Seoul Eats

Here's a new project that I've been working with my filmmaker friend, Jin Min. Check out the video to watch me make 3 Korean dishes. In this first video I make Daktoritang: a Spicy Braised Chicken Dish; Spinach Side Dish; and Bean Sprout Side Dish. Here are the recipes for the 3 dishes: Spicy Braised Chicken: Daktoritang INGREDIENTS (YIELD: 1 SERVING) 10 oz Boneless Chicken 1 Small Potato 1/3 Carrot 1/3 Onion 2 Tablespoons Gochujang (Korean pepper Paste) 1 Clove of Garlic ½ Green onion 1/3 tsp ginger ½ tsp sesame oil ½ to 1 cup of water Salt & Pepper To Taste COOKING DIRECTIONS 1. Make the gochujang sauce. Mix in the minced garlic, ginger, and sesame oil. 2. Peel potato and carrot, cut into bite size pieces. 3. Roughly slice the onions. 4. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. 5. Crush a clove of garlic and thinly slice the green onions. 6. In a hot pan sear the chicken and combine all the vegetables except the green onions. 7. Add water and...

Makgeolli Here's an old post I wrote on the place: http://www.seouleats.com/2010/02/my-new-favorite-makgeolli-place-h-in.html Seafood Pajeon Dubu Kimchi

These days I've been cooking more than going to restaurants. I guess it's because it's Spring, but I think it's because I've rediscovered my love of cooking since I've been organizing and teaching cooking classes for O'ngo Food Communications. Now one thing that I did notice in my house is that I have a lot of ingredients that I've accumulated over the years from friends and such. Also, I have ingredients left over from other cooking classes. So on Friday night I decided that I wasn't going to buy any ingredients, I had to macgyver a dinner from the ingredients I had on hand and I had to cook the whole meal from start to finish in one hour. Bean Sprouts with Shallots and lemon and spinach with balsamic dressing. Since I had bean sprouts and spinach left over, I made lemon and shallot bean sprout salad and balsamic spinach salad. These I made Korean style: Recipe: Lemon and Shallot Bean Sprouts Ingredients: 1 handful of bean sprouts 1/2 sh...

Spring Onion Chicken at Korean Mania Chicken.  Fried Chicken and Beer is a magical combination that I think all people can agree with. The crisp, greasy chicken is washed down with the sparkling bitter slosh of brew. Now a stronger microbrew probably would be too strong for the crisp, light taste of Korean chicken, but the light Korean beers are a great pairing. A week ago, I went to Shinchon for a good-bye party for a couple of my friends. For the first round we went to Korean Mania Chicken. This is another chicken franchise located in Korea like BBQ, Kyochon, Hotsun, and TwoTwo. The thing about Korean Mania is that they are at a lower pricepoint than most of the other restaurants (You can get an order of chicken for 10,000) and I think they have very crisp chicken with a light batter. Friends A close up of the spring onion chicken with tangy sauce. We started out with the Spring Onion Chicken (파닭). This was boneless chicken- mainly skin- that is fried and served with green ...

I haven't been to Hong Suk Chun's Restaurants in a while. Back when I first came to Korea bout 5 years ago, I was enamored with Our Place (across from Helios in Itaewon.) It was my go-to date place where I would enjoy wine with hummus and thick slices of Chocolate Grenache Cake. Since then Mr. Oh has expanded to several different restaurants including My Thai, My China, and My Chelsea. Like all of his restaurants, there is a very particular since of style and "cool." He has an eye for interiors and his food is generally creative and fun. My Chelsea seems to be his foray into the brunch craze in Korea (which I thought had died a year ago, but it seems to be back because of Suji's.) My Chelsea. Behind the Hamiliton Hotel in Itaewon. His interiors have a "coolness" and uniqueness unlike many of the" faux authentic" restaurants in Korea. African Masks

Since I have met Shawn, we have been very close. It must have something to do with his creativity and love of food. Recently, we've been working on developing cooking classes for people unfamiliar with Korean foods. To start, we did a series of videos with Shawn adding a twist to popular Korean dishes. In the video he made Kimchi Dubu Lasagna and Sundubu Flan. Here's Chef Shawn As you can see he has cut the tofu really thin and then put minced meat flavored with Kimchi in between. Oh, just because I'm excited to use this new Blogger function, click the link below to see more pictures of Shawn's Food and information on how you can take a cooking lesson with him.

First of all, what do you think of the new layout? Blogger has really tweaked their blogging software so even an idiot like me can have a cool looking blog. I'm working on improving it more and more, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know. Over the weekend, I was invited by Two Broz. Hamburger Joint to come in and take pictures of their burgers because they will be new advertisers in Groove Magazine (thanks guys). So after taking pictures, I was lucky enough to taste what they had. The food is good. I mean, they are a new burger place and so they have the growing pains that all new places have. The interior is clean and diner-like. The prices are very reasonable (5,800 won for the regular hamburger) and they have have great fries with Swiss seasoning salt.. Oh- and they also have free refills on their cokes. Here's the Egg Burger. I love the sunny-side up egg yolk on the thick all beef patty. It's a good chunk of meat. Their buns and other ingredients are ...

It's got a very cute interior and I like that it seems like a speakeasy. It's between Taco Taco Chili Chili and Istanbul on the street towards Gyeonridan. It's got sandwiches, coffee, and alcohol on the menu and the interior has lots of kitschy things. There are rustic cakes and cookies that look homemade and also a coffee maker. I didn't happen to get anything on this day, but the menu looked like it had Korean cafe fare (Ramen, Fried Rice) along with other things such as ham sandwiches. The prices are average: an Americano for 5,000 and sandwiches for 6,000. I'll have to stop in next time for a treat. Bella's Homestay 02-792-5006 bella677@naver.com

Lemon Crepes Suzette I have a confession. The reason, I haven't been posting so much on Seoul Eats is because I've been busy at home cooking. I've been learning new recipes and reintroducing myself to old ones. For example, the other day I made crepes. I got the pan really hot and I made these thin, crisp pancakes and topped then with lemon and sugar. It took a couple of tries to relearn the technique, but I think I got it in the end. The guests that I made them seemed to enjoy them. Dan

First Nepal over at Ewha University is an enjoyable place to have a quiet meal. They are brave for sticking it out in the Italian-Food-Crazed, Cafe-plentiful Ewha University Area. I hope they are doing all right because the day I was there, there was only 1 table. I guess the student's had tests that day. I ordered the Veggie Set (12,000 won) and it came with Salad, Palak Paneer (My favorite), Naan, and a Lassi. The salad was quite humdrum. Honey Mustard with Mayo doesn't rock my world. The vegetables were crisp, although...meh...I would get it again with dressing (or a vinaigrette on the side). The friend I went with- I believe he got- the Nepal Chicken Curry. It was tomatoey and buttery and spicy. I mean it would have gone great over pasta and I guess it was alright on Naan. The Naan was hot and a bit doughy. It wasn't bad- just not crisp enough for me. Here's my friend giving his curry the shocker. Here's the Palak Paneer. This I recommend. The curry is thick e...

Sorry, I haven't been posting so much this week, but I have to work to pay the bills^^ One of the cool things about my life is that I sometimes get invited to chef's houses, restaurants, or events to meet people. Sometimes these people just want to meet me for publicity, other times they want to meet me because they are foodies. Siyoon Paik is a foodie and those are the type of people I love to meet. Her Amuse Bouche was a melted gorgonzola cheese on toasted baguette with a touch of honey. This is one of my favorite combinations. The earthy, pungent cheese is touched with a hint of sweet gold. Yum. The salad was simple and very springy. Here we have some broccoli with mushrooms and onions. A Snack: Spiced Pecans For the main course we had Brioche French Toast stuffed with currant cream cheese and cheddar omelet with apples. Oh, and I'm totally envious of her copper Kitchen Aide Mixer The apartment is classy and spacious. Siyoon regularly holds cooking demonstrations and cl...

Over the weekend, a friend of mine, a teacher in Japan, came for a visit. During her premier Korean dining experience - a inculcated medley of side dishes, Korean barbeque and Soju - she asked what were my preferred Korean foods. After a bit of deliberated, inebriated thought -weighing the worth of dolsa bibimbop on a cold day over the convenience of kimbap - I decided upon omurice, with cheese, sans ham. Omurice - the closest perhaps to a western comfort food- is a toothsome omelet not just for breakfast, stuffed with rice and cheese, and doused in ketchup or gravy. She smiled wryly at my pratfall, asking me when I started to enjoy Japanese food. I was completely confounded. Upon further research, unfortunately, I found that my comrade was indeed accurate. Omurice is the child of Japan and not of South Korea (although it is also eaten in Taiwan as well.) With such a cultural blunder, a mental springboard suddenly emerged and demand the lucid distinctions of Korean dining versus ...

Behind Hyundai Department Store near Sinchon Station Exit 1 is this little handmade dumpling soup place. It's been around forever and the grandmothers make the dough by hand everyday. I saw them making the sujebi outside on top of the red bins. The one one mixed it and kneaded it until it was ready and then she went inside and dropped it in the soup. It's got a very simple broth with bits of ground pork carrots and pumpkin. It was good, but...I think it was just sujebi. A reader of Seoul Eats told me this place was the best but I just thought it just was. Maybe I'm just not a sujebi person. The big thing for me was the broth. I didn't think it was very rich nor thick. Side Dish The good thing is that it is super cheap. 4,000 won for a humongous bowl is great, but I think for someone that is very hungry. I think it would taste better in winter.