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 Nonhyeondong 66-35

Menu

Korean Birthday Cake. They eat it wit chopsticks and usually together as a group instead of getting lots of plates and stuff.

Korean biker: I know a little out of focus, but I wanted to capture the energy and movement.

Military Stew (budae chiggae) with ramen

A walk through a Korean market

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 Food Court

It looks like the gourmet food court scene is not going to die off any time soon. After shopping with the wife, we went to the food court in the W-mall to get some bites. The space is very nice however, the place you order is super cramp and disorganized. I think for such a nice space, they should have automated machines or something. Anyway, while its nice to get decent food brands in a food court, it comes down to the staff. Some of the stuff were fine, but I felt others were not. Especially, Chunshin Pocha. This was one of my favorite places back when Samcheongdong was a quiet, unknown place. They served amazing dumplings and noodles before they franchised. Now the meat in the mandu that I got was...alien looking and the dumplings looked like they just poached it in oil instead of cooking it. The noodle dish looked like Chinese noodles but they lacked salt and taste. My pregnant wife was disappointed and that is not something you want to do. We also had the 25 layer pork cutlets and the tteokbokki from Gukdae tteokbokki. These were alright. The 25 layer pork cutlet from 25 Katsu was interesting but not much different from regular pork cutlets. My wife and I decided we liked their udon soup.

W-Mall Food Court
Click here to open the map on your mobile Geumchan-gu Gasan-dong 4th Floor

After lunch we went shopping for baby stuff and we spotted this scary baby trying to get out.

Scary Baby

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 the answer is, "yes." Now keep in mind, that I do startups. I like to start small to figure out the market and keep overhead low. I also plan on working at my companies for a while until I can get it to scale and then I decide if I will sell or hire staff and scale it. In the past, I have invested in small companies, been a partner and owner. Some have worked out and some have not.

Overall, the speed of setting up and doing a business here is very fast. For example, for our bar, Brew 3.14 was set up in a matter of days. I think about 5 actually working days once the lease for the previous owner was over and passed over to us.

Day 1: Take a restaurant training class at a government office.
Day 2: Health Inspection from the government office
Day 3: Check to sign over all the paperwork and inspect the space (the previous owner had it gutted and cleaned in 2 days).
Day 4: Sign over all the leases and licenses from the previous owner to new owner
Day 5: Retrieve Health Inspection, pay rent and deposits and start renovations.

Construction took about 2 and a half weeks and we were open in three. Keep in mine that my first place was a very little craft beer bar. I'm sure that a bigger place would have taken a lot more time.

However, the things to keep in mind is that in order to do a business, it is important to get the proper zoning and licensing to do the work you would like. I had an associate of mine want to start an English academy in Korea. He got initial permissions and found out about the rules and regulations about the size, number of classrooms, teaching rooms, bathrooms, etc to be classified as an English academy. However, during construction the space was reduced by the addition of walls and other constructions. In the end, the space was just short of meeting the qualification requirements by 10 centimeters. Because of this he was only able to be classified as a private classroom where he would be required to teach the classes himself and he couldn't hire others. His business failed soon after.

In the case of my restaurant (and this is why restaurants cost more) the licenses for food, zoning and liquor transferred over. Be sure that you do due diligence to find out about the previous establishment and sign over all debts and bills. You don't want to start a new business with a large overdue electricity bill after all.

Also, if you are starting a business with partners, be sure to get contracts. If you are setting up a corporation, there are some costs involved with legal help plus for foreigners, you would need to get a special stamp or signature set up at your government office. This gets a bit hairy so I would recommend you get an expert for that.

Well, I hope that was helpful. I have to admit that it is much easier and faster to set up a business here than in America (I don't know about the rest of the world). Maintaining it and profiting from it, that's another story.

Dan

Spicy Pork Rice Rolls Set up (Kimbap)

Kimbap

kimbap

Korean kimbap sesame oil

Kimbap

Spicy Pork

Spicy Pork Rice rolls Jayok Kimbap

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 to other ingredients like cheese, beef bulgogi, dumplings, ramen, egg...the possibilities are endless. After you eat the dish there is inevitably sauce and other bits left over so it is possible to make a fried rice with the leftovers by adding seaweed laver, sesame oil and corn.

When I meet international travelers on food tours they are all curious about this dish. They perceive the hype surrounding it but they can’t seem to fathom what it really is. I guess to travelers seeing it for the first time, it may look like a red hot mess. Some of my guests have seen this dish before on Korean dramas and television so they are curious. They want to try it but they assume that it is very, very spicy and they don’t really know what the rice cakes or the fish cakes in the sauce are. Some guests have even asked me if the dish has tripe or pig skin in it. Also with so many places from street carts to store fronts selling this dish, they can’t decide where to try it.

For those that don’t know what topokki is, it is rice cake noodles in a spicy chili sauce. The dish is said to have evolved from a royal court cuisine dish that was made with rice cakes, mushrooms, carrots, and beef in a sesame-soy-sauce seasoning. Rice cakes in olden times were a luxury that was reserved for special occasions and for the rich. In the mid 19 hundreds, because of advances in technology and rice surpluses this ingredient was more readily available.

It is widely believed that the red chili paste version recipe was invented by accident in 1953, when street food vendor Ma Bok-rim accidentally dropped a rice cake into her father-in-law’s black bean noodle dish. It tasted good, so she started experimenting with sauces and seasonings.

She found that the red chili paste tasted the best and started selling it from her street cart. She would sell topokki along with steamed corn and potatoes to those going to a nearby theatre. The dish was a big hit and soon she upgraded her street stall to a restaurant and others copied her. Her restaurant can still be found near the entrance of Sindang-dong Topokki Town, proudly proclaiming “Since 1953.” 
Mabongnim Halmeoni Tteokbokki

Opened in 1953 by a woman known as Mabongnim, the restaurant takes pride in its 60-plus years of service. They serve a Korean casserole dish called tteokbokki which has chewy rice cake noodles in a spicy soup broth that has noodles, fish cakes, seafood, dumplings and more. This restaurant started as a small food stall that was serving snacks to guests going to the nearby theatre when a mistake was made. A rice cake noodle fell into the black bean sauce and Mabongnim had an eureka moment. She cooked the noodles in a sauce and tteokbokki was invented. As Mabongnim gained popularity, other similar establishments opened nearby, and eventually, formed “tteokbokki street.” The elderly owner is well known. She even starred in a red-pepper paste ad in the 1990s. The secret of this restaurant’s tteokbokki lies in the sauce. Here red pepper paste is mixed with Chinese soybean paste for a sweet and spicy taste.


Mabongnim Halmeoni Tteokbokki
Click Here for mobile map Jung-gu Dasan-ro 35 gil 5 (Sindangdong)
02-2232-8930

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 interesting is that I had something to do with the steps leading up to Mr. Bourdain's return to Korea. I had first worked with Zero Point Zero back in 2009 as a fixer for Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie Show. That was my first job working in video and I am proud of that episode. Over the years I got to work with lots of other productions and then I was asked by Euny Hong, author of the Birth of Korean Cool to help set up interviews and translations for her book. I didn't know then that Nari would give Mr. Bourdain a copy of that book. Apparently, Mr. Bourdain liked the book it was one of the reasons he wanted to make his triumphant return to Korea. Small world.

I think the show will show the real side of Korea and not the sterile, healthy, beautiful, castrated view that many would like you to see. Korea is sophisticated and beautiful, but I feel the kinetic, exciting parts are what will draw people to Korea. Korea is fun. It's exciting. The food can be messy and smelly, but it tastes real. People like to drink in Korea and I think that is fine as well.

I was so happy to meet one of my heroes and I got to be on his show. Reading Kitchen Confidential made me want to work in the restaurant industry. After university, I worked in restaurants to survive and I thought my calling was to be a chef. I started attending culinary school until my mentor, Chef Lou, gave me deeper insight into the industry. He said that my silly degree wasn't going to get me a better job in the restaurant industry and it was simply a vanity project. He told me work and learn on the job, save up and buy my own place. Chef Lou was a bitter old guy that had been through it all. He put in his time and he had places of his own, which closed. He was working as a head chef of the restaurant I was at because he needed to live. He was a lifer and I hope he is well today.

So what was it like to meet Anthony Bourdain? Amazing. He is a remarkable person. He can eat and drink anyone under the table and yet maintain a zenlike composure. He was the star on set but he would direct how he wanted the scenes to play out from the background. He had incredible insight into Korean concepts of Han. I simply tried to keep up with him and stay sober.

Watch the Seoul episode on April 26th at 9pm ET/PT on CNN.

Dan

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 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 탕수육. Anyway, the dish is loaded with calories (jajangmyeon has about 1000 calories per bowl if you also eat all the sauce) and as you know, I can't afford to waste my calories on terrible food (thanks wifey and MIL for reminding me). It's a comfort food so save it for when you get down and be sure to eat at places that are actually worthwhile. So what I look for in great jajangmyeon is a nice thick and savory sauce that is not too black bean...ish. Also, I prefer noodles that are handmade and pulled rather than the packaged ones.

Here are my picks for the best jajangmyeon in the city of Seoul.

Tomato and Beef Noodle from Daehangak

5. Daehangak

I learned about this place because one of my friends was a yoga instructor and she told me that make amazing Chinese food without any MSG and they grow a lot of the stuff on their organic farm. I was like yeah right because MSG is one of the three whites that make all food in Korea taste delicious (sung to the tune of Mary Poppin's a spoonful of sugar..."a spoonful of sugar, a spoonful of salt and an spoonful of MSG to make the jajangmyeon go down..." The food is amazing here and it has a brightness and lightness that I don't normally find at Korean Chinese places. I think that Korean Chinese food is comfort food. It is a bit heavy, but afterwards you feel content. The place is very old fashioned looking (it looks like a communist den). They are famous for their Chinese course menus that start around 25,000 won a person. They use tomatoes in a lot of their dishes including the amazing tomato beef noodle dish you see above (note...this is usually a seasonal item for summer). The jajangmyeon here is just ok. I don't think they hand make their noodles and the sauce is a tad soy-saucy (maybe this is where the MSG is needed). I would recommend that you go their for their other amazing dishes like their Sweet and Sour Pork Dish or their fried dumplings. Their tangsuyok is really nice here as well. Now, you can get their jajangmyeon, but I would recommend you get it as part of their coursed menu since all the dishes leading up to it, will really showcase their skill and organic ingredients. Crispy and the sauce has a bit more of a citrus flavor. Incredible stuff.

Daehangak
Click here to open on your phone in Google Maps Seoul Yongsangu Itaewon-dong 34-151

O'mori Jajangmyeon

4. O'mori by Jamsil and Jongno

Ok, there are a lot of O'mori Kimchi Chiggae places but they don't all do jajangmyeon. What I love about O'mori is that it is like the "greatest hits" of Korean food and make them homestyle. They are famous for their kimchi stew because they use 3-year old, aged kimchi. I know that they were involved in some scandals about their kimchi, but honestly, it is the best. The place does feel a bit like fast food but it is made by hand or made with artisan ingredients. The black bean sauce here for the jajangmyeon is subtle, a tiny bit sweet and they have pork pieces that are not just pork belly (which I am fine with because I don't feel I need to have that with every meal, however, the classic recipe calls for it). O'mori hand makes their noodles, so I feel they deserve to be considered one of the best places. A lot of places now don't hand pull them because labor cost is so high and it is easier to just make prepackaged sauce and prepackaged noodles, boil and serve. The problem is that the noodles don't have the texture, the chew and the different widths. I think because the noodles aren't all uniform, that it adds to the flavor of this dish.

O'mori Chiggae
Click here to open on your phone Seoul, Songpagu Seokchon-dong 183-2




3. Donghui-ru 동회루 Handmade Jajamyeon and Sauce

This is a place that I have a love an hate relationship with. I love their handmade noodles and I love their homemade sauces. I love their mapo dubu (spicy tofu...which is said to resemble the face of an ugly pockfaced woman). It's a place with history that has been around a long time and it is a place that I will still go to, but...service is not very good and they will try to cheat you if you they have a chance. So...if you go in and you want to order a dish, make it clear that you want the small portion the lunch portion. If you come a bit later than 3 they will assume you want the anju version (the drinking side dish) which is like triple the size and costs a lot more. Regardless, the food is good (even if they will bring beers even if you had not asked for them.) I really enjoy the sauce on their jajangmyeon and their hand pulled noodles makes all the difference. It's the classic taste of jajangmyeon just done rice. Oh, the interior (like all of these places) is quite plain and communist. Just accept it. I mean if you want a royal interior then check out Din Tae Fung or Crystal Palace.
Donghui-ru 동회루
Click here to open the map on your phone. Seoul, Junggu Pildong 2ga 7-3
대한민국 서울시 중구 필동2가 7-3
Phone: 02-2265-1278

2. Gaehwa
Located by the Chinese Embassy makes them one of the defacto places for the Chinese to dine at. They have been doing this for 50 years, so the place hasn't really changed much in that time. It's wholesome, the black bean is black and savory. I would have to say that I feel this place has the best black bean sauce. It has a nice deep soy flavor without being too salty. It is well balanced by the pork bits in the sauce as well. This place also has amazing fried dumplings. Wow...they are so crispy and meat inside is has a nice flat garlicky flavor to it that melds well with the savory pork. Wow. Their Tangsuyok is really good here is well. I think they use glutinous rice flour because the texture is a bit fuller than others. Really good place for lunch or you can splurge for the full course which can go in the 100,000 (100 USD) a person. I also really like their fried rice because you get a bit of the black bean sauce on the side with it.

Gaehwa 개화

picture from theboy9368

1. Sinseonggak 신성각
For some strange reason, over by Gongdeok station there are just great food places. I mean there is the barbecue street and my favorite place for kimchi stew. Sinseonggak has been in Gongdeok since 1981 and they are doing things right. I love the lightness of their noodles, the flavor and density of their noodles and their sorta quirky, but threatening attitude. (Their rules of the house state you must get your own water, don't smoke, don't pay by card, don't bring your own alcohol.) Which is common knowledge, but I guess they don't want the distractions and want to focus on the food. Their key is the amount of vegetables that they use in their food. Lots of them. Their tangsuyok has lots of green onions and cucumbers and they are fresh so that adds an extra dimension to the dish. Their noodles are made in house and I feel the noodle maker has a secret for they silky yet chewy and light. And their jajangmyeon. It's all about the lots of veggies that they use in their sauce over all the perfectly cooked noodles. This place likes to add lots of cabbage, onions, and veggies to their sauce. It's what really makes them stand out. If you are looking for a great place with an old time feel. This is where you should go. Just follow the rules.

Sinseonggak 신성각
Click here to open the address on your phone Seoul, Mapo-gu Singongdeok-dong 2-463

Phone: 02-716-1210

Shin Mun gak

Honorable Mention

Shin Mun Gak (신문각)

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 App for mac is a downgrade

Sorry I am using this space for learning some stuff about how mapping works for work.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/119-21+Itaewon+1(il)-dong,+Yongsan-gu,+Seoul,+South+Korea/@37.5348063,126.992334,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x357ca24a22da2ff5:0x645fa2a454b55e10

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!

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.

Kongguksu at Jindo Jip