young, leaving his Korean mother to raise the family on her own. Despite attending Chinese-Korean schools, the connection with Chinese food wasn’t a strong part of his childhood. Yeo recalls, “We ate a lot of mandu growing up, but when I started I didn’t know a lot about other Chinese foods. I didn’t know anything when I started, so I studied it by working in Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. It took at least two to three years just to study the basics.”
Chinese Koreans, or hwagyo, were the first to really bring Chinese cuisine to the mainstream in Korea. They didn’t just pioneer new restaurants, though. They created something entirely new by changing the foods from China, adapting them to the tastes and ingredients of Korea, resulting in some of the country’s best-loved dishes. Everyone’s favorite delivery food, noodles in black bean sauce, or jjajangmyeon, is based on a Chinese dish, but turned into a new fusion food in Incheon by the hwagyo community. Another major community of hwagyo was situated in Myeong-dong, which is still home to a school and several streets of Chinese restaurants near the post office.

Yeo reflects that this history is in danger: “These days it’s too expensive, so we’re losing some of that culture, and the hwagyo community can’t afford to stay.”

Balancing the new and old

Chef Yeo isn’t wedded to tradition, but has cultivated a deep respect, balancing traditional flavors and techniques with modern tastes. His soups manage to unite distinctively Chinese elements like wontons stuffed with pork to a spectacularly clean broth with a woodsy scent from the matsutake mushrooms floating gently within. A set of dimsum manages to feel both beautifully traditional and bracingly modern thanks to juxtapositions of shape and texture, including a luscious and creamy shrimp dumpling with the briny snap of caviar, or a mushroom dumpling that manages to be both meltingly soft and bracingly earthy, just barely visible under a translucent skin.

“Back in the 1990s we were mostly serving a lot of traditional foods, but now it’s changing,” he says. “The good thing is that people who come to the hotel now have lots of experience with traveling and have very sophisticated tastes, so we can make food that appeals on that level.”

It’s not just that tastes have changed though, Yeo thinks. “More people are cooking [Chinese food] at home. We used to just eat whatever our family made for us. Now it’s much more about individual tastes. People are still a little conservative, but much more experimental. They want to try the food they see on TV. They’ve traveled more, so they know how different foods are supposed to taste. They’re interested in different flavors, and there’s lots more diversity in how things are cooked. I can make things now that are more subtle, more seasonal,” Yeo says.

But there’s more to making great food than just appealing to people’s physical senses. “As people eat, there’s hunger, yes, but the flavors are also enhanced by knowing more about the food. Food has a history, and understanding it makes it better.”

Toh Lim 도림
37F, 30, Eulji-ro, Jung-gu | 02-317-7101/7102

Written by Jennifer Flinn
Photographed by Romain John

In creating new dishes for PyeongChang 2018, the celebrity chef brings together flavors and forms both local and international

There are very few Korean chefs who have been as prominent on both the local and international level as Edward Kwon. He’s one of Korea’s most recognizable chefs, with multiple restaurants, TV shows and guest appearances. He now leads Pyeongchang’s culinary welcome to hundreds of thousands of Olympic visitors. Kwon helped design ten new fusion dishes drawing on local specialties to make dishes that would appeal to a wide range of people, from locals to international travelers and athletes, all while preparing his own new Korean restaurant in Seoul.

Hometown foods, international flavors

Pyeongchang is more than just an Olympic venue to Chef Kwon. Born in Yeongwol and raised in Gangneung, he knows the area well.

About a year and a half ago, the province of Gangwon-do asked him to make ten dishes to represent Pyeongchang to the Olympics. “I was surprised, and I thought the idea was great so I researched different products,” he says. “Apples, local beef and dried pollock get a twist to be more modern. Once the dishes were finalized, we trained local restaurants in the Pyeongchang area to produce them. Most travelers go to see beautiful scenery or entertainment, but besides that, they go to eat food. As we say, ‘Even sightseeing in the Geumgangsan Mountains is better after a meal!’”

The dishes themselves display Chef Kwon’s international training and creativity, turning local buckwheat noodles into a pasta, bibimbap into a delicately plated salad, and chocolate, cheese and citrus meld into the guise of one of Gangwon-do’s famous potatoes.

Fusion food for globalized palates

Creating the dishes proved to be a challenge. “When they asked me for 10 dishes, I thought it was easy,” says Kwon. “It was not easy at all! I’ve created many menus. This was one of the most difficult to create, even though I grew up there and know the products.”

Getting the right balance between the local and the international proved especially difficult. “I felt almost guilty trying to put a twist on the dishes! It felt like things were too Italian, too French, too European,” he says. “It took three months for me to do what I could usually do in a day. I felt like I’m getting older and older. I sent it off and they sent it back — they thought it was too ‘Koreanized.’”

Kwon explains that fusion food means you need to know a lot about a lot of things if you hope to make it all come together. In provincial areas, however, residents often find integrating local foods and concepts into international dishes to be, well, provincial. “I asked what [Gangwon-do residents] wanted. They said, ‘Make us pasta!’ I thought, ‘Are you serious?’ The people running these restaurants are sixty, seventy years old and they’re more globalized than me.”

In his element

Chef Kwon has a new venue for showing off more traditional Korean food, though, in his new restaurant, Elements.

Located adjacent to his French restaurant LAB XXIV, Elements serves set menus with remarkable polish and clever twists that still hew to their Korean origins. Soft shell crabs from Jeju are fried and plated with water parsley oil and a South Asian-tinged coleslaw. Rice and soup share space with delicate, briny pollock roe dressed with sesame oil but also with a mild, fresh tomato kimchi, while a silky savory egg custard enrobes meltingly soft abalone. While the restaurant caters to a broad range of customers, including solo diners, private rooms are available for groups to enjoy Korean barbecue grilled for them by one of the chefs. Despite the luxurious setting inside the Le Meridien hotel in Gangnam, Kwon made sure to keep the independent restaurant’s prices extremely reasonable.

Respecting the roots

In preparing his dishes, Kwon adopts a careful approach to preserve the original flavors of the Korean foods. “I think Korean food should be globalized, but now I think that if you’re proud of the food, you don’t need to touch the original taste and flavor. It’s a risk,” he says. “Maybe some people don’t like it or think that it’s not trendy. Call it ‘Asian’ or ‘Modern Asian’ or whatever, but as soon as you say something is specific, is ‘Korean,’ you need to be very careful.”
Kwon reminds us that you should preserve the food’s roots. “Respect where it comes from, the taste and flavor,” he says. “If you just follow the trends, in a few years you’ll end up with no fruit, because the tree has no roots anymore.”

More Info.

Elements  Le Meridien Seoul 엘리멘츠 르메르디앙 서울
Floor F, 120 Bongeunsa-ro, Gangnam-gu, 06124, 02-511-4523

Written by Jennifer Flinn
Photographed by Greg Samborski