Warung Indonesia in Ansan Written by Lindsey Huster Although South Korea may feel (at times) a bit homogenous, the food culture is showing signs that may uproot this notion. According to a recent article, the number of international restaurants operated by foreign owners has risen by more than 10 times in the last 10 years. Send your gaze down a popular alley of Seoul, and perhaps will you see what I mean. Alongside kimbap and galbi restaurants lay a sundry array of foreigner restaurants and shops. Around the Jung-gu area, one can stumble into "Mongolian town" and "Russian street." Venture even more southwest, and you are sure to enter Itaewon, an infamous foreigner district that caters to most gourmands palates. Itaewon, stands out as a hub that serves an assortment of African food, including Nigerian, Ghana and Ethiopian. Venture even more south near Gangnam, and you will stumble into a French district that offers pastries that rattle even the most dev...

Readers, FoodieGymmie is coming to Seoul in April for the Korea Open Marathon and I wanted to pick out some restaurants for him/her. Sorry, tangent. You know what, in the Internet world we need to have a new designation for sex. I mean it would just be weird to call this person 1. it 2. this person 3. she/he him/her Anyway, FoodieGymmie has a great blog on training and eating. I think I should follow the blog's principle. You should train and then eat. Hmmm...I think I do too much eating and not enough training. http://eatandtrain.blogspot.com FoodieGymmie said... This is a great blog! just what im looking for! :) Anyway, I will be going Seoul in April for the Korea open marathon, after which I will be staying for about 5 days there... is there anything which you highly recommend me to try? FG 10:51 PM Daniel Gray said... Foodie Gymmie, 1. Myeongdong Gyoja for their famous mandu and calguksu 2. Woo Jae Oak for their famous bulgogi and naengmyeon 3....

Samarikant Samarikant Sometimes I forget how transient of a city Seoul is. There are always people coming and going and new people are always looking to find places to eat. I got an email from a reader that said, "PLEEASE STOP TORTURING ME WITH THESE DELICIOUS PICTURES! Can you put the addresses and contact info so I can find them!" Why, yes, that is a good idea. I'll be putting places that I eat on google maps and embedding them below the post. I'll ask my writers to do the same. Now on with the food. Samarikant is an Uzbek restaurant over by Dongdaemun that specializes in Uzbek Food. They have great Russian Beers and Vodka as well. The food is made fresh in house and a local baker brings their bread. I did a food tour for the fine ladies of SIWA   and this was our first stop on the tour. The food is rich and filling and the beers are authentically good. I love their soups and meat dishes like the meat-stuffed golstovy. Their beet salad is good ...

It's a great place by Dongdaemun stadium exit 5. It's down a little alley so you might want to check out their website at www.samarikant.com or call them at 2277-4261. And yes, that's the famous Fatmanseoul taking pictures. I can't wait until she posts her pics. Dan

Daily Delights Shopping day in Dongdaemun Breakfast: Waffles and Coffee at Beans Bin If you are going to climb the epic shopping mountain of Dondaemun, them you have to get a hearty breakfast with lots of coffee. Beans Bin coffee in the shopping complex of Doota is a great first spot. They have freshly made waffles with many different toppings. Get your sugar and caffeine fix here. Beans Bin Coffee Location: Doota 3rd Floor Cost: 12,000 Lunch: Mongolian Buuz and Khuushuur at Darkhan The Dongdaemun area is the central point for many different ethnicities such as Mongolian, Uzbekistan and Russian. Darkhan offers authentic Mongolian fare such as steamed meat dumplings called buuz and fried meat stuffed pastries called khuushuur. Their lamb platter with rice and vegetables are good as well. If you are brave try their hot (sour) yogurt tea. Darkhan Cost: 7,000 Seoul, Jung-gu, Gwanghuidong 1-ga 188-5 02-2278-4633 Dinner: Marinated Pork Trotters at Pyeong-ando Jip Pyeong-ando Jip is famous fo...

Hmmmm...the last two meet-ups were a lot of fun and there were a number of great people that came out, so we are going to do it again. I think it's something I will try to do every Friday. This week, I would like to to go to Samarikand in Dongdaemun. It's a Uzbekistan restaurant in Seoul and the food is amazing. If you would like to come, send me an e-mail here . We will meet around 8pm at the restaurant. Here are the directions: After getting off at dongdaemun stadium, exit #5 and walk towards the woori bank. To the left is the A+ noraebahng, Samarakand is a few buildings before the A+ noraebahng. If you love lamb and crave something aside from kimchi, the food is good. (Thanks Paul Ajossi for the directions) 

I'm going to take a stab at cooking Russian Food today. Yesterday I was out with Sara and Jennifer Flinn aka Fatmanseoul and we went to an awesome Uzbekistan Restaurant over by Dongdaemun. It was awesome and I was so inspired that I decided to buy a whole bunch of ingredients and try to replicate some of what I ate yesterday. I got a shoulder of mutton and some brown bread and today I'm going to make a lamb roast. I figure, I'll start it early and then do some work and it'll be finished and read to eat by tonight. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how I should flavor the meat. Here's some tips that I found from Katarzyna and Mark's Russian and Polish Food Blog Take a shoulder of mutton–must be young and tender–wash the meat well and dry with a clean towel. rub well with salt, ginger and a speck of pepper, and dredge well with flour. lay it in a covered roasting-pan. put a few pieces of whole mace and a few slices of onion on top; pour a cup of water into ...