Min's Club in Insadong Salmon Gravlax at Min's Club Min's Club is a historical house that used to be the home of nobles. Built in the 1930 it has a Korean traditional exterior but with a modern interior. The space has higher ceilings and larger rooms than most regular Korean houses so it is a comfortable place to have a meal. The rooms are cosy. The wood framing is easily seen from the inside. The place is well lit as well with numerous windows around each room. The must have been a bit drafty because the windows are covered with unobtrusive clear plastic. As traditional as this place looks, they serve contemporary European food with Korean flair. Here you can get Salmon gravlax with a bit of dill cream or a bed of acorn and mung bean jellies with seasoned beef and salad, they have neobiani (a marinated Korean beef) as well; but here it is on a single plate accompanied by a dollop of mashed potatoes and a ray of deodeok (bellflower roots). The main dish comes with a...

Hi Folks, Between tours and work, my schedule hasn't left me a lot of time for blogging. Don't worry, I have still been taking pictures. Here is the dinner course that I had at Congdu Restaurant. It was a great dinner made even better by sharing it with friends. Once I can get to my computer, I will write a description of what I had. Congdu 50 Jongno-gu, Saemunan-gil Seoul National History Museum #02-722-7002 www.congdu.com Open from 11:30-2pm and 5:30pm to 10pm Cost: 20,000 lunch and 35-100,000 a person for dinner. Getting There: Go out Gwanghwamun Station (line 5) Exit 7 and walk straight for 5 minutes. Cheers, Dan Carrot Puree, Spring Salad Beef Tartar with caviar marinated with 5, 10, and 15 year old soy sauce Seaweed Chicken Consumme with Rice Cake Fried Tofu with Soybean Sauce and fresh kimchi Braised Snapper with orange soybean sauce

Corn, Sweet Potato, and Edamane at Bulgogi Brothers Restaurant in Seoul Bulgogi Brothers is a franchise Korean restaurant. It seems almost like a westerner decided to make a Korean restaurant "foreigner friendly." It's not awful, it's fine and I think it would work overseas. I could see Bulgogi Brothers do for Korean food what P.F. Chang did for Chinese-franchise it. There is just one problem: they are in Korea. The food is alright, but not totally authentic and it seems a bit overpriced for what you get. The banchan (side-dishes) lack freshness and punch. The styling is quite nice though and I would take some of my "not-so-adventurous" guests there. The bulgogi is pretty good though, but not as good as Sariwon or Woo Lae Oak. Also, on top of that, the prices are marked up 20% from regular Korean food prices. A Cheongukjang (a rich, fermented soybean stew) was 8,000 won and I believe the bibimbap was as well. The problem was not with the prices, but t...

On Thursday, I helped organize an event for the chef's association in Korea , LTB. At the event the chefs learned how to make makgeolli from scratch and then made their own batches of makgeolli. The event was a big success and the Chosun Ilbo, Korea's largest newspaper, did a story on the event. Now before the event, I had an opportunity eat at the venue, Congdu Restaurant (Located in the Seoul National History Museum). The concept of the restaurant is healthy, new, and almost everything is made from beans. Green Menu Soybean milk Soup We started out with a soy bean milk soup (kongguksu) flavored with green herb (mugwort) with angel hairlike threads of crunchy turnip noodles with a citrus dressed salad. This dish was very refreshing and refined. Then we had a pumpkin soup with a hint of soybean and garnished with roasted walnut and a chestnut. This dish was very subtle. The main course was very Korean as well. We had the green menu (25,000 per person) and the opti...

A couple days a week I have meetings in the busy Gangnam area and the meetings finish just before lunch. After the meeting, I am in the thick of the lunch crowds- all hurrying in groups to get a meal. Dining alone in Korea is almost unheard of (especially if you work at a company). The corporate work culture is: you eat with your coworkers and then you get coffee with your coworkers and then you go back to your office with your coworkers. Oh, and then after work you go drinking with your coworkers. Geez, I don't know if I like any of my coworkers to spend every second with them. I mean I need some "me" time and I'd like to spend lunch alone from time to time. Also, sometimes I don't want to eat what everyone else is eating. Eating hot soup and rice everyday- although healthy- makes me sleepy and sometimes I just want a big salad or just fruit. Sometimes, I don't eat lunch at all. Anyway, dining alone in Korea will draw stares from others that enter the res...

Pohang Susan 02-408-8817 Pohang Susan (soo sahn) is a restaurant (and I use "restaurant" loosely) in the fish market section of Garak Market. Most people go to Noryangjin for fresh fish and maeuntang (spicy fish stew), but I'm not a big fan. I've only eaten at a Noryangjin restaurant once and wasn't too impressed. The banchan was minimal and the maeuntang pretty much just had the fish we bought plus veggies. Maeuntang: Spicy Seafood Soup with octopus At Pohang it's different. Instead of buying the fish from a vendor and bringing it to the restaurant, the restaurant already has the fish in its tanks, presumably handpicked daily. If there's anything they don't have, just ask them and they'll have a guy bring it over from one of the vendors. Raw Red Snapper done Korean Style The quality of the fish is excellent, of course. We had wild red snapper, and it was awesome. The meat was firm and had no fishy smell whatsoever. It's such...

Hanjeongshik Damah (한정식 담아), Traditional Korean Food in Hongdae by Karika Huszar I think the main difference between American restaurant-dining versus doing the same in Korea is that here, going out to eat feels like I'm taking a short bus-ride over to my G-Ma's in Queens, NY. Which is why Michael Kenny and his wife's restaurant is fittingly named "Hanjeongshik Damah (한정식 담아, or literally, "Put Traditional Full Course Korean Food). "About two years ago, my mother-in-law sent me a container of pork galbi, which, when I started eating, I couldn't stop. I thought it was so good. From there, the idea for our own place emerged and here we are today," Michael says. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the variety of western choices in Hongdae--you've got your Dos Tacos, Nolita Cafe, Donkatsu restaurants galore---and even in the Korean sector I had trouble deciding among the Ssam restaurants that permeate every alley. Located behind the Seo...