Recap from Bloggers Unite
Speaking of food…
Sunday I met up with Seoul Eats and some other new people. near Hongik University. I had a really great time with everybody and we ate some delicious food! What more could I ask for really?
We ate grilled eel 장어구이 at Jangeorang (장어랑).
장어 = eel, and 랑=with.
J.Y. says it’s a made up name, and not really a complete thought.
Eddie Paradise reviewed Jangeorang at Seoul Eats already, but here is what I have to say.
First off, I like eel. I like unagi a lot, Japanese freshwater eel, but I don’t like watching eels swimming around. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite.
Tangent:
I think eel is the only fish that really freaks me out when I look at it (Biology was my major, and I especially enjoy marine biology and interned at the Georgia Aquarium).
I was OK with watching eels swim around until a misadventure at a Vietnamese farmer’s market in Atlanta where I saw a tank filled with two or three hundred eels are writhing around all over each other. Ewww. ::shudder::
Um. right. Anyway. 
The eel was really delicious, I preferred the soy sauce glaze over the yang nyum (a seasoning made from red pepper sauce and sugar) glazed eel but the yang nyum improved over time. Or maybe I was just feeling the bokbunja (복분자). Lots of interesting and delicious banchan. Try the grilled eel bones, they’re like eel chips! You should also try eating the eel with the fresh ginger and dipping sauce. It’s even better that way.
Seouleats posted a picture of our meal here - go look!
I enjoyed my meal and the company. There was lots of good food. It was a nice place, well air conditioned and bright. When we first arrived there weren’t that many customers, but by the time we finished the place was almost full. That’s always a good sign.
During the course of the meal I learned the literal meaning behind bokbunja (복분자), and the reason it’s known for giving men stamina (J.Y. says it can be helpful for women too, and might have prevent some cancers).
Bok (복) means to overturn, and bunja (분자) means the chamberpot. The idea is that your urine would be so masculine and forceful as to overturn the chamberpot… A little more research shows that the bokbunja is the “overturn the chamberpot seed” in Chinese medicine.
I thought that was pretty funny. The toilet refused to overturn though, in case you were wondering. It’s always male stamina that benefits from these things, all women in Korea have is seaweed soup.
After eating lots and lots of eel we headed outside and saw a “Starwars” sign on a coffee place (which we had to take pictures of - that um. I haven’t uploaded so go look at SeoulEats). We had a good conversation about what kind of coffee various Star Wars characters would drink.
Then we headed to Cacoaboom where I tried the best chocolate I’ve had in Korea.
