Seoul Eats

Korean Grilled Fish and Soup for Lunch at Hakdong Interior I am a simple guy. For lunch, I am happy with a well grilled fish, rice and some side dishes. I like rustic Korean style food for lunch because usually I'm hungry, the good food relieves stress, and its comforting. I mean I didn't come all the way to Korea to eat hamburgers everyday. At Bada Dunporun Saengson Gui you can get good Korean fare at a reasonable price (starting at 7,000 won). Sides are good and the grilled fish is exceptional. They get a really nice crust on the fish and it is nicely salted. Other than the fish, the other stuff is just average. The kimchi stew is not going to win any awards nor will their doenjang stew. However, you won't go hungry and the food quality is good. Especially for the Gangnam district which is notorious for skimping out on side dishes and stuff. Bada Dunporun Saengson Gui 바다 등푸른 생선구이 Ph: 02-549-5262 Click here to open map on mobile: Address: Gangnam-gu Nonhyeondo

Korean Birthday Cake. They eat it wit chopsticks and usually together as a group instead of getting lots of plates and stuff. These days, I am busy working at a Delectable Travels  and it is nice to be part of a good team. For years I worked independently or at small startups. I thought that working at a company was inhuman and against the "entrepreneurial" spirit. It's nice to have support and other opinions to help a business thrive. During lunches and such, I don't have as much time as I used to to find all the best eats. Luckily after work, we can do that. Anyway, these are just some snapshots I have taken and wanted to share with you. I particularly love the first one which is of our team celebrating a colleagues' birthday party. The cake was actually pretty good. It was the banana cake from Paris Baguette. The cake was light and it had fresh marshmallows. Oh, marshmallows are a thing now and I think will be trendy this year. Enjoy the pics. Dan

It was a good foodie weekend. I met up with some friends. I was interviewed by the BBC for a segment on young entrepreneurs in Korea (yeesh, I don't think I'm young anymore, but I'll take it) and I ate a lot of good stuff. Here is a round up. Chef Meili's Austrian Deli Chef Meili First of all, I visited my old friend Christian Meilinger over the weekend. I had heard that he had moved on to Austria but his sausages and deli meats would stay in Korea just taken over by Mission Springs Restaurant. Apparently, yes and no. He is still here because he feels he has a responsibility to his customers and so he has set up a small deli over by Hannam-dong. He is serving up his handmade sausages and delicatessen treats. The place is not as fancy as his last place but the food is still excellent. Chef Meili Austrian Deli Click here for the map on your phone Seoul, Seongdong-gu Oksu-dong 475 02-797-3820 Food Court at W-Mall 25 Layer Cutlets from W-Mall W-Mall F

A special thanks to the production team from the BBC to come to our little bar, Brew 3.15 in Seoul to interview me about being a young entrepreneur in Korea. Thanks!  A question that I am asked frequently is, "Daniel, is it difficult to start a business in Korea?" I have to say, "yes and no." It first depends on the type of business you are trying to start and your visa status. I won't go into all the different visas and such. I mean you can find that out here:  http://southkorea.angloinfo.com/working/starting-a-business/  Apparently, now if you are trying to get a foreign investor visa you need to invest 100 million into the country. But I have heard this figure change from 50 million to 250 million. I have an F-4 visa which means I am an overseas Korean. If I was married to a Korean, I could get an F-2, or I could get an F-5 visa (permanent resident) visa and I could easily do business here. So...if you have a visa that will let you work here then th

Ok, I will admit it. I was a bad boy last week so my lovely wife was a little upset with me. So on Sunday, I had to make it up to her. While she slept, I cleaned the house (even though I still think it would be easier to hire a maid); I went shopping (in the rain...the sacrifices you make for love) and then I made homemade rice rolls or Korean kimbap.  I have to admit, they turned out pretty darn well. Here is the set up. Spicy Pork Rice Rolls Set up (Kimbap) Now the pork, I got some moksal (meat from around the neck) and then I chopped it up really fine and then cooked it with some oil, red chili paste, plum extract (maesil), garlic powder and a bit of sugar. Just make sure to stir or the sauce will stick to the pan and burn. I simply julienned the cucumbers (take out the seeds) and carrots. For the rice, I took it out, and added some lemon vinegar (my new favorite vinegar in Korea. I also bought some kimbap seaweed, sesame leaves (gaennip) and some yellow turnip. Kimb

Lasagna at Booming G Salmon at Booming G The come fast and go fast. Booming G is not closed, they fired their chef and decided to go with a cafe model with crappy food just after 1 month. It is sad sad sad when management doesn't give a place. RIP Booming G. Hello just another cafe in a city full of cafes.  Give props to chef Bora Song though. If anyone is looking to hire a talented chef send me an email.  Dan I was lucky to be invited to the opening of Booming G in the New Sidus HQ Tower in Gangnam. The chef is Bora Song who is well known in the foodie community. She has set up a great Italian focused menu and she uses her creativity to add depth of flavor to her dishes.  While I was there I had an excellent free-form lasagna made with fresh noodles. I loved the meat and sauce on it. There is a secret ingredient in it to give it body. Ask the chef to find out what it is.  Risotto from Booming G Chicken Wing from Booming G Her mushroom risotto was cream

Korean tteokbokki 떡보끼 Tteokbokki or the westernized pronounciation: Topokki is one of those dishes you have to experience to understand the hype surrounding it. It is a beloved dish in Korea that invokes nostalgic memories and emotions. It is a child's special meal after a long, grueling day at school or a dish shared between girls to discuss gossip. It is a dish with many different variations such as with cheese sauce, sesame soy, and even tomato. These days the trend is for gukmul Tteokbokki or spicy broth rice cakes. The noodles are in light broth that is spicy and sweet. I have seen many a Koreans debate about their favorite topokki and about the merits of different styles and sauces. Some like thick long rods of rice cake while others like the smaller and chewier nugget-style rice cakes. There is also a debate between the fluffier flour made cakes and the must chewier rice-made cakes. Toppings range from simple fish cake to various seafood such as octopus, mussels, shrimp

Daniel Gray with Anthony Bourdain in Seoul Wow. One of the highlights of my life as a foodie was to meet Mr. Anthony Bourdain when he came to Seoul. When he finally came to Seoul with his team, I was excited and I hoped that maybe I would be asked to be on the show, but I didn't know what would come of it. Joe McPherson of Zenkimchi was working as the fixer on the production so I thought they already had their foodie for the show. I was lucky to meet up with the lovely Nari , who is a producer with Zero Point Zero Productions and director Marc. We met up for noodles and we talked about the show and I gave suggestions for guests on the show. I then recommended some of friends for the show and some other food experts that I knew. The production seemed to be quite big and they were looking for people that had real insights into Korea. I recommended my friend, DJ Shine from the rap group Drunken Tiger. I am really looking to see how his interview goes. What was interest

Crazy Spicy Pork Ribs with Cheese from Hong Brick I believe that food should be fun and social. Luckily there are others that think that as well. Friday night was the first  Seoul Food and Travel Meetup and we had a great time. We explored the area of Garusugil, ate some food and got to know each other. It was fun and casual. We had some people from America here on vacation Keren and her daughters from California. Keren runs the  Haydon Street Inn , a bed and breakfast in Healdsburg California. We also had AK Salling who is running Scandinavian Cooking Classes in Seoul called Mad & Haggye . We had an expat teacher Natalie and a new arrival, David join us. The Review So our first stop was at Hong and Brick which is famous for their cheese fondue and spicy pork ribs dish. You can get it at different levels of spiciness. Unfortunately, we did spicy. We should have asked for medium. It is spicy. really spicy. Like hurt your belly and be careful when you go pee spicy. It was

The Best Jajamyeon in Seoul by Daniel Gray Jajangmyeon 짜장면: Korea's favorite hand pulled noodles in an black sauce is also a favorite dish of mine. It's so famous they even have a holiday for it. It's filling and hearty like a bowl of spaghetti but with Asian flair. It's one of those dishes that you can get whenever you need a quick meal and it doesn't break the wallet. It's a pretty ubiquitous dish and every Chinese restaurant must have it. If it does it well, the place becomes famous. If it is just alright, it is just a meal and gets classed in with all of the other places in the city. I can't say I have had any seriously terrible jajangmyeons except maybe some delivery places (where the noodles are overcooked and terribly clumped together so it takes like 10 minutes to get the sauce mixed into it) but even then it is still edible. With the noodles, I love to get fried dumplings and a place is good fried dumplings or some other sides like tangsuyok

Apple New Photos App 2015 Just a quick review on this new update by Apple, I don't really see any improvements and there is a serious flaw: you can't drag and drop photos from the app into another application like a blog. You can't even find the file, because it takes the files hostage like it did in the past. The filters and adjustments aren't amazing, I find that Fotor is better and or I would rather just drop into VSCO and back. Plus I think they should have added preview before you import (something Lightroom offers and I find invaluable.) Sigh...I was really looking forward to this but it is just a way to sell you on iCloud (20 gigs for $.99). But why do this option when flickr offers a terabyte for free. Basically, the app is trying to take all of your photos hostage. Been there, done that. I migrated everything to flickr and I will use Lightroom. Oh...thanks apple, my icloud storage is now full. I'm ok with that. I'm moving on. new Photos A

Korean Avenger's Poster I am super excited! The Avengers Age of Ultron is coming to Korea on April 23rd! This is the Korean poster where the A becomes an 아 which is an ah sound. The Avengers in Korea is pronounced a-benj-gers. It's going to be very popular I believe. Exciting, Exciting, Exciting! Dan

Hands down my favorite korean ramen at the moment. It is O'mori Kimchi ramen that is made with aged, sour kimchi (3 years!). It's all about the broth here. My 2nd favorite is Shin Ramen Red,  3rd: Yukgaejang.  4th: Nagasaki Ramen.  5: Bibim guksu. My least favorite is that crazy spicy bokkeum ramen. It's just gross. 

One of the most important ingredients for Korean cuisine is gochujang. Gochujang is made from fermented soybean, red chili powder, water, rice syrup, malt powder and this one is made with glutinous rice powder. The rice powder adds a softer texture and silkier texture. This versatile sauce can be used in many braises, stir fries and in salads.  You can find a great recipe for it here from Maangchi  http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gochujang

Honey Chocolate Milk  Honey Butter Almonds and Honey Butter Roast Snack Ok, Korea, love you. Really. I love your red, white, blue and black flags. I love smell of kimchi in the morning, I love the convenience of the transport, the cleanliness of the streets, the excitement when there is a national sports event. I love it all. But there is no thing, I don't really get. The honey butter chip. I know there was one famous brand that got popular and got everyone going crazy for it. Essentially it became a luxury brand so possessing the chips meant you had connections or something. But seriously? Do we need it all the time? I mean the flavor is not so honey nor is it really that buttery and I think putting it on every chip just makes people look foolish. Seriously milk? Almonds, chips, cookies, sandwiches? I mean soon its going to be in makeup and everything else. Too much! Let's look to another flavor. Let's be creative. Just a little message from your friendly neigh

Here is a fun video that my friend  Noe Alonzo  and I made for fun about all the crazy food trends in Korea. I went and grabbed all the trendy stuff like churros, lobster, corn, lentils, honey butter chips and a crapload of other stuff and our chef, Tom, put it all together. Come see what it looks like. https://youtu.be/YDXI99uN6us Be sure to watch the other great videos that Noe has as well. Dan

I am at a doctors this morning and it is taking forever. So... This is what I found fun to read in the mean time.  A very touching story for about a girl with an unusual birthmark: a hairy spot under her eye. She learned to live with it and embraced it. Cool!  http://www.boredpanda.com/dancer-with-face-birthmark-cassandra-naud/ Icecream flower Art!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/seouleats/permalink/10150510387714984/

Kongguksu at Jindo Jip Kongguksu is a summer time dish that is made from ground soybeans and noodles. The chilled, thick soybean broth has noodles and it is a great dish for those that are vegetarian and for those looking for a light meal to beat the summer heat. My search for the best Kongguksu House took me to Yeouiddo where they serve their bowl of noodles for 9,500 won a bowl- almost double that any other place would dare to charge.  Very expensive, chilled noodle soup? I was was intrigued. The setting is nothing special. The only distinctive thing about the atmosphere is that it is big and busy. They have a very sparse menu- only noodle dishes. You can get chicken noodle soup, spicy mixed noodles, mandu, and a variety of rice cake soup.  I mean this place even charges extra for extra noodles and for broth! I couldn't believe it since Myeongdong Gyoza charges  almost 8,000 for a bowl of their noodles, but they give complementary refills on noodles and broth if a