These days I have had the itch to make videos and play with my camera more. Here is a video of my visit to Le 75 in Hongdae.

Here is some more info:

The restaurant is on the top floor of the building. Here is the address:

마포구 서교동 331-21 4층 (우) 121-836 


The phone number is 02.324.5731 but he says he doesn't have a phone yet so you can call (ladies use it wisely.) his cell 010.4044.7510. I would call ahead to make sure he has reservations.

Sometimes you have to give a restaurant a second chance. Chin Chin in Hongdae had a reputation for having great food, however, I never understood the hype. My first experience at Chin Chin was...meh. The rice wine, makgeolli, was great-but the food wasn't anything spectacular. I ordered a grilled mackerel dish and I remember getting an tiny, almost spoiled fish- it didn't go well with the Makgeolli. The chef, a recent graduate of CIA, was bolting out the door as soon as it was served. I mentioned my problem with the dish and they told me the kitchen had closed.

The second time I went, I stuck with just the Makgeolli.

My last trip back, I noticed that the excellent makgeolli was still there, but there was a new chef. The food had traditional Korean flavor fused with modern techniques and plating. I was utterly amazed. My favorite dish was the very crispy, tempura ginseng. The battered, pan-seared fish was also excellent.

Name: Chin Chin (친친)
Phone: 02-334-1476, 010-7252-2001
English Spoken, English Menu
Type: Makeolli (Korean Rice Wine) Bar and Fusion Restaurant
Directions: Go out Hongdae Station Exit 5 and make a left and the second right (at Coffee Brown). Go all the way up to Hongdae University Entrance. At the intersection in front of Hongdae, make a left. You'll find Chin Chin next to Starbucks.
Address: 343-9, Sekyo-dong, Mapo-ku, Seoul, Korea (서울시 마포구 서교동 343-9)

The rain is getting me down so I haven't really been in the mood to blog much. I am working on a project now and I ran into this on the web. It totally cracked me up. I hope it will have the same effect on you.

Cheers,

Dan

By Anders Riel Muller

Take a walk through Seoul, South Korea’s capital of more than 10 million (24.5 million in the Seoul Metropolitan Area) and one cannot help but notice the number of restaurants. In Seoul, eating out is as common as eating at home (if not more) because the food is cheap, plentiful, and most people work late in this highly competitive society. Seoul is the heart of South Korea. It is the seat of the government and major industrial conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo, and LG. It is hip, modern, and is quickly becoming one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Korean food has also become a popular ethnic cuisine, especially in the US. In fact, the South Korean government has begun to actively promote Korean food abroad as part of its global marketing campaign to establish Korea’s position as an economic and cultural super power in East Asia.



Korean cuisine is a source of national pride because it is distinct from the neighboring countries of China and Japan. You only have to flip through the hundreds of cable channels here in Korea. Almost every other show is about Korea’s many regional cuisines. In the fall when I was visiting Montreal, Canada and walked down my old street, I saw a new Korean restaurant had opened only a few blocks from where I used to live. The name of the restaurant was “5000 Years” referring not only to Korea’s ancient food traditions, but also to its resistance to domination by its two neighboring giants; China and Japan. The Korean cuisine is a symbol of the country’s long history, its cultural heritage, the land, and perpetual struggle to remain independent from the imperial powers that surrounded the country for centuries. But there is a catch…Korea hardly grows any food. Except for rice where Korea is self-sufficient due to protective measures, South Korea imports 90% of its food from abroad.

South Korea has undergone one of the most rapid industrial transformations in human history. In 1950, 70-80 percent of the population was working in the agricultural sector. Today less than 8% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector and South Korea has become one of the most urbanized and modern industrialized nations in the world. In the past few years South Korea has received increased attention as the country is at the forefront of what is now being described as a “global land grab” by food insecure nations such as China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai among others. How did this country turn from being one of the poorest post-colonial states in the world to one of the largest land grabbers in recent years? And what does it mean for the country’s domestic agricultural sector. South Korea is an interesting study in colonization, rapid economic development and the sharp contrasts that come from rapid transformation from a rural economy to an industrial one.


Peasant livelihoods and land reform have been at the center of Korea’s modern history. A defining moment was the 1894 Donghak Rebellion in which peasant rose up against corrupt government officials and heavy taxation. The rebellion was violently suppressed by Japanese forces who came to the aid of the Korean government and the ruling landowning elites. With the full occupation of Korea by Japan, the plight of peasants became even worse. Japan’s only interest was to convert Korea into a supplier of food and other products to fuel their imperial ambitions. In doing so, the Japanese administrators allied themselves with the ruling landlord elite. By the 1920s, the majority of peasants in Korea had been reduced to tenant farmers delivering up to 50% of their harvests in taxes.

The peasantry in Korea did not sit quietly and watch as the Japanese colonizers bought up farm land and reinforced the highly stratified feudal social structures that still existed in Korea. Peasants across Korea rose up against the Japanese regime and their collaborators numerous times. Indeed, the peasantry was the strongest political movement in Korea at the end of World War II. In the Soviet-occupied North, drastic land reforms were carried out in the late 1940’s. All farms of more than 3 hectares were confiscated and turned over to village peasant councils that then redistributed the land to the peasants. These land reforms were a threat to the nationalist conservative regime in South Korea led by Syngman Rhee. However, the fear of a massive peasant uprising (and hence a Communist reunification) in the South led the US to pressure the South Korean government to implement their own land reforms. The land reforms in South Korea were far from being as comprehensive as in the North, but they did pacify peasant unrest.

Despite this important reform, South Korea has shown little interest in its agricultural sector following the Korean War. The rural population was primarily regarded as a source of cheap food and cheap labor for the country’s dizzying industrial development. While land reforms managed to pacify the peasant movement, investments in agriculture were insufficient to provide adequate livelihoods. There were few famines, but most farmers struggled to carve out a meager living and for most of the young generations after the 1960s, moving to the city was the only option. Young women left the countryside to work under horrible conditions in sweat shops, in order to send remittances back to their relatives.

Rural South Korea supplied cheap food and labor crucial to the success of the industrial revolution championed by dictators such as Park Chung Hee. Meanwhile, the countryside was neglected. Today the farm sector is seen by most Koreans as backward and undesirable. The contrast is startling: On the one hand South Korea’s urban centers are symbols of the official “Sparkling Korea”, and on the other hand, as one ventures into the countryside, one will see the difficult life of rural communities. The average farmer in South Korea is over 50 years old often tilling a few hectares with outdated machinery. Poverty is to be found everywhere and because farm life has become so economically undesirable, many rural Korean leave the countryside to pursue arranged marriages with women from countries in South-East Asia. One of three marriages in rural areas is now between Korean men and foreign women.

Both farmers and consumers are trying to establish alternatives that challenge the mainstream development path in Korea. They are looking for a different kind of life: one that is socially just, environmentally sustainable and that pays respect to the history and traditions of rural life. Since the 1997 financial crisis, an increasing number of people have joined the Back to the Land movement establishing new farming cooperatives focused on organic agriculture and food sovereignty. We will explore some of these initives in subsequent articles. The next article in this series will look at South Korea’s response to the food crisis.

Anders Riel Muller is a Research Fellow at Food First and the South Korea Tour Coordinator for Food Sovereignty Tours. He is developing a South Korea tour for 2012.

Here is a video of our food tour made by one of our guests. Thank you Mark, for making this. You did a great job!

Cheers,

Dan

Ssang Ssang Bar (Chocolate Couple Bar)

Ssang Ssang Bar, you are the cupid of ice cream.

Cappuccino from Chan Bros

When it rains I get nostalgic for home and near my home there are places that help me fill that void. Growing up, I loved having coffee at Brew Ha Ha! coffee house in Delaware. I used to work as a barista there and I would waste gallons of milk trying to do latte art and make sweet microbubbles. I got pretty good and even got some awards (and many tips$$).  The guys over at Chan Bros Coffee does a good job with it and I would say that they make the best wet foam cappuccino in Seoul. Oh, and they can pull a good shot of espresso.

OK2 Kitchen

I think you all know my love of Susumu and OK2 Kitchen. If not you can see all my posts on the restaurant here: http://www.seouleats.com/search?q=ok2+kitchen. Lunch was wonderful as usual.

Chef Edward Kwon at Lab XXIV

Edward Kwon

Edward Kwon's Lab XXIV

This is my unedited review for Edward Kwon's Lab XXIV. You can see the version on Seoul Selection's Magazine here: http://www.seoulselection.com/seoul/?p=3490  There is also a great interview with the chef http://www.seoulselection.com/seoul/?p=3628

Mini Onggi from Kwangjuyo

Black Plates and Bowls from Kwangjuyo

About two weeks ago, LTB (Les Toques Blanc) was invited by Kwangjuyo to visit their pottery factory in Icheon. It was a great trip despite the pouring rain and we got to see the entire operation from clay to pot. Almost everything there is all homemade and done by artisans who have been doing their craft for many years and it shows in the work they produce.

Time:

Saturday, July 23 · 5:00pm - 8:00pm Start: O'ngo Culinary School Cost: Dutch Pay- about 10,000 won

I am planning a Seoul Eats Meetup this Saturday at 5pm to have Temple Cuisine and then go to Haap. We'll first go to Balwoo Gongyang Kong to have a Temple Cuisine Dinner and then we'll go to my favorite patbingsu place for dessert. Who knows after, we might head out for a drink.

 It will start from my cooking school. Go here for directions: http://www.ongofood.com/?page_id=24

We'll go dutch. Dinner and dessert should be about 10,000 won. If you can make it e-mail me at seouleats at gmail dot com or RSVP here.

Find out more about the restaurants we are going to here:

Haap: http://www.seouleats.com/2011/07/patbingsu-from-haap.html

Balwoo Gongyang Kong: http://www.seouleats.com/2011/06/lunch-at-balwoo-gongyang-kong-redux.html

Patbingsu from Haap

Cutting Kimchi at Home Looks like Murder

The Past Looking at the Present: Rolleiflex and iPhone

Rolleiflex and iPhone

A Bowl of Spicy Noodles at Suanla

Anchor Knife Cut Noodles

Rain. Please go. You are totally bringing me down. 

Sundubu

It is a stone bowl of molten sun on a rainy day.

Cafe W.e. west 'n east

Juk at Balwoo Gongyang Kong

I think I might be turning vegetarian. Balwoo
02.2031.2081
Website: http://www.baru.or.kr
110-170 서울시 종로구 견지동 71번지 템플스테ㅣ 5층
71 Gyeonji-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-170
Directions: Near Anguk and Jonggak Stations, across from the big Jogyesa Temple in the Temple Stay Building, 2nd floor.

Green Pea Sun from Balwoo Gongyang

This is a course at Balwoo Gongyang: It is chilled green pea soup with tofu and crisp potato noodles and cucumber.

This Saturday, we're going do a special cooking Class. We're going to make Kimchi Fried Rice and our famous Soy Sauce pickles. We're pricing it lower because we're going to have people work in groups to make the dishes and to make it more of a social atmosphere.

The cost for this session is only 35,000 won per person. ($30 USD). If you are interested in signing up, please contact us at ongofood@ongofood.com or fill out our reservation form here: http://www.ongofood.com/?p​age_id=19

www.ongofood.com

Our address is
O'ngo Food Communications
Jongno-gu, Nagwon-dong 55-1 3rd Floor, Seoul, Korea
O: 02-3446-1607
C: 010-6706-7769

Directions: From Anguk Station (Line 3, Orange) Go out Anguk Station Exit 4 and walk straight for 5 minutes. Right after you see a sign for Young Music, make a left. O’ngo is in the building across from Crown Hotel on the 3rd Floor. It's on the third floor of the pink building across from Crown Hotel. A map can be found here: http://www.ongofood.com/?page_id=24

T. 02. 3446. 1607 or 010-6706-7769

TAXI


낙원동 종로세무서 옆, 낙원악기상가 복동쯕

Nakwon Jongro Saemuso yup, Nakwon-akgee-sangga bokdung-jok)

Black and White Sesame Seed Salmon

meatball in pesto sauce